We regularly get reminded that we don’t have to reinvent it, but how was the wheel invented in the first place? Surprisingly, it’s not clear, neither is who made the discovery or where.

A telltale sign that you are, in fact, growing old(er), is that you start paying attention to such an article. Even more so when you feel seen in more of the 27 notes than you had hoped. Jokes aside, it’s a thought-provoking list, for people of all ages. And there might be still plenty of time to feel young: At the age of 94, legendary investor Warren Buffett told an interviewer he had never felt old until he passed 90.

«Our politics revolve around the idea that scarce resources mean keeping people out. We are utterly unprepared for a world in which perhaps the scarcest resource will be people.» An excellent analysis of how migration, once again at the center of so many political debates and divides, is so often misunderstood or misconstrued. I like how the author describes migration as deeply rooted in the «human desire for flourishing and to set one’s own path in life», as an «act of faith, kindled by the fire of human aspiration.»

When actors play fight scenes, there are experts who make sure they look realistic and nobody gets hurt. When actors play intimate scenes…well, it makes sense to have essentially the same. A fascinating profile of an important role I’ve somehow never thought about.

It’s even a double exhaustion: of the term feminism, and of the generations of women whose hard-fought-for achievements are losing ground again.

An essays that doesn’t just hit a nerve when you read it, but that lingers at the back of your mind and refuses to leave you. It’s about that «certain type of darkness in the world that most people simply cannot see.» The author argues that we are perfectly able to see that the world is broken. However, most of us cannot see a world that is unacceptable. «Upon noticing that the world is broken, they reflexively list reasons why it is still tolerable.» Hence, a call to action: «So see the dark world. See everything intolerable. Let the urge to tolerify it build, but don’t relent. Just live there in the intolerable world, refusing to tolerate it.»

Great fun to listen to. Trevor Noah and his two guests each propose and defend one law they would introduce if they ruled the world. 1. All countries in the world hold elections on the exact same day. 2. Everyone must live within 10 minutes walking distance of their workplace. 3. No one would know who their biological child is.

A research paper turned into a captivating video. The scenario of how artificial intelligence can, over the next two years, turn into something truly scary. Not just because of misaligned technology, but because of the geopolitics involved. Think it’s too far-fetched? Might well be. Then again, as alignment expert Helen Toner says: «Dismissing discussion of super intelligence as science fiction should be seen as a sign of total unseriousness.»

Excellent new season (so far) of the Long Shadow podcast. It tells the story of the internet. How it promised to unite people across the globe. And how – driven by profits and power – it tore the world apart instead. And it all started with…the infamous white and gold dress (You think it was blue and black? See, that’s why we can’t have nice things.)

Three notable quotes from this notable piece:
«We have become a society of people who know exactly what’s happening but lack the linguistic courage to say so.»
«This is what we’re witnessing now. The systematic training of a population to see clearly but speak obliquely, to understand precisely but describe vaguely, to recognize authoritarianism but call it something else.»
«This is not just a linguistic choice—it’s a moral one. Every time we speak plainly about what we’re witnessing, we strike a blow against the forces that depend on confusion to operate.»