Mitch's Blog

Sure, I oppose Musk — but that’s not what keeps me off X.

I don’t see Zuck as being vastly superior to Musk. Paraphrasing Walter Sobchak from “The Big Lebowski” — Musk is a Nazi but Zuck is a nihilist who is happy to work with Nazis if there is profit in it.

And yet I’m active on Facebook and I regularly check Threads.

My primary reason for staying off X is that I haven’t heard any reason for me to be active there. If anything interesting is going on there, I hear about it through other channels. I’m already on too many social media platforms; I don’t want to add one more, and I certainly don’t want to add a siloed platform controlled by one guy. I was super-active on Twitter for a long time but was already losing interest when Musk took over, and I quit in a fit of pique soon after that.

Now, I keep an account on X because I do occasionally need to check something there for professional reasons. The account has no avatar, no bio and no followers and I only look at X every few months or so.

(This is in response to a post by @manton.)

2026-08-18

“Short sleepers, who make up less than one per cent of the population, spend significantly less time snoozing without any apparent health consequences.” By Shayla Love at The New Yorker.

I envy these people — I need 8-9 hours. I get less than that most days, often as little as five, and that’s no fun.

Short sleepers are often lonesome, awake at night when there’s nobody around. Is that true for short sleepers who are also introverts? Or is that a combination that does not exist?

Maybe one day science will figure out a way to drastically reduce or even eliminate our need for sleep. But it’s a hairy problem — science doesn’t even know why we sleep, not really. So I’m not hopeful that’ll come in my lifetime.

2026-08-18

I admired Anthony Bourdain. I consumed his interviews and read as many articles by him as I could find. I found “Kitchen Confidential” among the most inspiring books I’ve read.

When he killed himself, I came to think of his public persona as a lie, and stopped watching, listening to or reading him.

But now I think the public Bourdain was a character he created, played and tried to live, and I should resume appreciating his life and work.

2026-08-18

The Rest is History looks at the Irish Troubles. There are strong parallels to Israel and the Palestinians. The violence in Northern Ireland eventually ended, which is a cause for cautious hope in Israel/Palestine.

2026-08-19

“You can’t predict fire. But you can trade on it.” California senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff want financial regulators to restrict people from using prediction markets to bet on how wildfires will spread, citing concerns that bettors could resort to arson to secure outcomes.

2026-08-19

Anthony Bourdain in 2005: Direct from cassette. “Two hours turned into a highly personal conversation, recorded on a cassette that sat untouched for twenty years. This week, that tape gets its first public airing, and we discuss Tony’s preferred sucker-punch etiquette, his loyalty to cigarettes and the Chateau Marmont, ayahuasca in Peru, and the talk show he dreamed up with Christopher Walken in mind.”

2026-08-19