Conversational Depth
July 1, 2026
3-Item Status
Current Location: Milwaukee, WI
Reading: The Faith of Beasts by James S. A. Corey
Listening: Impossible Sports by Cab Ellis
If you have a moment, reply with your own 3-Item Status.
New Work
This week’s Let’s Know Things is about the 2026 European Heat Wave
This week’s Brain Lenses essay is about ADHD Subtypes & the pod is on Gender Conformity
I made a simple QR code app for Macs, iPads, and iPhones, if you’re looking for a means of quickly creating and customizing such things (for free)
Conversational Depth
I personally believe that we should put everyone out of work.
That’s a big statement, and for all you know, I could be saying that the world’s workers are expendable, and as soon as we can automate them away, we should, even if that leaves them starving on the street.
I’m very much not saying that, but you have no way of knowing this if I leave you with the headline version of this belief.
A more thorough, context-rich espousal of this opinion goes something like this:
I think we should put everyone out of work, but only after we’ve rewired society and the economy to sustain them. We should no longer be reliant on jobs to pay bills, have homes, and access education and entertainment. These things should be available free or incredibly inexpensively to all, advanced automation ensuring everyone has a stable baseline, first, and then as time goes on and the potency of these technologies (and the breadth of their application) increases, that baseline, basic living standard, should also tick upward.
Over time, everyone’s quality of life improves, no one is left behind, and we’re all free to spend our time and energy on whatever pleases us. This might (and likely will) include things that people are paid to do today. But our labor and performance will no longer determine whether we survive and the quality of the life we’re able to live. We’ll thus be liberated to do things we find fulfilling, whether that means managing high-tech astronomical equipment to identify novel exoplanets, making some kind of art, or playing video games all day. And our infrastructure will continue ticking along, maintained by the wondrous machines that have replaced us.
That’s a far more expansive context, and the undertone and meaning of the statement changes as a result.
Many of the opinions we encounter, especially but not exclusively in online spaces, fall into the former category. These statements are so superficial as to be functionally meaningless, but we still treat them as if they’re complete thoughts worth engaging with.
Real conversational depth is difficult within these online spaces because of the incentives that have shaped them.
Recognizing this (and acting accordingly) isn’t a solution to our communication issues, but it can help us waste less time and energy, investing in digital environments that fracture and superficialize discourse as a feature, not a fixable bug.
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Interesting Links
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What Else
Milwaukee is in the midst of a heatwave, and I’m dying; just sweating way too much and trying to keep my brain functional.
Just a few days ago it was 75 (F) and I feel like I didn’t appreciate that enough while I had it. Now it’s in the mid-90s (higher with the heat index) and I desperately want to move to Canada, as far north as I can go. No more, please.
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