October 2026 Links

Unpopular ideas about social norms: Self-explanatory title. I agree with pretty much all of them except 11, 12 (there’s something about it being a gender’s safe space where they can do their own thing), 13, 18 (prestige gives people goals to strive for, even if it may be misguided), 19 (gifts should just be cash with a recommendation on what to spend it on).Superhuman charisma is coming, and will be tremendously fun and interesting and cause lots of problems: People often underestimate how seemingly complex things—charisma, emotions, social dynamics, voices, facial expressions—can be broken down into their constituent parts, translated into a meaning, then used again in a tactical manner. I use ChatGPT voice mode regularly and it’s able to discern my emotions based on both my words and tone. Is it all really just pattern matching in the end? Some may say yes! Does it really matter? Some may so no! Combine this with extremely short feedback loops and significant data (body language,…