The Real Reason He Resigned | Official Preview - YouTube

Marco Rubio Pauses Speech for Water Break - YouTube — My favorite Marco Rubio moment of all time. Compare with today’s much smoother water break.

How the Iran War Compares With Past Market Shocks, in Charts - WSJ

While the market selloff seems steep, it is on par with reactions to past geopolitical shocks. The S&P 500 had retreated before the current war owing to fears that artificial intelligence could upend software, financial services and more. Investors say rich valuations in the U.S. stock market have exacerbated some of the volatility since then

What Happens When a Whale Is Born? | The New Yorker

Where the U.S. Is Growing—and Shrinking—in Charts - WSJ

The U.S. Military Assets Damaged or Lost in the Iran War Total up to $2.9 Billion - WSJ

Donkey Work — I love the phrase “donkey work.” Perfectly describes the drudgery of common tasks.

David and Mike explore the concept of “donkey work” — the repetitive computer tasks that block creative focus — and how AI tools like Claude Cowork can handle it for you. David walks through his robot assistant system built on Obsidian and MCPs, covering everything from automated blog publishing and email triage to daily briefings and file organization, while Mike shares how Claude Code has let him build custom apps like Feed Deck and replace paid services. The episode doubles as a practical preview of David’s new Robot Assistant Field Guide.

Why You Hate Your Weather App — Admitting uncertainty is a design choice. In medicine we call it informed consent — turns out it works for weather apps too.

Acme imparts a sense of trust by foregrounding its own lack of omniscience. As I write, I can see on the app that it’s unlikely to rain this afternoon—but that there’s an alternate forecast suggesting a possibility of snow. At least I know that I can’t be sure.

Trump’s Signature on the Dollar — I love this guy.

“There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S. dollar bills bearing his name, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the semiquincentennial,” Mr. Bessent said in a statement.

Max Verstappen vs. F1’s new rules: Every complaint this season – and our verdict — Verstappen’s complaints may be amplified by Red Bull’s struggles, but his read on the sport feels genuine. The best driver of his generation saying it’s no fun to drive is not a small thing.

“There has become a clear split in the positive and negative comments over the first weeks of the season. The loudest cheerleaders have been the drivers in the most competitive cars, Mercedes and Ferrari, while the world champion trio of Verstappen, Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso — all experiencing nightmarish starts to the new regulation cycle — have been the loudest critics.”

The Complicated Financial Lives of Dentists, the Millionaires Next Door - WSJ

My Thoughts on “Operation Epic Fury” as of March 26, 2026

I have been relatively quiet about Operation Epic Fury. I am genuinely ambivalent whether to support it. Benjamin Franklin had a method for working through indecision:

To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con.¹

Reasons to Support

1. Iran is a long-term nuclear threat — and nuclear capability is a one-way door. If Iran crosses the threshold and fields a functional nuclear weapon, that fact cannot be undone. It permanently alters the regional and global balance of power. Acting before that door closes is reasonable.
2. Freedom for the Iranian people is a legitimate goal. America has long committed itself to the spread of democracy and individual liberty. When an opportunity to help a people achieve self-governance arises, there is a reasonable case that we should take it.
3. Iran is a proxy for Russia and China. Degrading Iranian military capacity sends a message to both powers that the United States will not yield over smaller states — Ukraine being an example. That signaling has real strategic value.

Reasons to Oppose

1. The risk of an open-ended commitment is serious. Two scenarios concern me. First, a protracted multi-year conflict would exhaust American will and degrade our readiness to confront China — the more consequential long-term rival. Second, the financial and material cost of a failed or stalemated war directly competes with urgent domestic priorities: the national debt, immigration, and the economic disruption that AI is already creating.
2. America is not the world’s policeman. We do not have the resources, the political will, or the moral obligation to resolve every regional conflict on the planet. We need to be selective about where we spend our resources.
3. The Iranian people may not be ready for democracy — and we shouldn’t assume otherwise. American culture is steeped in individualism and a tradition of taking up arms for self-determination. We cannot project that onto a society organized around a different set of values. Regime change does not guarantee democratic self-rule.
4. The economic shocks could be severe. Any large-scale military action in the region will disrupt global oil supply. The fight over the Strait of Hormuz is a warning signal. In the short term, we can absorb the hit. In the long term, the effects on energy markets, inflation, and global growth are uncertain.
5. There is no clear imminent threat. I have yet to see a credible explanation of an Iranian imminent threat. If the threat is real but not yet immediate, that gives us time to build international consensus, strengthen our military capabilities in the Middle East, and pursue alternatives to conflict.

Conclusion

I remain undecided on Operation Epic Fury. The arguments on both sides are legitimate.

For now, I am willing to give President Trump the benefit of the doubt. But that is conditional. He must either win this war quickly — however he chooses to define victory — or make a clear case to the American people for why a longer commitment is necessary.

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1. Franklin, Benjamin. Letter to Joseph Priestley, September 19, 1772. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-19-02-0200. I recommend reading the whole letter. It is high-yield. ↩︎

Opinion | How Can America Be So Miserable When It’s So Rich? - The New York Times – This is a brilliant essay. It cuts to the core of the problem of American dissatisfaction.

Wealth always tempts us to be discontent. We’re cursed with that insatiable desire for more. We’re prone to envy. There is a reason we talk about keeping up with the Joneses.

But what if the Joneses inadvertently also make it hard to keep up? What if their sheer economic power changes our communities so much that we’re priced out of our doctors, our homes, our sports and many, many other things we need or want?

Claude Code auto mode: a safer way to skip permissions \ Anthropic

What Min Jin Lee Wants Us to See | The New Yorker

Flighty Airports Meltdown Map — Very cool. Look at LaGuardia.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference returns the week of June 8 - Apple — Book it. Lock it in.

See How the LaGuardia Plane Crash Unfolded - The New York Times

Trump tells Republicans to pass voting law ‘for Jesus’ | Reuters

“Make this one for Jesus.”

An iconic Trumpism

No Pills or Needles, Just Paper: How Deadly Drugs Are Changing - The New York Times

Lab-made drugs soaked into the pages of letters, books and even legal documents are being smuggled behind bars, killing inmates and frustrating investigators.

Opinion | ‘Once and for All’ Means Never - The New York Times

I’ve been ambivalent about this war against Iran

Yeah, me too.

American Promise — Coming Soon - YouTube – This is truly excellent. It’s on Apple Music. Please listen.

The robot umps are here: What to watch for with ABS this MLB spring training - The Athletic - Long Overdue

Opinion | Trump Has Made a Fundamental Miscalculation about Iran - The New York Times

American military policy has failed us over the past decades, but I don’t think the solution is the radical break with American tradition represented by the Trump administration. I still hold to the conservative belief that the highest ideals we find in our history can guide us. Our greatest wartime leaders thought we should wage war only when it was absolutely necessary, that we should articulate the clear moral and political objectives that we use to guide our strategy and that we should treat the shedding of blood with the seriousness it deserves.

Power does not grow out of the barrel of a gun, cruelty is not the same as strength, and a politics built on such ideas promises ruin, delusion about the limits of our power and a betrayal of the promise of our founding.

I partly agree with Phil Klay – I would add a second layer of analysis. I don’t think the Iranian people are like Americans in one important way – We are ready to commit violence in order to be free. I don’t think the Iranian people are willing to do the same. And, the Trump Administration has miscalculated on this aspect as well.

MacBook Neo - Apple Got It Right! - YouTube — The definitive review