Thursday Night Links

• Those older men who are fitness enthusiasts, like George Gilder, who still runs miles per day in his 80s, can remain productive far beyond the typical midcentury elderly, who, as the first to live in a post-scarcity world, lacked knowledge of the compensating necessity of exercise and nutritional restraint, and lacked great alternatives to cigarettes for delivery of the world’s greatest nootropic. And since retirement is particularly bad for men, who generally base their self-worth on their productive capacities rather than family relationships, who are we to demand that talented people stop using their talents because of age? [The Tom File]
• You might be thinking: what’s so special about a square? What about triangle theory, or pentagon theory? (Or rectangle theory? Or rhombus theory? Okay, side lengths and angles don’t matter here.) Well, it’s true that there’s something compelling about any loop-closing property, regardless of side count—a story that comes full circle is still satisfying no matter how many points it hits in between, and it’s still neat to discover a triangle of people who coincidentally know each other. But here’s what I think makes squares special: a square is the simplest polygon that has non-adjacent sides. In a triangle, each side is adjacent to the other two sides. But in a square, opposite sides have no points in common, which makes any connection between them feel surprising, like a coincidence. In pentagons and beyond, this still holds, but the extra sides add complexity that make them feel slightly less elegant. Nevertheless, other shapes can be interesting too, but I see them as the exception, not the rule. [Adam Aaronson]
• These guys don't understand each other. Elon Musk is too guileless. He says exactly what he thinks is true with little regard for how others will react. He alienates allies by airing disputes in public instead of settling them behind closed doors. Because he is a sperg engineer who leads companies of sperg engineers, and to do this, you must be 100% truthful and transparent. Donald Trump is too guileful. He says exactly what will advance his plans with little regard for telling people what he actually thinks. He alienates allies by expecting their unconditional support without sharing any aspect of his strategic plans with them. Because he is a New York real estate developer, who thrives on winning negotiations and gaining advantage from unshared knowledge, and to do this, you must be 100% calculating and opaque. [Devon Eriksen]
• Populists and tech titans were in the same boat and it was really picking up speed. It was a credible coalition capable of winning trust and confidence, a grand bargain to go make a mutually desired agenda happen. Then came tariffs. The trade war waged with powers grasped in cavalier and questionable fashion blew this to newfound confluence to flinders. It lost all the initiative and gave the game away. It not only fractured the alliance, but it brought “bad trump” back into the foreground as he stormed the spotlight needing every news cycle to be about him and his antics. The economic harm will be very real as for the second time in 2 presidencies, he breaks global supply chains and is now rapidly losing control of the negotiations and having them go sideways. But worse is all the allies alienated. No one wants to deal with him because no one trusts him. and that’s because trump will always need to be the center of attention, places no value in his word, and always stabs his friends and business partners in the back. [el gato malo]
• Just as throughout earlier stages of life, social functions and social status revolve around children and family, and anyone without them will be incomplete as a person, something of an inevitable outsider to the joys of life. The best insurance against a lonely and uncomfortable old age is a large family, among which there are certain to be sufficient resources to care for you. Many elderly Amish people die with well over a hundred grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and spend their later years constantly surrounded by children and young people who deeply appreciate and respect them. [Follow the Money]
• Across thousands of distinct cultural groups around the world, only a handful have rejected the dominant post-Enlightenment status hierarchy in favor of large families and traditional values. I’m not aware of any that managed it without significant insulation from the dominant culture. That tells me that the short-term incentive structure of modern society is more powerful than any historical cultural norms, and there is no passive solution that doesn’t involve collapse of that incentive structure and the civilization it rests on. [Follow the Money]
• Demeny voting (also called parental voting or family voting) is a type of proxy voting where the provision of a political voice for children by allowing parents or guardians to vote on their behalf. The term is named after demographer Paul Demeny, though the concept predates him. [Demeny voting]
• Good habits are formed by high standards readily enforced. As a product of Catholic schools, it long ago occurred to me how brilliant it was of the sisters to so diligently enforce rules against minor misbehaviors. This served two purposes. By defining deviance up, we could be rebels—which kids need to be—by chewing gum or rolling up our shirt sleeves. But it also kept the guardrails against really bad behavior high and tight. [Richard Vigilante]
• Over the past two seasons, uptake of the annual Covid-19 booster has been poor, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Less than 25% of Americans received boosters each year, ranging from less than 10% of children younger than 12 years of age in the 2024–2025 season to 50% of adults over 75 years old. Even health care workers remain hesitant, with less than one third participating in the 2023–2024 fall booster program. There may even be a ripple effect: public trust in vaccination in general has declined, resulting in a reluctance to vaccinate that is affecting even vital immunization programs such as that for measles–mumps–rubella (MMR) vaccination, which has been clearly established as safe and highly effective. In recent years, reduced MMR vaccination rates have been a growing concern and have contributed to serious illness and deaths from measles. Against this context, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeks to provide guidance and foster evidence generation. Moving forward, the FDA will adopt the following Covid-19 vaccination regulatory framework: On the basis of immunogenicity — proof that a vaccine can generate antibody titers in people — the FDA anticipates that it will be able to make favorable benefit–risk findings for adults over the age of 65 years and for all persons above the age of 6 months with one or more risk factors that put them at high risk for severe Covid-19 outcomes, as described by the CDC . For all healthy persons — those with no risk factors for severe Covid-19 — between the ages of 6 months and 64 years, the FDA anticipates the need for randomized, controlled trial data evaluating clinical outcomes before Biologics License Applications can be granted. [Vinay Prasad]