John Heilemann:

It’s not pretty at this moment.

This is not, in short, an us-versus-them moment. It could be, should be, an all-hands-on-deck moment. Obama, I suspect, understands this better than most of the people around him. Late in his campaign, Obama gave a speech in Indianapolis in which he unfurled a kind of optimistic, soft populism that was both eloquent and perfectly calibrated for the times.

“We will all need to sacrifice, and we will all need to pull our weight, because now more than ever, we are all in this together,” Obama said. “What this crisis has taught us is that at the end of the day, there is no real separation between Wall Street and Main Street. There is only the road we’re traveling on as Americans, and we will rise and fall on that as one nation, as one people.”

He should say that again. Not just because it’s a great set of lines—but because, like all the best rhetoric, it also happens to be true.

Two from the Economist:

He has to start deciding whom to disappoint.

In all his speeches, John McCain urges Americans to make sacrifices for a country that is both "an idea and a cause".

He is not asking them to suffer anything he would not suffer himself. But many voters would rather not suffer at all.

Rebecca Brock:

People say to me, "Whatever it takes." I tell them, It's going to take everything.

Inside Obama’s Economic Brain Trust

Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone:

It's over — we're officially, royally fucked.

It's time to admit it: We're fools, protagonists in a kind of gruesome comedy about the marriage of greed and stupidity.

The most galling thing about this financial crisis is that so many Wall Street types think they actually deserve not only their huge bonuses and lavish lifestyles but the awesome political power their own mistakes have left them in possession of. When challenged, they talk about how hard they work, the 90-hour weeks, the stress, the failed marriages, the hemorrhoids and gallstones they all get before they hit 40.

Michael Lewis:

The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over.

From 2004, Paul Graham:

This idea is so pervasive that even the kids believe it.

Peter Schiff:

I think things are going to get very bad.

The Big Takeover

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A Primer for Kicking Ass

From the archive:

Rare is the book that causes one to consider -- ponder? appraise? examine? inspect? contemplate? -- one's every word.

Simple & Direct, a classic text on the craft of writing by the educator Jacques Barzun, does so -- with style.

Growing Sentences with David Foster Wallace

The Economist's Valley correspondent reviews the last six years:

And so, as this correspondent prepares to leave, the Valley again finds itself in a curious position. It has been a boon to the world, helping people keep abreast of acquaintances on their social networks, wherever they go, and record and share much more of their own lives. But the Valley stands on ground that is as unstable, seismically and metaphorically, as it was in the earlier bust. Another bubble—this time, not of the Valley’s making—has burst. The world economy is in crisis, advertising is collapsing and start-ups are once again vanishing into thin air. Silicon Valley may be entering another nuclear winter.

Recently:

I thought I was unlucky graduating into the tech bust. I had no idea.

Two from last year:

Get real or go home.

It was so obvious it was going to fall apart eventually. What is so amazing is how long it took to actually happen.

From the archive, Ted Koppel to Malcolm Gladwell, via Tom Friedman:

Can you know you are in the middle of a tipping point, or is it only something you can see in retrospect?

Six years in the Valley | The Economist

David Kilcullen:

We're now reaching the point where within one to six months we could see the collapse of the Pakistani state. The collapse of Pakistan, al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons, an extremist takeover -- that would dwarf everything we've seen in the war on terror today.

Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan.

And now for something completely different:

Attendant: More anything?
Jerry: More everything!

Back to the Kilcullen interview:

Q: What are the lessons of Iraq that most apply to Afghanistan?

Kilcullen: You've got to protect the population. You've got to focus on getting the population on your side and making them self-defending. And you've got to make a long-term commitment.

Freeman Dyson:

It's very important that we adapt to the world on the long-time scale as well as the short-time scale. Ethics are the art of doing that. You must have principles that you're willing to die for.

Nir Rosen, in Rolling Stone:

"You Westerners have your watches," the leader observed. "But we Taliban have time."

A Conversation With David Kilcullen

Jennifer Fisher Wilson, on George Johnson's The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments:

When reading about scientists, I am often struck by how much confidence — as well as intelligence — is required to do the job. So much of the work that goes into great discoveries is based on an anomalous idea, conducted in lonesome obscurity, and carried out through the repetition of small tasks — titrating liquid, measuring output, tracking results. There seems to be so much room for mistakes and so much time to lose faith. Johnson seems similarly awed by how it all happens, wondering how the scientists who conducted these “beautiful experiments” kept from confusing their instincts with their suppositions, “unconsciously nudging the apparatus, like an Ouija board, to come up with the hoped-for reply.” As he asserts, “the most temperamental piece of laboratory equipment will always be the human brain.”

Martin Schwartz:

Science makes me feel stupid too. It's just that I've gotten used to it.

From the archive:

Galileo was an astrologer.

Newton was an alchemist.

Have you seen Synecdoche, New York?

Knowing that you don’t know is the most essential step to knowing, you know?

Experimental Nonfiction

Kellan Elliott-McCrea:

Don't let your design make promises you can't keep.

From the Economist:

He has to start deciding whom to disappoint.

From the archive, Siva Vaidhyanathan:

"It's the collapse of inconvenience. It turns out inconvenience was a really important part of our lives, and we didn't realize it."

Streams, affordances, Facebook, and rounding errors

Richard Hamming:

If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work.

From the archive:

Marge: I'd really like to give it a try!
Homer: I don't know, Marge, trying is the first step towards failure.

Also:

One passionate person is worth a thousand people who are just plodding along ...

Finally:

There are 260 million people in America, and you are one of them.

Get Excited and Make Things

Isabella Rossellini:

I will develop a tunnel and it will be a labyrinth.

From last year:

They are not like standard nature shows.

Nathan Myhrvold:

I was in the middle of saying "it's very hard to enter the rectum, but once you do things move much faster", only to hear the waiter gasp. Whoops.

129 Minutes With Isabella Rossellini