Overview
Of Plato’s work, my favorite is Politeia (Republic) lit. things to do with the city state. Today, academic study of similar topics quibbles at the margins over effect sizes better measured in basis points than beauty. Yet, Plato set himself the task of finding ‘kallipolis’: the ideal polity (kalos = beautiful, polis = city-state).
In short, that is what interests me too. We are now ever so far away from the world of Athens and Sparta. Technology has swelled the scale of our polities from thousand-strong cities to billion-strong nations. And a change in scale is often a change in kind too.
So, I’m interested in studying big-picture questions of statecraft & planning in search of the 21st century ‘kallipolis’. In particular, as an Anglophile, I will focus on ideas to reverse Britain’s decline. By Archilochus’ framework, I am a fox rather than a hedgehog. Expect jumps between industrial policy, urban planning, foreign policy, technological futurism, and other topics you suggest to me!
1. Why this, why now
Selfishly, I am finally blessed with space to read and think. In my personal life, I am a Stanford PhD student for the next five years, which means I’ll have a surfeit of time and a shortage of money. As dissertation topics go, my ‘official’ focus will be quite myopic - and I’d prefer to not be similarly restricted in my free time.
More broadly, I’ve found a shortage of writing in the vein I prefer: contrarian theory-building on a foundation of deep principles. There is often a ‘party line’ that predominates among what I read, advanced by those who cannot grapple with the core scientific (viz. computational) ideas of our time. There was a time for journalists and lawyers - and that is not our time. I don’t set out to be an iconoclast, but don’t be surprised if that’s where my writing ends up!
2. Community norms
The mark of a great Substack to me is abiding interest in both the writing and the comment section. While I am directly responsible for the quality of writing, I can only indirectly influence the comments through good argumentative hygiene. Expect prompt replies, well-chosen topics, and curation on my part.
3. Logistics
I am still trying to find the most sustainable cadence to keep writing alongside school work and research. My goal will be to have a “current” piece of writing that you can engage with individually and collectively at all times. I will continue updating posts as I add more details, and may experiment with the ‘Notes’ feature at a later time.
I plan to keep this letter free for now, but may add additional content behind a paywall at a later date. Happy reading!
