Good Tokens 2026-04-02
Worth your time
Craft is the Antidote to Slop — Will Manidis is in my internet top 5. I hope I'm not insulting him when I say he has great taste (link: https://minutes.substack.com/p/against-taste)
Backseat Software I am so sick of being interrupted for feedback.
Speed Can Reindustrialize America Austin Vernon is also in my internet top 5.
Fraud Investigation — Shorter patio11: Fraud is a policy choice.
Robot Soldiers Are Reporting for Duty — Armed ground robots serve a fundamentally different purpose than drones. Drones are light artillery — great at inflicting casualties. But the hard problem in warfare is holding terrain, and that's where ground robots start to matter. The Ukraine conflict is making this real fast. See also: NASA's Perseverance Rover Completes First AI-Planned Drive on Mars.
Things I learned
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Papua New Guinea, with about 0.1 percent of the world's population, hosts more than 10 percent of the world's languages. Sweden maintains such accurate daily birth-and-death counts that it no longer needs to conduct a census. That whole piece on fake population numbers is wild.
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The IKEA effect: people place disproportionately high value on things they partially created.
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Tigers are orange because their prey can't distinguish between orange and green — and green pigment is hard to produce biologically. Evolution is full of these "good enough" solutions.
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There were fewer births in China in 2025 than in 1776, the year the United States declared independence.
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Georgia has the second highest number of counties in the union.
It worked for me
Alpha-Bots — Consistently one of my kids' favorite toys. Most likely to get the 3 and 5 year old playing together for 20+ minutes at a time while I'm not in the room.
No Knead Bread — My friend Chris introduced me to this No Knead Bread recipe late last year and it has quickly become a part of my family's weekly routine. Who knew fresh bread could be this easy?
2026-04-02