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Le Corbusier! I love encountering people that know who he is, and why he's so important. Do you know Robert Moses? I feel like those two people have pretty muc

Le Corbusier! I love encountering people that know who he is, and why he's so important. Do you know Robert Moses? I feel like those two people have pretty much ruined America, and almost no one has heard of them. I just purchased a house in Golden, CO, where I have all of the things you're talking about - walkable, coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores in tolerably close distance. I'm trying to get Golden to legalize a style of building that would make all of these good things more plentiful and more affordable. I am writing about two competing "visions" for a block of what is currently a surface parking lot in downtown Golden. One option is not pleasant, the other option is delightful, and illegal. I bet it'll all be right up your alley: https://josh.works/#what-this-newsletter-is-about https://josh.works/#what-this-newsletter-is-about

SirensOfTitan 6y ago
Funny, I just started reading Cato's "The Power Broker" a couple weeks ago. Before that point, I had absolutely no idea who Robert Moses was. I picked that book at random, but as "happy little accidents" go, it melded with my current exploration of themes related to urban planning marvelously. I particularly love reading Jane Jacobs's thoughts on the subject, who learned by observation, not through logical analysis. A lot of my interest in this area comes from a life-long appreciation of (non-pejorative) anarchist philosophical thought. It's a lot harder to build organization from the bottom-up, but top-down organization loses so much implicit knowledge and context that it seems reasonable to investigate the former approach. I'll check out your newsletter, it seems so interesting, thank you for linking. :)
- wonder_er 6y ago
  That book is one of the best books I have ever read. criminally undervalued for people trying to understand why the world is the way that it is. I talk extensively about Robert Moses in my newsletter, but as you might imagine it's hard to summarize a 1400 page book in a handful of emails, so I haven't quite figured out exactly how well the looping Robert Moses's story into the greater narrative I'm trying to convey. I would love your thoughts on the newsletter as you read through it! I just started rereading Jane jacobs's "the death and life of great American cities" I'm sure at some point I'll be looping it into the newsletter as well. I'm with you on the non pejorative anarchist philosophical thought. Not necessarily anything to do with anarchy, but more about the value generation of spontaneous, self-organized, responsive, iterative, goal-seeking behavior at an individual level. Have you heard of "The problem of political authority: the right course and the duty to obey" or "seeing like a state: why schemes to improve the human condition fail" as if you're reading list isn't already long enough, these might be worthwhile additions.
tarsinge 6y ago
What an inspiring personal project.
- wonder_er 6y ago
  Thanks! It combines so many of my interests into a coherent goal. It's more interesting to me than video games (though at times it can be vastly more frustrating than even the worst video game!) I expect this is a project I will be working on for a very long time. It's actually rather comforting to feel like I have something that could span decades, and remain satisfying, relevant, and renumerative. Thanks for the kind words!

SirensOfTitan 6y ago

Funny, I just started reading Cato's "The Power Broker" a couple weeks ago. Before that point, I had absolutely no idea who Robert Moses was. I picked that book at random, but as "happy little accidents" go, it melded with my current exploration of themes related to urban planning marvelously. I particularly love reading Jane Jacobs's thoughts on the subject, who learned by observation, not through logical analysis. A lot of my interest in this area comes from a life-long appreciation of (non-pejorative) anarchist philosophical thought. It's a lot harder to build organization from the bottom-up, but top-down organization loses so much implicit knowledge and context that it seems reasonable to investigate the former approach. I'll check out your newsletter, it seems so interesting, thank you for linking. :)

wonder_er 6y ago
That book is one of the best books I have ever read. criminally undervalued for people trying to understand why the world is the way that it is. I talk extensively about Robert Moses in my newsletter, but as you might imagine it's hard to summarize a 1400 page book in a handful of emails, so I haven't quite figured out exactly how well the looping Robert Moses's story into the greater narrative I'm trying to convey. I would love your thoughts on the newsletter as you read through it! I just started rereading Jane jacobs's "the death and life of great American cities" I'm sure at some point I'll be looping it into the newsletter as well. I'm with you on the non pejorative anarchist philosophical thought. Not necessarily anything to do with anarchy, but more about the value generation of spontaneous, self-organized, responsive, iterative, goal-seeking behavior at an individual level. Have you heard of "The problem of political authority: the right course and the duty to obey" or "seeing like a state: why schemes to improve the human condition fail" as if you're reading list isn't already long enough, these might be worthwhile additions.

tarsinge 6y ago

What an inspiring personal project.

wonder_er 6y ago
Thanks! It combines so many of my interests into a coherent goal. It's more interesting to me than video games (though at times it can be vastly more frustrating than even the worst video game!) I expect this is a project I will be working on for a very long time. It's actually rather comforting to feel like I have something that could span decades, and remain satisfying, relevant, and renumerative. Thanks for the kind words!