o3 came up with this term during brainstorming for a piece about spending the AI productivity gains on fitness. Whenever I see AI coin a new term itself I like to document it. “Campfire Butler” isn’t an established term—yet....

Enlightenment Now Steven Pinker’s book is truly excellent. Similar to Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist, but with far more data and interesting discussion on institutional changes in recent centuries....

More from Less Andrew McAfee did a good job titling More from Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources―and What Happens Next. This story is surprising indeed!...

Stubborn Attachments Tyler Cowen’s book is part of what touched off a new focus on progress studies. It’s quite short and much more accessible than most books written by economists. The book is as much about ethics as it is economics, with the central focus on growth....

The Alchemy of the Air Thomas Hager’s book may have been one of my favorite non-fiction reads. The topic is fairly niche: this book is about the history of the Haber-Bosch process, a technique which allows us to fix nitrogen from the air. This process is essential to sustaining life on earth via fer...

The Most Powerful Idea in the World The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention by William Rosen traces the scientific discoveries behind the steam engine and its evolution through the industrial revolution....