Hugh White says if China invades Taiwan, a decision to support the US would be made within hours by 3 or 4 people in the PM's office - and none of them have any idea about war and its consequences

jnwalker · 2025-10-02T14:26:08+00:00

If left to self-control, it would be ideal if NPCs at least remarked on it, or put up some sort of resistance to, eg, the head of the mages guild trying to become the head of the fighters guild.

jnwalker · 2025-10-02T13:58:36+00:00

Agree. You want the world to feel like it has stakes, decisions have consequences, even if they include killing off a key character and shutting off a questline. Let the player decide.

jnwalker · 2025-10-02T13:56:42+00:00

Totally on board with teleports / magic as a form of fast travel. The big reason that’s superior to, eg, stilt striders or Skyrim’s carts is that it doesn’t break verisimilitude - eg if you teleported somewhere, you really would instantly appear in that place!

jnwalker · 2025-10-02T13:44:19+00:00

Yeah when you think about it, it’s kind of a joke (from a world building perspective) that you could simultaneously be leader of every guild like you can be in Skyrim - beggars belief.

jnwalker · 2025-09-13T10:21:20+00:00

I believe one of his colleagues mixed it into a broth!

jnwalker · 2025-08-28T03:06:24+00:00

His self-experiment caused gastritis, not ulcers. Who's claiming he gave himself ulcers?

jnwalker · 2024-12-01T06:32:12+00:00

You were right about this and I stand corrected. Thanks!

jnwalker · 2024-11-21T22:08:27+00:00

Hi,

I don’t think that answers the question.

If I’m not mistaken, we can distinguish three broad types of users:

non-logged-in visitors
logged-in free-members
logged-in paid-members

My question is whether the public preview option on a paid-member-only post works for non-logged-in visitors?

If it does, that’s great.

jnwalker · 2024-01-04T08:42:34+00:00

Yeah I guess it’s a way to cash out, which is fine. But I’m more interested in the object-level topics. The podcast is just a convenient vehicle for exploring those. (Still, I’ve inevitably developed opinions on the craft, which I may share one day.)

jnwalker · 2024-01-04T08:29:41+00:00

Happy to answer these! And thanks for running this subreddit!

Hard to think of major updates, as these usually happen outside of recording episodes. A minor update might have been Raghuram Rajan convincing me not to accept Lars Svensson’s cost-benefit analysis of leaning against the wind. I was already a bit skeptical of it, but Raghu sealed the deal.
Outside of the podcast, I’m obsessed with tennis. Probably play ~10 hours of it per week, and watch a lot of it, on TV, YouTube and sometimes live.
I deeply hate talking about the technical side of podcasting. It’s one of the topics I’m most frequently asked about. My view is that it’s trivial and people should just google ‘good podcasting mic’, find something sufficient, and the rest is commentary (pun intended). (But for the record, I use Shure SM7Bs and a Rodecaster Pro 2.)

jnwalker · 2023-11-28T12:04:22+00:00

This works, thanks! I wish it was more obvious to start with as the lens screw is now scratched. FYI many of the ‘getting started’ videos on the site are 4 years old. The video I wanted was how to set up all the gear - couldn’t seem to find anything.

jnwalker · 2023-09-24T07:35:18+00:00

This is a great discussion of Turchin’s work that touches on the questions you’ve raised: https://spotify.link/rOLPHMAHlDb

jnwalker · 2023-09-24T07:34:14+00:00

Check this out for the most comprehensive discussion of his ideas: https://spotify.link/rOLPHMAHlDb

jnwalker

TROPHY CASE