An Exegesis of Luigi Mangione – Part 1: Social Media History

A unified timeline of his social media history

This is part one of a four-part series on Luigi Mangione:

• Part 0: Preamble - Setting the stage for the coming series

• Part 0.5: My Intentions - Why am I writing this series and what do I hope to gain?

• Part 1: Social Media Timeline – A unified timeline of his social media history

• Part 2: Analysis – My relationship with Luigi and assessment of him

• Part 3: Did He Do It? – Exploring possible motives or alternative explanations

• Part 4: Wat Mean? – What does the shooting mean for our society and future

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Introduction

While researching for this project, I poured over every publicly available word written or action taken by Luigi on his Twitter, Reddit, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Steam, and Github over his ten years of activity.

Due to the sheer volume of content (almost 2,000 unique items) in multiple different places it was becoming impossible to keep it organized in my head which led to a lot of wasted time when trying to identify patterns in his personality, behaviors, and interests. So I made this unified timeline to help me.

I will include an extensive summary of this at the start of Part Two before going into my analysis, so it’s not really required reading. But I decided that publishing it is important for three reasons:

1. Show you the data i’m working with so you can correct anything or tell me what I missed.

2. Allow you to validate and corroborate the assessments I make in Part Two and hold me accountable to being fair and objective.

3. Make it easier for future researchers to ingest his social media in hopes it allows them to make more rigorous assessments themselves.

I have made significant efforts to improve digestibility. This includes listing the month and source of each item, bolding the key experiences or shifts in perspective that appear to have most heavily influenced his views, lots of footnotes with questions to ponder, and QOL things like impartial summaries of long threads or descriptions of books you may not be familiar with.

If you have already scoured all this yourself or just want to get to my theories, feel free to skim it, just read the footnotes, or skip it entirely. Should you not trust my judgement (I am after all an evil right wing bigot!) or wish to create your own timeline, all sources are below.

Sources

• Reddit - Submission History

• Reddit - Comment History

• Goodreads - Want To Read (pg 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

• Goodreads - Read (pg 2, 3, 4)

• Goodreads - Currently Reading

• Goodreads - Owned

• Goodreads - Favorites

• Goodreads - In Progress

• Twitter

• LinkedIn

• Github

• Linktree

• Steam

• Wordpress

• Most are compiled in this list here but without date stamps or details

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Timeline

2014 - Age 16

May 2014

• Wrote “How Christianity Prospered by Appealing to the Lower Classes of Ancient Rome”. Essay about how Christianity’s ability to offer spiritual fulfillment, a sense of belonging, and hope for eternal salvation, three key things lacking in late-Roman Paganism, led to Christianity’s widespread adoption and eventual replacement of Paganism (He shared it in a reply to me in May 2024, ten years later).

Nov 2014

• Linkedin – Cofounded “AppRoar studios” with some friends, to make a small mobile game. Did it for 8 months until Jun 2015.

2015 - Age 17

Jan 2015 - May 2015

• 5 months, no activity.

Feb 2015

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “The AI Revolution: The Road to Super-intelligence” by Tim Urban. Rated 5 stars.¹

• Github - Last updated “hello-world”, likely as a mark of the Github’s creation.

Jun 2015

• Linkedin - Ends AppRoar after 8 months.

Jul 2015

• Wordpress - Created his Wordpress blog.

• Wordpress - “Question 1.14”: First blog post. Summarizes three recent articles on robotics and AI progress on table tennis, autonomous driving, and surgery.²

• Wordpress - “Contrary Views on the Main Question”: Summarizes a critique of the “Heads in the Sand” objection to AI, discussing the potential methods for AGI to surpass human intelligence.

• Wordpress - “Processing”: Two posts explaining a program he wrote and what it does.

• Wordpress - “Does Lisa’s Identity Really Matter?”: Examines the XKCD comic, “Suspicion”, about a man who uses a CAPTCHA test to learn that his online girlfriend is a bot who then leaves her. In answer to the question of whether it is just for him to leave her, Luigi says yes, because she was lying to him about being a robot.

• Wordpress - “IAT - Religion”: takes an IAT (Implicit Association Test), a test for identifying unconscious biases, on religion and remarks on his results. The test say he identifies with Christianity and Buddhism, to which he says makes sense. Then remarks that knowing one’s biases is helpful so one can work to remove them from judgements.

• Wordpress - “Facebook Stalks Me”: Says he is okay with Facebook tracking his movements and keeping his data, otherwise he would not use the platform. However, it is unjust that Facebook profits off user’s posts without compensating them.

• Wordpress - “Berkley’s Intro to CS Demographics”: Disagrees with SFGate’s conclusion that Berkley’s Intro to CS Class having more women than men for the first time is indicative of changing CS demographics. Furthermore, he appears to say that women will naturally join the field and that efforts to change the courses are unnecessary.³

• Wordpress - “Fairness of Life - Can CS Level the Playing Field?”: States that some people are born with better opportunity than others. However, the nature of CS and the fact that being good at programming is the fundamental measure of one’s employability will help to remove unfair advantages.

• Wordpress - “Animal Crossing - Nintendo’s Ultimate Creation”: Explaining the game animal crossing and says he highly recommends it.

• Wordpress - “Tech vs Nature” - A response to the article “Can Technology Replace Nature?”. The article explores “technological nature”, digital representations of nature such as TV’s displaying natural habitats, and whether they are a sufficient substitute for real nature in boosting mood and feelings of wellbeing. It concludes that while technological nature is better than no nature, it is not as good as “real” nature. Luigi responds that this conclusion is obvious and the solution is to balance our lives to include both technology and nature.

Aug 2015

• Github - Last updated “Stock-Bot” a “Stock Trading Bot using Machine Learning”⁴

Sep 2015 - Feb 2016

• 6 months, no activity.

2016 - Age 18

Feb 2016

• Reddit – First Reddit comment. Multi-paragraph comment in r/Pokemongo detailing his thesis for why he believes Nintendo will announce a Pokémon Go update at the 2016 Nintendo Pokémon Direct event.

• Reddit – First reddit submission. asking what others think of his thesis re: Pokemon Go update.

Mar 2016

• Github - Last updated “talbot_ftc_app” for a Robot controller for his First Tech Challenge.

• Reddit - Comment providing programming advice in r/FTC (First Tech challenge).

Apr 2016

• Twitter – dozens of tweets of “Random Tweet: [random 6 digit number]”.⁵

• Reddit – Comment in r/gamedev asking about a websites speed.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Giver”, a popular sci-fi book.

May 2016

• LinkedIn – Starts 16 month internship at Firaxis Games, a relatively small but highly respected video game company which produces the Civilization series. Worked on the Civ VI team.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel, a book about building revolutionary companies.

Jun 2016

• LinkedIn – Starts 3-month internship at John Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering in robotics. Overlaps with his Firaxis Games internship.

Jul 2016

• Reddit – Submission with a feature request to Pokemon Go devs which would improve inventory organization.⁶

• Reddit – Lots of back and forth comments about the submission and other bugs related to this.

• Reddit – Comment providing social advice to a rude guy, humorously telling him that calling other people idiots is not productive.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Secret Wisdom of the Earth” by Christopher Scotton, a coming of age fiction novel.

Aug 2016

• LinkedIn - Johns Hopkins internship ends after 3 months.

• Reddit – More innocuous comments discussing Pokemon Go.

• Linkedin - Starts freshman semester at University of Pennsylvania.

Sep 2016

• LinkedIn – Founds a video game development club at UPenn. Ran for 4 years until May 2020, his entire time at U Penn.

Oct 2016 – Dec 2016

• 3 months, no activity.

2017 - Age 19

Jan 2017

• Reddit – comment in r/UPenn clarifying someone’s question about when previous semester grades will be released.

Feb 2017

• No activity.

Mar 2017

• Github - Last updated “Caffinator”, a swift app (no additional info).

Apr 2017

• No activity.

May 2017

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “The Martian”, a popular sci-fi novel. Rated 5 stars.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “The Code Book”. Nonfiction about the history of cryptography. Rated 5 stars.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Gene” by Siddharta Mukherjee, a book about the history, science, and ethics of genetics.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Mythology” by Edith Hamilton, a compilation book of Greek, Roman, and Norse myths.

• Reddit – First comment in r/flipping, as subreddit about buying things for cheap and selling them for more, asking for tips.⁷

Jun 2017

• Reddit – Comments saying he read the beginners guide on r/flipping and has started going to garage sales and thrift stores.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “2312” by Kim Robinson, a popular sci-fi book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People” by Stephen Covey, a seminal book on business and self improvement.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “On Immunity” by Eula Bliss, a book about the history, controversy, and psychology around vaccines (a nuanced and thoughtful but overall pro-vaccine book).

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Should We Eat Meat?” by Smil Vaclav, a book about the environmental, health, ethical, and cultural implications of meat consumption (a nuanced but ultimately critical view of the meat industry)⁸

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “How to Lie with Statistics”, a popular book on how statistics are often manipulated or misinterpreted to mislead or deceive.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “What If”, a fun science book by the creator of xkcd about absurd scientific questions.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Greatest Show on Earth” by Richard Dawkins, a seminal work on evolution and atheism.⁹

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Magic of Reality” by Dawkins, a popular book on science and atheism.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Homo Deus” by Yuval Harari, a sequel to “Sapiens” about the future of humanity from an evolutionary lens.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Origin of Species” by Darwin.

Jul 2017

• Reddit – A few comments and questions in r/flipping and r/Thriftstorehauls, a similar subreddit.

• Reddit – Comments giving advice in r/UPenn about how to switch ones class schedule up to make it more manageable.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed”, a book explaining quantum physics in layman’s terms.

• Github - Last updated “TuringMachineSimulator” a “Basic Turning machine simulator in Java that can be used to compute strings”.

Aug 2017

• LinkedIn – Internship at Firaxis Games ends after 16 months.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, a popular sci-fi novel. Rated 3 stars.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Speaker for The Dead”, a popular sci-fi novel. Rated 5 stars.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler.¹⁰

Sep 2017

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Children of the Fleet” by Orson Scott Card, a popular sci-fi book.

Oct 2017

• No activity.

Nov 2017

• Reddit – Comments in r/buildapcsales asking question about buying PC hardware.

Dec 2017

• No activity.

2018 - Age 20

Jan 2018

• LinkedIn – Starts as a teaching assistant for a CS class at UPenn. Continued for 17 months until May 2019.

Feb 2018

• No activity.

Mar 2018

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Getting More: How to Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World”, a popular book on negotiation.

Apr 2018

• Reddit – Submissions and comments with questions in r/bioinformatics to see if it’s something he wants to study at university.

• Reddit – Comments giving advice in r/upenn on how to improve and pass tests in CIS320 class.

May 2018

• No activity.

Jun 2018

• Reddit – One comment in r/flipping.

• Reddit – Comment in r/getdisciplined. OP asks “why do I feel vomiting sensation throughout the day if my sleep the previous night is not good”. Luigi replies saying he feels the same way if he sleeps less than 6 hours and said he assumed it was normal.

• Reddit – Advice in r/getdisciplined about how to quit video game addiction. ¹¹Quote:

“Personally, I agree with you. I find it impossible to play games for an hour at a time. It's hardly enjoyable to game in such small doses. When I play games, I have to set aside literal days to do nothing but just play. Once those days are up, I stop completely and don't play again for a few weeks. This solution works for me, but as you said, it's still playing with fire.”

/u/Mister_Cactus, Jun 13, 2018

Jul 2018

• Reddit – Several comments in r/brainfog, an “illness” characterized by difficulty concentrating, memory problems, slow thinking, mental fatigue, and/or feelings of being spaced out or disoriented. Says he contracted Lyme disease back in 2011 (age ~13), started experiencing cognitive decline in 2013 (age ~15) and symptoms severely worsened a year prior in 2017 (age ~19) that led him to seek blood tests but they came out negative.¹²

• Reddit – Many comments supporting, affirming, and advising others in r/brainfog.

• Reddit - Multiple comments on r/visualsnow sub reddit, a condition where individuals perceive continuous tiny dots or static in their visual field, similar to the static of an old analog TV.¹³

• Reddit – Submission in r/sleep saying that he wakes up multiple times through the night and has been unable to isolate the cause, and that in the last year it has gotten worse, and he feels exhausted if he sleeps less than 8 hours. Looking for advice.

• Reddit – Multi-paragraph comment in r/brainfog worth quoting:

Working through the degree has certainly been tougher than anything I ever even thought I could handle. Granted, I went from almost entirely A’s at a tough school to just passing my classes and not understanding anything while putting in probably twice the amount of work.

There were quite a few times I considered dropping, but ultimately I decided that dropping would be much worse. The days when I don’t have any work seem to be the worst. Struggling to understand lectures and homeworks is difficult, but having the same level of difficulty when trying to watch youtube or read an interesting book is even worse - I can’t even enjoy my free time. At the same time, staying in college has at least let me maintain some semblance of normality. I still get to see my friends, take classes, and at least experience what feels like 10% of a college experience.

I think it’s important to hold on to everything we can for as long as we can. Every year I’ve improved as a person: learning new things, meeting new people, etc. Last year, I ceased to tackle anything new, and simply held on to what I had built up over the years. I’m certainly not progressing anytime soon, but I refuse to digress if possible. (Granted, I’m likely not at the point you are. Soon, it might be impossible to even pass my classes. At that point, it seems like the no-knowledge lifestyle is the only option as you say.)

I would definitely encourage you to talk to your friends about it, if you’re still somewhat close with them. I also used excuses for why my grades started tanking - I used to just tell my friends that GPA didn’t matter much for CS so I didn’t care. By hiding the symptoms though, I stopped myself from getting advice from them, which has definitely turned out to be helpful. At the same time, hiding your symptoms only makes it harder for people to believe once you finally reveal them.

I’m glad you’ve finally been able to find some explanations! Definitely keep us updated if you discover anything. What do you think you’re doing differently moving forward compared to the last few years?

Funny how you mention strategy games. Last year when it all started, I used to play chess daily against my roommate. I used it as a metric to see how the brain fog was improving. Eventually, I just stopped since I could never remember any strategy. He would use the same moves against me day after day and I just wouldn’t remember them.

I think it helps to latch onto something for motivation. My choice to study CS and Bio wasn’t completely random - after spending so much time with brain fog, I’ve come to realize how little is understood about it, and I’d love to change that. Once I get past this, I hope to at least help a few of the people on this sub.

/u/mister_cactus, Jul 10, 2018

Aug 2018

• Goodreads - Added to “Want to Read”: “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, a science education book covering the history of the universe and humanity.

Sep 2018

• Reddit – Begins commenting in r/IBS (a gastrointestinal disorder characterized by abdominal pain, bloating, and abnormal bowel movements).

• Reddit - Post in r/IBS, saying doctor doing tests for bacterial overgrowth in small intestine.

• Reddit - Says he has Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance.¹⁴

• Reddit - Continuing to ask questions and discuss brain fog and diet issues.

• Reddit – Says there was a three week stretch where he drank heavily 2 nights a week while pledging his fraternity and has not recovered from brainfog since.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Selfish Gene”, a seminal work on evolutionary thinking (invented the word “meme”).

Oct 2018

• No activity.

Nov 2018

• Goodreads – Marked as “Want to Read” and “Finished Reading”: “How Not to Die”. On how diet and lifestyle can prevent and even reverse disease. No rating.

• Goodreads – Marked “Want to Read” and “Finished Reading”: “The Elon Musk Blog Series by Wait But Why (Left 5 star rating but not until January 25, 2024)

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Diversity of Life”, a comprehensive exploration of the variety of life on earth.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “World War Z”, a popular sci-fi book

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “I am Legend”, a popular sci-fi book

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “One Second After”, a popular sci-fi book

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Mini Habits”, a book on habit formation.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Flow", a popular book on maximizing enjoyable productivity.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Awareness Through Movement: Easy-to-Do Health Exercises to Improve Your Posture, Vision, Imagination, and Personal Awareness”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The HeartMath Solution”. About how connecting with ones heart can improve brain, body, and emotional regulation.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Procedure Generation in Game Design”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Mountain Man”, a novel about a solitary man who lives in the wilderness in the early 19th century.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Cat’s Cradle” by Vonnegut, a popular sci-fi novel.

Dec 2018

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Slight Edge”, a self improvement book about consistent small actions leading to big results.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “the Truth About Animals”, a book about strange and often humorous animal behaviors.

2019 - Age 21

Jan 2019

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”. 5 stars.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”. 5 stars.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”. 5 stars.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “The Ruins of Gorlan”, a fiction book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Tales of Beedle The Bard” by JK Rowling.

Feb 2019

• No activity.

Mar 2019

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Last Wish”, a book from the Witcher fiction series.

Apr 2019

• No activity.

May 2019

• LinkedIn – Teaching Assistant for CS class at UPenn ends after 17 months.

• Goodreads - Marked “To Read”: “The Book Thief”, a fiction novel about World War II.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “How to Win Friends & Influence People”, a seminal work on negotiation and persuasion.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: Of Mice and Men, a popular fiction novel.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Swoly Bible: The Bro Science Way to Life”

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Shredded Chef: 114 Recipes for Getting Ripped and Healthy”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Practical Programming for Strength Training”

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Wiseguy” by Nicholas Pileggi, a biography of mobster Henry Hill (The basis for Scorsese’s film Goodfellas).

Jun 2019

• LinkedIn – Teaching Assistant at Stanford University for an AI course begins. Lasts 3 months until Aug 2019.

Jul 2019

• No activity.

Aug 2019

• LinkedIn – Teaching Assistant at Stanford ends.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck”, a popular self help book on being more confident and bold.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Everything is F*cked”, a book by the same author about having hope and discovering your own meaning in life.

Sep 2019

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Bigger Leaner Stronger – an introduction to strength training”. Rated 5 stars. First review he wrote. Includes scans of written notes.

Oct 2019

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Name of the Wind”, a sci-fi book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Golden Compass”, another sci-fi book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Redwall”, another sci-fi book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Life of Pi”, a popular adventure novel.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Andromeda Strain”, a popular sci-fi horror book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Galapagos”, another sci-fi book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Red Mars”, another sci-fi book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex”, a rigorous yet humorous exploration of the science of human sexuality.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Eight Little Piggies” by Stephen Jay Gould, a collection of essays on evolution, paleontology, and the history of life on earth.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes Us Human” by Matt Ridley

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes” by Stephen Jay Gould, another collection of essays on evolution, natural history, and the quirks of biological development.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Evolution: The First Four Billion Years”.

Nov 2019

• No activity.

Dec 2019

• Github - Last updated “cis581p4” a python project for “CIS 581 Project 4: Deep Learning Basics”

2020 - Age 22

Jan - Mar 2020

• 3 months, no activity.

Apr 2020

• Github - Last updated “Mecanoid-Imitate”: “A guide: Imitating human motion in real time using Arduino, Xbox Kincet, and the Meccanoid robot”

May 2020

• LinkedIn - Graduates cum laude with his Bachelors and his Masters from UPenn¹⁵

• LinkedIn – Ends running the gaming development club at Upenn which he started in his first semester there.

Jun 2020

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Headspace Guide to Meditation & Mindfulness”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Noah Yuval Harari.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think”.

• Github - Last updated “ElvinGadd” “Implementing data structures and algs for coding interview prep”.

Jul 2020

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Predictably irrational”, a book about ways in which humans are commonly irrational. Rated 5 stars.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: a Freakonomics book. Popular economics book. Rated 3 stars.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Spelunky”, a D&D-esque fantasy novel. 5 stars.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want To Read”: “Shift”, a popular sci-fi book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”, a historical novel based on a true story of a jewish man who falls in love with a fellow prisoner during the Holocaust.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell, a popular psychology book exploring the human use of snap judgements and instincts to make decisions and its positive and negative effects.¹⁶

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, a seminal work on bias and human decision making.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “80,000 Hours: Finding a fulfilling career that does good”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto” by Michael Pollan, a book advocating for eating a simpler diet of whole foods.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Practicing Stoic”, a modern interpretation and guide to applying Stoic philosophy in daily life.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want To Read”: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, a book challenging readers to be more conscious of what they eat and how it’s produced.

Aug 2020

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, a seminal work on military combat and strategy.

Sep 2020

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis”, a seminal work on human behavior and the unconscious social games people play in their relationships.

• Github - Last updated “Halite-III”. For an open source artificial intelligence challenge by Two Sigma. Build a resource management game where AI players must collect resources.

Oct 2020

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”. a biography on Elon Musk. Rated 4 stars.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” by Jonathan Haidt.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure”, examines the cultural shifts in American society that are shaping the attitudes and behaviors of young people and the negative consequences these shifts have on their mental health, resilience, and ability to engage in productive discourse.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Rage” by Bob Woodward, a detailed journalistic account of the Trump presidency and decisions of his which have been widely criticized (seemingly a thoughtful but anti-Trump book).

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Kite Runner”, a popular fiction novel.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “A Gentleman in Moscow”, a popular fiction novel.

• Reddit – Comments in r/fantasyfootball about trading players.

Nov 2020

• LinkedIn - Starts role as “Data Engineer I” at Truecar, an online car shopping website.¹⁷

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah, the former host of the Daily Show. Rated 5 stars.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Dollars and Sense” by Dan Ariely, a book on improving your personal financial decision making. Rated 3 stars.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Daytripper”, a graphic novel about life and existence.¹⁸

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, the preeminent biography on Steve Jobs.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, a non-fiction book exploring the life, legacy, and ethical issues surrounding a poor African American woman whose cells were taken without her consent in the 1950s and used in the development of many modern medical technologies.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War”, a non-fiction book that explores the rise of autonomous weapons and the implications they could have on the future of war.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Energy and Civilization: A History” by Vaclav Smil, an examination of energy systems from pre-industrial to modern times and how they have shaped our history and society.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life” by Nick Lane, examines how energy flow shaped the evolution of complex life.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words”, a communication book on how to explain complex topics using simple language.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Rosie Project”, a fiction novel.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Business Adventures” by John Brooks, a collection of business stories explaining the success and failures of major companies in the last century.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee, a fiction novel.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work For You”, about improving decision making and problem solving.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Lego Book”, a non fiction book about the history, evolution, and cultural impact of LEGO.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Cold Millions”, a fiction novel.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: '‘Welcome to the New World”, a graphic nonfiction book about a Syrian refugee family’s journey to and life in the US.

Dec 2020

• Goodreads - Marked “Currently Reading:” The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, a book challenging readers to be more conscious of what we eat and how it’s produced.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. Rated 3 stars.

• Goodreads - Marked “Read”: “Everybody Lies” by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a book about what people “really” do online based on big data. Rated 3 stars.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Dirty Genes: A Breakthrough Program to Treat the Root Cause of Illness and Optimize Your Health”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “iGen: Why Today’s Super-connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood—and What That Means for the Rest of Us”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon”, a biography on Jeff Bezos.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The New Jim Crow”, a book about how the modern criminal justice system disproportionately and unfairly targets Black Americans.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Breath from Salt”, a book about the genetic disease of cystic fibrosis.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “A Promise Land” by Barack Obama.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Singularity is Near” by Ray Kurzweil, a seminal work on Artificial Super Intelligence.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Botany of Desire” by Michael Pollan, a book about how humans and plants co-evolved together. It does touch on psychoactive plants like marijuana but does not seem to even mention psilocybin.

• Reddit – Comment in r/frat about building a beer pong table.

2021 - Age 23

Jan 2021

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read:” “Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming”.¹⁹

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Tap Dancing to Work”, a collection of articles about Warren Buffet.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Food Inc: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer—and What You Can Do About It”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: "Dune”, a popular sci-fi novel.

• Github - Last Updated “Edison-Puzzle”, a python app. No additional information.

Feb 2021

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health—and How We Must Adapt”.

Mar 2021

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 1 - The Birth of Human Kind” by David Vandermeulen, an adaption of Yuval Noah Harari’s book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”. Both explore the history of humankind back hundreds of thousands of years. Rated 5 stars²⁰

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, a popular sci-fi book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius, a seminal work on Stoic philosophy.

Apr 2021

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Animal Farm” by George Orwell.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The End of Animal Farming”, a book about the growing cultivated meat industry and its importance.²¹

May 2021

• Reddit - Post in r/agronomics (a subreddit for a VC firm focused on cellular agriculture) about investing and trading their stock

• Reddit - Comments in r/wheresthebeef (subreddit about lab grown meat).

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Juvenescence”, an examination of longevity research aimed at investors and entrepreneurs.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Social Instinct”, an examination of evolutionary biology, psychology, and the history of human cooperation.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Take More Vacations: How to Search Better, Book Cheaper, and Travel the World”²²

• Steam - Reviewed the video game “The Flame in the Flood”, a short rogue-like indie game. Review here.

Jun 2021

• Reddit – Lots of comments in r/agronomics about investing and trading Agronomics stock.

• Twitter - Account’s first Twitter post. QT of Steve Stewart Williams (henceforth referred to as SSW) on Bertrand Russell about not fearing rejection for being eccentric.²³

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Project Hail Mary”, a popular sci-fi book

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Numbers Don’t Lie” by Vaclav Smil, a non-fiction book that uses statistics to challenging common misperceptions and reveal hidden truths about global issues like energy, food, and population growth.

July 2021

• No activity.

Aug 2021

• Reddit – more discussion in r/agronomics about investing and DD

• Goodreads - Marked “Want To Read”: “How To Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollan, an examination of the science, history, and therapeutic potential of psychedelics.²⁴

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Immune”, an in depth explanation into the immune system and how it protects the body from disease.

Sep 2021

• No activity.

Oct 2021

• LinkedIn - Promoted from “Data Engineer I” to “Data Engineer II” at TrueCar (1 year in role).

• Twitter - RT of Tim Urban of Wait but Why with a fun science fact about elephant feet.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Dune” the graphic novel, a popular sci-fi book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking”, a book on using mathematics to improve decision making.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Body: A Guide for Occupants”, a non-fiction book on anatomy and physiology of the human body.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “This is Your Mind on Plants” by Michael Pollan, exploring the cultural, historical, and personal impacts of psychoactive plants on humans.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Pathfinder”, a sci-fi book.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Irrationally Yours” by Dan Ariely, examining the ways people make irrational decisions and how understanding them can improve decision making.

Nov 2021

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Code Breaker” by Walter Isaacson, biography on Jennifer Doudna and her work in gene-editing technology.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Storyteller of Casablanca”, a historical fiction novel.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century” by Heather Heying (Wife of Bret Weinstein).

Dec 2021

• Reddit – more discussion in r/agronomics about investing and DD.

• Twitter - RT of Women’s Tennis Association supporting the suspension of WTA tournaments in China due to (alleged) sexual harassment of competitors by Chinese officials.²⁵

• Twitter – Reply to Tim Urban asking “what’s something you’ve changed your mind on?” saying “When I first became agnostic I was almost anti-religion. Thought religious people were wasting precious time trapped in a delusion. But now, I see no problem with it if they aren’t pushing their beliefs and it helps them cope with death, etc. I’m kinda jealous actually.”

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance” by Tom Brady.

2022 - Age 24

Jan 2022

• Reddit – Earliest possible date of surfing injury. On July 07, 2023 he says the injury happened 1.5 years ago. On Nov 21, 2022 he says “24M with long-time grade 2/3 spondy but sciatica and low back pain only starting in January of this year. I had numb right big toe and foot tingling from March to August -ish.”

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Folks, This Ain’t Normal”, a critique of our industrial food system.

Feb 2022

• Twitter – RT of Tim Urban post critical of leftwing political zealotry.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”, “Back Mechanics”, A book on understanding and resolving back pain.²⁶

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health”. Explores the science of mental health and effective treatments.

Mar 2022

• No activity.

April 2022

• Goodreads – Marked “Read:” “Back Mechanics”. Rated 5 stars.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Hidden Games: The Suprising Power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior.

May 2022

• Reddit – first comments in r/spondylolisthesis. Provides a detailed explanation about the TOPS surgery method. Does not mention anything about injury, pain, nor surgery-interest himself.²⁷

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Why I am a Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects” by Bertrand Russell.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Conquest of Happiness” by Russel.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!”, a biography on the famous physicist.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Autobiography of Malcom X”

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Digital Minimalism”, a book about reducing digital distractions to improve your life.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “How the World Really Works”, a book on the fundamental systems that sustain modern civilization.

Jun 2022

• Twitter - RT of Tim Urban post critical of leftwing political zealotry.²⁸

• Twitter - RT of Tim Urban post on how “bigotry” has moved to being between political parties.

• Twitter - RT of SSW about how the Mercator projection is misleading.

• Twitter – RT of Tim Urban poking fun at the fact that you still can’t mark texts as unread on iOS.

• Twitter – Two RTs of Michael Pollan Netflix announcement on psychedelic research show.²⁹

• Twitter - RT of SSW with an MRI of someone talking (more fun science facts).

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry” – rated 2 stars.³⁰

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Healing Back Pain: The Mind Body Connection”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Lincoln Highway”, a historical fiction novel about the 1950s.

• Goodreads - Marked ‘Want to Read”: “A Walk in the Woods”, a humorous yet informative travel memoir about hiking the Appalachian Trial.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Why We’re Polarized” by Ezra Klein.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Game Changers: What Leaders, Innovators, and Mavericks Do to Win at Life”.

July 2022

• News Media – Alleged date of his surfing injury based on an emergency room visit. But based on several of his social media comments above it appears to have been months prior. Perhaps his back pain just got so severe in July that he went to the ER?

• Twitter - RT from SSW on Apes trying to keep dry in a rainstorm, notating that they are “so like us”.

• Twitter - Another RT on Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind coming to Netflix.

• Twitter - RT of a Pollan quote "I was raised, you know, in the 80's and 90's, the D.A.R.E. era where we had good drugs and bad drugs. Well, the good drugs led to an opioid epidemic and the bad drugs healed PTSD so I think our definition of those needs to change."

• Twitter – RT critical of the idea that monkey pox will become a pandemic like COVID.

• Twitter - RTs a funny flub post about monkey pox.³¹

• Twitter – RT of Tim Urban how Alzheimer’s research has been stuck for 16 years due to a misunderstanding of its root cause and corruption in science and healthcare.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Grit”, a book on the power of discipline and hard work. Rated 4 stars. Review, Review Notes.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Decision” by Kevin Hart. About discipline and resilience to achieve your goals.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “I Can’t Make This Up” by Kevin Hart. An autobiography.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Undoing Project” by Michael Lewis. About Kahneman and Tversky pioneering the field of behavioral economics.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst”. A deep exploration of the biological, psychological and sociological drivers of human behavior.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion”. About the psychological and social forces that shape how we form and change our beliefs, opinions, and behaviors.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain”. About how brains work from a leading neuroscientist.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”. Popular book on how your mindset affects your results.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning”. Explores the idea that suffering and discomfort are integral to our search for meaning and fulfillment.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” by Bruce Lee.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Portable Nietzsche” by Nietzsche.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens and Ourselves”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Animal kind: Remarkable Discoveries About Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future” by David Attenborough.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Beak of the Finch: A story of Evolution in Our Time”.

Aug 2022

• Reddit – comment in r/spondylolisthesis asking about two different types of surgery. Says he’s spoken to two surgeons about surgery options, though is not considering surgery at this time.

• Twitter – RT about Software UX and how poorly designed screens make people find an app unpleasant to use.

• Twitter - SSW RT about bias and how we think everyone else is controlled by media but not us.

• Twitter - RT from libertarian professor criticizing those who say that billionaire philanthropy is invalid because the money was not provisioned through “democratic” means.

• Twitter - RT with Michael Pollan’s 11 rules for a healthy diet (supporting basically paleo but with more plants and less meat).

• Twitter - RT of how “wokeness” is harmful to minorities and creates unproductive victim culture.

• Twitter – RT of a 1912 news paper clipping concerned about coal’s impacts on the climate.

• Twitter - RT Richard Branson supporting climate change concerns.

• Twitter - SSW RT about baby gorilla playing like human.

• Twitter – reply to a now deleted tweet: “Actually, the graph shows that Americans prefer to cook in! At all points on the graph, % of spending on groceries is at least ~57% of total spending. This graph is just confusing by using two vertical axes with different scales”.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”:? “The Paleo Diet Revised: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods you Were Designed to Eat”. Rated 3 stars.³²

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Mind if I Order the Cheeseburger?: And Other Questions People Ask Vegans”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Mediterranean Diet of Crete: Traditional Recipes from the Healthiest People in the World”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, a popular philosophical reflection on the concept of “quality”.

Sep 2022

• Reddit – more details about issues with back. “with grade 2/3 at 24 y/o with near constant burning/twitching in legs since March, I [expect to need surgery soon]”

• Twitter - RT of Tim Urban poking fun at bird mating dances.

• Twitter – RT of joining a Kurzgesagt meet up, an organization dedicated to spreading education on science, technology, and philosophy.

• Twitter - RT Tim Urban video showing how car safety has improved dramatically in 60 years.

• Twitter - RT Tim Urban on reconsidering nuclear power.

• Twitter – RT of a joke about the trolley problem.

• Twitter - RT Andrew Huberman’s morning routine.

• Twitter - RT DALL-E becoming publicly available.

• Twitter – reply to Tim Urban re: iOS not having ability to mark texts as unread “The day has come! iOS 16 just released today with this feature. Go update your phone”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Back In Control: A Spine Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture” by Gabor Mate, a critique of conventional understanding of mental health and an exploration of how societal norms contribute to chronic illness and emotional pain.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Sacred Hoops”, by Phil Jackson, a memoir and leadership book about from the world renowned basketball coach.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us”, exploring how animals perceive the world differently from us.

  Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientists Unconventional Life Among the Baboons”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Art of Expressing the Human Body” by Bruce Lee.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence”, a book about identifying threats to your physical safety and teaching you to avoid life-threatening situations.³³

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master” by Tim Ferris.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “180 Degrees South” by Yvon Chouinard, the founder the Patagonia brand. Is a memoir and adventure book about his 1968 Patagonia expedition and how it influenced him.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman” by Yvon Chouinard, a business memoir about Chouinard’s approach to leadership and entrepreneurship focusing on sustainability and environmental responsibility.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease”, exploring how our evolutionary past shapes our modern health, behaviors, and physical challenges.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life” which explores the science of sexuality, focusing on how understanding the mind-body connection can lead to better sexual well being.³⁴

Oct 2022

• Linkedin - Promoted from “Data Engineer II” to “Data Enginer III” at Truecar

• Twitter - RT of BlueNalu, a cultivated meat company, talking about their lab grown bluefin Tuna meat.

• Twitter - RT animal rights activists who were found not guilty.

• Twitter - RT from Andrew Huberman podcast about how Alcohol is the most dangerous drugs and psilocybin is the least dangerous.

• Twitter - RT from WBW explaining the Dunning Kruger effect.

• Twitter - RT from SSW on the Ten logical fallacies.

• Twitter - RT from WBW showing how 99% of human history was spent as hunter gatherers.

• Reddit – Comments on r/supplements asking about Choline and B Vitamin supplementation (essential nutrients in which deficiency can cause poor memory, cognition, and mood).

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life”, a book about finding your life purpose.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence”, an examination of the modern problem of dopamine addiction and strategies to overcome it.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Precipice”, an examination of the long-term future of humanity and mitigating existential risks to civilization.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness”, a collection of insights on achieving success and well being.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”, an advocating of improving your life by focusing only on what truly matters to you.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Don’t Trust your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want In Life”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Do You Really Need Spine Surgery?: Take Control with a Surgeon’s Advice”.³⁵

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More”.

Nov 2022

• Twitter - RT from Michael Pollan supporting Beyond Meat, a Meat alternative.

• Twitter - RT on how being into NFTs highlight that someone is “susceptible to hype trains”.

• Twitter - RT from Ryan Holiday, a popular stoic, on 11 ways to find stillness in your life.

• Twitter - RT from SSW of elephants playing.

• Twitter - RT from Agronomics (cultivated meat VC firm) being excited a major development in FDA approval of cultivated meat sector.

• Twitter - RT Michael Pollan on “how to align your food choices with your values”.

• Twitter - RT on AI showing signs of strategic lying.

• Twitter - RT on how AI will impact your career.

• Twitter - RT from Chris Williamson remarking on the intensity of the protests in Wuhan against the COVID lockdowns.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. No rating no review.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living” by Ryan Holiday.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self”.

• Reddit – comment in r/spondylolisthesis discussing his symptoms and providing advice on mitigation to another user. Partial quote: “24M with long-time grade 2/3 spondy but sciatica and low back pain only starting in January of this year. I had numb right big toe and foot tingling from March to August -ish”.

Dec 2022

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “How Psychedelics Can Help Save the World: Visionary and Indigenous Voices Speak Out”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain”. Explores how physical exercise improves brain function and can help with mental illness.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Nature Cure: A Doctor’s Guide to the Science of Natural Medicine”, a book about how practices like fasting, herbs, and lifestyle changes can complement modern healthcare.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease—And How to Fight it”. Takes the perspective of disease being an unintended side effect of natural selection.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine”, a critique of the modern food and healthcare industries, arguing that processed food are the root cause of chronic disease.

• Twitter - RT about ways LLMS will impact society.

• Twitter - RT from WBW on how human progress follows a 2-steps-forward-1-step-back trajectory.

• Twitter - RT from WBW about how AI will develop at an increasingly fast pace

• Twitter - Dec 8 2022 - First time he’s written his own words as a post. Says his high school senior speech discussed artificial intelligence and human immortality and how human progress will speed up dramatically, linking to a WBW post. Is pinned to his profile.

• Twitter – RT of comment on what AI research teaches us about human cognition.

• Twitter – RT of Andrew Huberman endorsing David Goggins’ Can’t Hurt Me, a book about discipline and mental fortitude.

• Twitter – RT about how AI will disrupt college essays

• Twitter – RT about using AI for digestion and recall of podcasts

• Twitter – RT of SSW about how the male propensity for violence is biological and even true in apes.³⁶

• Twitter – RT about google search trends showing various “current thing”s over the last year.

• Twitter – RT critical of the hypocrisy that “believe in science” supports climate change, vaccines, and evolution but not nuclear power.

• Twitter – RT about how we spend our time as we age, encouraging people to appreciate their children and choose a great significant other.

2023 - Age 25

Jan 2023

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “The Four Hour Work Week”. Popular book about entrepreneurship and productivity. No rating but long, positive review.³⁷

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Pathless Path: Imaging a New Story for Work and Life”. About rejecting the traditional career script to find meaning and fulfillment through an unconventional, self-directed life.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Choice: Embrace the Possible”, a memoir and self-help book about the author’s survival of Auschwitz and how she transformed her trauma into a message of resilience and healing.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The 4 Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life” by Tim Ferris

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It”, a centrist to center-left book (my assessment) on how to help men through things like more male teachers for young people, encouraging men to enter female-dominated fields, shared parental leave, and similar ideas.³⁸

• Twitter – RT of SSW about how children a hundred years ago were much less coddled.

Feb 2023

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury”. No review no rating.

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: “A Hard Kick in the Nuts”. A autobiography by Steve O (jackass guy). Rated 3 stars. Review. Key Quote: “I love Steve-O. His life is full of wild stories, and his addictive personality is one I relate to.”³⁹

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Hippocratic Writings” by Hippocrates.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”:”Hippocrates, Father of Medicine” by Herbert S Goldberg.

• Twitter – RT of Agronomics fund adding a new company to their portfolio.

• Twitter – RT of National Park Service to go on a hike.

• Twitter – RT of James Clear on developing habits.

• Twitter – RT of BigThink article critical of the idea of “Toxic Masculinity”.

• Twitter – RT of Chris Williamson about how 80% of women who do not have children did not plan to not have children and was caused primarily by “not being able to find the right partner”.

• Twitter – RT of joke about how placebo controlled trials of psychedelics would be difficult because the people on psychedelics would be naked and dancing and holding hands.

• Twitter – lots of RTs of Tim Urbans What’s Our Problem being released.

• Twitter – RT of Adam Grant, a popular organizational psychologist, supporting Tim Urban’s Thinking Ladder.

• Twitter – RT of Huberman on how circadian rhythm disruption can lead to negative mental health effects.

• Twitter – RT of Chris Williamson on Bing AI being rude.

• Twitter – RT of Chris Williamson “Men and women have been convinced over the last few decades that they are adversaries. This isn't the case.”

• Twitter – RT of Ryan Holiday about how starting your day with technology starts your day “at the mercy of others”.

• Twitter – RT of reporter asking “are men important?” and many being unable to provide a simple “yes”.

Mar 2023

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Illusion of Choice: 15 1/2 psychological biases that influence what we buy”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene.⁴⁰

• Twitter – RT of GPT-4 passing every major exam.

Apr 2023

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself”, a book on self awareness and detaching from one’s inner voices and thoughts to experience a deeper sense of freedom and spiritual enlightenment.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Power of Now”, a popular book on using meditation and being present to improve psychological health.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Perennial Philosophy” by Aldous Huxley, a philosophical work exploring universal truths shared by major religions.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Island” by Huxley, a novel about a fictional utopia.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell” by Huxley, a philosophical work exploring Huxley’s experience with psychedelics.

May 2023

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Other Minds”, a book about the intelligence and consciousness of octopuses and what it tells us about ourselves.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents”⁴¹

Jun 2023

• Goodreads – Marked “Read”: Brave New World. Rated 5 stars. Wrote Review.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures”. Explores fungi and their complex relationships with ecosystems. Touches on psilocybin but it is not a central focus.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Godfather” (yes the mob one).

July 2023

• Reddit – comments in r/spondylolisthesis saying his spondy was aggravated 1.5 years ago (first months of 2022) after surfing, and then a few weeks later slipped on a piece of paper and fell, and his leg locked up for a week.

• Reddit – explains in many comments what he has done to try to fix it naturally since then (exercise, core work, physical therapy), and how he had “put his life on hold [over the last year] while I waffled on the decision [to get surgery or not].”

• Reddit - Positive comments in r/spondylolisthesis about how “we live in 2023 with access to modern medicine”.

• Reddit – says his surgery in scheduled this month.

• Reddit - Jul 18 2023 – says he has had bladder and genital pain for over a year due to spondy, and that his numbness issues have become constant in the last 2 weeks.

• Reddit - July 18 2023 – comments about how being an energetic person who must be sedentary is “one of the worst aspects of sciatica”.

• Reddit - July 21 2023 – gets L5/S1 fusion surgery.

Aug 2023

• Reddit – comments in r/spondylolisthesis with positive review of his surgery. says “Surgery was painful for the first couple days, but I was shocked that by day 7 I was on literally zero pain meds. Can sit, walk, stand as long as I want and I don’t even feel the fusion”.

Sep 2023

• No activity.

Oct 2023

• Reddit – comments in r/spondylolisthesis questioning another user’s doctor “if you are in horrible pain constantly, how are you not bad enough for surgery?”⁴²

• Reddit – Oct 27, 2023 – More comments pushing back on a user’s doctor who said they are “too young for fusion”, making the case that if you are in severe pain and unable to live your normal life, surgery should be on the table.

• Reddit – “For context, I'm 25. my spondy went bad 1.5 years ago when I was 23. Had L5/S1 fusion 3 months ago. I may be an outlier, but at day 8 I was taking zero pain meds and haven't had a bad day since. I even had an open TLIF as opposed to the newer minimally invasive surgeries. The surgery wasn't nearly as scary as I made it out to be in my head, and I knew it was the right decision within a week, and that I won't have to bother with injections or future surgery for many years. Remember that the human body is supposed to exist in a pain-free state. Constant pain means something is wrong. Even with metal in my back, I'm not in pain.”

Nov - Dec 2023

• No activity.

2024 - Age 26

Jan 2024

• Goodreads - Marked “In Progress”: “The Book Thief”, a fiction novel about World War II.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Freedom from the Known”, a philosophical work exploring the nature of mind, limitations of thought, and how liberation comes from freeing oneself from societal norms and conditioning.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World: An Identification Guide”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Mushrooms of Hawai’i: An Identification Guide”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Algorithms to Live by: The Computer Science of Human Decisions”. Explores how computer science decision making can be used to improve real life personal and professional decisions.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Technological Slavery” by Ted Kaczynski, a collection by writings by the Unabomber, discussing the dangers of technology, its impact on human freedom, and advocating for a return to a simpler way of life.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Spartan Way: Eat Better. Train Better. Think Better. Be Better”. How to apply the discipline, resilience, and mental toughness of Spartan warriors to achieve personal growth and success.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Faust” by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, a seminal philosophical work of a man to makes a pact with the devil in exchange for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “On Liberty” by John Stuart Mill, a philosophical essay which heavily influenced the American founding fathers on the necessity for protection of individual freedom by the government.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living” by Bruce Lee.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse, a novel about a young man’s spiritual journey to enlightenment.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Technological Society” by Jacques Ellul, a criticism of modern technology’s influence on society.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau, a reflection account of Thoreau’s two year experiment in simple living near Walden Pond.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death”, an exploration on the psychological effects of helplessness and its impact on depression, personal development, and meaning in life.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Homo Prospectus”. Argues that human capacity for imagining the future shapes our behavior and well-being.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Aesop’s Fables”

• Goodreads - Marked “Read”, “Favorites”: “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, a popular book on building sustainable habits. Liked multiple quotes. Rated 5 stars.⁴³

• Goodreads - Marked “Read”: “The Bullet Journal Method: Track Your Past, Order Your Present, Plan Your Future”. Rated 5 stars.

• Goodreads - Marked “Read”: “Moo’s Law: An Investors Guide to the New Agrarian Revolution”. About the future of the alternative protein industry and how technological advancements could revolutionize sustainability and nutrition. Rated 5 stars. Left review saying “Free money AGNMF:OTC US”. Link⁴⁴

• Goodreads - Marked “Read”,"Favorites”, and “21st-century-reading-list”: “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari, a seminal work on the history and impact of Homo sapiens. Liked 6 quotes. Rated 5 stars. Link

• Goodreads - Marked “Read” “Favorites” “21st-century-reading-list”: “The Lorax” by Doctor Seuss, a children’s book about environmentalism and the consequences of industrial greed.⁴⁵

• Goodreads - Marked “Read”: “Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide”, a book that teaches the programming language Objective-C for Apple OS development with a hands-on approach. Rated 5 stars.

• Goodreads - Marked “Read”: “Maui Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook”, a travel guide offering in depth reviews, hidden spots, and practical tips for exploring Maui. Rated 5 stars. Left review: “Never thought I'd feel compelled to review a travel guidebook, but this book is fantastic. Honest reviews. Hilarious author. Full of hidden gems.” Link

• Goodreads - Marked “Read”: “Algorithm Design”, a textbook on designing efficient programming algorithms with a focus on real-world problem-solving. 5 stars. Left Review. “Cleanest, most intuitive breakdown of algorithmic thinking I've encountered. Should be mandatory reading for any mathematician or computer scientist.” Link⁴⁶

• Goodreads - Marked “Read” and “21st-century-reading-list”: “1984” by George Orwell, a dystopian novel about totalitarianism, surveillance, and the dangers of oppressive government control. Rated 4 stars. No review. Link⁴⁷

• Goodreads - Marked “Read” and “21st-century-reading-list”: “Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds” by David Goggins, a memoir about overcoming adversity and pushing the limits of physical and mental endurance. Rated 4 stars. Liked 1 quote. Left review: Goggins is extreme (and clearly unhappy), but in science we learn from the outliers. Good fuel to kickstart your system out of a rut, if you need it. Eventual balance must be achieved though after the initial crisis has been handled.” Link

• Goodreads - Marked “Read”, “21st-century-reading-list” “Industrial Society and its Future” by Ted Kaczynski. Liked 4 Quotes. Rated 4 stars. Left Review. Worth Quoting the whole review:

Clearly written by a mathematics prodigy. Reads like a series of lemmas on the question of 21st century quality of life.

It's easy to quickly and thoughtless write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it's simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out.

He was a violent individual - rightfully imprisoned - who maimed innocent people. While these actions tend to be characterized as those of a crazy luddite, however, they are more accurately seen as those of an extreme political revolutionary.

A take I found online that I think is interesting:

"Had the balls to recognize that peaceful protest has gotten us absolutely nowhere and at the end of the day, he's probably right. Oil barons haven't listened to any environmentalists, but they feared him.

When all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. You may not like his methods, but to see things from his perspective, it's not terrorism, it's war and revolution. Fossil fuel companies actively suppress anything that stands in their way and within a generation or two, it will begin costing human lives by greater and greater magnitudes until the earth is just a flaming ball orbiting third from the sun. Peaceful protest is outright ignored, economic protest isn't possible in the current system, so how long until we recognize that violence against those who lead us to such destruction is justified as self-defense.

These companies don't care about you, or your kids, or your grandkids. They have zero qualms about burning down the planet for a buck, so why should we have any qualms about burning them down to survive?

We're animals just like everything else on this planet, except we've forgotten the law of the jungle and bend over for our overlords when any other animal would recognize the threat and fight to the death for their survival. "Violence never solved anything" is a statement uttered by cowards and predators."

-Luigi Mangione, Jan 23, 2024

• Goodreads - Marked” Read”, “Favorites”, “21st-century-reading-list”: “The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve” by Steve Stewart Williams, exploring the human evolution of intelligence and culture. Liked 2 quotes. Rated 5 stars. No review. Link⁴⁸

• Goodreads - Marked “Read” Favorites” “21st-century-reading-list”: What’s Our Problem”. Liked 1 quote. 5 Stars. Short but glowing review: “I believe this book will go down in history as one of the most important philosophical texts of the early 21st century”. Link⁴⁹

• Goodreads - Marked “Read” “21st-century-reading-list”: “How to Break Up with Your Phone”, a self help book offering strategies to reduce smartphone dependency and regain control over your attention and time. Wrote a comment on Dec 2020. Then rated 5 stars and reviewed in January 2024: “This little book packs a punch. My chapter summaries: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YiWt...”. Link⁵⁰

• Twitter – Second self-written post quoting Tim Urban’s what’s our problem: “I believe this book will go down in history as the most important philosophical text of the early 21st century”.

• Twitter - Replies to above asking: “@waitbutwhy do you think one day this could be taught in school curricula? What would that take?”

• Twitter – Repost of Reddit Thread from WBW on how being smart makes you prone to confirmation bias.

• Twitter – Replies to @Clownworld_, saying “Porn should be regulated no less than alcohol, cigarettes, and travel”.⁵¹

• Twitter – Replies to Chris Williamson on the rise of obesity, drug abuse, and poor physical and mental health making most Americans ineligible to join the military. Long quote:

  Evolutionary mismatch of homo sapiens and its 21st century living environment is unfathomably immense. Is it surprising to see so few well-adjusted individuals?

  “Drug abuse” isn't fair criteria imo. The most intelligent, open-minded individuals I know all manipulate and push the buttons of their pysche via *specific* drugs. “Drug abuse” should distinguish psilocybin, marijuana from addictive soul-suckers like meth, fentanyl, etc. But if we're screening soldiers, maybe we don't want free-thinkers so “drug abuse” should remain vague as to capture both maverick thinkers and dopamine junkies. That 23% eligibility is initially scary but remember we do want a population of diverse thinkers, not a factory-line of identical soldier drones. What remains concerning is that such a massive % of men fail physical standards, which in no context is advantageous to the group.

  Luigi Mangione, Jan 24, 2024

• Twitter – Reply to @PsyPost showing that urban dwellers are high in trait Openness to Experience. saying “@datepsych these differences seem intuitive. I wonder to what extent they are a product of nurture (the landscape an individual is born into affecting their personality) vs nature (mobility allows individuals to choose their preferred environments - schelling's model segregation).”

• Twitter – RT of Yuval Harari about the release of his new book, Nexus.

• Twitter – 3rd self-written post about how he used to “get bummed in math class” that “all the low hanging fruit have been solved” but has since become grateful that he can “download” the knowledge from all who came before him and that the topics we can explore today are “psychology, primitive neuroscience, and information networks”.

• Twitter – reply to slowlife_iseaki “Can this trash be illegal”. OP is deleted. If anyone can find the OP please send.

• Twitter – Screenshot about Aldous Huxley’s quote of “it is no measure of good health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society”, suggesting that the problem with alcoholism, substance abuse, and slackers is not a measure of them being defective but rather society being defective.

• Twitter @datepsych, a manosphere blogger about evolutionary psychology and dating, posts about how the overwhelming majority of social psychologists believe evolution is true and applies to humans, but that when specifically asked whether evolution applies to the human mind and social attitudes, only about half of them agreed to which Luigi replies:”Nuts that last graph doesn't match the first. People have a hard time grasping that the mind evolves like the body”.⁵²

• Twitter – In response to the same @datepysch post above, luigi replies again with a 7 part explanation for how he goes about trying to convince people in conversation that evolution applies to the human mind.⁵³

• Goodreads - Started reading How To Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. Never marked as finished nor rated.

Feb 2024

• Reddit - Replying to a user whose doctor was dismissive of the idea that they have Spondylolisthesis.⁵⁴ Quote:

  Trust your body. If you can feel it moving, it's moving. That isn't in your head. I had the same exact sensation when I would lay in bed, or sit up. Awful.

  I had the same experience with doctor's dismissing that symptom. I think it's so bizarre and horrific sounding they literally can't believe it lol.

  Goods news is that feeling goes away completely after surgery once you're stabilized. Time for surgery asap and to find a doc who listens.

  Invasive surgical procedures are a last-resort that should not be taken lightly, but in this case your back is broken and you can literally feel it moving. I know it's scary but someone has to tell it like it is. You'll do great.

  /u/Mister_Cactus, Feb 3, 2024

• Reddit – continuing to comment about how even 6 months after his fusion surgery, he still thinks it was the right choice and encourages others to get it if they are in constant pain. Quote:

Yea I had L5/S1 spinal fusion 6 months ago after 1.5 years of failed conservative treatment. Within 7 days of the fusion I was on zero pain meds. (That's probably faster than most folks, but my point is just that your body isn't supposed to be in pain and need meds. Even after getting my back sliced open and my spine drilled into, I wasn't in much pain)

Everyone's spondy symptoms are different. From childhood until age 23, my back would always ache if I stood too long, but it wasn't too bad. Imo that sort of achy symptom makes sense to medicate if it's bothersome. But once the spine is unstable and you can feel the bones moving/grinding, that isn't something you try to medicate. That's something you go in and fix. I'm sure that will become standard medical knowledge in a decade, but it seems we're a bit early

/u/Mister_Cactus, Feb 5, 2024

• Reddit – offers the user above the option to DM him if they have more questions.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s warning - How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future in This Century—On Earth and Beyond”, a book on the various existential threats to humanity.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “The Great Conversation: Volume I”, a collection of essential works from Western philosophy and literature.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Infinite Jest” By David Foster Wallace.

Mar 2024

• Twitter – RT’s a now-deleted post from Jash Dolani and says “essential read to understand modern civilization”. (If you can recover the OP please send to me)

• Twitter – RT of 50 GYM tips “these are phenomenal. Took me years to learn on my own”.

• Twitter – RT of Jash Dholani about the fall of Rome and what it can teach us about today.

• Twitter – RT of Jash Dholani QTing Elon. Elon says “This is a battle to the death with the anti-civilizational woke mind virus” and “Jash says “your commitment to long-term civilizational progress is not universally shared”, critical of the “woke”.

• Twitter – RT of Tim Urban reposting a Jonathan Haidt article on how Smartphones are harming children. “it’ll soon become ubiquitous among upper class families to restrict kids under 16 from using social media”.

• Twitter – Reply to William Costello, an evolutionary psychology researcher, on a post about whether respondents thought rape or murder was worse: “Utilitarian Ethics vs Virtue Ethics. Utilitarian: The action is good if the consequences are good. Virtue: The action is good if it’s what a virtuous person would do. Poll results indicate respondents’ moral frameworks. Homicide: worse consequences. Rape: worse virtues.”

• Twitter - Replies to a @datepsych post which says that 2024 psychologists don’t believe in blank slate-ism anymore, quoting datepysch’s post from a year prior (which Luigi commented on in January) asking why these are contradictory.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer”.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, a seminal work on libertarian political philosophy.

Apr 2024

• Twitter – Reply to Tim Urban. Tim says “When you go down the elevator in hell, you first pass the thieves, then the rapists, then the murderers, then the serial killers, and finally, the people who post unrelated content in the comments under X posts.” to which Luigi replies with an unrelated comment “Tim, you perpetually waste time on Twitter (you're a long-time Twitter power user) and you're also a big thinker on group dynamics. Do you have an idea for what monetary/political forces are mainly driving the unrelated content spam?” and then linking a post of Luigi’s which he deleted a few days later.

• Twitter – RT of Mike Benz post of a skit making fun of how modern media has become so “woke”

• Twitter - Reply to me. I Ask why everyone is so obsessed with fixing society instead of themselves. Luigi replies “Maybe because there is overlap in these problems? (fixing society vs fixing the self) E.g.: observing how smartphones negatively impact on a societal level helps me understand how mine impacts me on a personal level + how I can fix my own use. i.e.: the same problems + solutions exist across the progressive levels of the emergence tower”

• Twitter – Reply to me. I said that the idea depression is genetic is misleading. Luigi replies “Wdym. You don’t believe depression has a genetic component? The issue with this guy is that he’s discounting “nurture” so hard he’s voluntarily ending his own bloodline”.

• Twitter – RT from Alex Hormozi, a popular business and entrepreneurship influencer, of “Netflix, door dash, and true crime podcasts have stolen more dreams that failure ever will”.

• Twitter – RT about how men need to follow the hero’s journey to feel fulfilled.

• Twitter - QT from @iamyesyouareno about Japanese birth rates and immigration. Luigi writes a long post that Japan needs culture fix not immigration including removal of porn, more human interaction, fitness instead of gaming, no maid cafes, and revitalizing traditional culture.⁵⁵

• Twitter - QT of Jash Dholani about how new atheism led to something much worse. Wrote his own comment supporting the thesis.

• Twitter - Reply to Jash Dholani. Josh says “Current Era is a mass extinction event for normies. Tradition existed for the average person's psychic protection and without it they'll reliably go crazy. In 500 years humanity will be a much more extreme species with the middle of the bell curve completely eradicated” and Luigi replies “‘When the population gets dumber these systems break down which in turn means the population decreases’… I see no logical reason why this follows. You underestimate the power of how a few intelligent people + robust systems can keep all the idiots afloat”.⁵⁶

• Twitter – RT of article about the dangers of Tiktok.

• Twitter - Jash Dholani writes a long thread about the Dune series and how it is a warning against technology. Luigi replies with a screenshot of a long passage from Brave New World and the quote ““But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World”.

• Twitter - Reply to Tim Ferris. Time asks about the service KeeperMatch, and AI matchmaking service to which Luigi replies tagging @datepsych.

• Reddit - Still commenting providing advice to those considering surgery for spondy.

• Reddit – starts posting in r/onebag, a subreddit about traveling and living out of a backpack.

• Reddit - More signs of irritation that so many people in pain are being turned down for surgery or told they just need to “live with it”. Quote:

"The Doctors, a bunch of them deemed no operation is required any time soon but basically recommended I avoid any and all physical activities outside swimming and physiotherapy"

Bizarre yet common advice from sedentary people who don't live life to the fullest. No way to live your life as a 28 year old and so clearly not an option, imo.

"It's simple - your spine isn't mechanically stable anymore and you should avoid any and all of these activities and running"

Should be "It's simple - your spine isn't mechanically stable anymore and you should stabilize it via PT or surgery."

If your spine is broken and unstable to the point where you can't run, do you want to be walking around with that? What are you going to wait until you take a bad fall and that instability causes some real nerve damage and you NEED surgery?

To be honest, once the pain becomes low-grade but all the time, it could be time for surgery. I mean the situation sucks for sure, but the solution isn't to retreat into a bubble.

Fwiw I'm 25 years old with a L5/S1 fusion. It's clear to me that the day my spondy went bad to the point where I felt it every day, I had crossed the threshold into surgery though it took me a year to realize this. Generally speaking, back surgery is a serious decision and PT is sufficient for most people, but with instability it's a different game.

Only you know in your heart what's important to you and what kind of life you want to live.

/u/Mister_Cactus, Apr 6, 2024

• Reddit – Comments “This is one of the crazier comment threads I've seen on reddit, that reminds me how much of an echo chamber this site is. How the hell are you being reported for merely suggesting that both "nature" and "nurture" play roles in human behavior. Literally nothing bigoted or controversial about that statement.” And “Weird double standard by reddit here regarding treatments for depression. Not sure how this is being downvoted”.⁵⁷

May 2024

• Twitter - Reply to Gurwinder. Gurwinder explains the NAXALT (Not All X Are Like That) fallacy, the fallacy that because there are exceptions within a category we can not say anything about the rule within that category. Luigi replies “meme-version I always send in debates” with another way of depicting the fallacy.⁵⁸

• Twitter - Reply to Gurwinder. Gurwinder posts a thread of various mental models he finds useful. In response to “Fredkin’s Paradox”, the paradox that the more similar two choices seem the less impact there is in making the wrong decision, but the more time we spend deciding between them, Luigi says “This is true when comparing 2 choices in a vacuum, but when there exists >2 choices, we actually tend to find more similar choices easier to compare. Great excerpt from Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational:” and includes a picture from the book justifying his claim.

• Twitter – RT about the release of Food Inc 2, a movie against the processed food industry.

• Twitter - Reply to Chris Langan. Langan is known for having one of the highest IQ’s in the world and then becoming a conspiracy theorist and racist. He writes a long tweet saying that he believes his content is being throttled on X, and goes on to critique the business model of social media companies. A user replies (now deleted). Luigi replies to it saying “Does he really think twitter is going out of their way to ‘shadow ban’ him? The much simpler, and obvious explanation is that no one wants to hear him complain ad infinitum into the void. Schizo ramblings produce nothing of value. As if Twitter devotes time and resources to moderating him lol. This is what happens when a brain is so hyperconnected it overcomplicates reality drawing connections that don't exist” and then replies to that with “Self-important and bizarre” QTing another of Langan’s posts where Langan complains of being throttled.⁵⁹

• Twitter - QT with Investment advice into Agronomics and lab grown meat.

• Twitter - Reply to Gurwinder. Gurwinder say that using fancy words makes you less convincing. To which Luigi replies: “This is why Jordan Peterson always bothers me. Overcomplicates everything he says aloud, wasting everyone's mental bandwidth in having to decipher it. The best teachers are the best communicators: clear, succinct, simple language.”⁶⁰

• Twitter - Reply to me. I make a post confused as to how so few people are discussing the possibility that religious memes could be subject to the same Darwinian pressures as everyone accepts occurs with genes. Luigi replies “This always baffles me too. Not a difficult concept. When I was 15, I wrote a paper about Christianity's rise over (secular) Roman Paganism due to fitness-enhancing benefits for the plebs” and links to “How Christianity Prospered by Appealing to Lower Classes of Ancient Rome”. I summarized his essay back in 2014 section.

• Twitter - Reply to me. I QT’d a now deleted tweet which IIRC said something like “the elite are pushing demoralizing ideas to keep us subjugated”. I wrote a long counter argument that the system is emergent rather than planned and to think of it like an organism wishing to survive which “adopts” functions that help it to. And that it survives optimally by exploiting us rather than helping us thrive. I then conclude that the only way to fix this is to build a parallel system that is better. Luigi replies with a Tucker Carlson video claiming that post modern architecture is designed to demoralize you. I assume he is arguing against me so I try to make the case that the causation is wrong, and the architect’s spirit already having been killed is what causes them to make spirit-killing art. Luigi responds clarifying that he agrees with me, saying that Tucker is an example of getting this causation wrong.

• Twitter - Reply to Jenny Baby 69. Jenny makes a post about how being a tomboy sucks for a woman. To which Luigi replies with pictures of a catfish.⁶¹

• Twitter - Reply to me. I ask “Do any of you retards have a PhD? I have questions”. Luigi replies “ya”. One day later, he QT’s his “ya” and says “Pretty Huge Dick”.⁶²

• Twitter – RT critical of the ubiquitous use of caffeine.

• Twtter - Reply to someone. They say “I think short-form video apps may just literally cause blatant brain damage” to which Luigi QT’s my photo of a medical center called the “Gaylord Brain Injury Unit”.

• Twitter - Reply to me. I QT a post asking “wait why is there something rather than nothing at all”. I say “if this question doesn’t haunt you, you are gay” to which replies “So you’re saying this question doesn’t haunt you. And also you don’t own a dog house” implying that I am gay and referring to the Norm Macdonald joke that one can logically deduce whether a man is heterosexual or not by whether or not they have a dog house.⁶³

• Reddit – Continuing to give advice to others on surgery, and still clearly pro-surgery for the right circumstances.

• Reddit – final Reddit comment strongly suggests people get spinal fusion or cervical disc replacements rather than rather than (experimental) lumbar disc replacements.

• Reddit – final reddit post on May 25, 2024, to r/tedkazynski, implicitly critical of China’s dystopian streaming influencer epidemic.

• Goodreads - Marked “Want to Read”: “Life & The Lindy Effect” by Paul Skallas. Discusses how the Lindy Effect applies to life and decision making, emphasizing the value of long-lasting ideas and practices over fleeting trends.

Jun 2024

• Twitter – RT of a summary of Jonathan Haidt’s, The Anxious Generation, about how social media has rewired a generation’s minds for mental illness and misery.

• Twitter - Replies to a thread. Joshua Rainer says that how often Kenyans of a particular tribe win marathons seems statistically impossible to be a coincidence, implying something genetically distinct about them. Chris Lyspooner replies suggesting that an environmental explanation is more likely. AEIOU replies facetiously, mentioning the Cold Winters Theory of Cognitive development and that long term environment can lead to genetic changes. Lyspooner replies refuting the theory with a detailed explanation of Eskimos. Luigi then replies to Lyspooners comment saying “such blatant chatgpt lmfao”.⁶⁴

• Twitter - RT clip of Peter Thiel saying that all great startups are run by people with mild Aspergers.

• Twitter – RT of Huberman interviewing Haidt about social medias negative impacts on young people.

• Steam - Last Played “Spelunky 2”, a rogue-like adventure game. Total 81 hours time played.

• Steam - Last played “Orwell”, a single player adventure game based on the dystopian novel 1984. Total 6.7 hours time played.

July 2024

• Steam - Last played PUBG: Battlegrounds. Total 404 hours time played.

1. He added this to Goodreads in Nov 2018 but retroactively listed the date read as Feb 2015.

2. This blog appears to be for school rather than a personal passion.

3. I am surprised to see him not blanket support the idea everything must be done to get more women into STEM. Seems like a controversial position to publicly hold in 2015. Perhaps I am misreading it? Perhaps he simply sees is as a logical inevitability that the ratios will equalize as society removes general barriers between sexes?

4. Suggest interests in stocks and stock trading goes all the way back to high school.

5. Given he was a programmer the most likely explanation for these tweets would be that he was just messing with the API.

6. Responds to several comments misunderstanding his request, and he apologizes multiple times for the misunderstanding. Then he deletes the post. One of many instances suggesting that Luigi was in fact a Sensitive Young Man.

7. Why is a guy from an 8-figure family at an Ivy league education interested in flipping? Was this the time when Gary Vee made flipping popular and everyone was trying to do it? Or did he perhaps want to be more of a “common man”?

8. First sign of concerns around meat eating. Also, it’s worth nothing that two of the 3(?) polymathic writers he appears most interested in (he has many books by Vaclav and Pollan on his want to read) were interested in animal welfare. This is an under discussed belief of his but which appears to be very important to him.

9. First sign of interest in evolution.

10. He was only 19 at the time of adding this. He did not express a single opinion which would have been disapproved of by people who watch the Daily Show until several years after this. I think we can confidently assume that this was out of pure curiosity rather than anything like support of Hitler.

11. How he deals with video game addiction suggests Ni (Jungian function) and its obsessive, all-or-nothing tendencies.

12. First mentions of any kind of issues with his physical health.

13. Visual snow is a very common long term side effect of heavy psychedelic use. However, there are other causes.

14. Was this known? he just said “BCBS” which I dismissed until I looked the acronym up. Suggests, especially when paired with the fact that he was not a UHC customer according to NY Police, against the idea that his (alleged) actions were motivated by personal resentment toward a specific company.

15. He appears to have gotten both his bachelors and Masters within four years, and with cum laude from any ivy league school, an impressive feat by anyone’s measure.

16. Something many Luigi stans or haters might benefit from reading ;).

17. I find it odd that despite being a top 1% student, bachelors and masters cum laude from an ivy league school, he joins a startup no one has heard of and which doesn’t even appear to be in his domain of passion. It seems like a distinct shift, not trajectorily aligned in “prestige” with everything preceding it. Was he burntout from school and just wanted to chill for a bit? Or was the “prestige” perhaps something he never actually cared about, something his family thrust upon him? Worth thinking about further.

18. Daytripper does not appear to be related to psychedelics in any way.

19. Merchants of Doubt believes climate change is real. Based on everything marked Read or Want to Read so far, Luigi still appears left-of-center on every domain of inquiry.

20. Interesting that he read the graphical version of Sapiens in 2021 but the normal version of Sapiens not until 2024. Could suggest a preference for visual learning if there are other examples of similar things.

21. First signs of interest in cultivated meat sector.

22. First signs of interest in vagabond or digital nomad lifestyle.

23. First sign of feelings of alienation.

24. Luigi’s history with the How To Change Your Mind book is interesting. He marked it as To Read in Aug 2021, “Owned” a year later in July 2022, but didn’t mark it as in progress until Jan 2024, and never appears to have finished or rated it. This is odd given Pollan’s seeming heavy influence on him.

25. Suggests that he was generally pro-feminism or at least not a misogynist.

26. Why would he have shelved this book on curing back pain in February if he had not had his injury?

27. Further evidence his injury was prior to July 2022. Why would he know so much about spondylolisthesis surgeries or posting about this if his injury had not yet occurred?

28. First sign that he has started to reconsider some liberal/leftist positions.

29. First tweet showing support for psychedelics. Although he marked books on psychedelics as Want to Read as early as 2021.

30. Why did he rate this two-stars? He did not provide a review. The book’s main thesis is critical of surgeries and medical interventions and posits the industry pushes these to people who don’t need them, instead advising exercise and other activities as the solution. Luigi clearly believed that there are levels of pain and dysfunction which can only be cured through surgery based on his Reddit comments. So my guess is that he found the book overly demonizing the idea of surgery, which he found unproductive and unhelpful, hence the low rating.

31. One of his many examples of appreciating humor and not taking things too seriously. Note: At some point during this writing the post was deleted. Not sure if the OP deleted their post or what.

32. 3 star rating of the Paleo book suggests to me that he found it somewhat valuable but ultimately disliked or disagreed with major components. My guess is it is due to the paleo diet’s focus on meat consumption, which Luigi’s ethics around animal welfare conflict with, or perhaps more likely which Luigi simply believed is not an accurate representation of the meat consumption of our Paleolithic ancestors.

33. This is a strange one. What could incite him to be curious about this? Did he experience a dangerous situation with someone? Needs further research.

34. What incited him to be interested in this topic at this time? My guess is this is due to the alleged sexual issues he was having due to his back injury.

35. First sign of deeper consideration of surgery.

36. First sign that he was open to the idea that men and women have biological differences that impact their behavior.

37. In his Four Hour Work Week review, he expresses disdain for doing things “because that’s they way we’ve always done them”. References a memory about how his mother was “infuriated” by the fact that he did not follow proper tableware etiquette when cutting steak, which he frequently probed, and was met with “because that’s how to cut” “because that’s proper manners”.

38. Suggest he was still very curious and open about various solutions to the crisis amongst modern men, including for “feminine” or “leftist” approaches.

39. Says he has an “addictive personality”.

40. While this book is a common one reference in “Red Pill” communities, and he was engaging with a few “Red Pill” accounts. I think he would have added “The Rational Male” if he truly believed there was some validity to “Red Pill” ideas.

41. The first (and only?) sign that he may not have had an excellent relationship with his parents.

42. First sign of disagreement with doctors.

43. Not sure where else to put this footnote but: It seems unlikely to me he read all these books in January, especially given that he marked them all as read over only two days (Jan 23, Jan 24) and he had no updates to GR since July 2023. However, this is not uncommon for his GR usage. He often does not update it for months and then adds a bunch of items at once.

44. Seems obvious to me that he is saying “you should invest in AGNMF”, the VC firm Agronomics which he has discussed investment in many times on Reddit.

45. Besides that it is a children’s book, The Lorax is in line with his reading history. Certainly something of note though. Could suggest a child-like wonder and playfulness. Or perhaps appreciation that causes he cared about are expressed to children from authors as popular as Dr. Seuss.

46. One of many instances which suggest to me that Luigi was not satisfied with the world as it is but how he believed it ought to be. His Twitter, Reddit, Goodreads, reviews include a few more instances of phrases like “This should be taught in schools”. And especially when paired with his DMs to others, his words exude a sense that he wished to influence others toward what he saw as good and useful.

47. Interesting that he rated 1984 only 4 stars but still added to 21st-century-reading-list. I wonder why.

48. This is the primary topic Luigi and I discussed together and likely why he sought to engage with me.

49. It seems inarguable from his review (which he also posted to Twitter), that if he wanted people to read nothing else, it would be this book.

50. One, This appears to be a Notion export, suggesting he has a Notion db somewhere (likely private). And Two, this is one of his longest reviews. While they are mostly chapter summaries, he highlights in yellow or bolds things, which one can reasonably assume he resonated the most with and are worth exploring further.

51. First engagement with any account which appears to be on the “far right”. Could suggest that he is ingesting “far right” content as early as January. But also the Twitter algo is likely feeding it to him, so I wouldn’t read too deeply into it.

52. First suggestion that Luigi could be open to the idea that there are genetic differences between human groups.

53. This is exactly how I try to convince people of things and I am confident it is a cognitive function thing. I am Ni Fe (INFJ). Is it the Fe and Ni that does this (and thus ENFJ) or being N primary with Fe and Ti close behind (ENTP)?

54. First remotely negative comment about doctors (or anything really).

55. Iamyesyouareno is a very radical right wing account. Second engagement (after January Clownworld) with anyone besides who I would consider outside the Overton window of polite discourse. Could again be a sign that, in addition to all of the left wing and centrist content he was consuming, there was some “extreme” right wing content in there. However, important to keep in mind that it could just be the Twitter algo feeding him stuff.

56. Seems to feel superior to the “normies” and a personal responsibility high agency people to protect and guide them.

57. First sign of irritation with or overall disagreement with Reddit.

58. He clearly acknowledge that the NAXALT fallacy is a fallacy. Also is he is having lots of debates but they are not on any of his social media we know of, that suggests he was having them in person or on private social media. Having a stash of tools for debate suggests he did it a lot.

59. Luigi was obviously reading Langan’s stuff but believed that Langan was too smart for his own good, convincing himself of insane ideas.

60. Makes sense that Luigi prefers “simple language” which is why he likes Gurwinder, Dhalani, Skallas Urban, and to some degree me. We take very complex topics and try to explain them at a low-college reading level.

61. Seems to imply that Jenny baby 69 is clearly a man pretending to be a woman online. However, I could be misreading this, given that Jenny Baby 69 is a friend of mine and I know this is in fact correct.

62. I didn’t see the initial comment until after his second reply. To which I replied “hardy har wise guy” Not sure if I just missed the original or was offline but my guess is that this was a joke he was excited to make so he just QT’d himself and made it anyway a day later.

63. Another tweet I did not see until after he was named as the shooter. I am very sad about this.

64. The fact that Luigi read this thread could suggest he was familiar with and willing to exploring the idea that there could be biological differences between the races. However, given that one would not even know what the commenters were arguing about if one was not familiar with the argument already, it’s just as likely Luigi was not familiar or had not explored such ideas, especially given that the Twitter algo will feed you right wing content against your will.