Why loans cost money

Boots theory

Boots theory is the idea that being poor is expensive. It comes from a Discworld novel, where a character observes that being poor, he can’t afford a good pair of boots. Instead he buys cheap boots that don’t last nearly as long. The cheap boots cost less money upfront, but are ultimately more expensive since they frequently need replacement.

Taken literally, I’m not sure how accurate the story is. Is it really true that cheap boots are less efficient in durability than expensive boots? It could be, but the cost of boots might also be driven by characteristics besides durability, such as comfort or appearance. Hard to say, since I don’t wear boots.

But if we forget about the boots, then boots theory is obviously true. The boots represent capital. Capital is anything that costs resources now, and provides value later. Capital costs money. If you can’t afford to buy capital, then you ultimately lose out on the value of capital. Being unable to afford capital is therefore expensive.

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FIRE

Sorry if this is obnoxious, but I have some rich people thoughts. I think a lot about retiring early. I figure it’s a ways off, but it seems eventually correct. I’m a tech worker, married to a tech worker, no kids, with fairly frugal interests and habits. I live a very savings-positive lifestyle.

On the internet, this often goes under the heading FIRE (Financial Independence / Retire Early). I’ve read a bit about it, although a lot of it is financial advice, which I haven’t found too helpful. My biggest concerns are not financial.

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How to fold D. Hinklay’s “Stone Board”

Back in 2017, I designed the Cube Tessellation. It’s one that I have shown off here on multiple occasions. I have a crease pattern, step by step instructions, and it appeared in the Geometric Origami Convention in 2024.

Cube Tessellation

Cube Tessellation, designed by me

I recently discovered that a professional origamist, known as D. Hinklay, has been making a model titled “Stone Board” which is identical in design, down to the crease pattern. There are several  several youtube shorts from 2022 and 2023, totaling over 50M views. I also found an instagram post that explicitly claims it’s an original design. At time of writing, his website lists multiple Stone Boards, including one going for $3500.

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Link Roundup: May 2025

This month, the ace journal club covered a qualitative study of autistic sexuality, as it is discussed on autistic forums.  I also wrote an article about why aces often want ace characters to be explicitly labeled as ace.

Effective Altruism: Rationalist Epistemics and the Sequences | Thing of Things – Ozy has a series of essays providing an insider account of EA values.  The thing I find most interesting, is the historical narrative about the Sequences (i.e., the series of essays by Yudkowsky central to capital-R Rationalism).  By Ozy’s account they were primarily based on weird tricks from psychological research.  This became a problem when psychology was so strongly impacted by the replication crisis.  Ozy claims the replication crisis caused a shift towards more community-based epistemological practices.

I was thinking about this when I was writing about fallacy-spotting.  Parts of the Sequences basically constitute a tradition of critical thinking which is parallel to the fallacies.  But where fallacies are grounded in philosophy (?), the Sequences were grounded in scientific research.  Which… makes sense, and is possibly more defensible as a practice.  On the other hand, psychological research is frequently bad, so I guess it was the wrong horse to bet on.

J.K. Rowling (very predictably) Hates Asexual People | The Ace Couple (podcast, 1:13 hours, transcript available) – I follow news on asexuality, and recently the big thing is J.K. Rowling tweeted something anti-ace.  The news articles are all shocked (example, example) that JK also hates adorable harmless aces.  However, veteran activists are not the least bit surprised.  The venn diagram of TERFs and anti-ace folks is basically a circle.  I wouldn’t say aces get it nearly as bad as trans folks do, but it’s coming from the same people, it circulates in the same groups.

I’m not sure what to make of all the news articles framing aces as harmless.  As the podcast points out, trans people are also harmless.  But also, I was thinking, aces need to up our game.  We need to punch more fascists, destroy more marriage, annihilate more man.

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Against fallacy-spotting

In spaces where people deliberately learn critical thinking, it’s common for people to learn a list of logical fallacies–in much the same way that one might learn a list of names of Pokémon. Then, to reinforce this knowledge, we start spotting the fallacies in the wild. It’s a good learning exercise. But once all is said and done, and you’ve successfully internalized the list, what then? Is fallacy-spotting a good way of engaging with arguments?

I don’t think so. I’ve long said that it’s obnoxious and unproductive to explicitly name fallacies in the course of an argument. But even if you keep it to yourself, I think fallacies are an extremely limited and misleading way of engaging with arguments.

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Origami: Fish Curler

Fish Curler

Fish Curler, designed by Ekaterina Lukasheva

The Fish Curler is one of the most elegant designs in modular origami.  It’s an all-timer, a classic.  There are instructions publicly available, and they fit into a single page.

The units are attached by simply wrapping them together in a spiral.  There are a number of modular designs based on this same principle, but none so simple and effective.

How I developed a game

I made a video game. I have not published, but I’m currently looking for playtesters.  In fact, I’m trying to get playtesters right here and now, please let me know if you’re interested!

It’s a small puzzle strategy game titled “Moon Garden Optimizer”. I’m sure say more about the specifics of the game design at a later time.  Today I’m sharing my development process up to this point.

moon garden optimizer, recent screenshot

A screenshot of my game

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