We Are Not Saved

Many college age girls lead lives of quiet desperation. The Mind Reels By: Fredrik deBoer Published: 2025 168 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The book follows Alice. Alice has severe bipolar disorder. This doesn't come out until she's at college. It's entirely awful. Going from least to worst bad, we see: large weight fluctuations, social fallout, impulsive sex, being committed, psychotic and manic paranoia, and depression so deep she can't make it to the bathroom. What's the author's angle? Normally I don't talk about the angle for a fictional book, but this book deserves (demands?) an exception. DeBoer is known for many things. (And I would say that he's one of the few Substack writers where I read 90%+ of what they write.) One of the big things he's known for is pushing back against the old vision of the mentally ill as tortured geniuses or the more modern quirky, actually it's kind of a super power narrative. This book was explicitly written to provide a very real depiction of what it's like to have a severe mental illness. (It succeeds by the way.) Who should read this book? If you like anything deBoer has written, I think you'll like this. His unsparing view of reality is his biggest charm, and it definitely comes through in this book. I know people who don't like deBoer's fiction, but who nevertheless liked this book. If you've never heard of deBoer, but you like books where characters have an intense interior life, and there's not necessarily a hopeful "happily ever after" arc, I would also definitely recommend this book. Specific thoughts: Most men (and women) lead lives of quiet desperation

Part memoir, part science writing, part history, and a lot of blaming her neighbor for her empties. Drink Your Way Sober: The Science-Based Method to Break Free from Alcohol By: Katie Herzog Published: 2025 208 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? You may be familiar with Katie Herzog from Blocked and Reported, the podcast she hosts with Jesse Singal. Or you might have seen her byline on the Free Press. What I didn't know (at least before she started promoting this book) is that she's also a recovering alcoholic. I also didn't know about the Sinclair Method for "extinguishing" alcohol use disorder (AUD). Finally I didn't know that we are now calling it alcohol use disorder. So you could say this is a book about a bunch of things I didn't know. What's the author's angle? Herzog failed to get her drinking under control using any of the more common methods. Willpower, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), overwhelming shame, etc. The Sinclair Method was what finally worked for her. This method involves taking naltrexone before you drink. This blocks the reward circuit allowing you to train your body out of alcohol dependence. It's also something that not a lot of people have heard about, so her angle resembles that of a fiery recent convert, who believes that people trapped in similar despair need to hear the good word. Who should read this book? As someone who's never had a drink, I'm loath to recommend anything in the sobriety space. In the same manner that a fish doesn't know about water, can I have anything meaningful to say about sobriety? That very large caveat aside, if you have AUD, and nothing else has worked, and you haven't tried the Sinclair Method (or if you know someone who fits this category) I would definitely recommend this book. If you're thinking of reading it just as Herzog memoir, there's some pretty good stuff in here, but not enough to justify reading the entire book. But if you're on the fence I would push you towards getting the book. Specific thoughts: So why isn't the Sinclair Method better known?

Replay By: Ken Grimwood Published: 1998 320 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A man dies and is sent back to his 18 year old self to relive his life over, and over, and over. Every time he dies he's sent back. He dies in 1988, and awakens in 1963, so there's a lot of discussion of those years (Kennedy Assassination, Moon landing, Iran Hostage crisis, etc.) Who should read this book? I came across a recommendation for this book on a Youtube channel that was doing a survey of all the movies that had functionally the same premise as Groundhog Day. And he included the book as sort of an appendix in other things people might want to check out. If you're a big fan of the Groundhog Day contrivance, then I think you'll like this book. Specific thoughts: Great on a personal level, weak on a world-building level. This review will go from spoiler free to light spoilers to full on spoilers. I will let you know at each transition.

It took 20 years from Bell inventing the telegraph before someone sent an ad with it. It took ~7 years for the first piece of email spam to be sent. Any bets on what it will look like for AI? Experimental AI Summary: I open with my own costly, underwhelming SEO experiment and the fact that I've mostly abandoned Google for LLMs, arguing that if AI chat replaces search then AIO (AI optimization) will replace SEO. I frame influence as "numerous / high-reputation / mentions," recall the web's shift from Yahoo's directory to Google's PageRank—where "reputation" changed everything and spawned link-farm tactics—and ask how the same gaming might hit AI. I sketch possibilities: models pre-vetting training data and tagging low-trust commercial pages; spam-style gatekeeping of AI inputs; straightforward paid placements inside AI answers; or darker outcomes where cheap marketing pollutes corpora and bad actors weaponize hallucinations. The core question for me is whether LLMs can build sturdier reputation defenses than Google or whether their architecture makes them easier to spoof. For now, AI search feels like Google circa 1998—astonishingly good—but I doubt it stays pristine once marketers and scammers fully arrive.

Discover how modern physics intersects with ancient beliefs as the discussion tackles the compatibility of 20th-century scientific discoveries with theism. The fine-tuning argument is highlighted, revealing how slight shifts in physical constants would render life impossible. The host emphasizes the distinction between religion and materialism while exploring the origin of life and the improbability of its emergence by chance. Join in as they evaluate the philosophical implications and reactions to the author's compelling arguments.

You've heard about placebo's? Well what about nocebos? The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker By: Suzanne O'Sullivan Published: 2025 320 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The idea that putting labels on something is not a free lunch—like everything else there are tradeoffs. Rather than framing numerous illnesses as being psychosomatic, O'Sullivan seems more to be suggesting that humans are very suggestible. (I get the meta-ness of the statement.) As such, once you generate a label it has a tendency to warp identities, and make people seek out confirming evidence. This all creates a sort of nocebo effect which may increase the severity of whatever symptoms they're experiencing. To put it more succinctly, labels have power and we should be circumspect about applying them. What's the author's angle? O'Sullivan is a neurologist who noticed that lots of patients have "normal" tests, but are also indisputably suffering. As someone more focused on the brain than other parts of the body, she has long contended that expectations, culture, current fads, etc. play a much bigger role than most doctors want to admit. It's not all about biology, psychology also has a role. Previous books include It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness and The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness. Who should read this book? Anyone interested in a broader discussion of how the world outside of medicine interacts with the world of medicine. How the epistemic crisis, culture, disease advocacy groups, bureaucracy, and patient longing all affect the act of putting a label on a cluster of symptoms. What does the book have to say about the future?

It's another self help book. Is this the one that will finally put you over the top, or another in a long line of endeavors that look like progress, but are really procrastination? Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life By: Jim Murphy Published: 2020 360 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? As you have already gathered, this is a self-help book. One of thousands (millions?) so the point is what sets this one apart from all those other books? I'm sure it hasn't avoided all overlap, but the book does have a focus on character, and getting rid of self-centeredness that was refreshing. What's the author's angle? Jim Murphy played baseball in the minor leagues, and he was obsessed with winning. Then vision problems derailed his career, so he gave away most of his possessions and moved to the desert. Over the next five years he did nothing sports psychology, in an attempt to figure out how to compete in a way that produced calm regardless of the outcome. Something he had previously lacked. He draws explicit parallels to Thoreau: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. He went to the desert, but the idea was similar. Of course, not everyone has the wherewithal to retreat to the desert to spend five years thinking. But potentially, if one did, it would bring some very valuable insights. Who should read this book? It's once again time to do the self-help math...

Thomas Hardy wrote horror? Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology By: Various, Edited by Richard Wells Published: 2021 479 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A collection of 22 older scary stories, presented in chronological order. The oldest story is from 1875, while the newest was written in 1965. But the majority are clustered in the late-victorian period 1880-1910. It includes stories from a few authors you might not expect like Thomas Hardy and Robert Louis Stevenson. Who should read this book? Anyone who has enjoyed an HP Lovecraft story will probably enjoy this book. Though I will say that you should view most of the stories as inspiration for Lovecraft, rather than similarly situated. Specific thoughts: A nice way to create a Halloween atmosphere.

Gary Gygax (Grognard 13/Writer 10/Businessman 2) vs. Dave Arneson (Plaintiff 14/Storyteller 9/Writer 1) Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons By: Jon Peterson Published: 2021 400 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? The history of Dungeons and Dragons, TSR's meteoric rise, the fights that inevitably happen when something becomes enormously successful, and the catastrophes that follow when people are in way over their head. What's the author's angle? Peterson is the man when it comes to the history of RPGs and D&D in particular. He's basically a historian, and he has no dog in any of the fights. Who should read this book? I really liked this book, and I really liked everything I've read by Peterson. That said, I might recommend the podcast When We Were Wizards, as an easier entry point for people interested in the story. And of course if you have no interest in the battle between Arneson and Gygax or the crazy initial years of D&D, I would not recommend either. Specific thoughts: Gygax was a jerk, and he was dumb, but he also deserves 90% of the credit for D&D.

It's possible that in our pursuit of justice and equity that a few things might have been exaggerated. Progressive Myths By: Michael Huemer Published: 2024 277 Pages Briefly, what is this book about? A wide-ranging debunking of most of the myths that flourished during the recent peak of social justice activism. Some myths concern specific incidents like those around Michael Brown and Kyle Rittenhouse. Others are ideological myths like the gender pay gap, or the efficiency of masks at preventing the spread of COVID. In total he covers twenty different myths. What's the author's angle? Huemer comes at things from a strong classically liberal approach. He is very wary of activism in all its forms. He's also clearly not worried about annoying people. Though he is very worried about people trying to "read between the lines". Do not "read between the lines" to infer what I "must be implying". If you think of some ridiculous or horrible political view that you think I'm implying, that is almost certainly just in your imagination. I am not the sort of writer who likes to imply his point. Who should read this book? If you consider yourself to be a good progressive I would definitely read this book. I suspect that such people won't, but honestly, if you're looking for the best steelman of the opposing arguments this is it. If you're on the opposite side of the fence you still might find some things that surprise you (Also Huemer makes a point of also covering a few things that aren't myths. Incidents progressives were correct about.) Many people speak very highly of Huemer's books, and I'll probably eventually read all of them. What does the book have to say about the future? Huemer has many recommendations for how to proceed, but they mostly boil down to having better epistemology. One of the great sins he identifies is motivated reasoning, which obscures facts, and beyond that leads to broad conclusions which are entirely unsupported by reality. And we seem to be getting more of such reasoning. Specific thoughts: How do we fix epistemology?