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Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Richard Hanania's Newsletter's top posts of all time

By hacker news affinity
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 1311 HN points 21 Sep 22
Like most people at the start of the war, I thought that Russia would militarily crush Ukraine. Less excusably, I still thought Russia would continually advance, or at least hold on to its gains, in mid-March. So although I was correct in thinking the war would happen,
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 1276 HN points 09 Mar 22
Since the war in Ukraine started, I’ve learned, or re-learned, a lot that is unappealing about human nature. Take this tweet, which is representative of what the site has been like over the last few weeks. What I dislike about this response is that it indicates no understanding of what those critical of American foreign policy have been arguing both before and during the conflict. People can google what I think, or assume that, as someone who is critical of the current approach, I agree with John Mearsheimer, Robert Wright, and others who say that we should be taking Russian security concerns seriously and negotiating on that basis. American leaders have throughout the crisis shown no indication that they’re willing to consider taking NATO expansion off the table or trying to achieve some kind of neutral status for Ukraine. You can disagree with this approach and explain why, but I’m constantly being reminded that many people are very emotionally invested in this conflict without even understanding that there is any response to what they hear on CNN or from the State Department. The tweet above is not an argument, it’s someone shaking their head and showing you what a brave and caring person they are. “What would less look like?” is a question you ask only if you’re unaware that any alternative approach has ever been proposed. Here’s
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 1133 HN points 28 Feb 22
Given that I’ve made quite a few predictions about the war in Ukraine and how it would unfold, it’s a good time look back on them and draw some lessons. My record is mixed, having predicted that the war would happen but being, so far, mistaken about how strong Ukrainian resistance would be.
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 975 HN points 21 Feb 23
I learned a lot from the comments to my recent article on diminishing returns to intelligence and what it means for the alignment problem. I could’ve just taken the time to read everything on this topic before writing about it, but it seems to me that putting my half-developed thoughts out there and getting feedback is probably a more efficient way to learn, and can perhaps help others making a similar journey.
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 888 HN points 10 Mar 22
The tire guy has become famous among those following the war in Ukraine closely for the following thread. He argued that the Russian convoy north of Kiev was in deep trouble for tire-related reasons. I am not a tire expert. Is there truth to what he is saying? If so, can Russia fix the problem?
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 819 HN points 16 Sep 22
I’m no longer regulalry Tweeting, but I still have a desire to share what I’m reading with the world and comment on it. So I decided I’m going to start doing Friday link roundups, either weekly or bi-weekly. This one will be free, but I’m going to put future link roundups behind a paywall to provide an incentive for people to become paying subscribers. So please subscribe if you want to see more of these. I’m getting a lot more free readers, but paid subscriptions are flat, so there seems to be a limited number of people who will donate money out of the goodness of their hearts alone. Links will include short commentary on some stories, as per below.
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 655 HN points 28 Sep 22
On September 9, a group of investors trading on PredictIt and academics that study its data, along with its technology provider Aristotle International, filed suit against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the Western District of Texas over its plan to shut down the website. (
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 648 HN points 20 Jun 22
On the CSPI podcast this week, I talked to Seth Stephens-Davidowitz about his books Everybody Lies and Don’t Trust Your Gut. It was a fun conversation. We have many of the same interests, including politics and sports. Honestly, reading his books I thought that Stephens-Davidowitz got ahead of the data a bit on some of his conclusions, but in the interview I generally found that he had good answers to many of my concerns and even when I disagreed with his interpretations, they were more reasonable than I had previously thought.
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 602 HN points 07 Jul 22
Last night, I recorded a Callin/podcast with Razib on his recent excellent article on the genetic history of Egypt. At the beginning, he mentioned that he had recently sent out a reader survey, which is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Hearing about the makeup of Razib’s readership made me think about my own, so our conversation motivated me to finally put one together after we were done.
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 595 HN points 30 Mar 22
A few months ago I was talking to a friend who is a fellow writer. I knew that he had about twice my number of followers on Twitter, and he told me he also had around twice my number of free Substack subscribers. But it turns out that since he paywalls most of his posts he had about ten times as many paid subscribers.
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 543 HN points 15 Feb 22
I was on Tucker last night, talking about the supposed “democracy” in Ukraine that they tell us Americans have a duty to support. When Tucker does anti-war segments, it always triggers the Blob, but I don’t expect this one to get a lot of attention from this crowd because, with the exception of one error mentioned below, everything I said was indisputable. It’s hard to say something is “Russian propaganda” when you’re just quoting the Western press. Here is a story on the language law from
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 468 HN points 23 Sep 22
Welcome to my first paywalled post! This is bittersweet. More money, but I feel like a sellout. I justify it by saying that I make the main stuff available for free and this is bonus. But I still feel pangs of guilt. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help assuage these complicated feelings I have.
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 447 HN points 14 Oct 22
First of all, I’d like everyone to know that Rob Henderson and I are going to do some podcasts on the new Jeffrey Dahmer miniseries on Netflix. It’s about a gay white guy who eats black men, so there will be a lot to talk about. I’m also about to start the last season of The Shield, which I’m probably going to do a show with Andreessen on. So, if you’d be interested in listening to those conversations, and you haven’t seen the Dahmer miniseries or The Shield, I’m giving you a heads up so can have time to watch them beforehand.
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 436 HN points 20 Apr 22
The first Texas Dream Series event at the University of Texas, Austin is scheduled for next week. Philippe Lemoine will be talking about The Poverty of Epidemiology on Wednesday, April 27, at 4PM central time. I plan to be in attendance for future events, but for this one I’ll only be able to make it by Zoom. See his fascinating work on the subject on his
Richard Hanania's Newsletter 421 HN points 12 Sep 22
This week, I had Tyler Cowen on the CSPI podcast. We started by talking about his new book with Daniel Gross called Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World. Then we move on to a wide variety of topics, including “State Capacity Libertarianism,”