Laddering Up

On humility and perspective in politics

“Hey Bechtel… For someone who writes a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff, how come you don’t write a lot of stuff about politics?”
~Imaginary Frenemy

“Good question, Imaginary Frenemy, glad you asked.”
~Me with a beer on a Friday night

(There’s a lot more that can go wrong than right with this kind of piece, so for starters, I want to thank you in advance for your grace and good faith.)

The single most impactful thing I’ve read all year was a blog series full of profanity-wielding stick figures called “The Story of Us”, by Tim Urban. Though it happens to be published as an online serial, it’s effectively a book that attempts (and succeeds, imo) to explain why American politics circa 2020 is such an unmitigated shit-show.

I’ve shared the piece several times, and Facebook being Facebook, only a small percentage of you saw the post, and a smaller percentage still actually clicked the link. Of the, say, 5 that did, 2 probably finished. It’s admittedly long(ish) and takes a while to get to the “juicy bits”.

For that reason, I’ve put together a bit of a Cliffs Notes of my favorite chapter (“The Thinking Ladder”) here: