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Non-fiction writer, podcaster and occasional TV host. Author of thirteen books including The Ghost Map, Where Good Ideas Come From and Extra Life, host of the PBS series How We Got To Now, and author of the Adjacent Possible newsletter on innovation.

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  A true pirate is defined by rejecting the authority of nations and empires altogether, not merely by breaking their laws.

  Their words

  To be a true pirate implies a broader disavowal. The pirate renounces the long-distance authorities of nations and empires.

  The Uses Of Terroradjacentpossible.substack.com

Historian of the Renaissance at the University of Chicago and a science-fiction novelist; wrote Terra Ignota and Inventing the Renaissance.

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  The papacy made Italy uniquely unstable in Europe, because each new pope inherited a precedent that he could overthrow any government he liked.

  Europegovernment

  Their words

  And soon we have a precedent that every new pope feels he has the authority to knock down every pawn upon the chessboard if he feels like it. Once that is the norm, even a fairly nice pope still inherits the idea that the pope is going to overthrow and replace governments. And this creates a unique instability within Italy that no other part of Europe is subject to

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Non-fiction writer, podcaster and occasional TV host. Author of thirteen books including The Ghost Map, Where Good Ideas Come From and Extra Life, host of the PBS series How We Got To Now, and author of the Adjacent Possible newsletter on innovation.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  A society structured to resist being catalogued and taxed by a central authority is for the same reason resistant to being reconstructed by archaeologists.

  Their words

  And what makes a society illegible to the tax collector also makes it illegible to the traditional archaeologist.

  Back To The Gardenadjacentpossible.substack.com

Entrepreneur and founder of Blueprint. Publishes a detailed, freely available longevity protocol documenting the food, supplements, devices and measurements he uses on himself.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  A self-destructive habit is best broken by naming the version of yourself that has it and taking its authority to decide away.

  Their words

  Identify a version of you that is responsible for self destructive behavior and give them a name

  Bryan's Protocolprotocol.bryanjohnson.com

Executive coach for product leaders. Previously a partner at GV (Google Ventures) and a product manager at Google. Writes at Bring the Donuts, including a standing essential-reading list for product managers.

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  Team of Rivals

  Their words

  Abraham Lincoln surrounded himself with his opponents, gradually turning them into admirers and influential advisors. Lincoln’s approach to leadership offers lessons for anyone looking to tap into the wisdom of others, with or without formal authority.

  bringthedonuts.com

Computer performance engineer working on datacenter performance at OpenAI, previously Netflix and Sun/Joyent. Author of Systems Performance and BPF Performance Tools, and creator of flame graphs.

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  Giving local staff authority over more-qualified remote workers reduces a company's competitiveness

  Their words

  there's a power imbalance: the local worker is in charge and doesn't have to listen. This reduces company competitiveness.

  3 Years of Extremely Remote Workbrendangregg.com

Biologist at the MIT Media Lab; invented CRISPR gene drives and then spent years arguing for safeguards against their misuse and against engineered pandemics.

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  Every synthetic DNA order should be screened for hazardous sequences and shipped only to researchers whose work a biosafety authority has approved.

  Their words

  That makes it essential to ensure that all synthetic DNA orders are screened to determine whether they contain hazardous sequences, which should be shipped only to legitimate researchers whose work has been approved by a biosafety authority.

  media.mit.edu

Investigative journalist; wrote Area 51, The Pentagon's Brain and Nuclear War: A Scenario, reconstructing what secret programmes actually did from interviews and declassified records.

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  One person can start a nuclear war on his own authority in a democracy: the President of the United States asks permission of no one, and he is the only one who can do it.

  America

  Their words

  So, in addition to the Launch on Warning concept, there’s this other insane concept called Sole Presidential Authority. And you might think, in a democracy that’s impossible, right? You can’t just start a war. Well, you can just start a nuclear war if you are the commander in chief, the President of the United States. In fact, you’re the only one who can do that.

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Founder and president of the Roots of Progress Institute; writes the history and philosophy of progress, after a career as a software engineering manager and founder.

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  There is no capital-S Science that can stand as an authority; there is only reasoning done systematically.

  Their words

  There is no capital-S Science—a new authority to substitute for God or King.

  What does it mean to “trust science”?rootsofprogress.org

Founded CD Baby in 1998 and sold it in 2008, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education. Since then a writer and speaker: five books and 550+ articles, published first at sive.rs, which they hand-code and keep free of advertising.

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  You Can Negotiate Anything

  Their words

  Everything is negotiable. Challenge authority. You have the power in any situation. This is how to realize it and use it. A must-read classic from 1980 from a master negotiator. My notes here aren’t enough because the little book is filled with so many memorable stories — examples of great day-to-day moments of negotiation that will stick in your head for when you need them. (I especially loved…

  sive.rs

Ancient and military historian; writes A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, long series checking what history actually says against how popular culture tells it.

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  An institution can outlive the state that built it: the Church survived the collapse of Roman political authority when Rome’s other institutions did not.

  Their words

  But whereas other Roman institutions didn’t survive the collapse of Roman political authority, the Church as an institution very much did.

  acoup.blog

Co-founder of Netscape and of the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. Argues at length for building things, mostly in short form.

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  Hostility to a new technology comes from people whose power rests on the old one, because the new technology reorders who holds status.

  Their words

  And so all of the people who have achieved positions of power and authority in the world based on prior generations of technology are inherently threatened by new technology because new technology will upend the power and status structures and then a new set of people will, you know, come to the foreground and and take the power.

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Canadian bootstrapper and writer on small software businesses. Co-founder of the podcast hosting company Transistor.fm and author of the book Marketing for Developers.

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  Transistor

  Their words

  Transistor - my podcasts have been one of the biggest ways I've built authority and reputation. Transistor is dead simple, and has great analytics. Plus, it's cheaper than what I was paying Amazon S3 to host them!

  justinjackson.ca