Barry Lam
@hiphination.bsky.social
Philosophy professor at UCR. Podcast at Slate. Associate director at Marc Sanders Foundation. hiphination.org
Pinned
Barry Lam
@hiphination.bsky.social
· Dec 9
Fewer Rules, Better People
A philosopher argues that the proliferation of rules and mandates is making us dumber, less moral, more deceptive, and less able to govern important institutions., Fewer Rules, Better People, The Case...
wwnorton.com
Announcing my first book, with my style of longform narrative journalism and philosophy with @wwnorton.bsky.social. It's about the clash between governing by top-down rules versus discretionary decision-making, in law, in sports, in the household. Pre-order now here! wwnorton.com/books/fewer-...
Reposted by Barry Lam
I stand with our Governor Janet Mills in calling for an end to these operations immediately. People are dying and law enforcement pitted against each other. This is dangerous for both civilians and law enforcement. There is no winning, end this.
January 24, 2026 at 11:51 PM
I stand with our Governor Janet Mills in calling for an end to these operations immediately. People are dying and law enforcement pitted against each other. This is dangerous for both civilians and law enforcement. There is no winning, end this.
Dear Southern California. We took your Wienershchnitzels. We're coming for your Bob's Big Boys.
January 23, 2026 at 3:51 PM
Dear Southern California. We took your Wienershchnitzels. We're coming for your Bob's Big Boys.
I have been getting a disproportionately large number of “I wrote a philosophical manifesto, check it out” emails and attachments in the last few weeks. Its up to daily now. Is this a symptom of the LLM rabbit holes that crackpots are attracted to?
January 22, 2026 at 2:31 PM
I have been getting a disproportionately large number of “I wrote a philosophical manifesto, check it out” emails and attachments in the last few weeks. Its up to daily now. Is this a symptom of the LLM rabbit holes that crackpots are attracted to?
I don’t watch a lot of television I feel compelled to share, so take this in that spirit. I just watched Cover-Up, a documentary about the career of Seymour Hersch. It is on Netflix, made by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus. It is very compelling, and saddening. www.netflix.com/title/82145211
Watch Cover-Up | Netflix Official Site
He's devoted his career to uncovering stories the powerful want buried. From My Lai to Abu Ghraib, dig into the life's work of journalist Seymour Hersh.
www.netflix.com
January 20, 2026 at 2:48 AM
I don’t watch a lot of television I feel compelled to share, so take this in that spirit. I just watched Cover-Up, a documentary about the career of Seymour Hersch. It is on Netflix, made by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus. It is very compelling, and saddening. www.netflix.com/title/82145211
Pitch: The FBI is on the hunt for a Wall Street serial killer who donates $100k to effective charities right before he murders his next victim. The FBI profiler has identified the suspect, but do they bust him? open.substack.com/pub/hiphinat...
American Psycho III: The Effective Altruist
The FBI Hunts a Serial Killer Who Donates $100K Right Before He Murders
open.substack.com
January 19, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Pitch: The FBI is on the hunt for a Wall Street serial killer who donates $100k to effective charities right before he murders his next victim. The FBI profiler has identified the suspect, but do they bust him? open.substack.com/pub/hiphinat...
Watching Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt play doubles against Roger Federer and Andre Agassi. Roger looks like he could still be on tour, Andre is fit and trim. Pat and Lleyton make me feel better about letting myself go a bit.
January 18, 2026 at 6:04 AM
Watching Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt play doubles against Roger Federer and Andre Agassi. Roger looks like he could still be on tour, Andre is fit and trim. Pat and Lleyton make me feel better about letting myself go a bit.
Two books by philosophers came out this week that I think are contenders for the big prizes, Pulitzer, National Book Award, Critic’s Choice. This one is written by the most decorated literary philosopher living today, and I’m ecstatic to start digging in. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
January 17, 2026 at 1:41 AM
Two books by philosophers came out this week that I think are contenders for the big prizes, Pulitzer, National Book Award, Critic’s Choice. This one is written by the most decorated literary philosopher living today, and I’m ecstatic to start digging in. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
Apparently 20/400 students in Contemporary Moral Issues believe it moraly okay to draw penises on your baby’s forehead with erasable marker when you take it to a walk, you know, for the laughs. Sometimes you just can’t make up any example that will yield universal agreement in such classes.
January 15, 2026 at 3:00 AM
Apparently 20/400 students in Contemporary Moral Issues believe it moraly okay to draw penises on your baby’s forehead with erasable marker when you take it to a walk, you know, for the laughs. Sometimes you just can’t make up any example that will yield universal agreement in such classes.
I wrote about what makes pop music sifferent from stand-up comedy and how to think about the pivot to shortform video in this moment of media production. open.substack.com/pub/hiphinat...
The Replayability Trap
A Critical Approach to Shortform Video
open.substack.com
January 14, 2026 at 7:21 PM
I wrote about what makes pop music sifferent from stand-up comedy and how to think about the pivot to shortform video in this moment of media production. open.substack.com/pub/hiphinat...
Aspire to be such that if the New York Times decides to review your book, they send the nonfiction book editor out to profile you instead. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/b...
Why Keeping Score Isn’t Fun Anymore
www.nytimes.com
January 13, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Aspire to be such that if the New York Times decides to review your book, they send the nonfiction book editor out to profile you instead. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/b...
Jerry Seinfeld once talked about a schema for a joke that only in-group people will get, but doesn't make in-group references. Let me see if it works.
Two non-Chinese people are having dinner together. The first one says "I'll pay the check." The second one says, "Why thank you."
Did it work?
Two non-Chinese people are having dinner together. The first one says "I'll pay the check." The second one says, "Why thank you."
Did it work?
January 9, 2026 at 3:36 AM
Jerry Seinfeld once talked about a schema for a joke that only in-group people will get, but doesn't make in-group references. Let me see if it works.
Two non-Chinese people are having dinner together. The first one says "I'll pay the check." The second one says, "Why thank you."
Did it work?
Two non-Chinese people are having dinner together. The first one says "I'll pay the check." The second one says, "Why thank you."
Did it work?
"If a person is a threat, and you can completely avert the threat by taking one step to the right, or you can shoot the person in the head, you are morally obliged to take the step to the right." Some people reject this principle.
January 8, 2026 at 3:51 PM
"If a person is a threat, and you can completely avert the threat by taking one step to the right, or you can shoot the person in the head, you are morally obliged to take the step to the right." Some people reject this principle.
Digging out a parking space after a snowstorm, putting a sweater on a chair at Starbucks to save it. The informal practice of staking property claims and the egalitarian ideal. open.substack.com/pub/hiphinat...
Calling Dibs
The Micro-Property System We All Obey
open.substack.com
January 6, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Digging out a parking space after a snowstorm, putting a sweater on a chair at Starbucks to save it. The informal practice of staking property claims and the egalitarian ideal. open.substack.com/pub/hiphinat...
With the precision of a philosopher and the geekiness of a game-lover, Thi Nguyen shows how gaming has quietly colonized the rest of our lives. Required reading for understanding how values are being redefined through metrics, rankings, and scoring. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735252...
The Score by C. Thi Nguyen: 9780593655658 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
A philosophy of games to help us win back control over what we value The philosopher C. Thi Nguyen—one of the leading experts on the philosophy of games and the philosophy of data—takes us...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
January 5, 2026 at 8:09 PM
With the precision of a philosopher and the geekiness of a game-lover, Thi Nguyen shows how gaming has quietly colonized the rest of our lives. Required reading for understanding how values are being redefined through metrics, rankings, and scoring. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735252...
Trying to figure out what about the US makes its postwar leaders addicted to armed intervention in countries abroad. Is it the public? The foreign policy think tanks? Elite media? Like would the public ever have punished presidents for NOT intervening in Kosovo or Venezuela or Iraq?
January 4, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Trying to figure out what about the US makes its postwar leaders addicted to armed intervention in countries abroad. Is it the public? The foreign policy think tanks? Elite media? Like would the public ever have punished presidents for NOT intervening in Kosovo or Venezuela or Iraq?
The wealth tax is antiquated and game-able. A better idea is that, after a certain value of unrealized gain is reached, the government takes a % ownership stake. Then it owns % of unrealized gain, and that affects how the wealthy can finance as well as gives the govt financing options.
December 29, 2025 at 6:50 AM
The wealth tax is antiquated and game-able. A better idea is that, after a certain value of unrealized gain is reached, the government takes a % ownership stake. Then it owns % of unrealized gain, and that affects how the wealthy can finance as well as gives the govt financing options.
There are words we write a lot but hardly ever say. "Eschews," "therefore," "hence," "nonetheless," and "aforementioned" are examples. Editors take our lack of saying them to be reason not to write them. Orators take their effective use in writing to be reason to say them more. I like the 2nd view.
December 29, 2025 at 12:32 AM
There are words we write a lot but hardly ever say. "Eschews," "therefore," "hence," "nonetheless," and "aforementioned" are examples. Editors take our lack of saying them to be reason not to write them. Orators take their effective use in writing to be reason to say them more. I like the 2nd view.
Pitch: A remake of Dead Poet’s Society for the 2020s, only it’s careerist kids who keep shitting on poetry and drama, and the parents are trying to get them to open up to the importance of the liberal arts. In the third act, the teachers kill themselves after having to read 100 AI-generated poems.
December 28, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Pitch: A remake of Dead Poet’s Society for the 2020s, only it’s careerist kids who keep shitting on poetry and drama, and the parents are trying to get them to open up to the importance of the liberal arts. In the third act, the teachers kill themselves after having to read 100 AI-generated poems.
A Man on the Inside Season 2 is a more realistic portrayal of higher ed than The Chair ever was.
December 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
A Man on the Inside Season 2 is a more realistic portrayal of higher ed than The Chair ever was.
George Bailey is no older than 40 at the end of the movie, which means “old maid”Mary would have been in her mid-30s when she was closing down the library.
December 26, 2025 at 1:11 AM
George Bailey is no older than 40 at the end of the movie, which means “old maid”Mary would have been in her mid-30s when she was closing down the library.
Final chapter this week. Due date December 31st. Supposed to be 70,000 words. Home stretch.
December 22, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Final chapter this week. Due date December 31st. Supposed to be 70,000 words. Home stretch.
If I wanted to present to a big funder the ten most interesting, outstanding problems in philosophy, across a variety of subfields, that we in the field want to see progress toward solving in the next ten years, what would your problem be, or who in the field would come up with a good list?
December 20, 2025 at 5:41 PM
If I wanted to present to a big funder the ten most interesting, outstanding problems in philosophy, across a variety of subfields, that we in the field want to see progress toward solving in the next ten years, what would your problem be, or who in the field would come up with a good list?
Reposted by Barry Lam
More shout outs tho! @mainomenous.bsky.social, @hiphination.bsky.social, @sportscritcutie.bsky.social, @calpolypomona.bsky.social, plus lots more folks who don't have bsky accounts (yet) and who I'll shout more in future posts...
In the meantime, peep our YouTube! www.youtube.com/@DigitalHuma...
In the meantime, peep our YouTube! www.youtube.com/@DigitalHuma...
Digital Humanities Consortium @ CPP
The Digital Humanities Consortium is an organization of faculty & students engaged in Digital Humanities projects at Cal Poly Pomona in sunny SoCal. Content ranges from workshops to panels and lecture...
www.youtube.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:41 PM
More shout outs tho! @mainomenous.bsky.social, @hiphination.bsky.social, @sportscritcutie.bsky.social, @calpolypomona.bsky.social, plus lots more folks who don't have bsky accounts (yet) and who I'll shout more in future posts...
In the meantime, peep our YouTube! www.youtube.com/@DigitalHuma...
In the meantime, peep our YouTube! www.youtube.com/@DigitalHuma...
Junior: No one knows who these old singers are dad!
Friends, it was Dionne Warwick. And Johnny Cash.
Friends, it was Dionne Warwick. And Johnny Cash.
December 15, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Junior: No one knows who these old singers are dad!
Friends, it was Dionne Warwick. And Johnny Cash.
Friends, it was Dionne Warwick. And Johnny Cash.
The American experiment has culminated in the monetization of everything. Education is an investment with a return. Writing is about growth and conversion. Talking to your children and partner is uncompensated labor. You’d think Americans were the poorest people in the history of the planet.
December 12, 2025 at 6:19 PM
The American experiment has culminated in the monetization of everything. Education is an investment with a return. Writing is about growth and conversion. Talking to your children and partner is uncompensated labor. You’d think Americans were the poorest people in the history of the planet.