👑 Great Founder Theory of History, America of Secrets, and More

Welcome to The Takeover Newsletter. On Fridays, I share my top links of the week. Here is what I have been reading this week:

• Oppenheimer Part 1 + Oppenheimer Movie Review/Endnotes - Of course, if you haven’t yet listened to the new How to Take Over the World episodes, go do that.

• Samo Burja & The Great Founder Theory of History - I’ve been following Samo for a while now. He’s putting forward one of the few genuinely new and interesting theories of history that I’ve seen in a long time. This podcast interview is a good summary of his theory from a good interviewer.

• What the heck happened in 2012? - The short answer: A lot of things started getting worse because of cell phones. This might make you think differently about how you interact with your phone.

• An America of Secrets - A nuanced but critical look at the classified-industrial complex of the US government. I think this does a great job of raising one of the most important issues of our time.

• “I have not begun to fight” were the famous words of America’s great sea captain, John Paul Jones, when asked if he would surrender at the Battle of Flamborough Head. Or was he a bit more wordy?

• “Me and Glenn, a kid from Marshfield who ran McNuggets and french fries. Glenn was funny and smart. I was funny and smart too, and it was the first of many sh** jobs where I’d find another funny and smart person and we’d kind of marvel at “what the f*** are you doing here.” - The best fiction in the world right now is being written on Twitter by anonymous accounts.

Thanks for reading! Until next week!

— Ben