Matthew O’Brien

policy guy. great books enjoyer. Suffolk + Harvard alum

[Matthew O’Brien @realmattyobrien]

In a high school class of almost 80 “STEM scholars,” I was one of three “humanities scholars.” Never felt more vindicated.

[Kekius Maximus @Kekius_Sage]

🚨 Anthropic CEO says STEM is losing its edge, and what makes you “more human” will decide your future

[Matthew O’Brien @realmattyobrien]

@JoshPhillipsPhD Books 9-12 of The Odyssey with the @CatherineProj

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

“College is for networking and landing a lucrative career.” No. College is for broadening your cinematic & literary horizons, being exposed to the best that’s ever been thought or written, going mad with joy in the library and learning what a small person you are in a big world.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC]

This is sad. I know as a politician these companies are going to spend a billion dollars against me for saying it but 🤷🏽‍♀️

Pervasive gambling is not good for society. It turns life into a casino, traps people in addiction & debt, surges domestic violence, and fosters manipulation.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Let me explain exactly why every new subdivision in America looks like the top photo, because the math is wild.

A mature tree increases a home's value by 7 to 19 percent. On a $400,000 house, that's $28,000 to $76,000. A single shade tree produces the cooling equivalent of ten room-size air conditioners running 20 hours a day. One tree on the west side of a house cuts energy bills by 12 percent within 15 years. The bottom photo is worth more, costs less to live in, and sells faster. This has been documented by the University of Washington, Clemson, Michigan State, and the USDA. The data is not in dispute.

Removing those trees saves the builder roughly $5,000 per lot. Concrete trucks need twice the dripline radius of every standing tree. Utility trenches need flat ground. A bulldozer flattens 200 lots in an afternoon. Preserving trees adds weeks and thousands per home.

So the developer pockets $5,000 in savings and the buyer eats $50,000 in lost value for the next two decades. The person making the decision and the person paying for it have never been in the same room.

The Woodlands, Texas is the proof of what happens when they are. George Mitchell bought 28,000 acres of Houston timberland in 1974 and preserved 28% as permanent green space. He forced McDonald's to build behind the tree canopy. That McDonald's became one of the highest-volume locations in Texas. The first office building, designed to reflect the surrounding forest so you couldn't see it from the street, leased completely.

The Woodlands median home price today: $615,000. Katy, a comparable Houston suburb that clear-cut: $375,000. Named #1 community to live in America two years running.

Fifty years of data. The trees are worth more than removing them saves. Developers clear-cut anyway because they sell the house once and leave. You live in it for 30 years.

[Matthew O’Brien @realmattyobrien]

@TheGreatB00ks @JohnHanifi21831 @costofglory Which translation of First Alcibiades did you guys work out of?

[Governor Maura Healey @MassGovernor]

Hunters love what Massachusetts has to offer, they just want laws that make sense — and I agree.

Let's start by lifting the ban on Sunday hunting.

[َ @4NGELWING]

all quiet on the frontal lobe

[Matthew O’Brien @realmattyobrien]

@TheCinesthetic Troy takes everything that was great about the Iliad and throws it out. The gods are an essential element of the story. Without them, it’s just any old ancient war story. A huge disappointment of a film imo.

[Raven @raven_brah]

I got more enjoyment out of this clip than Villeneuve’s Dune films

[Matthew O’Brien @realmattyobrien]

@ICEgov Black and tan thugs

[luca @waynesfury]

we must convert the non believers one by one

[Naija @21Naija]

I think just on a pure cinematic experience my 1st viewing of Dune II in the cinema was the best overall experience

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

The first trailer for ‘DUNE: PART 3’ has been released.

In theaters on December 18.

[The Academy @TheAcademy]

One Oscar after another. Congratulations to ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, this year’s Best Picture winner! #Oscars

[UK HE News @HigherEd_UK]

This is why university degrees are not supposed to be vocational.

[Matthew O’Brien @realmattyobrien]

@HarrisonGarlic1 I can see how it’s troublesome. I much prefer the approach you take on the podcast treating each text almost as didactic.

[Matthew O’Brien @realmattyobrien]

@HarrisonGarlic1 Gotcha. Only reading a canonical text through later commentaries is nuts to me.