Paul Romdowski

Open-minded thinker, outdoor enthusiast, scientist

[Still On The Road @StillOnTheRoad_]

Bob speaks in @nytimes

[Joseph Fasano @Joseph_Fasano_]

I think about this every day. In the Netherlands, if a person dies alone, without any family or friends as mourners, a poet will be sent to write a poem and read it at the burial service. It's called the Lonely Funeral Project, and it's just humans being good humans.

[Noam Dworman @noam_dworman]

Second for second, @tylercowen packs more substance into a talk than anyone I'm aware of. This is a clear, non-hysterical, and somewhat soothing discussion of our AI future.

[Gurwinder @G_S_Bhogal]

Of all human qualities, intelligence is relatively common. Much rarer are the character traits that make intelligence useful: curiosity, humility, and agency.

[roon @tszzl]

are you prepared for the violence of everything on earth becoming legible

[🌷🦋 Love Music 🎶 & Dance 💃🏻🕺🏻 @Tiana_Celine_23]

This song is so beautiful, sung in the most romantic language in the world ❤

[Natalka @NatalkaKyiv]

“[The US] couldn’t do anything and didn’t plan to do anything.

The reports showed that Ukraine would cease to exist. So Ukraine just needed to be properly laid to rest with dignity.”

— Dmytro Kuleba, describing his meeting with Biden on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Kuleba served as Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2020 to 2024.

Video: Dmytro Gordon

[Rambo Van Halen @RamboVanHalen]

I put in 25 years. It would be 26 but I haven't worked yet this year and I'm not sure I'll ever work in entertainment again.

The writing has been on the wall for quite some time. But it's a sad thing--especially since the collapse of Hollywood is (mostly) self inflicted.

Outsiders like to blame the unions and burdensome regulations. That's not exactly wrong, but the big reason is that Hollywood stopped making a product that people wanted to consume.

Film is a funny thing. On one hand it's art. But on the other it's a mass consumer product--like a car, or a soft drink.

But unlike a typical consumer product, it was something we consumed together. We went to a special place, and sat with strangers, and watched stories.

And those stories infected us.

They entered our minds and our souls and they implanted things.

Deep things. Ancient things. Timeless things.

Things like heroism and beauty and love and fear and sex and death and adventure and tragedy and pain and injustice and all the things that make up our dreams.

There's a thing we call "cinematic language". It's how we tell a story with images. (And BTW if you want to learn more about the language of visual media, read Scott McCloud's excellent book Understanding Comics.)

An odd thing about cinematic language is that it's the same language as dreams. There's a scene in Christopher Nolan's Inception where Leonardo DiCaprio is explains to (the tragic) Ellen Page how dreams work.

But what he's really describing is cinematic language. Inception is really a movie about movies BTW.

While it's far from my favorite film, I think it's the perfect film. Because the suspension of disbelief is perfect. You believe the plot about dreams because you're familiar with how movies work--maybe not consciously--but you know.

Everyone knows. Maybe not everyone has seen a movie, but everyone has dreams.

Another odd thing about film: you don't "watch" a movie, you look into it. And you put yourself inside it. Now you're in the dream.

And you're hypnotized.

Because movies do that too.

The motion--the moving images--they hack your brain. We're programed to pay attention to moving things.

Even when the things aren't real.

Even when they're just light reflected off a screen.

So we'd go to these special places--these movie theaters--these temples--and we'd sit, and we'd "watch" and we'd enter the dream.

And we did it together.

And after the movie was over--and the lights came on, and we'd file out over the sound of popcorn crunching under our feet--we were different.

We had become transformed.

Sometimes we were changed in minor ways. But sometimes not. Sometimes we were changed in profound ways.

And we did it together.

Before the movie we were a room full of strangers.

But after--on the way out the door--we all had something in common.

Because we shared an experience. We'd shared the dream. And we'd all become transformed.

And then tech got involved...

Streaming turned movies from a communal experience to a personal experience. And that's an issue, but they did something else too.

They started developing movies as if they were tech products.

But you can't apply a KPI to a dream. At least, not successfully anyway. Because dreams don't work like that--nor does any sort of art.

And that's a funny thing about making movies. You try to make the best film you can, but at the end of the day you have no idea if it's good or if it's going to be successful. You just have to hope the audience likes it.

Now, you can design a movie that will appeal to a preexisting audience. Marvel movies are like this. There's a large group of fanboy nerds that will see every single one.

You can count on them every time.

Just like you can count on the Gay Oscar Bait crowd (for example).

But those movies are slop. But Hollywood became specialists in slop. Because slop is safe. Because you could apply KPI style metrics to slop.

As a result they lost the audience. And the audience is probably never coming back.

I wrote a book in 2024 (that was published in 2025). While writing, I thought of it as my farewell to the industry.

But looking back, what I was actually writing was a eulogy for Hollywood--the place where dreams were made.

And so it goes...

[Malcontent News @MalcontentmentT]

Zelenskyy was a prophet at 44 seconds.

[Slim @onu_slim]

To many of you between 45 and 50 who may feel like you are in a midlife crisis, please listen.

What you are feeling is more common than you think. This is usually the age where many people begin to question everything, their career, their decisions, the years that have passed, and the dreams that did not unfold the way they once imagined. It can feel like time suddenly moved too fast.

But this stage of life is not a collapse. It is a moment of awakening.

At this age you now see life with clarity that younger people do not have. The illusions of youth are gone, the mistakes have already taught their lessons, and you finally understand what truly matters and what does not. That clarity is powerful.

45 and 50 is not the end of your story. In many ways it is the beginning of the most intentional chapter of your life. You now have experience, emotional maturity, and perspective that your younger self lacked.

So do not see this season as a crisis.

See it as a reset.

Many people rebuild their lives, change careers, start businesses, repair relationships, and find deeper meaning during this exact period. The next twenty years can become the most productive and meaningful years of your life if you choose to approach them with courage instead of regret.

[Gabino Iglesias @Gabino_Iglesias]

Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.

[MAKS 26 🇺🇦👀 @Maks_NAFO_FELLA]

😄👀 The situation in one of the Kyiv courtyards.

[STUNNER @Cr7Godbrand]

This is why it is better to empower men than to empower women.

empowering women was a strategic mistake because women, as a group, tend to prioritize individual benefit over collective or long-term social responsibility once empowered.

When women gain financial and legal independence, the incentive to cooperate with men in building families weakens, not strengthens.

A man with resources typically uses them to create and expand….a wife, children, a household, and eventually extended family. Women, once empowered, tend to consume and consolidate, focusing resources inward on personal comfort, lifestyle, and emotional satisfaction.

Every society that has maximally emancipated women has seen the same outcome:

Falling marriage rates
Declining birth rates
Population collapse

This isn’t coincidence…it’s pattern. Empowerment removed dependency without replacing it with obligation. Women were freed from men but not bound to society in return. The result is decision-making driven by short-term self-interest rather than continuity.

The issue isn’t that women can’t contribute….it’s that, when given unrestricted choice, they choose themselves first, even when that choice undermines family formation and demographic survival. Sexual liberation, economic independence, and state protection removed the cost of opting out, so many opted out.

Empowering women didn’t fail because men resisted it.
It failed because female decision-making, when unrestrained by family-centered incentives, does not prioritize societal survival.

[katie @katefeetie]

my husband has been stuck taxiing on the runway for 4 hours

[Paul Romdowski @romdowski]

@avidseries what a sad commentary on the world we're living in

[Paul Romdowski @romdowski]

@avidseries Thank you for being a voice of reason in a cesspool of rage bait

[Ani😼 @sushi33trash]

The human obsession with purpose is merely a distraction from the absurdity of existence.

[Paul Romdowski @romdowski]

@eigenrobot @selentelechia My lobster is too buttery... My steak is too juicy.. :)

[Blake Burge @blakeaburge]

A mentor once told me: "When you feel overwhelmed, remember, the mind calms when the hands move. Stop trying to fix everything. Fix one thing. Momentum starts microscopic. Ask: 'What actually needs me right now?' Then do just that, nothing else."