Steve Wilcox

🕊
Married father of 3, just trying to live an interesting life, stay fit, and give back.

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@IMJustinBrooke Send it

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@micsolana Perhaps reverting to pre-covid pandemic guidance? (CDC doc was specific to influenza, but NSC playbook explicitly mentioned novel pathogens, including coronaviruses)

https://t.co/0AcAfZVTNy

https://t.co/BrvFqfQMJC

[Greg Lukianoff @glukianoff]

I’ve always found people who bristle at “American exceptionalism” kind of… weird. Not because I lack self-awareness — I’ve spent my career cataloging every way this country fails to live up to its own rules. But that’s exactly why I love it so damn much. We built a system designed to be shamed by its own founding documents, and it still delivered one of the most spectacular, world-altering runs in human history. A genuine force for human flourishing.

I also found the argument against American exceptionalism to be historically illiterate. Here’s a sample of what we were first at:

• The first large-scale democratic republic in human history — not a city-state, not a monarchy with a parliament bolted on, but a bold continental experiment in self-rule, popular sovereignty, and ordered liberty.

• A written Constitution (1789) with separation of powers and checks & balances — still the oldest national constitution in force anywhere.

• The Bill of Rights (1791): the first time a nation wrote “the government cannot touch these” into supreme law and actually meant it. A dare the world copied — from later rights charters to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• Public land-grant universities and mass higher education (Morrill Act), opening college to ordinary people no aristocracy would have let near the gates. (but don’t get me started about what happened after we started. Massively federally funding it.)

• Kitty Hawk, 1903 — first controlled powered flight.

• The Moon, 1969 — still the only ones who’ve been there.

• The world’s largest economy since ~1890, powering unprecedented prosperity through grit and genius.

• The assembly line, skyscraper, transistor, personal computer, ARPANET — the backbone of the modern world.

• Telephone, phonograph, GPS — connecting and powering daily life.

• Surgical anesthesia, polio vaccine — saving and transforming millions of lives.

• Jazz, blues, rock ‘n’ roll — brand new American art forms that conquered the globe.

• Hollywood’s dreams, blue jeans, bourbon, and a culture so open a kid like me could devour sushi, burritos, stuffed cabbage, and tabouli in the same week and rightfully think of it all as American.

That’s the part that fills me with genuine love and pride: not just the power or the wins, but the appetite for freedom, creativity, and reinvention. The audacity to say “We the People” and keep trying to live up to it.

What do you love most about this truly exceptional country? 🇺🇸

[Buffalo Bills @BuffaloBills]

Happy 4th of July, Bills Mafia and HAPPY 250th, AMERICA! 🇺🇸

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@cupoflaly @Yuki_Sahashi That’s not true. The USA is the only country in either American continent with the word America in its name, so saying America is widely understood and accepted shorthand. No one, not a single soul ever, meant Canada or Mexico when saying “I’m visiting America.”

[FIRE @TheFIREorg]

Last year, the police jailed Larry Bushart for 37 days on a $2M bond for posting a meme after Charlie Kirk’s murder.

With our help, Larry sued Perry County, TN, and its sheriff for violating his rights in retaliation for his protected speech. He has received a $835K settlement.

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@AaronQuinn716 Touché

[Brivael Le Pogam @brivael]

Hello Julia, sans aucune ironie, c'est top que tu prennes le temps de te renseigner. Mais le problème quand on lit Marx aujourd'hui, c'est qu'on prend pour acquis sa prémisse de départ, alors qu'elle a été démontée scientifiquement il y a plus de 150 ans.

Toute la pensée de Marx repose sur la théorie de la valeur-travail. L'idée que la valeur d'un bien vient de la quantité de travail nécessaire pour le produire. Si tu acceptes cette prémisse, alors oui, tout son raisonnement tient. Le capitaliste "vole" la plus-value du travailleur, l'exploitation est mathématique, la révolution est inévitable.

Sauf qu'en 1871, trois économistes (Menger en Autriche, Jevons en Angleterre, Walras en Suisse) découvrent indépendamment la même chose : la valeur n'est pas objective, elle est subjective et marginale.

Un verre d'eau dans le désert vaut une fortune. Le même verre à côté d'une rivière ne vaut rien. Le travail incorporé est identique. Donc le travail ne détermine pas la valeur. C'est le consommateur qui valorise un bien selon son utilité marginale dans un contexte donné.

Exemple concret : tu peux passer 1000 heures à tricoter un pull moche que personne ne veut. Selon Marx, ce pull a énormément de valeur (beaucoup de travail incorporé). Selon la réalité, il ne vaut rien. Parce que personne n'en veut.

À l'inverse, Bernard Arnault crée des milliards de valeur non pas parce qu'il "exploite" mais parce qu'il a su anticiper et organiser des désirs humains à grande échelle. La valeur est créée par la coordination, pas extraite par le vol.

Cette découverte (la révolution marginaliste) a invalidé tout l'édifice marxiste. Pas pour des raisons idéologiques, pour des raisons scientifiques. C'est pour ça que plus aucun département d'économie sérieux au monde n'enseigne Marx comme un cadre d'analyse valide. On l'enseigne en histoire de la pensée.

Maintenant, le truc important. Si ton intention en lisant Marx c'est d'aider les pauvres (c'est une intention noble), alors tu vas être surprise par ce qui suit.

Regarde les chiffres de la Banque mondiale. En 1820, 90% de l'humanité vivait dans l'extrême pauvreté. Aujourd'hui, moins de 9%. Cette chute historique ne s'est PAS produite dans les pays qui ont appliqué Marx. Elle s'est produite dans les pays qui ont libéralisé leur économie.

Chine post-1978, Vietnam post-1986, Inde post-1991, Pologne post-1989. À chaque fois qu'un pays libéralise, des centaines de millions de gens sortent de la pauvreté en une génération. À chaque fois qu'un pays applique Marx (URSS, Cambodge, Corée du Nord, Venezuela), c'est la famine et les goulags.

Ce n'est pas une opinion, c'est l'expérience la plus massive jamais menée en sciences sociales. Plusieurs milliards de cobayes humains, sur un siècle.

Donc paradoxalement, si tu aimes vraiment les pauvres, la position la plus cohérente n'est pas d'être marxiste. C'est d'être pour la liberté économique. Parce que c'est empiriquement la seule chose qui a jamais sorti massivement les gens de la misère.

Pour creuser, je te recommande trois lectures qui vont changer ta vision :

"La Loi" de Frédéric Bastiat (court, lumineux, gratuit en ligne)
"La Route de la Servitude" de Hayek
"Économie en une leçon" de Henry Hazlitt
Bonne lecture, et vraiment chapeau de chercher à comprendre plutôt que de rester dans tes certitudes. C'est rare.

[Sumit Shah @sumitshahMD]

Every oncologist should watch Ben Sasse’s interview with Ross Douthat. I was captivated by his courage, serenity, and his ability to articulate what so many of our patients feel and experience. Ben and I don’t share the same political or religious beliefs, which made it all the more compelling.

A few things stood out:

* His physicians struggled to deliver the “hard facts.” They led with advances in oncology before telling him he had cancer, wanting to stay positive. I’ve been there - it’s incredibly tough to balance truth with hope. We need to be frank with our patients, even when it’s difficult. I also imagine that the story didn’t play out exactly as Ben recollected, but perception is reality for our patients.

* Ben asked for “Oncology 101”: chemo vs. radiation vs. surgery vs. targeted therapy. He kept saying “teach me” - he needed a map. I love that. Every patient deserves this navigation. Cancer is overwhelming without a clear direction.

* He’s on a drug targeting a cancer gene long considered “undruggable.” We’re making real progress and occasionally witnessing “miracles” in clinic - responses grounded in cancer biology. This progress depends on funding and clinical trials. This is how we move the field forward.

* The flip side is that these treatments carry real toxicity. Ben’s face makes this painfully clear. I am constantly amazed at what many patients are willing to endure and the resilience that they show.

* Ben loves his hospice team. They gave him a practical framework for managing four variables: cancer pain, nausea, balancing diarrhea and constipation, and energy/fatigue. He noted that oncologists often steer conversations to their own agenda (scans, treatment, etc). I’ve been guilty of this too. We need to listen more.

* Despite being given a prognosis of a few months, Ben keeps his great sense of humor. After watching this, I feel we could actually be friends. Political labels might once have gotten in the way - and that’s on me. Confronting death strips away differences and magnifies what we share.

* Ben on the digital culture we live in: “These super-devices in our pockets, the largest tools any individual has ever had, allow our consciousness to leave the time and place where we actually live… the places where we break bread, the people we can physically touch and hug.” This is so true.

* Ben doesn’t fear death, but he fears misprioritization. Dinner time is precious. There’s a limit to work trips. Live near family. Cancer forces laser focus on what matters most. When people who are dying share these pearls, all of us need to listen and consider it a gift.

Highly recommended. Wishing you the best, @BenSasse.

https://t.co/TMAlvSSewn

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@TommiPedruzzi Claude

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@Zephyr_hg News

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@itsolelehmann Cowork

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@the_habitant Hahahaha!

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@WorkflowWhisper Local

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@WorkflowWhisper Opus

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@4JoshReed @TomPelissero It’s a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for them 🙄

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@IMJustinBrooke This should be incredible!

[Steve Wilcox @skwilcox]

@agentskills_ai Do it

[Will Manidis @WillManidis]

convinced that adults have totally forgotten how to have fun in conversation. every conversation is either "checklist catch up on life events" or "grave discussion of public events we must feel sad about". we've totally lost the sense of play. hold your beliefs loosely, laugh.