David Hsu

Opinion | How I Built My Ruthless Summer Reading List

Gift version: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/o...

Opinion | How I Built My Ruthless Summer Reading List

This was a nice article, but especially because how the disjoint words combine in the title. Plus, if you've ever read his other writing: this guy reads *a lot*. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/o...

Trying to use ChatGPT to speed up basic tasks, but it often fails. For example:

1. Download table in a well-formatted, clear PDF
2. Ask ChatGPT to put this into spreadsheet
3. Check spreadsheet
4. Find many numeric errors!

I still saved time over typing, but if you don't check the work... ugh.

Gift version: wapo.st/472i9Gz

Opinion | We are losing our humanity. I am searching for an antidote. The challenge of our time is to recover what we have lost: in nature, and in our communities.

“To my amazement, these columns have resonated with readers personally in a way my political columns generally don’t. Each one produces intense engagement — even [from] readers who have no use for my political commentary.”

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Volkswagen kept a dark secret in the Amazon. Then a priest made a call. Poor laborers were lured to the automaker’s cattle ranch in the Amazon and promised a better life. Brazilian prosecutors say many were enslaved.

An excellent read that is horrifying, essential, and ultimately hopeful (?) about the power of documented truth, however long it takes to work. wapo.st/40v10l0

I like RCV, but maybe the progressives could organize themselves?

A good argument for suppressing or summarizing notifications on your phone.

That’s if i have the hot dog and the pizza slice.

❤️….🔥

Costco hot dogs have cost $1.50 since the 1980s. Here's why prices aren't changing Costco's new leadership says the $1.50 price tag on its beloved hot dog combo is "safe." Experts explain how the retailer has defied inflation — and why it's willing to eat the cost.

There are more articles on this than one can possibly imagine, but the quality of this article (and hot dog) will convince you to support American public media!
www.npr.org/2024/06/03/n...

Nothing in the world could bring me more joy right now than this $1.50 Costco hot dog and soda.

Even though I wrote many letters for @votefwd.bsky.social in the last election cycle, I am glad to see them presenting negative results. The last line of the article is a truly excellent quote.

Yeah I guess LeBron putting up a 22.6 PER is pretty special, but it's not that impressive when you compare him to people rolling out of bed and firing off something like this at age 86.

Harvard’s Battle Is Familiar to a University the Right Forced into Exile

"Borrowing an idea from the German economist Albert O. Hirschman, Professor Dorsch, an American, said universities had three options: leave, obey the government or speak up." www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/u...

U.S. college is first to decline federal science grants because of new DEI language Williams College says NSF and NIH requirement related to discrimination “undermines” academic freedom

Oh, wow 🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...

The Latest Trump and DOGE Casualty: Energy Data The Energy Information Administration has long provided reliable data on everything from oil and gas to alternative energy. Now one of its signature reports has been slashed and a second one canceled ...

Article from a month ago but we’ll be navigating with less information for much, much longer. www.propublica.org/article/the-...

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio tried to give a press conference to announce his lawsuit against DOJ. Much to my surprise it turned out to be the greatest press conference of all-time.

This is so jarringly unAmerican that I sort of hope it wakes some normies up. It is occurring in a context where military-style equipment is being used to enforce immigration roundups and conveys the notion that we are increasingly living in a police state.

kind of just endlessly sad and grieving that there are so few voices in the public sphere making the basic principled argument that immigration is an affirmative good in every way and the best way for this country to serve humanity is to welcome people who want or need to leave their homes

Analysis | Meta found a new way to violate your privacy. Here’s what you can do. Even hardened digital privacy veterans said they were surprised by Meta’s scuzzy tactics.

“It’s not novel that Meta is undermining your privacy. But the tactics the researchers identified were so scuzzy they surprised even those digital privacy experts who have seen every trick in the book.” wapo.st/45hNMeB

YouTube video by WIRED I 3D-Printed Luigi Mangione’s ‘Ghost Gun’ | WIRED

A really excellent video that combines "maker"-style video flourishes and gun culture with a thoughtful exploration of the implications for gun control, crime, and violence. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQB_...

My first thought is always trying to make sense of the picture and chyron, as in, why is the head of the Worldwide Wrestling Federation talking about this?

Chinese paraglider survives accidental 8,000-metre-high flight above the clouds A strong updraft propelled Peng Yujiang thousands of metres high, in line with flight paths and nearly as high as Mount Everest

Insane video. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Riding through Cambridge to work this morning, I saw so many young people in graduation gowns and robes that I just started spontaneously hollering my congratulations at crosswalks and from the bike lane. Sometimes you have to ignore the news to find short-term joy and long-term hope.

A Missouri Town Was Solidly Behind Trump. Then Carol Was Detained.

‘“No one voted to deport moms. We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves.”

She paused. “This is Carol.”’

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/u...

Trump Administration Halts Harvard’s Ability to Enroll International Students

This will destroy America's soft power. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

More Brandeis from the Adolphis Mason biography. Despite him being a member of the Boston elite in good standing, I especially enjoy when he tells them about civic engagement and political power:

I really like giving students the space to exercise their creativity in extended paper writing and research projects, but I also now know how easy and tempting using ChatGPT is, even when it is giving me nonsensical garbage.