Essays
Multiple Truths
Long looks at problems that get flattened into a single story. We are not chasing a verdict — we are trying to describe things well enough that people who disagree can both recognise the description.
Essays coming soon
We take no sides, and that is harder than it sounds.
Not neutral in the sense of having no views. We are after something more specific: describing a situation accurately enough that people who disagree with each other can both recognise it.
If a reader who holds the opposite position finishes an essay and says “that is a fair account of what I think”, it has worked. If either side can quote us as support, it probably has not.
01The method
Four cuts, and you cannot skip one
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Name it precisely
Not a category, but the actual thing, in the actual place, at the actual time.
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Find everyone with a stake
Including the people who bear a cost nobody has counted.
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Hold the accounts side by side
The contradiction between them is usually what keeps the problem in place.
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Map the moves and their prices
Not a recommendation. What could be tried, and what it would cost whom.
02What is coming
The first essays are being written.
They are long, and they arrive when they are ready rather than on a schedule. If there is a problem you think we should be looking at, tell us — we read everything.
life.barfi@gmail.com