Thanks to both of you for the writing. I came here (I think via Arnold Kling) and stayed after reading Tove's Feminism is Just an Ape Alliance. It might be obvious on the face of it, but it wasn't for me at all. It was the most startling thing I've read for at least at year if not longer. I don't think I've shared anything above a meme more than I have that post. I was sold immediately after I finished reading. All the other posts have been excellent as well - from automating your spring-time bed lids to picky women are not... Thanks very, very much.
I see I'm late to this post and the comments here. I want to say how much I appreciate the time, effort and thought put into your posts for the little material return you get. With none from me except the occasional comment.
I landed here first when a link was posted in the Marginal Revolution blog (Tove's one that blew up on Hacker News, I suspect) and I am subscribed because I find Tove's posts insightful and astute. Certainly deserving of an audience. I'd be very interested in her thoughts on child rearing and Anders, for that matter, about being a father and husband on a very modest income, but perhaps that is content to be paid for.
It used to be free, and I think it has general interest, but Tove paywalled it as soon as the option became available in order not to flaunt our poverty too openly (think about the children and all that).
I take it you have the new house closed in now (I recall Tove recently mentioning windows and requirements for internal painting). When our kids (they hadn't all arrived) were young we moved in to our house before it was finished. It was something like 2 years later before we got the Certificate of Completion issued. Local Authorities have tightened up since then.
I highly appreciate the knowledge, original thoughts and anecdotes you share with us in your posts. And the casual atmosphere in both posts and comments.
I like your blog and I don't mind at all your slow pace of writing. Quality is better that quantity. If you are happier pushing out few insightful posts in a year than a lot of shallow writing in a month - so be it.
I do that with some blogs too; honestly for me subscribing is usually an option I choose for smaller blogs to encourage them along. Even liking a post is often the same; it's hard for me to fathom why people like a post that has over a thousand likes
I've remarked to myself that the two of you showcase two gendered flavors of 'spergy' in a way that's charming in a married couple. You both conform nicely to the sex stereotypes in presentation, too. Given that you surely don't let your kids play minecraft it would fascinating to meet them and see how they talk in the absence of that lingua franca.
Anyhow, I've shared Tove's posts on several occasions - every time to women (the posts on worriers and warriors, and on fertility). If those exact articles had been scrubbed of any reference to the author(ess)'s feminity and published under a male pseudonym, I wouldn't have shared them at all -- i'd have paraphrased them. Instead I said "here's what this swedish wife and mother thinks about [...]".
I hope your female friends appreciate the posts you share with them from here. I'm feeling that we have comparatively few female readers. Maybe that is an inevitable consequence of the sperginess.
And I'm working on convincing people that I really am a wife and mother.
I am a bit surprised that you believe our kids do not play Minecraft. In fact, it is about the only computer game they play. This is somewhat planned, since we have consciously only bought them second-hand computers that simply do not allow the newest and fanciest games. Sometimes I try to persuade them to play old classics like Civ2 or Age of Empires, but they usually revert back to Minecraft quite quickly.
Second-hand computers will run it just fine. I have contributed to it a little bit, and the Freeciv project administrator, Marko Lindqvist, is Finnish.
I (for one) quite enjoy Anders’ contributions! When Tove posts something, I know that I'll generally nod along with her take on things, get to watch an interesting discussion in the comments, mull it over for several hours, and then debate all points raised with my husband over dinner. She's very much writing for a conversation. Anders-posts tend to be more for reading quietly with tea and absorbing new and interesting information. You two are a good team.
You guys are great. Both of you. Anders reminds me of a guy I worked with long ago who was by far the quietest of my colleagues; however, reliably, once a year we'd gather for an office Christmas party, and then he would shine. While everyone was relaxing and enjoying an unusual beer or wine during working hours, the familiar din of relaxed small-talk would begin to arise. I don't know if it was necessary for him to have this cover, or if I myself was just in a more receptive mood such that I could actually hear what he was saying, but as people would gradually grow more boisterous and jovial and frankly, more mundane, he would remain patiently engaged, never changing the tone or timber of his voice, and start delivering the most insightful, dry and witty observations about us and the world at large. It was kind of amazing, because while the louder among us would tell fun stories or make obvious, over jokes and be rewarded by general laughter from the group. Chris's comments would seemingly go completely unnoticed by everyone but me. I would literally choke on my drink because of laughter and delight. Everyone liked Chris but no one seemed to appreciate him. Perhaps he liked it that way, but I do look back and wish that I had been more direct about how much I enjoyed his presence, so let me not allow a similar situation to go by unremarked. Thank you. Both of you. And keep your paltry contributions coming, Anders.
Thank you for writing. I am surprised that the overlap between your readership and Arnold Kling's _In My Tribe_ isn't larger, given that he has linked to articles here in his 'links to consider' more than a few times. Figuring out where subscribers find out that there is something worth reading here seems to be a hard problem.
We have Arnold to thank for much of the growth of the last year. There should be some substantial overlap with his blog too, but unfortunately the list we get from a Substack is not more detailed than the one Anders published.
We also get some occasional traffic from HackerNews. There people tend to think that I'm a male incel. I changed my profile picture in an attempt to counter that image.
Lorenzo Warby thought you were male, too. I wonder why 'Tove' isn't one of those foreign names that the English speaking world hasn't grabbed in its relentless quest to give children more 'interesting' first names?
Apparently no Tove has made it enough into international fame for English speakers to know that 'Tove' is an exclusively female name. So my guess is that it is just an unknown name for most people. Also, those four letters hold it's fair share of the particularities of the Swedish language. English speaking parents looking for something special will also have to invent a suitable pronounciation, because the original one is useless outside Scandinavia.
What do you mean "the original one is useless outside of Scandinavia?" It's the most obvious pronunciation: [tovə], rhyming with "Clove a" (garlic). I mean I get that the silent e at the end is pronounced which could throw people off, but if you're a dyslexic 2nd grade English speaker this one is for you.
People click a link, listen to some music, the YouTube algorithm brings them to some more music, and they don't click away. I've left my computer on for an hour with the volume off and returned to find I'd just "viewed" twelve pages on YouTube.
I would have thought that the Moomins would have brought enough attention to the name, but betting against my knowledge of international culture trends is a pretty safe bet, so ....
This is a fine piece for an excellent substack, often talking about important things in ways that are true but often not said.
My favorite stack is Arnold Kling, who quotes Tove sometimes, tho Rob H. Is also doing a lot of links while writing short, smart posts.
I love your blog. I hope you both keep finding thoughts worth sharing with the rest of us.
This is my favorite substack. I came for the anthropology, stayed for the charming stories of the lives you are building.
Thanks to both of you for the writing. I came here (I think via Arnold Kling) and stayed after reading Tove's Feminism is Just an Ape Alliance. It might be obvious on the face of it, but it wasn't for me at all. It was the most startling thing I've read for at least at year if not longer. I don't think I've shared anything above a meme more than I have that post. I was sold immediately after I finished reading. All the other posts have been excellent as well - from automating your spring-time bed lids to picky women are not... Thanks very, very much.
I see I'm late to this post and the comments here. I want to say how much I appreciate the time, effort and thought put into your posts for the little material return you get. With none from me except the occasional comment.
I landed here first when a link was posted in the Marginal Revolution blog (Tove's one that blew up on Hacker News, I suspect) and I am subscribed because I find Tove's posts insightful and astute. Certainly deserving of an audience. I'd be very interested in her thoughts on child rearing and Anders, for that matter, about being a father and husband on a very modest income, but perhaps that is content to be paid for.
Actually, the low income thing is content to be paid for:
https://woodfromeden.substack.com/p/on-the-experience-of-being-dirt-poorish
It used to be free, and I think it has general interest, but Tove paywalled it as soon as the option became available in order not to flaunt our poverty too openly (think about the children and all that).
I remember reading it.
I take it you have the new house closed in now (I recall Tove recently mentioning windows and requirements for internal painting). When our kids (they hadn't all arrived) were young we moved in to our house before it was finished. It was something like 2 years later before we got the Certificate of Completion issued. Local Authorities have tightened up since then.
I highly appreciate the knowledge, original thoughts and anecdotes you share with us in your posts. And the casual atmosphere in both posts and comments.
I like your blog and I don't mind at all your slow pace of writing. Quality is better that quantity. If you are happier pushing out few insightful posts in a year than a lot of shallow writing in a month - so be it.
You also have regular readers like me who are not subscribers.
I'm also that kind of blog reader. In general I don't subscribe to blogs that post frequently.
I do that with some blogs too; honestly for me subscribing is usually an option I choose for smaller blogs to encourage them along. Even liking a post is often the same; it's hard for me to fathom why people like a post that has over a thousand likes
I've remarked to myself that the two of you showcase two gendered flavors of 'spergy' in a way that's charming in a married couple. You both conform nicely to the sex stereotypes in presentation, too. Given that you surely don't let your kids play minecraft it would fascinating to meet them and see how they talk in the absence of that lingua franca.
Anyhow, I've shared Tove's posts on several occasions - every time to women (the posts on worriers and warriors, and on fertility). If those exact articles had been scrubbed of any reference to the author(ess)'s feminity and published under a male pseudonym, I wouldn't have shared them at all -- i'd have paraphrased them. Instead I said "here's what this swedish wife and mother thinks about [...]".
I hope your female friends appreciate the posts you share with them from here. I'm feeling that we have comparatively few female readers. Maybe that is an inevitable consequence of the sperginess.
And I'm working on convincing people that I really am a wife and mother.
I am a bit surprised that you believe our kids do not play Minecraft. In fact, it is about the only computer game they play. This is somewhat planned, since we have consciously only bought them second-hand computers that simply do not allow the newest and fanciest games. Sometimes I try to persuade them to play old classics like Civ2 or Age of Empires, but they usually revert back to Minecraft quite quickly.
I was also a big fan of Civ2 back in the day. You might be interested in the current free software "clone" version called Freeciv -
http://freeciv.org/
Second-hand computers will run it just fine. I have contributed to it a little bit, and the Freeciv project administrator, Marko Lindqvist, is Finnish.
I (for one) quite enjoy Anders’ contributions! When Tove posts something, I know that I'll generally nod along with her take on things, get to watch an interesting discussion in the comments, mull it over for several hours, and then debate all points raised with my husband over dinner. She's very much writing for a conversation. Anders-posts tend to be more for reading quietly with tea and absorbing new and interesting information. You two are a good team.
You write good stuff. Upgrading!
You guys are great. Both of you. Anders reminds me of a guy I worked with long ago who was by far the quietest of my colleagues; however, reliably, once a year we'd gather for an office Christmas party, and then he would shine. While everyone was relaxing and enjoying an unusual beer or wine during working hours, the familiar din of relaxed small-talk would begin to arise. I don't know if it was necessary for him to have this cover, or if I myself was just in a more receptive mood such that I could actually hear what he was saying, but as people would gradually grow more boisterous and jovial and frankly, more mundane, he would remain patiently engaged, never changing the tone or timber of his voice, and start delivering the most insightful, dry and witty observations about us and the world at large. It was kind of amazing, because while the louder among us would tell fun stories or make obvious, over jokes and be rewarded by general laughter from the group. Chris's comments would seemingly go completely unnoticed by everyone but me. I would literally choke on my drink because of laughter and delight. Everyone liked Chris but no one seemed to appreciate him. Perhaps he liked it that way, but I do look back and wish that I had been more direct about how much I enjoyed his presence, so let me not allow a similar situation to go by unremarked. Thank you. Both of you. And keep your paltry contributions coming, Anders.
Thank you for writing. I am surprised that the overlap between your readership and Arnold Kling's _In My Tribe_ isn't larger, given that he has linked to articles here in his 'links to consider' more than a few times. Figuring out where subscribers find out that there is something worth reading here seems to be a hard problem.
We have Arnold to thank for much of the growth of the last year. There should be some substantial overlap with his blog too, but unfortunately the list we get from a Substack is not more detailed than the one Anders published.
We also get some occasional traffic from HackerNews. There people tend to think that I'm a male incel. I changed my profile picture in an attempt to counter that image.
Well, I for one found Kling through WoodFromEden...
Apparently, it goes both ways! But I guess you are the exception.
Lorenzo Warby thought you were male, too. I wonder why 'Tove' isn't one of those foreign names that the English speaking world hasn't grabbed in its relentless quest to give children more 'interesting' first names?
Apparently no Tove has made it enough into international fame for English speakers to know that 'Tove' is an exclusively female name. So my guess is that it is just an unknown name for most people. Also, those four letters hold it's fair share of the particularities of the Swedish language. English speaking parents looking for something special will also have to invent a suitable pronounciation, because the original one is useless outside Scandinavia.
What do you mean "the original one is useless outside of Scandinavia?" It's the most obvious pronunciation: [tovə], rhyming with "Clove a" (garlic). I mean I get that the silent e at the end is pronounced which could throw people off, but if you're a dyslexic 2nd grade English speaker this one is for you.
>>What do you mean "the original one is useless outside of Scandinavia?"
There is some pitch-accent thing in it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch-accent_language
>>if you're a dyslexic 2nd grade English speaker this one is for you
I'm happy to hear that!
You should not flaunt your ignorance of popular culture so openly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYM-RJwSGQ8
(Note: that is billions of viewings, not millions).
Huh. I'd heard the first few seconds of that in memes I think, never heard the song. Crazy.
People click a link, listen to some music, the YouTube algorithm brings them to some more music, and they don't click away. I've left my computer on for an hour with the volume off and returned to find I'd just "viewed" twelve pages on YouTube.
I would have thought that the Moomins would have brought enough attention to the name, but betting against my knowledge of international culture trends is a pretty safe bet, so ....