Testing My Happy Gene June 18, 2026June 17, 2026 Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail. Perhaps the most depressing book you will ever read. On the plus side: it’s wonderfully short (106 pages). The author argues that it’s basically hopeless, because human nature doesn’t change. Success leads to over-reach and moral decay, which lead to disaster. But what’s the point of buying into that, even if it does seem ever more likely with every news cycle? I have the happy gene. We’re going to win! And maybe Claude will save us. Click that for a three-minute conversation between a human and Claude, which — assuming this is real — turns out to be some combination of poetic, surprising, and profound. Or so it seemed to me. Computing power has sure come a long way since I first played Pong. Or maybe Anthony Scaramucci is right (90 seconds), and Trump’s outrageous depravity will lead to a reckoning and renewal. It happens, he says, every 80 years. BANANA FEEDBACK Richard F.: “What a temptation! Disclosure: The banana is our official household fruit, so I have many thoughts. Bananas Foster: The entire concept needs standardization. We used to frequent the Eddie V in San Diego. Great bananas Foster. Not so for Eddie V in Scottsdale. Different recipe, only OK at best. Banananomics: Free bananas from Amazon. Pricing: A 43:1 ratio.” With regard to Mark P’s Bananas Gabrielle, I’m skeptical. Peeling an exceedingly ripe banana would be something of a challenge!” → Nothing great in life comes easy. EPSTEIN Still nothing? What are they trying to hide? Why doesn’t Congress impeach and convict him for flouting a law that he himself signed that passed Congress just one vote shy of unanimously?