On being wrong well
To err is human; to err gracefully is a discipline worth a lifetime of practice.
18 min read
Deep time, repair work, and the long cost of empire.
Thomas writes about maintenance — of buildings, of institutions, of the planet — and about the durations the human mind instinctively refuses. He keeps a geologist's calendar and a very short temper for the word 'unprecedented'.
Maintenance, not invention, is what actually holds a shared world together.
18 min read
Geology asks us to imagine durations the human mind instinctively resists.
18 min read
Empires kept meticulous accounts. Read against the grain, they reveal the hidden cost.
18 min read
Maintenance, not invention, is what holds a shared world together.