Last year, I went on a quest to rate of review all of my blog posts from 2019 and write them up as one giant blog post. This was inspired by a series called N Hundred and Counting (One Hundred and Counting, Two Hundred and Counting, and so on–the most recent is Nine Hundred and Counting) by Mark Rosewater, the Head Designer for Magic: The Gathering. In it, he would look back at each of his last hundred articles, linking it, rating it from one to five, and providing a short description.
I've always found it to be a super useful resource when going through the archive of his Magic-related articles, and wanted to do a similar thing for Chromatic Conflux last year. It's particularly relevant here because Wix's interface is rather annoying for that. However, making it felt a bit like a slog, and it ended up being three parts. This year, I'm going to go for brevity–skipping the star rating, with hopefully more condensed commentary on each one. Therefore, my goal is to do this in only one part. Still, it's my longest blog post to date.
Anyway, if you're looking to catch up on old blog posts, this will be your guide! You don't have to get through this all in one sitting–what I think is more important is that you take time to read the articles that sound interesting, and not just speed through to the end. Anyway, let's do this!
To give Aubrey one last hurrah, I'm doing something never before done in her entire life, taking and submitting to you a photograph of her corpse.
The Conflux last year was good! It did what it was supposed to do, which was to comprehensively review each blog post that I had written. I disagree with a few of the star ratings, but overall, nothing to write home about. I did find myself clicking on old blog posts from 2019 that I hadn't read in awhile, but lots of that ahead. Don't want to burn myself out too fast.
A Study in Secret Auction (January 28)
The final pawns had been traded off: the game-theoretical fun times were fantabulous.
I love reading these sorts of posts! I suppose the target audience for Chromatic Conflux is and has always been myself, and so it's natural that I'll be a fan of posts I've previously written. I think this one is written in a way that might be confusing to people who aren't interested in game theory-type stuff, but I found it interesting!
The Iowa Caucuses (February 4)
This post is just as much a mess as the Iowa caucuses.
This was the week of the Iowa caucuses, and there wasn't much else on my mind. The caucuses were scheduled for a Monday, which meant I had to incorporate the results in the post. The caucuses ended up being a total mess, and the post reflected that–prewritten and day-of and day-after stuff is mixed together in some giant hodgepodge. But as the quote says, just as much a mess as the Iowa caucuses themselves.
The Electoral College Is More Complicated Than That (February 11)
I wanted to know more about who the Electoral College actually gives the edge to. The answer isn't "Republicans" or even "Democrats."
It's a good post, and I think it does a good job of combatting the mythology that the Electoral College exclusively helps Republicans. With that said, in the 2020 election the Electoral College definitely helped the Republican party out–Trump had not a chance of winning the popular vote but came a little too close for comfort to winning the electoral vote. The Electoral College's absurd bias doesn't even come close to the Senate's, though.
Convinced Conviction (February 18)
When Jane Goodall's taxi driver realized, deep down, that animal rights was a legitimate cause, he had a choice to make. Concede the argument, or continue his stand.
Convinced conviction is a great term, and definitely a useful thing for me to think about in arguments and other disputes. It's good! If you're looking for posts to read, this might be one of them. It has an extended quote from Jane Goodall's recent book at the beginning, and that's also a really nice piece of prose, so there's that.
Sanders Ignores the Small-Picture (February 25)
"So no, I will not be voting for this agreement, although it makes some modest improvements." –Sen. Bernie Sanders
Another of my ever-so-present snapshot-of-a-moment-in-time political editorials. This one talks about Bernie Sanders' inability to compromise. I guess it's a bit ironic that we ended up with Joe Biden, the ultimate compromise.
Joe Biden is Back, Folks (March 3)
The party is–actually!–consolidating behind a Sanders alternative...And you know what? He's not so bad.
This one's even more of a snapshot. I was really just excited that Sanders had descended from a decently strong frontrunner to a weak second place in such a short period of time. And also Biden gave a nice speech. Overall, do I still think Biden'll be good per se? No, I think Biden'll be merely okay. But this post is written by the optimist in me.
Authenticity (March 10)
The post would have two threads, one going through the content I wanted to express and the other highlighting the behind-the-scenes narrative, and they would gradually start connecting as the post went on: a conflux of threads intertwining harmoniously to explain the full story.
Possibly my favorite blog post. It has a very poetic style and connects various anecdotes about authenticity with my inner dialogue on the subject. Honestly, I'll let it speak for itself. Go read it! You'll love it. Or not. In any case, I love it.
2020 Senate Race Guide #2 (March 17)
And when you consider that Senate races are correlated–that is, a victory in one state makes winning another likelier–it's a seriously close race.
I guess now is a good time to talk about calibration. My writeups were pretty good, but I made checkable forecasts for how the Senate races would turn out: were they right? I'll look at the calibration of my predictions soon! (That is, how often were they correct?) But I don't want to let this post get too long, so not now.
2020 Gubernatorial Race Guide (March 24)
Reasonable Republicans are becoming an endangered species in the Trump era, but I think [Jon Huntsman] is an example, so I endorse him for Governor of Utah. (So there, my zero Utah readers, you have your decision.)
More of the same, except I wrote a weird few paragraphs about how great Jon Huntsman was.
Election Day is my Super Bowl.
The Applications Collection is taken directly from my applications for stuff, and it's edited, so it's actually good and you should read it. However, I do cringe a bit at the sentence "Election Day is my Super Bowl," which feels a bit callous to me today.
Too often, society makes math about computation, when it should be about exploration.
Me talking about why math is great and cool? Why not! It's for an application; it's well-written, why wouldn't it be? Also, a long footnote describing my solution to the Four Fours Problem. Go read it!
17. Look back at the number of reasons there are to love 17: 17. And the number of this reason: 17. This can't be a coincidence - we are forced to conclude that the number 17 abounds in nature!
Miscellany: a mostly sarcastic description of why 17 is the best number; a nice two paragraphs about why I enjoy playing the piano; a bit about single-sex schools; and some quotes that I happened to like.
The Wrong Tapestry Effect (April 21)
I've done this so much, haven't I, abandoned things because they didn't turn out right the first time.
This post has two parts: a short story I wrote about Anatolia and her wrong tapestry, and some more standard paragraphs about how that story is relevant to real life. I'm really proud of how this turned out! It was the first "me talking" post I wrote since the Before Time, and I think it came out great. The Wrong Tapestry Effect really was a big thing on my mind at the time, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't still impact me now to an extent.
Conquering Capsules (April 28)
Before we move on, this principle is so important that it has a name–Jacob's rule. It has two main forms, as illustrated in the diagrams below.
"Conquering Capsules" is a walkthrough of a solve of a Capsules puzzle, where I explained in depth the logic necessary at each step. The post was somewhat popular, but it has a glaring omission (that I just edited in at the end): the fact that it doesn't mention Capsules' more common name, Suguru. In its claim that Capsules puzzles are hard to find on the internet, it is correct if you search for "Capsules" but incorrect if you search for "Suguru." In any case, it also comes with a pack of six Capsules puzzles. Puzzles for Progress foreshadowing much?
Happy Minutes (May 5)
Greetings! This isn't really a post so much as a link to another thing I made. Specifically, a Google Form designed to (a) take just a few minutes, and (b) make whoever takes it happier.
This is, in fact, not really a post so much as a link to another thing I made. The link is tinyurl.com/happyminutes. The form does, in fact, make you happier. You should do it!
Poetic Anthology #2 (May 12)
–I was going to say, it’s the thorns that make the roses beautiful–
I write poems for myself sometimes, and on two occasions I published a collection to my blog because I didn't have anything to write that week. I don't really think they're that great objectively, but, like, it's here if you want it?
History has many examples of ill-fated presidential candidates getting picked for VP–for instance, Joe Biden himself.
Another political post frozen in time. Parts of it aged well, other parts didn't. For instance, I had Harris as the frontrunner; she was ultimately picked. I do need to do a post-mortem sometime on the 2020 election results and the concept of electability in general. Like, I wrote a post in 2019 called "Don't Settle for Biden" and another called "Klobuchar is Super Effective." They said a bunch of stuff, but one of the main theses was "electability is stupid and sexist and racist and pointless and irrelevant." Which I don't think is entirely true anymore, based on the fact that...Biden didn't win by that much! Anyway, I'll save this commentary for another time. Maybe my calibration post.
Addenda (June 2)
I don't have one big thing to say today, but I thought I'd go back through my archive and write addenda for an assortedry* of posts desirous of followup.
Not totally sure what the point of this all is. Heavily miscellaneous. I mean it's not like it's horrific; it is a bunch of words collected in sentences, which are themselves collected in paragraphs, but what are the paragraphs collected in? This.
The Peach (June 9)
Eating that peach would provide the beautiful, cathartic solace that rendered void the prudent thing to do.
I wrote a short story! I'm pretty happy with how this one came out. I used to write a decent amount of fiction for fiction's sake, but as of late I haven't been doing that very much. So it was a surprise when I was able to finish writing "The Peach"–I wasn't sure my interest would continue enough for me to steward it to completion. Like the non-notorious (fairly stupid) unfinished "Natalia," which I serialized on my blog for the express intent of incenting myself to finish it. Of course, I didn't. It's not that great, by the way. But "The Peach" is good!
The 435 Project (June 16)
I wanted to make a similar map for the House of Representatives. Yes, there are population maps for that, but I haven't seen any that fits it to a grid.
For this post, I made cartograms of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives! It's a curated post, and I haven't released a better post on Chromatic Conflux since. I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you have any interest at all in American elections! I'm really proud of it.
To give you an idea of what it's like, here are the maps of the Senate and House, updated for the 2020 elections:
I'll be honest: on Election Day this year, I printed out a map of the Senate–just like this–with all the 2020 elections blank, to be colored in using a Sharpie. While Democrats didn't do as well as I'd hoped, I was happy with how the map looked afterward. Look at all the solid colors! Especially in the West–mapwize, Arizona was a really good election for the Democrats to win. (Maine would have been good as well.) But, for instance, winning Texas or South Carolina–not at all longshots–or the second Montana seat or whatnot would've made the map a bit less aesthetically nice. The Georgia runoffs are, of course, today as this post goes live, thus the purple in Georgia. Now, the House map (with no commentary from me):
Guess What Americans Think (June 23)
Each of these questions was asked to hundreds of American adults in a professional poll. Your task: to guess the most common answer.
I'm not really sure I believe in Guess What Americans Think anymore, or whether polls are accurate enough to be fun. But, looking back, the questions I picked for this post were somewhat interesting, so I don't think it's a bad post exactly. Check it out!
"Shame upon the guilty wretches that dare propose, and all the countenance such a proposition." –Frederick Douglass
For this post, I waded into the annals of history to answer a simple question: why is Liberia's capital named after a US president? The answer lies in the story of the American Colonization Society, which wanted to free slaves by evacuating them to Africa. Not exactly the normal fare on my blog, but still decent.
Announcing: PUZZLES for PROGRESS (July 7)
Each puzzle page contains three completely homemade puzzles that you can print out and enjoy. There are a large variety of puzzle types, including the ubiquitous crossword, the fan-favorite Capsules, the unique Overwrite, and more.
I still wrote a couple more regularly scheduled weekly blog posts after this one, but my days were numbered once my content-creation energy went towards Puzzles for Progress. Which is a fine trade, honestly! I'm still working on it; there are now an insane 27 puzzle pages in the archive, if you're interested. It's located at tinyurl.com/puzzlesforprogress,
The Federalist Papers (July 14)
That was immediately reverted, so I tried a milder edit. I put in the Genius lyrics page for Non-Stop as an inline citation.
Very light-anecdote. Rather pointless, in fact. It's about the Wikipedia page for the Federalist Papers, if you want to give it a read. More foreshadowing of what would come two weeks later.
Should Presidents Be Elected? (July 21)
People do have some ability to judge a potential leader. Maybe.
"Should Presidents Be Elected?" was inspired by a Revisionist History podcast I listened to that essentially suggested that elections are useless and leaders (among other things) should be chosen by lottery. I wanted to test this, so I compared the historical rankings of US presidents against their margin of victory. I did find a noticeable correlation. Which is reassuring!
Tuesdaily Is No More (July 28)
A post to say goodbye to the weekly posting I had maintained for nearly a year and a half on Chromatic Conflux. (With only one exception, when I was camping in mid-2019–now, it's possible to schedule blog posts, but that wasn't true then.) When Puzzles for Progress came along, either that or the blog had to go, and if I remember correctly, PfP's subscriber count had already far exceeded Chromatic Conflux. It was a logical decision. But I'm still happy with all this blog has achieved.
As well as all it achieved in the second half of 2020. After this post went up, it was a bit over a month before the next post, and a bit over a month before the next one after that. However, I think that's probably going to be the high end for post spacing. It'll be more of an ebb and flow in the future–I won't hold myself as tightly to deadlines. The posts will come when the posts come. And in that respect, "Tuesdaily Is No More" was right.
A Better Way to Monarchy (September 8)
Monarchs can spend their time attending ribbon cuttings and and galas, while the actual politicians can work on how best to serve the people. You know, that important stuff.
Ah, this was from the week or so that I was randomly obsessed with ceremonial monarchy. You can't explain interest, I suppose. This post is about average-quality in my opinion, all things considered.
Based on History, Biden Will Probably Run Again (November 10)
If a president didn't commit to ruling out reelection, they ran for reelection! Politicians love power.
This post describes why Joe Biden will probably run for reelection in 2024, when he'll turn 82. I didn't just make this up based on analysis–I looked back at all the past presidents and whether they ran for reelection. This post tells the stories of the presidents with interesting reelection stories, and connects it to the case of Biden.
By the way, I prewrote this post a couple weeks before the election. I looked over it quickly before publication (after the election). All I remember deleting was the sentence alluding to the Democratic landslide in 2020 :(
Puzzle Survey Results! (December 8)
I've always considered it to be a solid team player, sure, but not a superstar–which is why this result surprised me! But the data has spoken, and I shall listen.
I wasn't 100% sure about posting this to Chromatic Conflux, since it's really Puzzles for Progress content at heart. (I did cross-post it there as well.) But if you're also a fan of PfP (which you should be) check this post out.
2021: The Year of Attention (December 7)
"Stuck in a queue, what to do? Well, if it's the Year of Reading, why not open the book, instead of opening the anything else? That's it: you were at a branch and went one way instead of the other." –CGP Grey, "Your Theme"
About my new yearly theme for 2021! It's going great so far, but I'm not nearly far in enough to make a conclusion. I plan revisit this towards the end of the year.
That's A Wrap
You've read all the way to the end! I hope you discovered a few blog posts you liked from 2020 that you hadn't seen previously. Or if you did read 'em all as they released, sometimes it's good to reread! I wrote all these posts, and I really appreciate going back over them. I often joke that the target audience of Chromatic Conflux is clones of myself, and...well, the future version of myself is a bit like a clone, right? TL;DR: Hi Future Jacob!
Anyway, this was 2020. If you want to continue your look back in Chromatic Conflux history, here's another link to Part 1 of the 2019 edition of The Conflux. More exciting things to come in 2021!
–beautifulthorns