Rob Henderson's Newsletter

1 week ago | robkhenderson.com | Rob Henderson

Experts and elites play fundamentally different games. Misunderstanding this distinction warps how we judge institutions—and who we choose to trust. A few days ago, The Free Press published my Letter to the Editor discussing the difference between experts and elites—an insightful distinction I first encountered on Robin Hanson’s Substack. Here I elaborate on this framework. I’ll be speaking with a certain amount of looseness and generalization.

2 weeks ago | robkhenderson.com | Rob Henderson

The higher up you go, the blurrier things get in terms of rules, customs, etc. At a wage job, you and everyone else knows you’re making $17.25 an hour or whatever. In white-collar roles, pay is a moving target—and you're expected to negotiate, which quietly screens for social fluency. And others generally don’t know how much you’re making. Do powerful people still crave proximity to fame? Rough-and-tumble play is how kids learn about strength, speed, and boundaries.

2 weeks ago | robkhenderson.com | Rob Henderson

This viral tweet triggered lots of arguments about which body type women prefer. Side-by-side are images of singer-songwriter Olly Murs, who underwent a 12 week body transformation. In a poll, women overall preferred the “before” version, where Murs has more of a muscular dad bod. In contrast, men overall said they preferred the “after” version, where Murs has retained his muscularity and leaned out to single-digit body fat.

2 weeks ago | robkhenderson.com | Rob Henderson

From an interview with Jerry Seinfeld:David Remnick: I was once talking to the writer Adrian LeBlanc, who’s been working on a book about comedy, and I asked, “Who are the two smartest comedians about comedy?” I expected her to name two obscurities. And she said you and Chris Rock, because you study it. You’ve been thinking about this; it’s not just a bunch of jokes. Jerry Seinfeld: Yes.

3 weeks ago | robkhenderson.com | Rob Henderson

Matt Ridley’s The Red Queen is one of my favorite books on evolutionary psychology. Even though it came out in the early '90s, about 70% still holds up. That’s the nature of ambitious nonfiction—some of it won’t age well, but it’s worth it for the ideas that do. Discussing my recent post “Is It Ever Okay to Ask a Woman for Her Phone Number?”Revisited something I wrote a year ago about the Bumble founder's idea that AI avatars might date each other before real humans meet. Sounds clever.