Fuck hope. What's the strategy?

This is David, your mostly hopeful human web crawler with a clear strategy to help you make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be. You're reading the Weekly Filet, the newsletter for curious minds who love when something makes them go «Huh, I never thought of it this way!». It's great to have you.

1. How do you convince a room full of influential people to care about climate change… in 6 minutes?

What's not to love about Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a tireless and inspiring advocate for climate action. Asked to speak about hope at an award ceremony, she delivers this banger: «Fuck hope. What's the strategy?»

How do you convince a room full of influential people to care about climate change… in 6 minutes?

Listen now | I won the TIME Earth Award. Here’s what I said.

WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT?Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

If you like what you hear, I can't recommend her books All We Can Save and What If We Get It Right? enough.

2. The AI Doomsday Machine Is Closer to Reality Than You Think

The AI that kills all of humanity makes for great dystopian stories. But it's a distraction from a much more real danger: That those with access to huge arsenals of nuclear weapons are willing to hand over decision power to AI. Chilling analysis with this gem of a sentence: «If you don’t know if an incoming missile has a conventional or nuclear warhead, AI can make a wrong decision — but faster.»

3. The World Turned Upside Down

It's embarrassing, really. The richest nations in the world got rich by burning fossil fuels. And now that it's way past time to fix the mess, they won't lead. As Bill McKibben writes: «If there’s going to be a solution, for now it’s mostly going to come from the poorer nations of the world.» This detail had my jaw drop: Last year, China built so many wind turbines and solar panels, the steel they used for it would have been enough to build a Golden Gate Bridge on every working day of every week that year.

The World Turned Upside Down

The developing world is apparently going to have to do the heavy climate lifting

The Crucial YearsBill McKibben

4. I'm Sick of Hearing About Male Loneliness

Good essay. «Don’t get me wrong—we need to address the epidemic of male loneliness both because it’s a breeding ground for misogyny (and, apparently, fascism) and because our sons deserve better. A patriarchal culture creates a nonexistent binary between the sexes as a way to give men more power, and while it succeeds in that, it weakens everyone.» (...) «The failure to recognize the link between men’s sense of superiority and their own suffering is where I lose patience.»

I’m Sick of Hearing About Male Loneliness

It’s high time for men to adapt

Raising Her VoiceJo-Ann Finkelstein, PhD

5. In Gaza, Home Is Just a Memory

«Home is everything. Everything—safety, comfort. No matter what happened during my day, I always knew I’d come back home.»

In Gaza, Home Is Just a Memory

After the ceasefire, many Palestinians who were displaced during the war are still grieving the homes they can’t return to—and which they often had to evacuate in minutes.

The New YorkerMohammed R. Mhawish

What else?

Instant-gratification links that make you go wow! or aha! the moment you click.

• Now that's how you do dark mode.
• Dataguessr, COP30 edition. Update your knowledge of the (warming) world, one quiz at a time.
• Cartoon: Give peas a chance.
• TIME: 100 Must-Read Books of 2025.
• Royal Family: A fun chess-themed puzzle game you can play without much knowledge of chess.
• This looks like the next series I must watch. Is it as good as everyone says?
• This week I learned that red lightnings that shoot upwards towards the upper atmosphere exist, and they look quite cool.

Books for curious minds

Some new ones as I read them, some older ones that continue to inform how I look at the world and myself.

We have the power to destroy ourselves without the wisdom to ensure that we don't — quite the premise, and an excellent book to zoom all the way out. Buy it here.

A gem from the archive

What Did the Past Smell Like?

I never thought about this: We remember history through artefacts, written and audiovisual documents, but never through smell. This makes sense — odour is hard to preserve over time — but is also somewhat ironic, since smell is the one human sense that most instantly triggers memories. Some interesting reflections on how we «deprive ourselves…

Weekly FiletDavid Bauer

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. I wish you a nice weekend and hope to see you again next Friday!

— David

More ways to learn and take inspiration from

Check my 📚 digital bookshelf, with sections of 🌡️ books that help you make sense of the climate crisis, ⛵ books that make you a better product manager, 🪄 books that help you make sense of AI, and 🧒 books that help you as a parent. And from collecting the best links on the web for close to 15 years, my thematic collections: The Art of Thinking (Differently), The Stuff Our Modern World Runs On, Bingeworthy Podcasts, and more.

Little useful apps from me, for you

📊 Dataguessr, a playful way to update your knowledge of the world. 🌍 You Don't Know Africa, a simple game that has already humbled millions of people. 💯 Choose Impact, an online tool to compare job opportunities. 🧭 Priority Compass, a tool for individuals, teams and organisations to focus your energy on what really matters. 🪄 How I Use AI, a collection of use cases, ready to use and adapt. 💬 Climate Questions, a playful conversation starter. And ⏱️ One Minute Challenge, a little meaningful distraction to refocus.