What curing cancer won't fix
Plus: Take your cursor on a little adventure. (#588)
This is David, your web crawler living in an imperfect human body. You're reading the Weekly Filet, the newsletter for curious minds who love it when something makes them go «Huh, I never thought of it this way!». As every Friday, I'm here to help you make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be. It's great to have you.
1. Why is the human body so crap except for the liver?
This piece gave me a new perspective on the human body – and on cancer. The author describes how our bodies appear poorly designed in many ways, more fragile and less regenerative than those of other species. Well, evolution knew what it was doing: rapid cell growth that helps with regeneration is also what drives cancer. So, trade-offs had to be made. If we lived in a universe where cancer were impossible, our bodies would indeed be enormously more regenerative and longer-lasting. And so, to take this one step further: «Even if you don’t get cancer, cancer still hurts you, because your body was forced to take costly preventative actions.» And that also means that even if we one day managed to completely cure cancer, we'd still live in bodies that are optimised for avoiding cancer.
dynomight
2. Daniel Sloss Tells Men to Hold Other Men Accountable
Every time this video starts making the rounds again, it's for a terrible reason. This time: the case of the «Cornell 7». Seven students allegedly drugged and raped a young woman, inviting others to join in a group chat where dozens of men could see what was happening – and nobody intervened. The case is making headlines again after a student newspaper named the seven men, after the university had given them a «slap on the wrist» treatment. So, that's why people are sharing Daniel Sloss' stand-up bit once again. It's only two minutes, but that's all it takes to make a point, emphatically and forcefully.
NowThis Impact
3. 10-Year-Old Children Predict the Future
Who needs prediction markets and superforecasters when you can ask a bunch of kids? Not trying to do the Buzzfeed trick here, but Aubrey McBride really nailed it with her first answer.
4. The Overhang
What Ethan Mollick addresses here is likely to be one of the key challenges with AI in the coming years: the gap between what current AI models are capable of and what most people are using them for is large, and growing. Closing this gap means finding ways to work better with AI by leveraging what Mollik identifies as the four key advantages humans have over AI: deep knowledge, wide knowledge, taste and agency.
Ethan Mollick
5. Cursor Camp
Freshly crowned winner of the 2026 Tiny Awards which celebrate «the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web». Take your cursor on a couple of adventures and see how many of the little surprises in Cursor Camp you can find. Such a joy to play around with.
Dataguessr of the week
Update your knowledge of the world. One quiz at a time. This week:
What else?
Instant-gratification links that make you go wow! or aha! the moment you click.
- If you've got some spare money (and time): try the 12,060-piece Lego set of the Sagrada Família. I guess it's okay if it takes you a century or two to finish.
- Taylor Swift dropped a new single and someone in the Democratic Party's social media team had a brilliant idea.
- Wushu, Teqball, and More: photographs from the 2026 Asian Games.
- Striking chart: how, over the past 15 years, the US has become the world's largest oil producer, by far.
- Okay, kid, I'm slightly impressed: rubber-band-powered airplane that weighs 1.8 grams (!) stays aloft for 22 minutes.
- 🎧 Two Lanes x Sohn - Shaped With Two Hands
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.
Useful mental models, borrowed from the realm of systems and mathematics. Like the previous volumes, with lots of great examples and ideas on how to apply them. Buy it here.
A gem from the archive
David Bauer
The Weekly Filet archive offers more than 3000 hand-picked links since 2011, like this one. You can search by interests, explore collections or shuffle for a gem.
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. I wish you a nice weekend and hope to see you again next Friday!
— David
Little useful apps from me, for you
🇸🇨 Flag Buddy, a learning game for kids. Outsmart, a strategy game, you against the machine. 🌍 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. And ⏱️ One Minute Challenge, a little meaningful distraction to refocus.