Good Articles of 2020 (links http://rasmusen.org/special/christmas/2020-articles.htm )

These are articles I discovered in 2020. Some of them were written earlier. The Web has expanded our opportunities to read, but made it hard to know where to find wisdom. I hope this list will help narrow down the search-- and help me remember which articles are worth rereading. There's so much amazing writing talent out there that I wonder--- does the good curator have higher marginal product than the good author?

1. "The Expanding Tyranny of Cant."
Theodore Dalrymple, Law and Liberty (2020). "To cant is to utter moral sentiment far in excess of what is felt or could ever be felt." Cant is the older term for verbal virtue-signaling.

2. "I Should Have Loved Biology."
James Somers, jsomers.net. Biochemistry is all about the shapes of molecules. Somers tells us how to teach someting so it is interesting.

3. "How the Coronavirus Hacks the Immune System."
James Somers (again), The New Yorker (2020). A science essay on T-cells, antibodies, the thymus, and other elements of the immune system.

4. "Epistemic Learned Helplessness."
Scott Alexander, SlateStarCodex (2019). On the problem of taking logical arguments too seriously.

5." You and Your Research."
Richard Hamming, a talk at Bellcore (1986). The best article on the big picture of doing research that I know.

6. "A Science-Based Case for Ending the Porn Epidemic."
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, American Greatness (2019). Pornography changes your brain just as alcohol does. This well-written essay about "something artificial that provides a stimulus that our brains are evolutionarily wired to seek, but at a level way beyond what we are evolutionarily prepared to cope with, wreaking havoc on our brains."

7. "Computer Programming As an Art.''
Donald Knuth, Communications of the ACM (1974). An essay in the style of an after-dinner conference speech about the difference between art and science, and in particular about beauty.

8. "Where Have All the Briskets Gone?"
Daniel Vaughn, Texas Montly (2020). This article shows the coordination and uncertainty in the markets that take beef from farmer to restaurant, with the problems of covid shocks to demand, and makes me admire everyone concerned.

9. "On Political Correctness: Power, Class, and the New Campus Religion,"
William Deresiewicz , The American Scholar (2017). Wise observations on the dogmatism and the fear of being attacked for heresy that pervades college campuses.

10. "Lego Introduces New Sharper Bricks That Instantly Kill You When You Step On Them."
The Babylon Bee (2018). A short humor piece. If you don't know the The Babylon Bee, check it out.