HeyJaredStrong Ideas Held Lightly
A collection of reflections, essays, and general detritus from the mind of Peter Banks.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 19, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 18, 2026
Latest issues
Why I’m Agnostic (opens the original)
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I wanted to sit down today and talk a little bit about why I’m agnostic. The short version is that every definition of Divinity I can comport with my subjective experience, or Nature as I understand it, implies little. Similarly, although there is inexhaustible evidence of sincere belief, from testimonies to martyrdom, I have no way of adjudicating which of these contradictory and conflicting beliefs are true, and I similarly have no ability to access—by definition—the internal subjective experi
Reflections on the state of California (opens the original)
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This past weekend I was in California again for a work trip with Boyd and today I wanted to write down my reflections from that trip.For some context, I lived in Palo Alto for ~3 years from September 2022 through June 2025 when I moved back to Northern Virginia, where I had gone to undergrad. Going back was informative in a whole variety of ways — about myself, the state, and the nation. The shortest version of this article is as the subtitle suggests. California is expensive for a reason, the M
Symbols, spelling, and other types of magic (opens the original)
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One of my favorite historical stories took place during the Spanish conquest of the Americas. As the tale goes, the Incan emperor, Atahualpa, who was being held captive by the Spanish in exchange for an enormous ransom, learned about writing. Since Atahualpa was skeptical, he had a Spaniard write the word Dios on his thumbnail. He then showed his thumbnail to Spaniard after Spaniard, who were all able to perfectly tell him the meaning of the word.Whether or not it happened exactly this way doesn
We are the Soviets in 1972 (opens the original)
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<img alt="Vintage USSR space propaganda poster | The Planetary Society" class="sizing-normal" height="630" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!7epg!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%
My ranking of US Presidents (opens the original)
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Now that I have finished querying the community for their ranking of US Presidents, and can optimally pander to my audience, it is my turn to judge them all.I’m going to warn you before we set sail: this will be a perilous and somewhat dubious journey, made all the worse by the merciless gunfire of my opinion. It will also be a long article so buckle in.If all you wanted was the tier list here you go:<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iRl0!
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