What Are You Doing Here?

I've delayed writing on this blog for an entire two months. On reflection, this was a bad idea which I will be rectifying at once. 

I delayed in order to compose a suitable first post, a post which would encapsulate the blog's purpose in a pithy manner. After all, Scott Alexander did it. Twice.

I suppose that tips my hand. This is a blog about whatever this blog is about. Probably a mix of rationality, metarationality, amateur philosophy, statistics and cultural commentary. My biggest inspiration in blogging is Scott, followed by David Chapman, Jacob Falkovich, and Robin Hanson. They mark the heights I strive to reach. 

Solomon's Cairn is a partial anagram of my name, Nicolas Roman. In the Hebrew tradition, King Solomon was a wise and mighty monarch, last to rule over his kingdom, and later associated with occultism. A cairn is a pile of stones stacked atop one another, used both to indicate places of ceremonial importance and to mark trails through difficult terrain devoid of natural landmarks. 


This blog is a pile of posts tossed into the same general area, which with good fortune and work may one day be balanced and visible from great distances. 

In Antifragile, Nassim Taleb dubs the teleological fallacy:
you know exactly where you are going, and that you knew exactly where you were going in the past, and that others have succeeded in the past by knowing where they were going.
Which is to say, I don't know where I'm going with this and need literary support to validate myself. Perhaps the purpose of this blog is to create a trail through difficult and unmarked terrain in pursuit of wisdom and/or power. Or maybe it'll wind up being about the occult, I'm leaving my options open. 

Which brings us to the title question. What are you doing here? No end of philosophers have wondered at humanity's place in the universe, and its purpose. At the moment, I'm satisfied with, 'leave the world better than you found it,' and leave further consideration to the professionals. 

I'm talking about you, right now, on this web page. A few possibilities come to mind. You may be one of the blog's early readers sent this link directly by me. Perhaps you were linked to one of my future posts and decided to see where this trainwreck began. You may have come over from my other blog, where I write about much less seriously about tabletop gaming. Or you may have stumbled upon it entirely by accident. 

Writing in the year 2021, we have not yet developed the technology to deliver hot drinks to strangers across the gulfs of time and space. I invite you to pour yourself your comfort beverage of choice, and accept it as a sign of goodwill. Though we may be separated by untold distance, I would have you as a guest here. Be kind to the other guests, watch the furniture, and be free to come and go at your pleasure. 

You stand between two great maws of darkness. One behind you, and one before you. On the path from one to another, I'll do my earnest best to help you as I can. Pass along the favor. 

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