Jeff's Blog

In the last article we learned that about one-third of U.S. adults now read, calculate, and problem-solve at a middle-school level , while fewer than half reach the level where solid critical thinking begins. That widening brain gap explains much of today’s headline politics: when voters struggle to weigh evidence, punch-lines beat policy and the pool of serious candidates grows shallow. Now a new force steps onto the stage— generative AI . Will it become a tool that lifts millions into higher-reasoning territory, or a rumor mill that pours gasoline on every grievance? To frame that question, we’ll borrow the double portrait Charles Dickens painted in A Tale of Two Cities . Setting the Stage “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” —Charles Dickens,  A Tale of Two Cities Published in 1859 but set between  1775 and 1793 , the novel contrasts  Paris , which unravels into mob violence and the Reign of Terror, with  London , which (for all its flaws) c...

Have you noticed—regardless of whether you lean left, right, or somewhere in between—that a surprising number of public officials no longer strike us as the sharpest minds in the room? Some seem proudly unversed in basic policy, some treat fact-checking as optional, and a few appear to view elective office as little more than a stage for showmanship. Some mornings, the headlines read less like coverage of a functioning government in DC and more like a cafeteria food-fight report from the local middle school, complete with taunting and name-calling.  That uneasy sense—“How did that candidate get the job?”—isn’t just dinner-table grumbling. It points to a deeper shift in the nation’s reasoning skills, one that shows up in hard data and may explain why campaigns built on slogans and spectacle so often out­perform those built on sober analysis. The decline permeates the whole system, thinning the talent pool from which parties draw their candidates and dulling the judgment of the vote...