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The Ruffian

@ianleslie.skystack.xyz

7 followers 0 following 77 posts

Ian Leslie picks out the most important, interesting and beautiful signals from the noise. This is an automated Substack Account of ianleslie.substack.com Discover more/Create at: @skystack.xyz

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 27/09/2026

New Podcast: Is AI Really Going To Kill Us All? • A Sceptical Look at AI’s Existential Risk With the Philosopher Dan Williams

New Podcast: Is AI Really Going To Kill Us All?

A Sceptical Look at AI’s Existential Risk With the Philosopher Dan Williams

The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 26/09/2026

Why Is the Left So Bad at Education? • Lessons From the Story of Nikole Hannah-Jones and Her Daughter

Why Is the Left So Bad at Education?

Lessons From the Story of Nikole Hannah-Jones and Her Daughter

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 19/09/2026

Why Does Every Society Invent the Same Things? • Cultural Traditions As Technologies For Giving Us What We Want

Why Does Every Society Invent the Same Things?

Cultural Traditions As Technologies For Giving Us What We Want

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 12/09/2026

Seven Rules of Good Conversation • Or At Least of Avoiding Bad Conversation

Seven Rules of Good Conversation

Or At Least of Avoiding Bad Conversation

The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 05/09/2026

Why I Won’t Reply To Your AI-Generated Email • The Email Exchange That Radicalised Me

Why I Won’t Reply To Your AI-Generated Email

The Email Exchange That Radicalised Me

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 29/08/2026

Why Introverts Make the Best Extroverts • Thoughts Inspired By Reading (About) Emmanuel Carrère. Plus a Glorious Rattle Bag.

Why Introverts Make the Best Extroverts

Thoughts Inspired By Reading (About) Emmanuel Carrère. Plus a Glorious Rattle Bag.

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 22/08/2026

Politics Is Making Academia Stupid • On Our Self-Lobotomising Universities

Politics Is Making Academia Stupid

On Our Self-Lobotomising Universities

The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 15/08/2026

Einstein, Churchill, and AI • What LLMs Can't Do

Einstein, Churchill, and AI

What LLMs Can't Do

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 01/08/2026

The Last Lunch • A Short Story

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 25/07/2026

Young Churchill • Twentieth Century Victorian

Young Churchill

Twentieth Century Victorian

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 18/07/2026

Dear Me, England • What England's Defeat Tells Us About the Mysterious Power of Culture

Dear Me, England

What England's Defeat Tells Us About the Mysterious Power of Culture

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 11/07/2026

Anatomy of a 'F*ck You' • Male Banter and Obscene Contact

Anatomy of a 'F*ck You'

Male Banter and Obscene Contact

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 06/07/2026

Happy John and Paul Day • One of the Great Photographs of the Twentieth Century

Happy John and Paul Day

One of the Great Photographs of the Twentieth Century

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 04/07/2026

Notes on Acquired Taste • Why Do We Make an Effort To Like Things?

Notes on Acquired Taste

Why Do We Make an Effort To Like Things?

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 21/06/2026

Pod: Part II of My Conversation With Benedict Evans • The Business of AI, National Sovereignty and Life As an Independent Analyst

Pod: Part II of My Conversation With Benedict Evans

The Business of AI, National Sovereignty and Life As an Independent Analyst

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 20/06/2026

Andy Burnham Is Going To Be Yet Another Terrible Prime Minister • And Nobody Wants To Admit It

Andy Burnham Is Going To Be Yet Another Terrible Prime Minister

And Nobody Wants To Admit It

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 19/06/2026

PODCAST: How To Think About AI and Jobs • An Interview With My Favourite Tech Analyst, Benedict Evans

PODCAST: How To Think About AI and Jobs

An Interview With My Favourite Tech Analyst, Benedict Evans

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 13/06/2026

5 Ways That 'Active Listening' Can Backfire • The Perils of Listening Well

5 Ways That 'Active Listening' Can Backfire

The Perils of Listening Well

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 06/06/2026

The Petty Status-Seeking of Great Geniuses • Velázquez, Shakespeare, Michelangelo

The Petty Status-Seeking of Great Geniuses

Velázquez, Shakespeare, Michelangelo

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 01/06/2026

Labour Isn't Thinking • The Real Point of Blair's Essay

Labour Isn't Thinking

The Real Point of Blair's Essay

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 30/05/2026

All the Photos I Couldn't Use For JOHN & PAUL • Part I of an Occasional Series

All the Photos I Couldn't Use For JOHN & PAUL

Part I of an Occasional Series

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 23/05/2026

Why Writers Should Use AI More • Two Literary Screw-Ups That Could Easily Have Been Avoided

Why Writers Should Use AI More

Two Literary Screw-Ups That Could Easily Have Been Avoided

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 19/05/2026

NEW POD: Cass Sunstein On The Politics of The Beatles • What the Beatles and Dylan Tell Us About Liberalism

NEW POD: Cass Sunstein On The Politics of The Beatles

What the Beatles and Dylan Tell Us About Liberalism

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 16/05/2026

Pain Is a Mind Game • On Toothache, Placebos, and the Unconscious

Pain Is a Mind Game

On Toothache, Placebos, and the Unconscious

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 14/05/2026

Who The Hell Is Wesley Streeting? • The Extraordinary Life Story of Keir Starmer's Challenger

Who The Hell Is Wesley Streeting?

The Extraordinary Life Story of Keir Starmer's Challenger

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 09/05/2026

Why Do People Run Marathons, Write Songs, and Do Maths? • Runners, Robots, AI and Jobs

Why Do People Run Marathons, Write Songs, and Do Maths?

Runners, Robots, AI and Jobs

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 02/05/2026

Thinking By Hand • How Bob Dylan Got His Mojo Back

Thinking By Hand

How Bob Dylan Got His Mojo Back

The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 25/04/2026

How To Save Centrism • And Why We Need Politicians To Be More Like Michelangelo

How To Save Centrism

And Why We Need Politicians To Be More Like Michelangelo

The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 18/04/2026

What the F*ck Are We Talking About When We Talk about Love • On Healthy Disagreement Plus a Bumper Rattle Bag

What the F*ck Are We Talking About When We Talk about Love

On Healthy Disagreement Plus a Bumper Rattle Bag

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 14/04/2026

Manchester City vs Arsenal; Good Stress vs Bad Stress • Guardiola vs Arteta

Manchester City vs Arsenal; Good Stress vs Bad Stress

Guardiola vs Arteta

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 11/04/2026

Moon Joy • Artemis II and the Overview Effect

Artemis II and the Overview Effect

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 04/04/2026

How Evil Is Mark Zuckerberg? • A Review of "Careless People" by Sarah Wyn-Williams

How Evil Is Mark Zuckerberg?

A Review of "Careless People" by Sarah Wyn-Williams

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 28/03/2026

Giving Advice Is a Treacherous Business • It Can Go Wrong In So Many Ways

Giving Advice Is a Treacherous Business

It Can Go Wrong In So Many Ways

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 14/03/2026

Is the Current Gulf War Taking Place? • What the Post-Modernists Got Right and Wrong

Is the Current Gulf War Taking Place?

What the Post-Modernists Got Right and Wrong

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 07/03/2026

How To Build Your Own Tower • And Why You Should (Plus What I've Been Reading/Watching/Listening to)

How To Build Your Own Tower

And Why You Should (Plus What I've Been Reading/Watching/Listening to)

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 28/02/2026

33 Things I Heard At Foo Camp 2026 • A Report From the Knowledge Frontier

33 Things I Heard At Foo Camp 2026

A Report From the Knowledge Frontier

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 21/02/2026

A Deep Dive Into 'I Feel Fine' • A Two-Minute Microcosm of Twentieth Century Pop

A Deep Dive Into 'I Feel Fine'

A Two-Minute Microcosm of Twentieth Century Pop

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 14/02/2026

Bodies Behaving Badly • A Guest Post by Aled Maclean-Jones (plus a bumper Rattle Bag)

Bodies Behaving Badly

A Guest Post by Aled Maclean-Jones (plus a bumper Rattle Bag)

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 07/02/2026

Centrism's Anger Problem • It's Hard To Be Reasonable When People Are Furious

Centrism's Anger Problem

It's Hard To Be Reasonable When People Are Furious

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 05/02/2026

NEW PODCAST: Why Do We Keep Getting Education All Wrong? • A Conversation with Carl Hendrick

NEW PODCAST: Why Do We Keep Getting Education All Wrong?

A Conversation with Carl Hendrick

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 31/01/2026

George Eliot's Blind Spot: Middlemarch, Lookism and Beauty • Sex and the County

George Eliot's Blind Spot: Middlemarch, Lookism and Beauty

Sex and the County

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 24/01/2026

All Hail the Putter-Togetherers • What Scissors Can Tell Us About The Future of Work

All Hail the Putter-Togetherers

What Scissors Can Tell Us About The Future of Work

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 17/01/2026

How Not To Use AI • Three Principles And a Bunch Of Great Tips

How Not To Use AI

Three Principles And a Bunch Of Great Tips

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 14/01/2026

All Hail the Paperback of 'John & Paul'! • It Took Me Years To Write Will You Take a Look

All Hail the Paperback of 'John & Paul'!

It Took Me Years To Write Will You Take a Look

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 13/01/2026

A Special Message For My Favourite Subscribers • Behold: the Paperback of John & Paul!

A Special Message For My Favourite Subscribers

Behold: the Paperback of John & Paul!

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 10/01/2026

The Stamina Gap • The Capacity for Deep Concentration Is Becoming a Luxury Good

The Stamina Gap

The Capacity for Deep Concentration Is Becoming a Luxury Good

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 03/01/2026

Why Did I Start The Ruffian and Has Paul McCartney Read My Book? • Answering Reader Questions. Plus a Ton of Optimism For 2026.

Why Did I Start The Ruffian and Has Paul McCartney Read My Book?

Answering Reader Questions. Plus a Ton of Optimism For 2026.

The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 27/12/2025

Best of The Ruffian 2025 • And an AMA

Best of The Ruffian 2025

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 23/12/2025

How the Mad Men Lost the Plot Again • Revisiting My Longread On the Ad Industry, Ten Years On

How the Mad Men Lost the Plot Again

Revisiting My Longread On the Ad Industry, Ten Years On

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The Ruffian @ianleslie.skystack.xyz · 20/12/2025

How To Do Politics When Nobody Knows Anything • If You Want To Make God Laugh Tell Him Your Political Strategy

How To Do Politics When Nobody Knows Anything

If You Want To Make God Laugh Tell Him Your Political Strategy

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