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The Ruffian

@ianleslie.skystack.xyz

7 followers 0 following 78 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 · 4h

Peak Burnham • A Champagne Supernova In the Sky

A Champagne Supernova In the Sky

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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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