In the upcoming mayoral election, Chicago’s method of voting puts Black candidates and progressive candidates at a structural disadvantage. — I created an anonymous survey where you can try out voting for Chicago’s next mayor using three alternative voting methods: https://forms.gle/MrXbFyZJBZcELmtZ6 I made this both as an educational tool to spread awareness about alternatives to our current method, and as an experiment to see if different voting methods yield different…

Artist, writer, and musician Jovan Mihailović passed away on August 1, 2022. This is the eulogy that I wrote for his Celebration of Life later that month. I’m posting this on January 15, 2023, which would have been his 89th birthday. …

Only about 20% of registered Chicago voters turned out for the recent June 28th primary election, which means 80% didn’t participate in the democratic process — and that’s 80% of registered voters, not 80% of eligible voters. …

The Rapid Growth of Effective Altruism [I originally wrote this piece in January, 2022 for a wall magazine my friend Subhajit Sengupta (co-founder of the education nonprofit Bidyang Dehi) was putting together for the occasion of Saraswati Puja (a holiday to celebrate the Hindu goddess of arts and education).] Technological…