*2024-11-28* Pragmatism is the ultimate anchor to reality. When something works - when it achieves real results in the real world - it must necessarily be aligned with reality in some fundamental way. This makes pragmatism our strongest defense against the twin dangers of intellectualization and insincerity. Consider what happens when you build something that works. Whether it's a piece of software, a business, or a solution to a problem - if it achieves its intended purpose, it must be capturing some truth about reality. There's no room for sophisticated self-deception here. Reality either validates your work through results or exposes its flaws through failure. **This is why most philosophical and intellectual endeavors are ultimately empty.** They can construct elaborate frameworks of reasoning, generate sophisticated arguments, and create impressive-sounding theories. But without practical results, they're just exercises in mental gymnastics. We've wasted centuries of human intellectual potential pursuing questions that can never yield useful outcomes. The power of pragmatism lies in its brutal honesty. You can't argue with results. You can't intellectualize your way around failure. When something works, it works regardless of our theories about why it works. When something fails, no amount of sophisticated justification can make it succeed. In a world drowning in uncertainty and insincerity, pragmatism offers solid ground. We may not be able to gather enough data to be certain about complex issues. We may not be able to trust our own reasoning due to unconscious biases. But we can see what works. We can measure real outcomes. We can build things and test them against reality. This is why I value pragmatism above all else. It cuts through the endless layers of intellectualization and brings us back to what matters: *Does it work? Does it achieve its purpose? Does it create real value in the real world?* Everything else is just sophisticated ways of avoiding these fundamental questions.