There's a thing I do sometimes.
I write for a living, and I'm an avid(-ish) reader (#838984). My professional interests are in economic and financial history, so I usually keep a tab on what's new in those fields. I also follow some general energy/politics/environmentalism/financials/psychology and definitely bitcoin—especially given that I review books for Bitcoin Magazine and thus always need to know what's in the pipeline.
Anyway, there are certain authors and publishers I check in with now and again. For publishers, it's usually enough to scan their monthly newsletters for interesting titles, and for individual authors just check their Twitter or search their names on Amazon. Listening/watching podcasts, too, is pretty rewarding, since academics or writers will just say openly what they're working on! :)
Now, Vaclav Smil is a Czech-Canadian physicist who might be the must astonishing intellectual/academic type I know of. He grew up in Czech Republic under Soviet rule and studied natural sciences, didn't join the Communist party and was thus pretty shunned from any meaningful career. In 1969 he left Czechoslovakia, went to the U.S., and studied geography at Penn State Uni. After graduating with a PhD, he took a job at University of Manitoba in Canada—and stayed put.
He might be the world's most effective science communicator.
I once looked at his publishing record, first in the bibliography of one of his books and then online. Scanning the page I remember thinking "wow, dude's published with all the big university presses—and basically every year since the 1990s."
Looking at his books, I counted 45—or a little over one a year since before most of us were born. What tha eff did you do last year?!
Anyway, checking my library I am the proud owner of six Smil books:
- Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure (2023)
- Size: How It Explains the World (2023)
- How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future (2022).
- Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made (2021)
- Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About The World_ (2020)
- Energy and Civilization: A History (2017)
I've written about some of them (e.g., here or here or here), but the most impactful on my thinking have been about energy transitions, civilization, and how primary energy from fossil fuel just won't move much further down, no matter the language or policy efforts in politics:
What's so fascinating and wonderful about him is that he's respected (if not loved) by people from across the ideological spectrum. He has some wacky ideas about veganism (that I think he's mostly walked back...) but he more than makes up for that by his deeestruction of anti-fossil fuel crowd.
My pet thesis for why, when the two sides of politics can't even agree on the color of the sky, is that he has consistently just spoken truth, regardless of who's in power or what the political winds have been.
Astonishing character.
I hadn't given much thought to Mr. Smil for a good few months, and thought I would check in on him. Turns out there were two titles I missed. Great.
In November, he published How to Feed the World: A Factful Guide.
Dude almost never gives interviews (here's an in-depth, and rare New Yorker feature from last year) and I've seen reports about him showing up to University meetings in Manitoba like once a decade. Doesn't own a phone, has no goddamn distractions, no social media lol! Coupled with an insane intellect and the result is _otherworldly productivity!
Dude's a fucking machine.
Also:
Dude's 81 years old.
At an age where most of us are lucky if we're not vegetables, our beloved Smil is cranking out high-quality scienc-y/world big-picture books. Fuck. Me.
I couldn't find much mention of him on SN (e.g., #757373). What's the Stackers' opinion on this, the world's most prolific and interesting intellectual?