Metamodern agrarian | ✝️ apokatastasis | Co-founder of @DoomerOptimism
High Country, NC
Joined May 2009
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Jason Snyder retweeted
I help Midwest landowners (like you) turn your empty pasture into a chestnut orchard that feeds your family - with enough to share.
I can consult on your land, onsite or virtually, and listen to your real story behind your ask. Then I meet your needs and goals with Midwest Memory chestnut seedlings grown in our region.
Seeds have a Memory.
Go with the local/regional nursery and designer guy.
Now is the time to plan, before you hunker down for Winter.
GrowNutTrees.com/chestnut-or…
Jason Snyder retweeted
Randomly meet a fellow grasslands enthusiast at a climate conference and instantly tapped @pclarkallen to co-host an episode with me. It's a really great ecology episode for those of you who care about regeneration!
Jason Snyder retweeted
DO 314 - Southeastern Grasslands Institute with Dwayne Estes and @pclarkallen @RizomaSchool
Jason Snyder retweeted
I wrote about the problems with effective altruism and its approach to AI danger, and the need for a new humanism in this era of sci-fi. We need to re-center technology as a political question, as sci-fi-like techs promise to upend what it even means to be human.
Link below.
Jason Snyder retweeted
In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.
Jason Snyder retweeted
We recorded a retrospective about Wendell Berry. Thank you, @RizomaSchool, @TornadoNate, and @cognazor.
youtube.com/watch?v=7efRXMGM…
Jason Snyder retweeted
Rage at DBH's surliness all you want, but this book's argument is superb. I suspect Cardinal Newman (whose project it scrutinizes – "fruitful" but "erred") would have said so, too.
It raises questions that can be uncomfortable for some "traditionalists," I think, but they are frank and scrupulous. It's hard for me to believe anyone reads this book in good faith and doesn't assimilate a more critical (and I think healthier) perspective on the credibility of "the authority that Christian tradition claims for itself."
I'm Catholic. I love the Church. I think it would be (and is) better off insofar as it reckons with these arguments and, thereby, unearths a firmer foundation for the "authority of tradition" going forward.
"If Christian tradition is a living thing, it is only as tradition – as a 'handing over,' a passage through time, a transmission, the impartation of a gift that remains sealed, a giving always deferred toward a future not yet known – that the secret inner presence in tradition can be made manifest at all. And that gift must remain sealed until the very end, so that the glory will not dissipate into ordinary time, whose atmosphere is incapable of sustaining and nourishing it. The gift is known for now only in and as the dynamic history of the tradition that protects it and bears it onward. Only in the ceaseless flow of the tradition's intertwining variations can the theme subtending the whole music be heard. And in part this is because whatever is imparted must be received in the mode of the recipient, with all his or her limitations and possibilities. In the end, after all, the historical and cultural contingencies of a tradition also constitute the vehicle of its passage through the ages. They are its flesh and blood in any given epoch, its necessary embodiment within the intelligible structures of concrete existence. Without those contingencies, the animating impulse of the tradition would be something less than a ghost. But, by the same token, once that vital force has moved on to assume new living configurations, the attempt unnaturally to preserve earlier forms can achieve nothing but, at the very best, the perfumed repose of a cadaver bedizened by mortuary cosmetics. True fidelity to whatever is most original and most final in a tradition requires a positive desire for moments of dissolution just as much as for passages of recapitulation and refrain. Only in that ceaseless flow of construction, dissolution, and reconstruction is what is truly imperishable in the tradition intuitable."
ALT Tradition and Apocalypse, by David Bentley Hart
Jason Snyder retweeted
It only appears that way because of the preconceptions people have when reading scripture, and a poor translation of the “Aeon”.
Once you realize every verse about “purgatory” is about hell, that you can’t really systematize salvation like the reformed tradition does, and that when Paul says Grace and salvation will be as universal as sin and death, he means it, it all falls into place.
Also, a right understanding of sin, judgement, and the meta narrative of scripture logically concludes in universalism.
Jason Snyder retweeted
I did have a sense, when meeting with his family, that they felt really despondent about the state of things and of course if Wendell Berry's words didn't change the trajectory of things what would!?
I don't think they know what some of us are out here doing and how impassioned and stubborn we are, and how much his work lit a fire in us. I tried to tell his daughter but I couldn't convey it accurately.
I hope someday to explain to them what he did.
Jason Snyder retweeted
“Dolly’s music came from a place of deep and abiding empathy. And with it, she gave voice to the America that exists outside of the cultural centers.”
For @unherd, I wrote about Dolly’s enduring legacy as Appalachia’s own patron saint. unherd.com/2026/08/dolly-par…
Jason Snyder retweeted
So much goodness here.
Lenny Wells (@keeper_orchard) was a delightful interview on the DO Podcast. Jason (@cognazor) was gracious to invite me to co-host.
Jason Snyder retweeted
sad to hear @richardheinberg passed last week!!
been following his work for years. A true genius.
Here he is with @cognazor on @DoomerOptimism
youtube.com/watch?v=e-Bww27R…
Jason Snyder retweeted
I genuinely don't understand the premise that any network state hub needs to be filled with a bunch of digital nomads??
why can't people be FROM SOMEWHERE
this was @cognazor's conceit from the start. A bunch of random people from all over, moving to one place, will attract ire
Should the global tech community continue investing in Malaysia?
Given recent events, I raise this question respectfully for the consideration of Prime Minister Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim (@anwaribrahim), for the people of Malaysia, and for our friends in the Malaysian tech community. The answer will be of interest to anyone in global tech that’s considering building, investing, or expanding in Malaysia, including executives at Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, founders of tech unicorns like Coinbase and Solana, and investors at the world’s largest venture capital funds like a16z and Polychain.
As context, I am the former CTO of Coinbase and former General Partner at a16z. In October 2024, I opened a startup society called Network School in Malaysia, because I felt I’d been invited in by the government’s pro-tech policies.
Specifically, the KL20 initiative set out Malaysia’s ambition of becoming a top 20 global tech hub. Their MDEC digital nomad visas and MM2H investor visas were created to facilitate an influx of global talent and capital. And the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone was announced to facilitate the flow of capital and talent between Malaysia and Singapore, where I live. When taken in combination with Malaysia’s datacenter buildout and its policy of welcoming visa-free visits for 98% of the world, it seemed like Malaysia might be a great place to build a global tech hub that was simultaneously inexpensive and easy to visit (especially for non-Westerners).
And that’s what we did, by creating Network School. It’s an international tech community with its first node in Forest City, Malaysia. We picked Forest City because it had millions of square feet of empty space, because it was one hour from Singapore’s capital markets, and because it was within the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone. Then, within 18 months, without a single penny of government money, we built Network School into a global attraction that brought thousands of engineers, investors, and builders from 70+ countries to learn technology, burn calories, earn online, and have fun, integrating with the local Malaysian economy along the way.
Indeed, in terms of quantifiable contribution to the Malaysian economy, we’ve already invested 100M+ MYR in our campus to make it startup-friendly. For perspective, that’s about 4% of the budget of Johor, the Malaysian state where Forest City is located. We employ dozens of Malaysians directly and indirectly at every level from executive to staff. We’ve backed Malaysian tech startups like Collektr, hosted events for local teams like Superteam Malaysia, and are major customers of many local businesses like barbers, laundromats, and restaurants. We’ve also revitalized the multibillion-dollar Forest City project, causing millions of MYR in real estate appreciation. And, as the video below describes, we were on the cusp of a 500M+ MYR expansion to grow our community, as well as a global merit scholarship with my friend Amjad Masad of Replit.
However, that emerging multi-billion dollar success story — which should rightfully have been hailed as a huge victory for the pro-tech policies of the Malaysian government — is at risk of being derailed by a fake story spread by an anonymous account named MP4P.
In short: on the day before the July 11 Johor elections, MP4P posted an Instagram post falsely accusing Network School of harboring illegal aliens. The sensational accusations caused a tizzy in Malaysia, until Malaysian authorities came to our campus on July 14 to investigate. (I should note that the officers were very polite and professional.) After checking hundreds of physical passports from 40 countries, including dual passport holders, the authorities confirmed to the press on July 15 that all travel documents were in order. During the process, we cooperated fully; in the thread below you can see a photo of the men, women, and children of Network School smiling and holding up their passports in the bright daylight. Our faces are shown and our names are known; we have nothing to hide.
With that said, the process is the punishment. What MP4P did is very similar to the American crime of “swatting”, because MP4P created a hoax report of a serious threat, thereby forcing the Malaysian police to take time away from protecting the Malaysian people towards investigating a nonexistent issue. Moreover, this anonymous MP4P account has also called for Malaysia to boycott Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft…a move that would cost ordinary Malaysians thousands of jobs…even while MP4P’s own Instagram collaborators promote their Apple and Google apps! I mean, we aren’t talking about a credible accuser, but just someone screaming inconsistently at the top of their lungs on social media for traffic, an all-too-common phenomenon these days.
Anyway, at this point, all further investment we were planning to make in Malaysia is on hold until we get sufficient assurance that such issues won’t recur. So are the investment plans of many of our friends, including the execs and investors at global tech firms that we brought to Forest City. Because to put it very plainly: we have invested 100M+ MYR in Malaysia, while creating jobs for dozens of Malaysians, and our faces and names are known. Our Malaysian executives and employees deserve the benefit of the doubt over anonymous internet trolls.
There are two paths forward. In the first case, if Malaysia still wants continued global tech investment, if it wants to be a top 20 tech hub, if it wants us to revitalize Forest City, then we request an audience with the Prime Minister’s office to discuss the terms of a memorandum of understanding between Network School and the Malaysian government, similar to the document recently signed between the Solana Foundation and the Kazakhstan government.
Specifics can of course be discussed, but we would publicly commit to abiding by all Malaysian laws (we already do) and respecting Malaysia’s sovereignty (never in question). In return, they’d get to know our friendly community, and realize that we actually chose Malaysia because we thought it was a great place to build a tech hub where engineers from the global South, investors from the West, and builders from Malaysia itself could meet new people, build cool things, and perhaps create millions of dollars in economic growth in the fullness of time.
That vision of peace and trade, internationalism and entrepreneurialism, is still on the table. We aren’t asking for any money — just a meeting, to help restore confidence in Malaysia as an investable jurisdiction. Alternatively, if you don’t want our investment, or those of our colleagues at billion dollar funds and trillion dollar companies, we will of course respect your wishes, and reallocate our capital to other countries instead.
Either way, we will remain friends and abide by your decision. Please let us know.
Jason Snyder retweeted
Diminishing window to change course is the most glaring thing in middle age. It’s adjacent to what I said the other day - you don’t get to reinvent yourself over and over until you die if you want to stabilize and have anything meaningul to show for yourself. Gotta lock in and remember that your life is not your own.
Jason Snyder retweeted
From polluting waterways to causing wells to run dry to degrading prime agricultural lands, Lithium mining has remarkably deleterious effects for rural communities. Same as it ever was. Read more at @countyhwy. countyhighway.com/archive/vo…
Jason Snyder retweeted
Reading these two books during springtime in the Adirondacks is quite a potent mixture.
Feels like a restoration of something lost, to sit and meditate on the raw and elemental realities of the land here, and to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet over the roiling spring waters.
The oriental "nature philosophers" seemed to see something in the living earth that is often missed; the Taoists in China, the "yamabushi" in medieval Japan, they have such a unique and refreshing view of what the natural world is and how it humbles a man.
Kamo no Chōmei is not even afraid of mentioning penance, of acknowledging the transitory nature of things, of accepting his own insufficiencies as a man. Though Chōmei certainly never heard of Christ, his studious and hermetical examination of God's creation led him to many principles that are startlingly "Christian-adjacent," and his brief essay 'Hōjōki' has a kind of primitive "Memento Mori" feel to it.
So too with the Taoists, and with Lao-Tzu. Their hesitance to even name "the thing" that animates all life shows a deference to its cosmic and all-encompassing superiority; their adoption of the "Wu Wei" principle is a meditation on man's own insufficiency and on the transitory nature of his efforts. Again, they spoke of The Way that Christ preached without even knowing it; and stranger still, they knew that they did not know.
Had any of these gentle solitaries heard word of Jesus Christ, it is hard to imagine they would doubt it. One is almost led to think that if they'd heard of Him, they'd nod quite naturally and seem nearly as if they'd already known somehow.
To then read these odd dispatches from ancient times, and to see their principles so clearly arrayed in the thawing land before me -- and to again see so many of their ideas show so clearly in Christian teaching -- is a wonderful luxury. There's a comforting feeling about the timelessness of natural, elemental forms, all of which God made, and all of which were set into motion to refract man's vision back toward the almighty Creator, even if His name might have been unknown to men during many eras.
And I get the sense that both Chōmei and Lao Tzu would've liked it here in the Adirondacks. It's their kind of place, and I am privileged to live the life of a kind of "American Yamabushi" here. The polyphony between their oriental nature teachings, Catholic mysticism, and the land here is too perfect; I thank God for days like this, where I can study all of it and pray.
