{"id":3749,"date":"2025-03-13T07:59:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T14:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=3749"},"modified":"2025-03-13T07:59:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T14:59:22","slug":"what-was-i-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/03\/what-was-i-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"What was I thinking?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hugh MacLennan, The Watch that Ends the Night<\/em> (1959).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them.\u201d Hugh MacLennan, The Watch that Ends the Night (1959).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-1.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-Yt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4674,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2026\/04\/ai-tricks\/","url_meta":{"origin":3749,"position":0},"title":"AI tricks","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"[A human named David Szalay]. Paul Bloom\u00a0posted this note\u00a0on Substack: I\u2019ve always thought that I would never want to read an AI-written novel, no matter how objectively well-written it is. But I\u2019m starting to question this. I\u2019m on a real David Szalay kick these days; last night, I finished \u201cLondon\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1613,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/10\/culture-and-urban-growth-we-still-dont-know-much\/","url_meta":{"origin":3749,"position":1},"title":"Culture and urban growth: we still don’t know much","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A few years ago I came across a paper by Oliver Falck, Michael Fritsch and Stephan Heblich, 'The Phantom of the Opera: Cultural Amenities, Human Capital, and Regional Economic Growth' that used a rather unique data set to try to get around the knotty problem of finding whether cultural amenities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"a safer photo choice...","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/beer-garden.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2729,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2022\/04\/book-diary-april-27-arts-funding-and-welfarism-merit-goods-who-cares-if-you-listen-and-a-first-look-at-perfectionism\/","url_meta":{"origin":3749,"position":2},"title":"Book Diary – April 27 – Arts Funding and Welfarism, Merit Goods, Who Cares if you Listen?, and a first look at Perfectionism…","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"'I think there can't be too many pictures and statues and works of art,' Hyacinth broke out. 'The more the better, whether people are hungry or not.' Henry James, The Princess Casamassima This week (and the next few weeks) I have been wrestling with the topic of perfectionism in moral\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/James.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4655,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2026\/02\/reading-brink-lindseys-the-permanent-problem\/","url_meta":{"origin":3749,"position":3},"title":"Reading Brink Lindsey’s The Permanent Problem","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"February 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Brink Lindsey\u00a0takes his title\u00a0from one of my favourite essays, John Maynard Keynes\u2019s \u201cEconomic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren\u201d (which I wrote about\u00a0here). Keynes, in 1930, wondered what lives might be like in\u00a0our\u00a0present. There are three big predictions in the essay, interrelated, of which I would say he got two right, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/image-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2160,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/12\/what-do-we-actually-mean-by-intrinsic-benefits\/","url_meta":{"origin":3749,"position":4},"title":"What do we actually mean by intrinsic benefits?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At Stanford Social Innovation Review, Ian David Moss has a thoughtful\u00a0blog post on whether there is coherence in the notion of separating intrinsic and instrumental benefits from the arts. He writes: One problem with the intrinsic vs. instrumental distinction is that it\u2019s something of a false dichotomy: Interrogate a dedicated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"No. 1 Durum","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/silos.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/silos.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/silos.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/silos.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1621,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/10\/whats-new-in-dynamic-pricing\/","url_meta":{"origin":3749,"position":5},"title":"What’s new in dynamic pricing?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a good, well-informed post by Tim Baker on 'The State of Dynamic Pricing'. So, what do we know so far? First, on the term. Dynamic Pricing is not about offering different prices to different market segments, nor is it about scaling the house or other quality differentials, nor about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"they will taste just fine!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bananas.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bananas.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bananas.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bananas.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bananas.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/bananas.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3751,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3749\/revisions\/3751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}