Independent research
August 2026
Three research drafts that turn recurring ideas from 409 short posts into explicit arguments, counterexamples, and formal limits.
Research drafts · Not peer reviewed
Failed Recapture and the Causal Structure of Suffering
A reconciliation of experiential and agency-disruption theories of suffering. The paper separates phenomenal relief from worldly repair, then shows why evidence confined to either target cannot identify an intervention's effect on the other without additional bridge assumptions.
Discovery without Justification, Justification without Understanding
A framework for reasoning about long, partly opaque chains of AI-generated mathematics. It separates discovery provenance, deductive warrant, search selection, and human understanding so a useful endpoint cannot silently validate everything that preceded it.
Prize Density, Entry Burden, and Entrepreneurial Search
An entrant-specific framework for comparing entrepreneurial opportunities. It begins with prize density—the capturable economic value of a space divided among serious, strength-weighted competitors—then incorporates execution probability, entry burden, endogenous crowding, and the difference between private returns and social value.