354 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2024
    1. “Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts,” he adds. So put down that damn book! You can almost hear the old grump himself (Schopenhauer had a reputation for being one) yelling at you from the grave.  Thinking for yourself… hmm …what does it mean? Schopenhauer says it is “following your own inclinations” or “basic thoughts” which only you can understand through and through. These are your truths.

      First off, it feels pretty meta reading about the act of reading, and how one needs to think instead of reading.

      What comes to mind is the notetaking method Zettelkasten. It's a personal knowledge management system that uses notecards (or digital equivalents) to manage knowledge and ideas. The term "Zettelkasten" is German for "slip box" and refers to the physical box used to store these notecards. But the part of this notetaking method that relates to this opinion article is the emphasis of not underlining someone else's text for your notes. But rather to rewrite in your own words what the text means to you.

      The Zettelkasten system encourages individuals to engage actively with the material by summarizing, questioning, and reflecting on what they've read or learned, and then writing these reflections in their own words. This method aligns closely with Schopenhauer's advocacy for thinking independently and forming one's own understanding and insights.

      I should probably read Schopenhauer to understand further his idea of how genuine understanding comes from internal reflection and the integration of new knowledge into one's existing framework of ideas. Like, the actual logistics of how one goes about doing that. Is it all in one's head? Is someone writing this out?

      I use a very loose version of the Zettelkasten method, and I find pairing it with AI helps me to think through some of my ideas. I might have a beginning notion of something, it's a bit rough. I'll ask GPT to explain my thoughts further. Now, Schopenhauer would be rolling in his grave, but I like to take the insights from GPT and then reroll them into my own written thoughts. That's how a lot of my blog posts are written these days. Take my rough draft, run it through AI. Get some insights. Rewrite parts, expand parts.

      Using AI is a bit like talking with someone about your work. A way of getting understanding and insights from another perspective.

  2. Feb 2024
    1. I’m also mulling over the possibility of having different banners and/or otherwise different templates for the various META-SPIEL series, i.e. Phthursday Musings, Running Around Illinois, Pizza Around Illinois, and whatever other madness I might concoct going forward. This is probably all a bit much, though, unless somehow moving to Beehiiv has the unexpected side effect of skyrocketing interest in my writing about calf compression sleeves and the like.

      Sure, different banners would be fun. It shows that there are categories on your site/newsletter.

    2. except that one stalwart META-SPIEL reader and I did have a nice exchange about his setup, which is intriguing but which I decided wouldn’t work as well for the way I like to present META-SPIEL

      word up. SHOUT OUT!

    3. I got over how much I dislike the spelling of Beehiiv and here we are

      Maybe the double-letter will be the new "r" ending. Remember back in the early 2000s when sites ended with "r"? Flickr, Tumblr, and Dopplr. Fiverr and Imgur is kinda like that too.

      And now we have double-vowel names.

      There are plenty of sites with a double-vowel that are meant to be a double-vowel. Like Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Zoom, Moo, and Hootsuite. But those all need the double-vowel.

      I'm trying to think of other companies with an unnecessary double-vowel....

    4. So I decided to include links to Instagram and Facebook, and to be mischievous and put my BlueSky URL in as my Twitter link.

      That's hilarious. Using the Twitter icon to put your BlueSky URL. Actually, it's probably the most appropriate thing.

  3. Jan 2024
    1. The original Autobot and Decepticon logos, supposedly designed by Wayne Molinare

      I need to look up Wayne Molinare.

    1. The fall of mystery Babylon will be like the fall of real Babylon - sudden, sure, and in the midst of her worst blasphemies.

      Like a tied in the middle of the night. Quick

    1. If you’re not the smartest, best person in the room, it doesn’t mean you’re useless. (And ironically, the benefits of being the most competent person in a room include being handed more assignments — because, hey, you can handle it.) If you’re bad at sports, you’re still doing your body right by being outside exercising. We ought to be able to enjoy the things we’re not great at and shouldn’t feel pressured to continually do better.

      The point of practice is not to be the best. It's to do what you enjoy doing.

    1. Most people have the opposite habit: they complain about the weather. Endlessly. It’s either too hot or too cold. Too wet or too dry. But to savor each small season uniquely—unconditionally—trains us in a loving way to be more alive.It might also teach us how to see one another’s quirks and special abilities as love-worthy. We can meet others exactly where they are today, much the same way we meet each new season. With compassion and acceptance.

      People are too focused on what they want. They want weather that is exactly 70 degrees. Dip down to 57, oh no! That's too cold! Instead, let's accept the weather we have.

    2. Even on a cold day, I urge you to dress warmly and take a walk outdoors. What does this day want to show you?

      Not looking for something specific. But being open and curious to what's around you.

    1. Enjoyment of structured activities. Polymathic individuals tend to actively participate in a variety of structured activities—such as playing musical instruments or practicing sports—that stimulate new ways of thinking, require intense use of attention and the acquisition of useful skill sets. “While some people will be drained by engaging in structured activities in different domains, polymathic people will be exhilarated by it,” writes Araki. Polymathic individuals have a distinctive tendency to pursue multiple interests beyond their main vocation, either simultaneously or sequentially. They do not differentiate between “work” and “hobbies” in terms of personal significance, viewing such non-vocational activities as inherently rewarding, contributing to a sense of personal satisfaction, broadening life experiences and complementing their careers.

      Doesn't this describe everyone?

    2. A 2018 paper by Michael Araki suggests that individuals can also display “micro-polymathy,” which showcases a person’s ability to excel and integrate various facets of knowledge within a specialized context or a specific field, such as an artist who can sing, dance and act.

      I like the notion of "micro-polymathy" better. Someone described me as a polymath. I take that as a huge honor. However, I don't see myself as someone who is a big expert in any one field, let a long multiple.

      In fact, I would prefer to think that everyone has the ability to be curious about multiple fields. Isn't everyone interested in lots of stuff?

    1. Jamais vu may involve looking at a familiar face and finding it suddenly unusual or unknown. Musicians have it momentarily – losing their way in a very familiar passage of music. You may have had it going to a familiar place and becoming disorientated or seeing it with "new eyes".

      Sounds like being an artist. We were taught to see every day things as new.

    1. Hill understood the necessity of providing the sender with a receipt for having paid in advance, and he implemented this in two ways: adhesive stamps to be affixed to the letter and preprinted, postage-paid envelopes and letter sheets. For the latter, a design competition produced a winner, noted artist William Mulready. The design features an allegorical figure of Britannia in the center directing letters right and left to people and creatures of the far-flung empire. Hill believed that the envelopes and letter sheets would be popular with the public, and he provided the adhesive stamps as something of an afterthought. The public, however, ridiculed the bizarre design. Many satirical caricatures were created and circulated, some by stationers who resented the government's incursion into their trade. The widespread derision led to withdrawal and destruction of the Mulready products after a very short time. Postage stamps, on the other hand, proved convenient and were widely accepted.

      Before postage stamps were invented, the original idea was to have pre-printed envelopes. The envelope itself provided proof that the sender had paid for it to be delivered. The illustrator of the first pre-printed envelope included stamps as an afterthought.

    1. All the big, exciting uses for AI are either low-dollar (helping kids cheat on their homework, generating stock art for bottom-feeding publications) or high-stakes and fault-intolerant (self-driving cars, radiology, hiring, etc.).

      Is this oversimplifying it? Can AI do more?

    2. AI pitchmen are explicit on this score: The purpose of AI, the source of its value, is its capacity to increase productivity, which is to say, it should allow workers to do more, which will allow their bosses to fire some of them, or get each one to do more work in the same time, or both. The entire investor case for AI is “companies will buy our products so they can do more with less.” It’s not “business custom­ers will buy our products so their products will cost more to make, but will be of higher quality.”

      AI's pitch: • Workers can do more, so you can fire workers • Companies will buy these products, because companies can do more with less

      Ai's reality pitch: • business customers will buy our products so their products will cost more to make, but will be of higher quality.

    1. Is more engagement a mark of more success?

      The success for me is the very writing you create. That you spend the time to sit down and craft all these words and put everything together around once a week is very impressive.

      I'm certain it helps you to clarify your thoughts. And to develop new roads of thought. It's also nice to be able to look back at your archive. Just like you did with the lemonade search. See how you covered something (or not covered at all). The more you write, the more you can intersect things. And actually, that's one method of getting more subscribers. When writers demonstrate that their work is interconnected with their previous writings, it shows themes. It shows your investment, that you cover these themes in depth. Linking to previous articles shows that you care about your previous writings, and that means your future writings will be good too.

      And the search engines like the interlinking. That helps the search engines do their job. When you interlink stuff, the search engines know better how your work relates to each other, and what the important topics are.

      And the same for readers. The readers get to read more of your work that way. They discover more of your archives. They get more invested. The more invested your readers are, the more likely they are to share your work. And then your work spreads. From time to time I've linked to your writing from my site.

      It takes time to interlink all your work. I haven't really done a good job on my site. Maybe I should do that more. But it all helps to develop a larger readership.

      Which then leads to more engagement. That's really my primary goal with writing.

      Speaking of engagement/comments, Substack is a curious land in that regard. I've seen some substacks with lots of comments. Some with very few. It raises the question if Substack is built for comments. The simplicity of the UI certainly helps to get more comments. (in comparison on my blog, the design is too bloated at the end of the article to get the comments).

      However, I've noticed that when you post your articles on Facebook, that you get more comments there. And that's because Facebook is totally built for comments. That comment box is right there. Boom. You don't even have to scroll to the bottom of the post to leave a comment. Of course, that's weird, because people would leave a comment without reading the whole thing? Alas, that's how the internet works. Even with that point aside, that someone would comment without reading the full post.... Facebook's UI gets people in the mood to comment, because the comment box is visible right away. It sets the tone for commenting.

      I've thought about designing my site to mimick that--having the comment box appear right away near the top. Just never got to it.

      Now, to be clear, I'm NOT advocating that you post your full-length articles on Facebook. You aren't doing that now, and I don't need to get into all the reasons why to not do that, because you are probably already aware of that.

      Ok, back to your point you feel like something needs to change to keep your own interest up. I'm curious what you are looking for. More subscribers? More comments? I'm guessing you'd like both. But with your writing, I also get the sense that you enjoy writing them.

    2. I would very much like to hear from you all about what you’d like to see or hear going forward, and where you’d like to see or hear it.

      I really like the format of how you write these. It's impressive how you tied together various topics.

      When I write, I tend to write more frequent short posts. That way it gives people something more specific to reply to. But, lol, my blog gets barely any comments. So I guess that method doesn't really work?

      However, when I read longer form posts with multiple topics, I wonder if people get overloaded with what to say in response. Then again, I bet a lot of people simply read your posts and don't leave a response. Maybe most people simply read to consume, and that's it.

      When I read, I like to share responses. In fact, I make a point of leaving some form of comment on what I read, so the author knows that their works is being read and thought about.

      The method of longer posts with various topics works for you. Your articles engaging to read. If they were short blips, the reader would feel like you aren't as invested with the content you are writing.

      And that's part of the signaling that readers pick up on. "Does this author really care about what they are writing about? Or is this filler fluff?" Maybe I'm too sensitive about this angle, because I work in the media/newspaper industry where I see articles being churned out. But readers certainly can sense if the author is invested. Write a nice longer-form essay that weaves in multiple topics, and ties them together under a thread of thoughts. That brings the reader along a journey on well-paved roads.

    3. Elmhurst Art Museum

      Oh! I should follow the Elmhurst Art Museum more. They have a Picasso show? Oh yipes, it's open only until January 7th.

    4. Second, it’s now been 17 years - 17 years! - since I left the cozy confines of a college town, and with it, the sort of built-in college-brings-famous-person-to-campus calendar. Today I live in a suburb where on a localized basis there’s simply nothing like that. There’s no shared cultural experiences among neighbors here, which means no shared experiences over creativity, unless the creativity involves some action someone’s kid pulled off on a soccer field.

      Whoa. Yeah. You've encapsulated it. After leaving college, I was always amazed at how the regular world doesn't spontaneously interact with each other. Like my 3rd floor studio in Wrigleyville. I remember finding it odd how everyone kept their doors closed in the staircase. At college, people would keep their doors open.

      And now in the burbs of Chicago, I was so glad to have our street torn up for six months when they installed new pipes. Not only for getting the lead pipes out, but how much the block interacted with each other during this process. People would stand outside and watch what was happening. People would stop and chat. It gave us all something in common to chat about. And now that the construction has been done for a couple years now, I rather miss it.

    5. But I am surprised at how frequently I’m going to concerts alone or with one other person, and never interacting with anyone else there. I thought I’d get to a point where I’d simply recognize a lot of people, at least say hello, but it’s never really worked out that way.

      For years, I went to art talks with the same thoughts. That at some point I would interact with people at these talks. But that never came to fruition. There were a couple talks that were geared more towards getting the audience members to engage with each other. And that got me to meet a few people. However, none that continue with engage with today.

    6. I am a believer in lemonade. I think that bad situations can often have positive side effects, can open one’s eyes to opportunities, etc. And I believe that the human condition is such that we are constantly going to be confronted by lemons, and if we don’t adopt the right mindset then we are doomed to sour existences.

      Your metaphor of lemonade is a little bit related to my metaphor of the potato. It's the whole reason why I use the "spudart" name online. Actually, the potato metaphor comes from other German artists like Sigmar Polke, Jorg Immedorf, and Joseph Beuys. The basic gist could be summed up in this quote by Polke, "Well if there is anything at all which manifests everything artists are supposed to be or have - the delight in innovativity, creativity, spontaneity, productivity, creating entirely out of oneself and so on - then it is the potato."

    7. My current understanding is that at least two other services are equipped to move my subscriber list and archive to their platform. I’m monitoring what others are doing and anticipate making the move some time in January. If any of you all have thoughts about which services you prefer, I’m all ears.

      I'll follow you on whatever platform you choose.

      I personally prefer posting on my hosted WordPress. Although that very much lacks the whole discoverability feature that Substack has. Plus, Substack is just much simplier. Both for the writer and for the audience.

      The writer on substack doesn't have to worry about themes. Or writing in WordPress' block system.

      The audience on Substack gets a cleaner experience. All your subs in one place. Nice easy email subscriptions. Substack is nice.

      But there's something about having WordPress on MY site. And it's all MY files. Although most likely, I like WordPress because I've self-hosted my blog since 2021. I got some income from it from Google Ads in the early 2010s. But now those days are long-gone. Especially with AI cutting out the search engine business.

      Perhaps I need to realize that the days for writers are now on services that focus on getting subscribers. Not on getting ads displayed.

      Anyhow, that doesn't answer your question. Just rambling thoughts on services.

  4. Dec 2023
    1. Barnes has some helpful comments: Laid him in a manger - The word rendered "inn" in this verse means simply a place of halting, a lodging-place; in modern terms, a khan or caravanserai (Robinson's "Biblical Research in Palestine," iii. 431). The word rendered "manger" means simply a crib or place where cattle were fed. "Inns," in our sense of the term, were anciently unknown in the East, and now they are not common. Hospitality was generally practiced, so that a traveler had little difficulty in obtaining shelter and food when necessary. As traveling became more frequent, however, khans or caravanserais were erected for public use - large structures where the traveler might freely repair and find lodging for himself and his beast, he himself providing food and forage. Many such khans were placed at regular intervals in Persia. To such a place it was, though already crowded, that Joseph and Mary resorted at Bethlehem. Instead of finding a place in the "inn," or the part of the caravanserai where the travelers themselves found a place of repose, they were obliged to be contented in one of the stalls or recesses appropriated to the beasts on which they rode.

      Since they lodged we’re all the animals went for the people in the inn, is it possible that there were a ton of animals (donkeys) there? There were so many treavelers that there was no room in the inn. Lots of travelers equals lots of donkeys.

    1. Luke’s telling of the birth of Christ includes the shepherds, who lived apart from society in their lowly occupation, and the angels, who announced to those shepherds the arrival of the Messiah (Lk 2:9-14). From the humble to the heavenly, the contrast of shepherds and angels pictures the journey of the Son who came from the highest place to be the Lamb of God.

      Contrast

    1. I proposed that all Wired endorsements for DRM-encumbered products should come with this disclaimer: WARNING: THIS DEVICE’S FEATURES ARE SUBJECT TO REVOCATION WITHOUT NOTICE, ACCORDING TO TERMS SET OUT IN SECRET NEGOTIATIONS. YOUR INVESTMENT IS CONTINGENT ON THE GOODWILL OF THE WORLD’S MOST PARANOID, TECHNOPHOBIC ENTERTAINMENT EXECS. THIS DEVICE AND DEVICES LIKE IT ARE TYPICALLY USED TO CHARGE YOU FOR THINGS YOU USED TO GET FOR FREE — BE SURE TO FACTOR IN THE PRICE OF BUYING ALL YOUR MEDIA OVER AND OVER AGAIN. AT NO TIME IN HISTORY HAS ANY ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY GOTTEN A SWEET DEAL LIKE THIS FROM THE ELECTRONICS PEOPLE, BUT THIS TIME THEY’RE GETTING A TOTAL WALK. HERE, PUT THIS IN YOUR MOUTH, IT’LL MUFFLE YOUR WHIMPERS. Wired didn't take me up on this suggestion.

      This block just made this author one of my favs

    1. Does anyone really dig in and listen to an album more than a couple of times anymore?

      This reminds me. Right now I have no music playing. I'm going to put on a jazz album. An ALBUM. Not a playlist. Not some algorithm Spotify radio that selects the songs for me based on what I've listened to. But a real album.

  5. Nov 2023
    1. email is constrained as an ad business by a lack of “surface area.” Which leads to increased frequency and the risk of the leaky bucket.

      Email newsletter publishers get tempted to send out MORE issues of the email, so they can get more clicks.

    1. Twitter won because of search. it wasn't a social network. it was an information network, and it excelled at real-time because of real-time search. that's a base requirement now.

      Twitter was first an information network. Then a social network. I think I might agree? Of course, people should always come first. But Twitter was unique in that it would be the place for breaking news... aka information.

    1. Jack is fully focused on Nostr, not on Bluesky. He deleted his Bluesky account a while ago, even though he is still on the board of the Bluesky organisation. Reading this post makes it clear where his attention is though, and its not at Bluesky.

      Ok, now I'm discouraged about BlueSky. Oh wait. After reading about Jack Dorsey, maybe it's a good thing he's not associated with BlueSky anymore.

    1. Power looms followed, triumphing despite resistance from the displaced Luddites. Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented a loom attachment that used punch cards to store and automate weaving patterns. Now often credited as a precursor of digital computers

      Computers came from power looms, the machines that weave thread into fabric.

    2. It took about 20 spinners to keep a single weaver supplied with yarn.

      We think about all the work it takes to weave together yarn into a fabric. But it takes even more work to create the yarn. 20 yarn spinsters would keep one weaver supplied with yarn.

    3. The original Mayflower’s sails were probably woven with around 30 threads to the inch in each direction. If, like the replica, they used 3,800 square feet of fabric, they would have taken nearly a million yards of yarn. Before the Industrial Revolution, just spinning that much yarn required about two years of work.

      We take for granted the ships that sailed over to America. But the Mayflower's sails took two years of work to weave the fabric.

    1. oh yeah, that which is a photo-sharing website which lets you upload a photo and then doesn't let you see it for a year.

      I wonder if this site ever made it online. I don't think it did.

    1. The first is that the practice of revisiting is the bedrock of the humanities. Revisiting is what distinguishes entertainment from culture. It is important to recognize that there is a time and a place for both things and that entertainment routinely becomes culture but that transformation occurs precisely in the very act of revisiting.

      "Revisiting" is a much better word to use instead of "archives". I always thought of revisiting as archives. But archives implies something buried. Something rarely seen. Just the thing. "Revisiting" is the action. Revisiting implies something is so good, that you come back to see it again (and again).

  6. Apr 2023
    1. Facebook super-charged huge societal changes in how the first layer of interpersonal interaction occurs. It also had an outsized impact on news interaction; because of the way Facebook and Google have monopolized advertising, and also because of the way Facebook algorithms have buried broad realms of content while elevating others, Facebook has become a platform best suited for a combination of idle banter, propaganda, and, well, more propaganda, in the form of incessant advertising.

      Facebook expands two extremes of interactions: 1. The idle small talk banter where there is no meaning. 3. The propaganda where facts aren't relevant, it's all about trying to advance an argument--the one side of an argument.

    1. And lastly, just discussing the apostles, they will be eternally honored.  They will be eternally rewarded, according to Revelation 21:14.  They have a very, very special place in...in eternity.  I don't know if you remember that verse; it says the wall of the city, that's the New Jerusalem in heaven, had twelve foundation stones and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.  So these were the unique, unique men that God called through Christ to be special in that first generation to lay the foundation of the New Testament.

      There are 12. Not 12 plus the number of popes

    2. Furthermore they were able to confirm their teaching as true by signs and wonders and mighty deeds, according to 2 Corinthians 12:11 and 12.  God gave

      C an we apply this today?

    3. They were the foundation of the church because they laid the doctrinal foundation down.

      I'm curious it he will get into how Catholics mark Peter as the first pope.

    1. Has caused… to be born again (313) (anagennao from aná = renewal, again or from above + gennáo = beget) means to be physically born again (but not used this way in the NT), to beget again, to father anew, to bring to birth again, to regenerate, cause to be born again.

      To be born again is one word in Greek anagennao

    2. In secular Greek literature anagennao is used in a botanical sense, as when the trees, plants, and flowers come to life in the spring.

      Which makes sense that Easter us celebrated in spring

  7. Dec 2022
    1. After the destruction of Jericho, Joshua placed a curse on anyone who might rebuild the city (Joshua 6:26). Jericho remained unoccupied until the time of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, about 500 years later. Then Joshua’s word was fulfilled when Hiel of Bethel rebuilt the city, at the cost of the lives of two of his sons (1 Kings 16:34).

      Pondering if there is any meaning with this in relation to Zacchaeus and with the shepherds at Christ’s birth. We do know Jericho is significant for brr et ing the first city that God and the Jews took over when entering the promised land. Here, Jesus enters this city before his death.

    1. 6So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.

      Another connection to Luke’s telling if Jesus birth. The angels sang of joy.

    1. Jesus is the Good Shepherd and we are His dearly loved sheep, says: ...The sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out.

      At the end of the Zacchaeus story Jesus speaks of saving the lost. A loose connection to being a shepherd and saving the lost sheep.

    2. When Jesus traveled through Zacchaeus’ town of Jericho, He was on His way to Jerusalem, where He would celebrate the last supper with His disciples.

      Shepherds saw Jesus at the start of his birth. Zachaeus saw Jesus near his death.

    3. Zacchaeus was curious about Jesus and wanted to see with his PHYSICAL eyes what all the commotion was about.

      Connection with shepherds at Jesus birth. Both went to physically see the Savior

    1. Initially the Seleucid kings seem to have respected the tradition of transmitting the high priesthood from father to son, but after the disappearance of Onias III in 175 BCE they started to sell the title to the highest bidder, first to Onias’s brother Jason and after him to Menelaus.

      Yipes!

    2. One of the most important differences between the high priests of this time and the Hasmoneans is that the earlier high priests, at least up until the end of the Ptolemaic period, although assuming some prerogatives previously belonging to the Davidic king, definitely did not assume military powers.

      So then, in 1st century BC, the priests were also mixed in with military rule? Is that why people expected Jesus to be a military leader? Weird to think of the Aaronic priests being military leaders (well, because they weren't at all)

  8. Sep 2022
    1. Thoreau believed, “a sort of crusade” — but we get to choose whether to crusade for productivity or for presence.

      Hmmm, a walk being either for productivity or presence. I probably skew too much for productivity. I should be doing walks for presence more.

  9. Jun 2022
    1. He was featured as a backup on the National League All-Star Team in the Nintendo game R.B.I. Baseball.

      I love that this trivia about R.B.I. Baseball is included on John Kruk's Wikipedia page. Makes me want to include a line about R.B.I. Baseball on all the other players' Wikipedia pages.

  10. May 2022
    1. Lots of front-end developers struggle with CSS. I struggled with it too! CSS is a deceptively complex language, and it can often feel inconsistent and frustrating, even after you have years of experience with the language.

      I can't even begin to say how much this reassures me.

  11. Apr 2022
    1. Magnolia flowers are fantastic on sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, added to cold noodles, used on tacos, added to salads and more. Pair with fresh cheeses and in dishes that would work nicely with ginger.

      People EAT magnolia flowers?!

    1. finding ways to turn have-to’s into want-to’s can have the following psychological benefits: You will feel better. You will be engaged more deeply. And, you will find tasks to be more meaningful.

      Maybe that's why when I have tasks I don't want to do, I try to refocus the tasks in the lens of having fun. If I can find a way to have fun with something, then I enjoy it more. But what is "having fun"? Perhaps it's tied to being autonomous. It's putting your own spin on something. It's being free to do different methods. It's being free to explore. It's taking the task and doing it, because you want to do it, becuase you are doing it your way.

    1. the list of the most boring hobbies included sleeping (You snooze, you lose), religion (Praying for a miracle?), watching TV (Wait, what?), observing animals (Like your average bed and breakfast bird watcher), and doing math (That actually does add up). 

      Whoa. I must be pretty boring. I love sleep, religion, watching animals, and doing math.

    1. Reply All (Or At Least Reply 10) George Sisneros had an interesting approach to getting started on Twitter. He wrote 10 tweets a day, but didn’t post them on his account. Instead, he posted them as replies to other big accounts. Then, he took the ones that performed best as replies and posted them as original tweets on his own account. This helped him get exposure to new people through the replies and ensured everything he posted on his own account was a proven hit. (Btw, here’s my advice about how to step up your Twitter reply game.)

      Maybe I'll try this.

    1. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club ChicagoNorman Dinkel, the longtime owner at Dinkel’s Bakery.

      A great photo of the owner of Dinkel's. You can see the expression on his face. He's sad, forcing a bit a smile. Hand on the counter shows his connection with the business. The lighting from the case is fantastic, giving bright colors. The pink tints in the background capture the happy feeling in the bakery.

    2. The future of the iconic Dinkel’s sign, which hangs vertically on the side of the building, is uncertain, Dinkel said.“I’ve still got to figure out what’s going to happen to it,” Dinkel said. “I’m told there might be some collectors interested, but I don’t know yet.”

      What would someone do with a sign that size? Hang it up inside your McMansion and have a little donut table under it?

    3. Norman Dinkel, 79, and the longtime owner, said it was closing so he could retire.

      it's too bad that he doesn't have any relatives that can carry on the Dinkel's store.

    4. The bakery had been in talks with a few business partners interested in buying the bakery, but deals to sell the business fell through because “they didn’t want to actually work in the business,” Dinkel said.“They want to buy a business and make money, but this is a business where you’ve got to work every day,” Dinkel said.

      He wants to honor what Dinkel's is. He doesn't want to see the name end up going down as a bad business. Ironic that a legacy has to endure by ending the legacy.

  12. Mar 2022
    1. it was also the first to experiment with growing plants on the moon. The spacecraft brought a small, cylindrical biosphere called the Lunar Micro Ecosystem (LME). The LME contained different seeds, such as potato, cotton, rapeseeds, and Arabidopsis thaliana, a common weed.

      An attempt to grow potatoes on the Moon. (It didn't work. Although the cotton plant grew two leaves!)

    2. Aside from bringing samples back to our planet

      WAIT A MINUTE! Lunar samples were brought back to Earth!? We haven't had lunar samples brought back in over 40 years!!!

    1. It also bears noting that one could view the first stage of Cornell notes in light of the practice of keeping a waste book and then later transferring their more permanent and better formed ideas into their commonplace book.

      Hmmm, this is an idea I need to explore—the waste book. To admit that many of my notes are just not worth going through would be freeing.

    1. The median duration of a podcast, according to a survey of ten million episodes in 2018, is 38 minutes and 42 seconds.

      Thank you for using the median duration, instead of the average duration.

    1. If you aren’t living your dreams, then you’re living your fears (Daymond John)

      Hmmmm. Not so sure it's that binary.

    1. “For years, I’ve had to listen to co-workers tell me how I should be in this pool or that pool, how I’m missing out on all this social time with my coworkers but that's a load of crap,”

      My favorite quote today.

    1. Echoing Whitman — who owes his cultural reverence to Burroughs and who, in the wake of his paralytic stroke, considered what makes life worth living and counseled to “tone your wants and tastes low down enough, and make much of negatives, and of mere daylight and the skies” — Burroughs adds: Unlucky is the man who is born with great expectations, and who finds nothing in life quite up to the mark. One of the best things a man can bring into the world with him is a natural humility of spirit. About the next best thing he can bring, and they usually go together, is an appreciative spirit — a loving and susceptible heart.

      My credo

    1. Unlike at the mall, this kind of escalator lifts nobody up.

      Ok, that was a VERY WEIRD analogy.

    2. Realize that uncertainty brings benefits, like unleashing creativity and resilience.

      Yes indeed! I’m glad this article expressed the rationale for uncertainty and creativity—another reason why I embrace uncertainty. In fact, do I dare say that I fear certainty?

    3. When we don't know something, we tend to fill in the blanks, often with garbage assumptions. Why? Many of us would rather be unhappy than uncertain.

      Interesting. I’d rather be uncertain. But this explains why so many people are unhappy when faced with uncertainty. I actually get a bit of joy when faced with uncertainty—because it gives me a chance to accept things as they are. You’d think since I quest for knowledge, I would not like uncertainty. But uncertainty allows me to grow. It allows me to admit that I don’t know something, and that it’s ok. The start of learning is admitting you don’t know something.

    1. No one is likely to dig through your thoughts in any file format.What matters is how you transform the text into useful stuff for you and others. Even then, it will be forgotten quickly.

      A good reminder

    1. The indoor color scheme serves only the purpose of making it clear that the place is not filthy.

      lol

    2. from an older familial tradition of gum-in-stocking that my mom came up with, though that sometimes wound up involving weird, weird gum, like toothpaste tubes that said Bazooka. Anyway.

      Oh wow. I remember that Bazooka gum in toothpaste tubes product.

    1. Jenny Kendler, Music for Elephants, 2016, antique 1921 player piano with ivory keys and custom die-cut vellum score based on the artist’s predictive algorithm, 50 x 57 x 29 inches (700 lbs)

      Can hear something rolling in the background. Is this the die-cut vellum score rotating?

    2. Kendler partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council to find data on African elephant populations. She then extrapolated that data set to create a musical score based on an algorithm where each note represents a month’s worth of elephant poaching (the lower and longer the note is held, the greater number of elephants killed for their ivory). By the time the 10-minute song concludes its finale, only 300 notes or “months” are played (25 years total); we’ve reached the elephant’s extinction. 

      What a powerful work of music.

    1. Our school mascot is the dolphin, and I found this thing, and I pitched people over Facebook on the idea of having kids color in our school logo and put their drawings in the window and doing other little dolphin related things and what not.

      That's really cool! In March 2020, I participated in the "Teddy Bear Hunt" where people put a teddy bear in their front window. From what I recall, the campaign didn't get a ton of tweets. I monitored #teddybearhunt for a few days just to see anything interesting.

    2. Worse, parents of kindergartners and first graders but not also older kids, they’re starting off with no familarity with the community norms.

      Yeah, that would be me. My oldest started kindergarten this school year. I have no idea how parents normally interact with each other.

    1. I had intended to write at great length about baseball. But I’m shelving that. Decided it was best saved for a full META-SPIEL instead of Musings.

      I'm looking forward to his thoughts on baseball.

      and I didn't even know that Phil organizes his posts by "musings" and full posts.

    1. For each subject that you might have ongoing thoughts about, start a separate “Thoughts On” journal. Whenever you have some thoughts on this subject, open up that file, write today’s date, then start writing. To give you an example, here are my “Thoughts On” journals as of today: Accounting Addiction Airports Alcohol Ambition Animation AppDevelopment Artist

      Whoa. Taking the journaling to another level. Writing under specific topic areas. He has 97 topics!! I wonder how he remembers which topic ... like would it be 'airports' or 'planes'?... 'BeingSocial' or 'Social'.

      Part of me wonders if you could just tag your journal entries with these. But I rather like the intentionality of writing on one topic. It's not just a journal entry that happens to take place in an airport. It's a journal entry ABOUT AIRPORTS.

    2. If you’re feeling you don’t have the time or it’s not interesting enough, remember: You’re doing this for your future self.

      And actually, this is part of the reason why I was originally keeping my daily diary/journal to one line, because I wanted something quick and easy to refer to in the future.

    3. It works best as a nightly routine. Just take a few minutes and write at least a few sentences.

      Good point on doing this at night. I used to do mine in the morning, re-capping the previous day.

    4. Every day at some point, just open up this diary, write today’s date, then start writing. Write what you did today, and how you are feeling, even if it seems boring.

      I started doing this years ago with a "one-line diary". At first I kept myself to one line, but then I felt too much pressure to summarize my day into one line. And I found myself trying to do something that day that would worthy of a highlight. (which isn't too bad, but there just got to be too much pressure around this).

      So then, I let my one-line diary have longer entries if I wanted longer entries. This worked a lot better for me. I should pick up that habit again.

    1. only to find that your favorite app’s search doesn’t seem to be as good as you thought it was at first

      Yeah, I found the desktop version of Evernote really stinks at search. I have to use Evernote web to find my notes.

    2. Enough that we fear losing the things we’ve already found out more than we favor gaining new ideas.

      Hmmm, I need to do some thought about which camp I land in. Do I fear losing the things I've found more than I favor gaining new ideas?

      I think that by saving my ideas, I am gaining new ideas. I'm continuously gaining new ideas.

    3. Then we’re free. We’ve stalked the prey, secured it for later nourishment. We can safely forget. We’ve insured against faulty memories. Now on to the next quest, finding something new to stash.

      I do have to admit I use Evernote and Obsidian has a sort of digital hoarding. Keeping it all these articles, just in case I want to refer to them later.

      And indeed, there are times where I want to pull up an article I read, because it comes up in conversation with a friend. In those times Evernote and Obsidian come in handy.

      I also keep the hope alive that I'll go back to my 1,400+ blog post drafts and publish some of them. Some day. Maybe if I only tag them better, I'll uncover these previous ideas more often. If only. If only.

    4. you saved them, then let them go back into the ether. No perpetual thinking on an idea; you wrote it down, let your second brain remember for you.

      Hmmm, maybe that's why walks are so good for us. They allow us to perpetually think about something. How else can I foster this art of perpetually thinking about a topic/article/concept?

      When I worked in downtown Chicago with a wonderful window view, I would often stare out the window. Maybe I was doing perpetual thinking then. Maybe that's part of why I miss working in an office building with a view. I miss the chance it gives me to perpetually think.

      Maybe that's why some people buy prints of bible verses to hang up. Viewing the verse over and over, day after day, allows you to perpetually think about the verse.

      And now with hypothes.is, I can do my thinking in the comment box. Just as I'm doing now. And just as hypothes.is user gyuri wrote in the margins of this article, "I write to think. work on the words to hone the feeling."

    5. Highlight our findings.

      Yes, I'm highlighting this passage to be ironic.

    1. T. rex, meaning "tyrant lizard king," has been the sole species of the genus Tyrannosaurus recognized since the dinosaur was first described in 1905.

      Today I learned that T.Rex was only first described in 1905.

  13. Feb 2022
    1. The war in Ukraine will shape the future of the entire world. If tyranny and aggression are allowed to win, we will all suffer the consequences. There is no point to remain just observers. It’s time to stand up and be counted.

      A look to what should be done now.

    2. Unfortunately, this war is likely to be long-lasting. Taking different forms, it may well continue for years. But the most important issue has already been decided. The last few days have proved to the entire world that Ukraine is a very real nation, that Ukrainians are a very real people, and that they definitely don’t want to live under a new Russian empire. The main question left open is how long it will take for this message to penetrate the Kremlin’s thick walls.

      A look to the future.

    3. But there was one big unknown about this plan. As the Americans learned in Iraq and the Soviets learned in Afghanistan, it is much easier to conquer a country than to hold it.

      a look to the past

    1. My colleague Dave described what happens on his current project, whose manager doesn’t consider the impacts of time lost to excessive multitasking: The manager likes to split people up between teams, 50 percent here and 50 percent there, or 50, 25, and 25. But when this happens, it seems like they forget the percentages and think the team has all full-time people. Then they seem surprised at how long things take. Also, being on multiple teams means more overhead in meetings and less coding time.

      yeah, having people split their time among many teams really cuts down on how effective each person is. Plus when things come up, you don't have a full team of people that you can shift tasks around. Everyone has a full plate of tasks. You can't add more tasks upon a person who has 100% full of tasks.

    2. One software group of mine measured how we devoted our time on projects for several years (Wiegers 1996). Individuals tracked the hours they spent working on each project in ten activity categories: project planning, requirements, design, implementation, testing, documentation, and four types of maintenance. We wanted to know how we really spent our time, compared to how we thought we spent our time, and compared to how we were supposed to spend our time. In the first year that we collected data, we devoted an average of just 26 hours per week to project work. The time tracking made us all more conscious of finding ways to focus our time more productively. However, we never exceeded an average of 31 hours per week of project time.

      I've long wondered how much actual project time people spend per week on projects. Here's a starting point of one group.

    1. But brands will always need someone to explain TikTok microcultures to old losers.

      lol

    2. the three vibe shifts he has survived and observed: Hipster/Indie Music (ca. 2003–9), or peak Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, high-waisted Cheap Mondays, Williamsburg, bespoke-cocktail bars; Post-Internet/Techno Revival (ca. 2010–16), or the Blood Orange era, normcore, dressing like The Matrix, Kinfolk the club, not Kinfolk the magazine; and Hypebeast/Woke (ca. 2016–20)

      The three recent trends

    1. Customers can pay as little or as much as they want; the minimum is $1, but higher amounts will unlock increased selections. Dynamite, IDW, Image, and others have offered books through Humble Bundle.

      Glad to see Humble Bundle on this list. Lately, this has been my #1 place to by comics. I love getting a huge bundle of comics for cheap. Keeps my to-read list full.

    2. Digital comic sales made up 12.5% of all 2020 comic sales

      Given how much digital has taken over many areas, I'm a little surprised that this isn't higher for comics. Although, I suppose many people buy comics for their collectible value as a physical object.

      I like comics merely for reading. Maybe ages ago I would buy a #1 thinking it would worth something. But now you have to spend big bucks on a rare cover for it to really increase in any value. That #1 common might increase a bit, but not enough for me to store it and remember to sell it years later.

      I love digital comics for not having to store boxes and boxes of comics. I'd say 90% of my comics purchases in the past ten years have been digital.

    1. Yes, according to MRC Data, CD sales in the US increased 1.1% in 2021 from their sales in 2020. But in 2020 they had fallen 26% from 2019, “the format’s biggest year-to-year decline ever,” leaving the CD at an all-time low since its introduction as a commercial format.

      Oh the CD. I can't recall the last time I bought a CD of music.

    1. the upside of having a sea of knowledge filled with seemingly irrelevant information that bubbles up into someone's consciousness along with targeted details is that random, hodgepodge associations can cultivate creative thinking.

      It would be nice to help these associations be less hodgepodge. I need to be better at cross-referencing ideas in Obsidian.

    1. John MacArthur discusses power in the Bible noting that Scripture certainly testifies to God’s glorious power (Ex 15:6), His irresistible power (Dt 32:39), His unsearchable power (Job 5:9), His mighty power (Job 9:4), His great power (Ps 79:11- Spurgeon's note), His incomparable power (Ps 89:8 - Spurgeon's comment), His strong power (Ps 89:13 - Spurgeon's note), His everlasting power (Isa 26:4), His effectual power (Is 43:13), and His sovereign power (see Ro 9:21-note).

      What an awesome list of various phrases to describe God's power. I've love to make a poster of these different phrases, and have the verse coming off each phrase.

    1. Before this season, the Bengals had not won a playoff game since 1990, when they beat the Oilers (now the Titans), the longest drought in the four major North American sports.

      I wonder who now claims that title of longest drought without a playoff win.

    1. mobile captures more than 50% of gaming industry revenue

      I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this. But I still find it surprising.

  14. Jan 2022
    1. In all our talk of meaning, purpose, four hour workweeks and lifestyle design it’s easy overlook the reality that people have to pay their bills, keep the lights on, and put food on their tables.

      Oh man. Amen! Truth!

    1. Creators rarely have a shortage of things they want to create. However, that overflowing creative drive can make it difficult to focus your output in a way that serves you best. You wind up drifting from project to project, jumping at each new bit of inspiration, only to leave a trail of abandoned projects in your wake.

      Oh yes. I have 65+ creative projects to do. Seriously. They are all listed in a Google Sheet.

    2. Focus. Clarity. Process. The ability to generate opportunities, identify and grow your audience. These are the keys to your success — and they can be learned.

      Oh yes, I could use help with the focus and clarity. Identifying my audience.

    1. Rather than offer an expanded version of my For The Interested newsletter (the “more” approach I had originally tried that didn’t work), I launched a “different” paid newsletter called This Is How I Do It. Each week’s issue offers a behind-the-scenes look at exactly how I do something to grow my audience and build my business.

      What a great idea. I'm nowhere near to launching a paid version of a newsletter. I still need to grow my basic newsletter. But this is great advice for when someone wants to launch a paid version. Don't offer more content. You'll end up sacrificing the quality of your free newsletter. Instead offer a different newsletter with a different angle.

    1. This doesn’t mean that we should somehow blithely accept any and all shortcomings as perfectly acceptable. Sometimes coming to terms with what’s complicated really does mean throwing shit away.I operate from this mindset though: Most bad things are done by good people. Little lies, petty thefts, cross words. We are human. We should not celebrate the bad because it is bad, but rather, we should celebrate our basic humanity, trespasses and all.

      I've been on the fence about Bonds and Clemens in the Hall of Fame. But now this case here has convinced to welcome Bonds and Clemens into the Hall, warts and all.

    2. But because their presence there would constitute a powerful part of the history of the game.

      That's a great point. Steroids is part of the history of baseball. (and really, baseball is largely about history. You can't just remove the history from baseball).

    1. Gottlieb: I think this is the difference between what a friend would say to this person and what a therapist would say to this person. Because what the friend tends to do is to say, “Look at all the wonderful things you have in your life,” which is not helpful at all because they can’t see it anyway. You know it’s very funny when you look at the difference between how we talk to our friends and how a therapist might approach this. Because I think that people would expect the therapist to say, “Well, look at all these things that you’re not seeing.” But no. In fact, what I would probably do is I would agree with them and say, “Yeah, you know, I can see that you’re really not satisfied.”And then what happens for them is the more that you kind of go into their mindset that they start to see something new, that they start to say, “Well, actually, I have this really great partner, and I have this really great job.”

      Wow, this goes to show that being a good listener is more important than giving good advice. We don't always need to FIX something. Most times people just need us to LISTEN and UNDERSTAND.

    2. they conflate what society wants them to want, what their parents want them to want, what the culture tells them they should want versus what they inherently want. And if it goes against some of those things—like some of those culturally accepted things of what we should want—it’s very hard for them to even acknowledge that that’s something that they want.

      Wait. So I’m supposed to base what I want on what I’m envious of? Well, when someone is envious of another, isn’t that really looking at what other people want? Isn’t envy letting society to tell you what you want?

      Here the interviewer and interviewee are saying we can’t let society tell us what we want, but we are supposed to let ENVY tell us? The same envy that is society telling us what we should want?!

    3. the Dalai Lama always says—which is the secret to enduring satisfaction is not to have what you want, but to want what you have. The satisficer is one who wants what she has, and the maximizer is the one who is always chasing, trying to have what he wants.

      Hmmm. Interesting point. I wasn't digging on their points of about joyness being tied to what you want. But now in this light, it makes a bit more sense. It's not about what you want. It's about wanting what you have. Or as I like to put it, enjoying what you have.

      AND YOU KNOW WHAT? It's not really about wanting what you have, because the moment you want to CLAIM OWNERSHIP of it, that it's MINE MINE MINE, then boom, all this bad stuff creeps in.

      If we instead approach this as sharing. As, "here's this cool thing, you can have it too." Then wow, now we have some joy. I wonder if they'll be tying this "having" into actually giving and sharing with the "being connected" point.

    4. And it really takes up your emotional energy in a big way, because it’s almost like it’s a perfectionism type of thing.

      Maximizer is a form of perfectionism.

    5. The maximizer will see that sweater and kind of put it under another sweater, so nobody will buy it. And just in case, go to the next store. And keep looking, because maybe they’ll find something a little bit cheaper or a little bit more attractive or, you know, whatever it is, right?

      Good name for this. "Maximizer" sounds good by its name. But when you see what the maximizer does—it's actually not good at all.

    6. Satisficers are those people who, let’s say: You’re trying to buy a sweater, and you go into a store and you find a sweater that fits you. It looks good. It’s the right price. You buy it, you’re happy, you’re done. Right? It meets all of your criteria.

      Is "satisficer" supposed to be a combination of "satisfaction" and "sacrificer"?

    7. And I think that the people who are happiest when we talk about people—and I would maybe use the word contentment

      Yes!

    8. and then the next week, they’re walking by a store and they see something else in the window and they think, Oh, that one would have been better. And so they’re just never satisfied with what they have.

      Envy. See. Envy is not the basis for joy.

    9. the second macronutrient of a happy life, which is satisfaction

      Ok, clearing my mind here. I approached this article expecting some really good revelations. I am keeping my mind open and excited for interesting things to understand and learn. There will be very good nuggets in this interview!

    10. Let’s move on to the second pillar

      No, let’s not move onto the next pillar, because you just totally contradicted yourself in the first pillar. Let’s get this first pillar straightened out. Ppppf. Joy bring based on envy?!

    11. Joy is an emotion, right?

      Oh no!!!!!! Joy is MUCH MUCH MUCH deeper than an emotion. JOY IS NOT AN EMOTION.

    12. They went to Hawaii, and I don’t get to go to Hawaii.

      I could really care less if someone is in Hawaii. I don’t understand this part of the social media problem. I’m happy when people go on vacation. I’m happy when they share. It’s so cool! Yeah! I want ti see fun pics like that!

    13. And when they realize that, they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I spent like an hour and a half mindlessly scrolling through the internet.”

      That would be me. Surfing, thinking it will lead to me creating, writing, making. But instead I just CONSUME more and more stuff, instead of CREATING. But a lot of times I create, and it feels pointless, because nobody cares. And that’s where the LOVE part comes. I’m doing things for me, but love is all about the other. (I’m not a fan if the phrase self-love, love is not about the self). Often I think I want to love others more. But I think people won’t accept it, because they don’t accept the art that already do and share online.

    14. she found that when she made time for fun she not only enjoyed her life more, but she found that actually it made her more productive.

      Amen

    15. There are people who don’t know how to have fun. I think that we think somehow in our culture today of ambition and moving forward—you know, all sorts of pressures—that people think that fun is frivolous

      Yup. Exactly to my point of goals sucking all the time and mindspace out if being able to experience joy. Or in this case, have fun.

    16. So anhedonia is when people are depressed; they literally cannot experience joy in the things that would normally bring them joy if they were not depressed.

      Not directly related to this text, but I find myself not experiencing joy when goals are pushed into me. When you HAVE to focus on a BIG goal, then I don’t have the time or mindspace to allow for joy.

    17. because they’re excessively stoic or for whatever reason—that they have insufficient enjoyment of their lives?

      Hmm I think I’m very stoic at times—and that actually brings me joy. Perhaps this person means a different type of stoicism.

    18. I think that we all ask ourselves, when it comes to happiness is: How can I love and be loved?

      Hmmm. This might be a very good way of phrasing it. I often come back to loving others as the core point. (And being loved as part of that—it’s synonymous with loving others)

    19. There are three macronutrients to happiness. They are enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose.

      I don’t think the interviewer is talking about happiness Peres, but something else. Semantics semantics. I’ll go along as I read, just thinking it’s about something else—not “happiness”

    20. I think that happiness as a byproduct of living our lives in a meaningful way is what we all aspire to. But happiness as a goal in and of itself often is a recipe for disaster

      Yes yes. Happiness as BYPRODUCT. It’s not the goal the interviewer was elevating happiness above enjoyment and the other two ingredients. I see happiness as something LOWER than the three ingredients.

    21. I do find enjoyment as pleasure plus elevation.

      What does elevation mean here? I’m assuming this will be explained.

    1. For one thing, there is easy mode, and there is hard mode. You switch between them by toggling a setting.

      I never knew there was a "hard mode" in Wordle!

    1. On the project’s website, decentzinelib.com, Frankson had coyly written, “Currently, there is one known location for browsing, lending and borrowing… [I]f you have ‘found’ a discrete zine repository and would like to submit it to the index for listing, please use the subject line: NEW LOCATION.”

      Oh yes. There shall be more than one. Yes, there shall.

    2. When I mentioned it was decentzinelib@gmail.com, there was a murmur of recognition and then Frankson told me the “decent” part of the address stood for “decentralized,” a nod to the decentralized space they’d created. 

      When I place a decentralized library on the shelf, I’ll send an email to: decentzinelib@gmail.com

    3. And that might lead to, ‘Oh, you bind your own books?’ ‘Yeah, you know, I look for these methods of stitching, and I try to replicate them myself. And, in fact, I have this project of distributing and trading zines that I've stashed in the Greater Victoria Public Library.’ And people are like, ‘What?’” 

      Lol. Love thus description, in fact, I have this project of distributing and trading zines that I've stashed in the Greater Victoria Public Library.“

    4. Frankson told me they also diligently worked the zine library into casual conversations, disclosing its existence in a calculated way. 

      I should do this with my art projects. I RARELY ever bring up my art in conversations.

    5. Frankson did a fair bit of recon to pull off the reverse heist. They scoped out the stacks in search of the least populated area, hoping to place the fake book containing the zine library among books that were infrequently checked out (and therefore infrequently reshelved by librarians who might notice it). Frankson remembers settling on the Canadian Geography section

      I’m going to check out the Canadian geography section at my library now.

    6. Frankson is someone who’s always involved in some kind of project or another—ones that don’t involve “monetary gain or hype,”

      Sounds like me. I should look up this person.

    7. The inside cover of Handpicked Tours had a handwritten message where a bookplate typically would go. Bearing the ransom-note-like appearance of having been cut up and reassembled, it offered congratulations —“you just found the ‘central branch’ Book and Zine TRADING Library!”— and instructions: “Be sure to leave something if you take something so the library stays well stocked!” 

      Words inside the “decentralized library”

    1. Despite the name of the set being “record setters” there was no specific mention of records that were broken by the players included.

      Cards featuring "Record Setters", but nothing mentioned about records being set. How bizarre. I seem to recall encountering these cards in the 80s. At the time they confirmed my bias against Fleer, so I continued to not buy Fleer packs.

      Although I did enjoy the fact that there was a variety of card manufacturers which made collecting individual players more fun. I do have Fleer cards in my player sets, and I really enjoy those. I just wouldn't crack open Fleer packs.

    1. I think to break up the linear feeling is actually refreshing for someone like me. It was actually perfect for me to get a break from it for two years and write something completely different, and then I could come back to it and fine-tune it and maybe even improve it somehow. When you have a different year in life, you sometimes spot things that you didn’t spot when you were inside of it.

      Björk on how the pandemic changed her routine for the better.

    1. When they come to us they often know what is happening and don’t need us to be a news aggregator.

      Good to hear that a publication admits that they don't need to be a breaking news publication.

    2. The Atlantic introduced nine writer-driven subscriber newsletters this fall and three new staff newsletters.

      Hooray! FINALLY! Publications are letting readers subscribe to individual writers.

    3. How we put it to use: Our consumer strategy and growth team used this insight — that people who are familiar with The Atlantic appreciate the range that it offers — in planning recent marketing emails to prospective subscribers. (The sharp writing below is from senior copywriter Ashley Larkin, who also helped in synthesizing and clarifying the five needs statements.)

      Great example of marketing copy that uses these points to encourage people to subscribe.

    1. Take a single nine-pocket sheet and a reasonable $100 budget, and build a nine-card collection with a unifying theme.

      The "One-Sheet Collections" is such a great series! I love the affordable theme! So refreshing to hear about cards that won't bust the bank.

      (Although, personally $100 for one sheet of cards is still steep for me. But at least they aren't talking about $400 cards)

    1. nearly all tweets come from less than 6 percent of American adults.

      I'm actually impressed that 6% of America would use Twitter that much. Really? That's a good slice of America. Continuing to tweet.

      Even to this day, after Twitter is just kinda... well not trendy. LOL. Funny how I can think of Twitter being trendy. These days we just think of Twitter as a utility.

    2. But this disjunction between reviewer and audience doesn’t just happen with children’s movies. The problem with being a professional critic is that you end up consuming so much culture that you stop processing it like a normal person. Once you’ve seen your 20th car chase of the year, the novelty begins to wear off. But the average audience member is not mainlining movies like that. A paint-by-numbers action or comedy flick may feel completely fresh to them—and so may a banal superhero movie or the latest Harry Potter or Star Wars release.

      Good point. I often like an action movie—even if it's considered "bad" by critics. Now here's a good reason why. It's because critics see SOOO many of the same type of movie. It's not so much that they have developed the fine art of distinguishing between the fine art of the car chase. It's that they are just plain sick of seeing car chases.

    1. In the past, I used to quote much more -- my dissertation advisor pretty much cured me of that.

      Heh. I need to be better at that. In my annotations I do one of two things: 1) Simply highlight. 2) Or I'll write related ideas. I don't do much summarizing. My ideas branch off the text.

    1. There are very examples of trudging through a person’s archives to reconsider them in a positive sense

      Huh. What about close studying of important historical figures? Of science, art, literature. We immerse ourselves in letters written by these people.

    1. The love and joy inherent in a wedding ceremony are also characteristic of the ministry of Christ, who came into this world because of love (John 3:16) and brought joy to all who believe (Luke 2:10).

      Love

    2. The miracle made a strong impression on Jesus’ new disciples, teaching them from the start that He could take care of them (Isaiah 46:4; Matthew 6:8).

      Care

    3. One consideration is that of honor. In those days, family honor was of vital importance. Weddings usually lasted for seven days, during which time food and wine supplied by the bride’s and groom’s families flowed freely. To run out of either implied a thoughtless or impoverished host. Running out of wine would bring dishonor upon the family name. As a personal favor, Mary turned to her divine Son for help. Her family was about to be shamed in the community, and she knew her Son could do something about it.

      Honor

    4. Jesus’ creation of wine may be significant, prophetically. Jeremiah had foretold that in the Messianic age “they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD—the grain, the new wine . . .” (Jeremiah 31:12). Amos said that Israel “will plant vineyards and drink their wine” (Amos 9:14). The association of the Messiah with a time of plenty—including freely flowing wine—makes Jesus’ first miraculous sign all the more meaningful.

      Prophetically

    1. The dreariest thing in all the world is a godless old age, and one of the most beautiful things in all the world is the calm sunset which so often glorifies a godly life that has been full of effort for Jesus, and of sorrows patiently borne as being sent by Him.

      The world often thinks of things as “old” thus worn and less value. But here, saving the best for last.

    1. massive Ant-Transformer armor

      I'd love to see Ant-Transformers. :)

    2. Optimus Prime asks Tony Stark what his Transformer-sized armor is made from, as the hero reveals it's made from carbon nanotube transistors, printed on silicon wafers, with a capacity of about fifteen amperes.

      Note to self: armor made of carbon nanotube transistors, printed on silicon wafers, with a capacity of about fifteen amperes is not enough to battle Megatron.

    1. "Imagination is the air of mind," in which it lives and breathes.

      Said another way: The mind’s air is imagination. The mind breathes imagination.

      Thoreau is quoting Philip James Bailey.

    1. it had floated out into the stream, and was nowhere to be seen.

      Love how at one moment he’s taking about fetching a runaway floating melon, then the next moment he’s imparting wise words of “ This world is but canvas to our imaginations”

    2. This world is but canvas to our imaginations.

      The great quote.

    1. Lester won his first two World Series rings in Boston, and he also learned what being a good teammate on and off the field meant."You have people from all walks of life on a team that have one goal," Lester said. "I saw David [Ortiz] bring a lot of those guys together that you never thought would be friends. I wanted to bring that when I came to Chicago."While he was one of many stars on the Red Sox, Lester took on that role that Ortiz had played in Boston when he signed with the Cubs in 2015. Kris Bryant was still in the minors and players like Javy Baez, Kyle Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo had yet to reach their peak for a franchise in need of a winning mentality more than a century since its last title. Lester took it on himself to bring everyone together.Ross recalled one memorable road trip to Oakland that included a private plane to take a group to Pebble Beach for golf. A day later it was a private bus to a Kenny Chesney concert, all expenses paid by Lester."It was the greatest trip I've ever been on," Ross said. "It's not about private planes and stuff, but just that he wanted everyone to have a good time."And there were the postgame parties Lester threw at his house not far from Wrigley Field. Everyone was invited."I knew we had a young team," Lester said. "We wanted to introduce ourselves and also get to know other people. Best way to do that is off the field. Besides, we like hosting, which always helps. I'd rather just walk up to my room and go to sleep than worry about getting an Uber."

      I never knew that about Jon Lester. He wanted to bring his teammates together, and he took actual actions to do that.

    1.             As a consequence of favoring discovery over creation, the concept of ownership of an object also changes. Much like the mathematician discovering a fundamental truth, we as designers shouldn’t take credit for the objects we create if they are truly natural.

      Oh, ok. I get it. When we design, it's not about the designer's ego creating something. "Look what I made!" Rather, designing is about letting the designed object be what it needs to be.

    2. so defining an object’s quality simply by its output is also not an option

      oh, so quality is not just value provided either.

    3. Aligning company goals with the value provided — as ephemeral as it might be — is the foundation for a company that is built to last

      so then quality is not about success per se, but rather quality is about value provided.

    1. Some people

      An interesting question posted on twitter in response to this essay:

      "wondering how amazon's stack would look like and fit within the framework you layed out. They also tried to go down the layers with kindle, fire-devices and publishing. Prime seems to be their solution for stickiness. What are their network effects?"

      https://twitter.com/0xsven/status/1473055506075947016

    1. You either hire reporters to cover teams or you don’t, and that means keeping a lot of journalists (currently around 450) employed.

      Ah, this answers my question.

    2. Average revenue per subscriber back in 2019, again according to the founders, was $64 at a time when a subscription cost as much as $120 per year. Today, revenue per subscriber is likely well below that. It’s hard to say without access to the financials, but based on figures reported today, it has likely sunk below $55 per subscriber.Not great.

      Just amazing to me that making $55 per subscriber is not enough to keep a website running. I'm very curious what their costs are.

    1. Including a $100 million dividend they paid themselves in 2020, Eisner and Madison Dearborn made a 55% return on Topps

      So frustrating seeing these corporate executives taking money from their employees. They literally took $100 million away from the company.

    1. 21. 2020 Topps Now USA Election Bernie Sanders #21 Can a meme become a trading card? A mittens-wearing Bernie Sanders proved emphatically that it can. The card, which shows the Vermont senator at the presidential inauguration, went on to sell a massive 91,169 copies. That’s the most ever for any Topps Now card. It garnered plenty of mainstream attention and likely made its way into the hands of many non-collectors looking for a timely souvenir from a memorable moment.

      Fun to see the Bernie Sanders card make the list.

    1. Mimosa Shah

      I need to send her a fun art postcard

    2. The unfolded “mailer” showcases the particular bending, wear, and tear on prints as they travel from one destination to another, bearing singular traces of human touch. Tangible markers, like abstract patterns produced by the colorful tape holding folded images together, signify intimacy and personalization. There’s a sense that this piece of mail can’t or won’t be duplicated, that it’s bound for only one mailbox: yours.

      Reminds me when I wanted to mail postcards if art, but scratch lines into the image where it looked like the post office scratched those lines en route. But the lines would suspiciously be in exact strategic spots in the card. Eg marking a mustache on a portrait.

    3. When galleries passed on purchasing them, Shore took advantage of the fact that the postcards didn’t list locations and could therefore be from anywhere. On a subsequent road trip, he paused at rest stops around the country and surreptitiously—and provocatively—stocked postcard racks with selections from his mountainous stash.

      Lol

    1. These thinkers and dreamers often need to bring more time and focus to stages 1 and 4 in order to keep their creative process on track. Balance inspiration with generation by creating the necessary structures to help you commit to action and put one foot in front of the other to make it happen—or just collaborate with a doer who you can outsource your ideas to! 

      What I need to do.

    2. More inward-focused, idea-generating types excel in stages 2 and 3: getting inspired and coming up with brilliant ideas. But they run the risk of getting stuck in their own heads and failing to materialize their brilliant ideas in the world.

      That’s me

    3. stages 2 and 3 are all about inspiration: dreaming, reflecting, imagining, opening up to inspiration, and allowing the unconscious mind to do its work. Stages 1 and 4, meanwhile, are about generation: doing the external work of research, planning, execution, and collaboration.

      The four stages seem so obvious, that they are boring. But splitting the four stages into these two groups gives exciting insight.

    4. One of the most illuminating things I’ve found is a popular four-stage model of the creative process developed in the 1920s. In his book The Art of Thought, British psychologist Graham Wallas outlined a theory of the creative process based on many years of observing and studying accounts of inventors and other creative types at work.

      Cool. This is from the 1920s. So much more if creativity research comes from later.

    1. the rise of the tech companies represents a qualitative change. The oil and real estate magnates of the 1982 Forbes 400 didn't win by making better technology. They won by being really driven and good at making deals. [2] And indeed, that way of getting rich is so old that it predates the Industrial Revolution. The courtiers who got rich in the (nominal) service of European royal houses in the 16th and 17th centuries were also, as a rule, really driven and good at making deals.

      Hmm, the making money by making deals (not by making tech) sounds a lot like a company I know VERY well.

    2. The pure tech companies used to be called "high technology" startups. But now that startups can punch through the middle of the ice crust, we don't need a separate name for the edges, and the term "high-tech" has a decidedly retro sound.

      Heh, the origin of the word “hi-tech”—and why the word died out.

    1. But on religion everyone's an expert.

      I wonder if Biblical scholars would free with this. The more one reads Bible commentaries from well-researched people, the more one realizes how much of an expert a source is.

      Now would Biblical scholars agree that everyone thinks each self is an expert? Maybe. Is it true? Not really.

    1. If you're nice, as well as wise, you won't merely resist attacking such people, but encourage them. Having new ideas is a lonely business. Only those who've tried it know how lonely. These people need your help. And if you help them, you'll probably learn something in the process.

      I’d like to think I’m an idea person. An idea generator. I often assume everyone are idea generators. Why wouldn’t everyone be an idea generator? It’s fun. To me, it’s how you think. Like, idea generating is just so second nature. It’s how I think and process. But I suppose (per some of the points in this article, that most other people are not idea people. Maybe I like to think everyone is, so that I’m not praising myself.)

    2. Another reason people dismiss new ideas is that it's an easy way to seem sophisticated. When a new idea first emerges, it usually seems pretty feeble. It's a mere hatchling. Received wisdom is a full-grown eagle by comparison. So it's easy to launch a devastating attack on a new idea, and anyone who does will seem clever to those who don't understand this asymmetry.

      Easier to tear something down than to build it up.

    1. The lower time limits for intense work suggest a solution to the problem of having less time to work after you have kids: switch to harder problems. In effect I did that, though not deliberately.

      Hmm. I have kids. I have MUCH LESS time now. So I need to switch to HARDER problems? Hmmm.

    2. There is some technique to it: you have to learn not to lie to yourself, not to procrastinate (which is a form of lying to yourself), not to get distracted, and not to give up when things go wrong.

      Yeah, see. This is what I’m talking about. The technique. If you have this technique, I think the “hard work” will follow.

    3. It was similar with Lionel Messi. He had great natural ability, but when his youth coaches talk about him, what they remember is not his talent but his dedication and his desire to win.

      I wonder if this determination that results in hard working isn’t the true key. Maybe it’s determination that results in focus, dedication, willing to explore and figure out the area from all angles. Then when you have that sort of determination, the hard wirk flies out of that. But spending lots of time on something does not always yield success. It’s HOW you go about your determination.

    4. It was similar with Lionel Messi. He had great natural ability, but when his youth coaches talk about him, what they remember is not his talent but his dedication and his desire to win.

      I wonder if this determination that results in hard working isn’t the true key. Maybe it’s determination that results in focus, dedication, willing to explore and figure out the area from all angles. Then when you have that sort of determination, the hard wirk flies out of that. But spending lots of time on something does not always yield success. It’s HOW you go about your determination.

    1. Most people type around 40 words per minute (WPM) with skilled typists hitting upwards of 100 WPM. Competition typers can break into the 200 WPM.

      I can currently type up to 80-90 WPM. Is there a reason why I would want to learn this new form of a keyboard? So I can reach 100 WPM?

    1. Before I had kids, I had moments of this kind of peace, but they were rarer. With kids it can happen several times a day.

      Hmmm, interesting point.

    1. So I inverted the 5 regrets, yielding a list of 5 commands Don't ignore your dreams; don't work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.

      I like how he flipped the five regrets into five commands.

    1. when you ask adults what they got wrong at that age, nearly all say they cared too much what other kids thought of them.

      Wow. My parents must have raised me in a great way, because in middle school I wasn't that concerned with what other kids thought of me.

    1. When it comes to the business model, most of these new magazines have common characteristics. They have smaller frequencies, they rely on circulation revenue, they have high cover prices, and they are printed on high-quality paper.They probably need all four elements to survive.

      The four elements for a print magazine to survive.

    2. Samir Husni, perhaps the world’s foremost expert and advocate for ink-on-paper magazines.

      His site is: mrmagazine.me

    1. First, we think of time as a separate "thing" (unlike, say, medieval peasants, who'd have had no such abstract notion). Then, we feel we've got to make the most of it, or squeeze the most work from it, or use it to get on top of things, or do enough with it to feel a sense of self-worth.

      Thank you! I’m glad Burkeman has a good perspective and concept of time. Time is not some THING you grab hold of and manipulate. (Per Bible Project Podcast talks about what time is).

    2. You have a certain number of slabs of time available for work, unfolding one after the other, whether you like it or not, until it's time to pick up the kid from preschool or make dinner or go to bed. 

      It’s such a relief to hear time advice from a parent instead of a 20-something with VASTS more time available.

    1. You have to take a stab at deciding what matters most, among your various creative passions/life goals/responsibilities – and then do that, while acknowledging that you'll inevitably be neglecting many other things that matter too.

      This sounds like “Getting Things Done”. You have to figure out your 20,000 foot view of what is most important to you. So is Burkeman a bit like GTD?

    2. It's not a question of rearranging your to-do list so as to make space for all your "big rocks", but of accepting that there are simply too many rocks to fit in the jar.

      Or as Mo would say to the owner at my first job out if college, “you have too many potatoes in your sack!”

    1. But it's also true that we're increasingly the kind of people who don't want to rest – who get antsy and anxious if we don't feel we're being productive.

      I need to rest.

    1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

      Testing annotations in Safari ios.

    1. If you’re practicing and you want to scramble a solved cube, you have to keep the cube intact and scramble it up manually. If you break it apart and reassemble the cubies randomly, there’s actually only a 1 in 12 chance that it’s solvable.

      A Rubik's Cube broken apart and randomly assembled has only a 1-in-12 chance that it's solvable.

    1. In the story of the 4,000, the word for basket (spuris) had to do with a much larger container, the very same kind of basket used to lower Paul over the Damascus wall (Acts 9:25).

      Oh wait. The Gentile 4,000 used the Paul basket word. The Jewish 5,000 used a different basket word. Thus, Paul’s basket is not used in both Gentile and Jew stories.

    2. First, check out the locations: the 5,000 were fed on the Jewish side of the lake while the 4,000 were fed on the Gentile side. Jesus had compassion for both crowds; He cares about both Jews and Gentiles!

      Saul on side of Jews, Paul on side of Gentiles.

    1. We now know that at least 10-30% of those who survive any Covid infection (from asymptomatic or “mild”to severe) will go on to live with (and sometimes die from) long Covid – a long-term, lifelong, or even life-threatening or fatal, disabling chronic syndrome, the biological pathways of which are still largely unknown.

      Wow. 10-30% of people who get Covid, now has long Covid.