The best things I read online in 2018
There’s no shortage of good things to read, the trick is finding them. Here are the most interesting, enjoyable or teachable articles I read this year, and why they matter.
We Live in the Tail End
This year has been more real than most that we have strictly finite time to do what we can with our lives. Wait But Why gives one of the best accounts of that feeling I’ve read:
I’m 34, so let’s be super optimistic and say I’ll be hanging around drawing stick figures till I’m 90. If so, I have a little under 60 winters left… as weird as it seems, I might only go in the ocean 60 more times…
I read about five books a year, so even though it feels like I’ll read an endless number of books in the future, I actually have to choose only 300 of all the books out there to read and accept that I’ll sign off for eternity without knowing what goes on in all the rest.
What does this mean?
1) Living in the same place as the people you love matters. I probably have 10X the time left with the people who live in my city as I do with the people who live somewhere else.
2) Priorities matter. Your remaining face time with any person depends largely on where that person falls on your list of life priorities. Make sure this list is set by you — not by unconscious inertia.
3) Quality time matters. If you’re in your last 10% of time with someone you love, keep that fact in the front of your mind when you’re with them and treat that time as what it actually is: precious.
https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html
Amazon Knows the Value of Time
I can’t stop thinking about this off-hand remark from Amazon’s first strategic analyst. The whole article is excellent and timely, but this quote is a dense thicket of behavioural insights and life advice:
Our first attempt to address this was to show, in the shopping cart and checkout process, that even after paying shipping, customers were saving money over driving to their local bookstore to buy a book…
People didn’t care about this rational math. People, in general, are terrible at valuing their time… Wealthy people tend to receive a much more direct and immediate payoff for their time which is why… the first thing that most ultra-wealthy people I know do upon becoming ultra-wealthy is to hire a driver and start to fly private.
http://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2018/5/21/invisible-asymptotes
Postmortem of a YouTube Channel
Every Frame A Painting was a goddam, 65 million views phenomenon.
Go watch all 28 video essays right now, it’s an education in film . Start with The Spielberg Oner, How to do Action Comedy, and The Art of the Gag.
The channel wrapped up over a year ago but the hosts shared their reflections in 2018. Read the whole thing if you are a writer, learner, movie lover or you’re going to deliver that big creative project in 2019.
Here are some habits we picked up while making essays. Take whichever you like, ignore the rest.
Keep a notebook
Whenever you have an idea, jot it down (along with the date), then forget about it. The most important part of the process is to forget. Every idea seems amazing at the moment of inception, but once you sleep on it and check the notebook weeks later, you’ll find that your brain has already forgotten the weak ideas, but still thinks about the promising ones…
Research offline
A huge percentage of the Internet is the same information, repeated over and over again. This is especially apparent on film websites; they call it aggregation but it’s really just a nicer way to say regurgitation.
So go to the library. Read books. We cannot emphasize this enough: read books, read books, read books. Your work is only as good as your research, and the best research tool we have is the public library…
Test ideas out loud
Then we take that simple question and we test it out on real people — usually our friends (who are also filmmakers), usually over drinks or dinner. The key is to ask the question casually, as if we aren’t planning to make an essay.
The goal is to see if people react to an idea without us trying to sell it. Because if the basic idea is already interesting to people, it’ll only get better once we sharpen and hone it into a proper argument.
https://medium.com/@tonyszhou/postmortem-1b338537fabc
Gattaca Part III: Edu-Gattaca
I studied Gattaca in Year 12 and it’s still in my top three personal films of all time. I was absolutely delighted when Slate Star Codex discovered its two plausibly non-fake sequels. Such as how Vincent overcame prejudicial credentialism at Edu-Gattaca:
This time, we know how to identify truly superior human beings who deserve to be astronauts, no creepy biology involved. We’re going to base our decision on…what institution you spent four years in during your teens and early twenties!”
“Oh, come on,” said Vincent. “Can’t you just give up already and judge people on their merit?”
The supervisor pounded the desk. “Never!
I think about this every time the internet talks about about meritocracy.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2018/06/19/the-gattaca-trilogy/
Hugh Trevor Roper on the Crisis of the 17th Century
This essay about the 1600s was written in 1959 but might has well been for the here and now. Stop the elevator if this sounds familiar.
These problems, are not constitutional, they are not concerned with monarchy or republic, Crown or Parliament. Nor are they economic: they are not concerned with methods of production. Essentially they are demands for emancipation from the burden of centralization; for reduction of fees; reduction of useless, expensive offices, including — even in Spain — clerical offices; abolition of the sale of offices… abolition of heredity of offices; abolition of those wasteful, indirect taxes which yield so little to the Crown but on whose superabundant “waste” the ever-expanding fringe of the Court is fed.
Thus the tension between Court and country grew.
The solution at the time, Roper argues, was assertive state intervention in the economy. What we might now call protectionism.
<The city> controlled the price of food and labour, limited imports in the interest of its own manufactures, encouraged the essential methods of trade — fishing and shipbuilding, freedom from internal tolls — invested its profits not in conspicuous waste or pursuit of glory, or wars merely of plunder, but in the rational conquest of markets and the needs of national economy: in technical education, municipal betterment, poor relief. In short, the city had recognized that its life must be related to its means of livelihood.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/roper-the-crisis-of-the-seventeenth-century
Renewing Liberalism
Liberalism thus began as a restless, agitating world view. Yet over the past few decades liberals have become too comfortable with power. As a result, they have lost their hunger for reform. The ruling liberal elite tell themselves that they preside over a healthy meritocracy and that they have earned their privileges. The reality is not so clear-cut.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/09/13/a-manifesto-for-renewing-liberalism
The Origins of Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic Culture
Liberal individualism, which I’m a big fan of, may have its roots in the early church securing revenue from deceased estates.
Part of the variation in these institutions arose historically from the Catholic Church’s marriage and family policies, which contributed to the dissolution of Europe’s traditional kin-based institutions, leading eventually to the predominance of nuclear families and impersonal institutions.
The Top List of the Top Lists of Books You Must Read
When stuck for books to read (a rare circumstance), look no further than the amalgamated list of greatest books of all time. Culled from eight esteemed literary lists into one concise article.
Surprisingly enough, there were 520 books from the 8 lists, which meant there was less overlap than I expected. 65 of the books were pretty straightforward as they were mentioned at least 3 times (with The Great Gatsby and Catch-22 being the only 2 making it on all 8 lists).
This year I’ve re-read Catch 22, which is hilarious, dark and rich. I first read it in 2007, and two things jump out at me now: First, the repetitive prose and circular logic underscore Yossarian's horror that every escape leads back to danger. Second, the text is laced with problematic, period-specific sexism. I await with interest to learn whether the upcoming Hulu series can and will address it. (Cam from 2022 here, it didn't)
Star Wars: Verraten
Every so often I re-watch Empire Strikes Back with commentary by director Irvin Kershner. His philosophy was simple: show real human emotion, fill the frame with the human face, and don’t undercut the drama.
The best new Star Wars material I’ve seen that embodies that philosophy is Verraten, a six minute trailer for the Old Republic video game. It tells a simple story about a mother and daughter, righting your mistakes, and it earns its fight scene.
What makes it super great? The pivotal choice is a matter of left or right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENJ5rTkwYlA
Rules for Life
Living by our ideals is a constant struggle. Tamara Winter’s crowd-sourced recommendations are plain, buy I’m glad for any resource that gives aid and comfort in our endeavour. Reproduced in their entirety:
Interpersonal and Mindfulness
- Wake up early.
- Spend time in prayer and/or meditation first thing in the morning. Or, if you can’t fit it in then, find time later in the day. I love using Headspace. If you’re Catholic, pray the Rosary daily. (Cam here: use Smiling Mind !)
- Practice gratitude, and be specific when thanking someone.
- Keep a personal calendar.
- Write something, anything, everyday.
- Study a foreign language for 5, 15, or 25 minutes a day. Here’s a list of 10 great options.
- Eat meals with people you love.
- Keep in touch with close friends.
- Read to your children, and take pictures of them frequently.
- Read for at least 15 minutes daily.
- Read or watch something new daily. Ideally something you’re curious about.
- Ask questions often.
- Don’t slouch.
- Learn to dance.
- Call your parents and grandparents.
- Go on lots of first dates. Law of large numbers.
- Introduce yourself to new people.
- Before dinner, write down tomorrow’s priority list.
- Restrict your tv time. Or substitute tv time for your most potent distraction. For me that’s Twitter. Here are some practical ways to reduce screen time.
- For young people, ask people you admire in your area for coffee once, twice, or a few times a month. Email is another option. The likelihood of a positive response in both scenarios is probably higher than you expect.
Finances
- Negotiate your salary.
- Practice making money online. For a fun place to start, try PredictIt.
- Contribute early and often to your IRA/401(k).
- Invest as you’re able to.
- Save a predetermined percentage from each paycheck.
- Pay off your credit cards monthly.
Health
- Sleep 8 hours or more each night. Limiting your blue light exposure after sunset can also improve your sleep quality.
- Try not to use your cell phone in bed. You can also go even further, and put away your phone 30 minutes, an hour, or even two hours before bedtime.
- Increase your water consumption, and whenever possible, drink it to the exclusion of everything else.
- Reduce your sugar, carb, and processed food intake.
- One way you can do this is by bringing your lunch from home to work rather than ordering take out. Added bonus: saving money.
- When you do eat out, choose the healthier options.
- When grocery shopping, check the ingredients of what you’re buying. Try to avoid processed foods with numerous and complicated ingredients.
- Take the stairs if and when you can. If you live in a fairly walkable area, walk everywhere within a mile.
- Don’t overeat — stop just before you’re full.
- If you can, try intermittent fasting at least once a week.
- Exercise daily. Try exercises that you enjoy, otherwise it’s unlikely that you’ll stick with them.
- Incorporate resistance weight-training into your routine.
- Floss!
