Hi there, reader. Good evening (or morning)! I missed last week’s Kable because.. well, I was a bit sick and when I woke up to see how many of the ten articles I had saved up, I realized I had a grand total of three. We are back today, though! Back and how - I looked up various random internet lists to find new articles and new sources, and I found a whole bunch of great writing from the 2000s. I’m sharing a first batch in this issue, and it’s all really good.
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1. I Was Glued to My Numbers Like a Day Trader: The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age (The Walrus):
“Why are we letting algorithms rewrite the rules of art, work, and life?” Interesting piece to meditate on as we spend more and more time on social media and guided by algorithms.
2. The Ketchup Conundrum (The New Yorker):
OK, I don’t really like Malcolm Gladwell, but this piece from 2004 (!) about specialty ketchups in the US is pretty great. I also learnt quite a bit about how brands engineer the tastes of their condiments so that people don’t tire of them.
3. The Truth Behind the Amazon Mystery Seeds From China (The Atlantic):
This is a 2021 piece about mystery seeds reaching a lot of people’s mailboxes in the US and UK. Obviously the first reaction was to be suspicious of anything coming out of China during the COVID days, but it looks the explanation is something simpler - a “brushing” scam (or is it)?
4. The Incredible Buddha Boy (GQ):
I love George Saunders’ writing. In 2006, a boy in Nepal sat down to fast and meditate.. and went at it for six months. Saunders is asked to go check it out and write about it - and it’s a treat.
5. Inside the tiny chip that powers Montreal subway tickets (Ken Shirriff’s blog):
I don’t remember how I came across this, but it’s a wonderful post about tinkering with Montreal’s single use subway tickets that have pretty cool (and cheap) NFC chips that let them be read by the turnstiles.
6. There’s more to mathematics than rigour and proofs (Terence Tao’s blog):
I enjoy Terence Tao’s non-technical posts and this one is no exception. He talks about the three “levels” of math - the (a) “pre-rigorous”, (b) “rigorous” and (c) “post-rigorous”. It’s interesting because a lot of people (me included) feel super frustrated when moving from (a) to (b) - but the magic happens when you then move to (c) and start doing math somewhat intuitively again.
7. Pixxel: Earth’s Honest Mirror (Tigerfeathers Substack):
I’ll be honest, I haven’t finished reading this one. It’s a long piece - Instapaper estimates it at 2 hours - about Pixxel, one of India’s coolest startups. Pixxel just launched their constellation of satellites this past week, so it’s a great time to read about them and their story.
8. A Restaurant Ruined My Life (Toronto Life):
Phew - “I was a foodie with a boring day job who figured he could run a restaurant. Then I encountered rats, endless red tape, crippling costs and debt-induced meltdowns, started popping sleeping pills, lost my house, and nearly sabotaged my marriage.”
It’s 10pm now, and I’ve had a wonderful and long Sunday, so I’ll be off. Toodles and see you next week!