Well, hello there, reader, and welcome to another edition of Kat’s Kable - your favourite internet newsletter. As always, there are ten great things to read, and somehow this week, almost all of them have rather long titles. If you got this from a friend and want to subscribe, here’s the link.

1. Steven Smith’s new approach to batting is revolutionary and a lesson in how to live life (Cricinfo)

“What if, like in life itself, the secret to unlocking peak performance lies not just in the sweat and toil, but in aligning with a deeper rhythm, a universal energy that governs success and ease?”

2. Wildflowers, Rivers, and Mountains–Navigating Time and Kinship (Coonoor & Co.)

“In the rolling meadows of Yumthang Valley, covered in purple primulas and framed by the mighty Himalayas, the rivers Lachen Chu and Lachung Chu tell stories of ancient kinship—a kinship of collective emergence of mountains, rivers, forests, and humans.”

3. The Mark of a Masterpiece (The New Yorker via Internet Archive):

Superb 2010 piece about art, art markets, imitation and forgery. It’ll take you a solid 45 minutes to get through, but well worth it.

4. The Philosophy of Checkmate: Amit Dutta on Chess and Life’s Lessons (Culture Cafe Newsletter):

Fun introspection on chess, growing up and ending up becoming a filmmaker by Amit Dutta.

5. The miraculous case of Sumit Nagal (Himal Magazine):

Great profile about Nagal, Indian no. 1 men’s singles player and how he’s had to jump through a lot of hoops to get where he’s gotten.

6. The Old Family Photos Project: Lessons in creating family photos that people want to keep (Esther Schindler on Medium):

Not really a longread or longform journalism per se, but quite nice.

As a consequence of scanning thousands of slides, I learned quite a bit about taking photos that capture a family’s life. Here’s a personal memoir, with a few lessons in taking memorable snapshots.

7. Exeter’s unassuming Co-op worker leads double life as ‘Lord of the Logos’ (Devon Live):

Ha, wow! Christophe Szpajdel, aka “Lord of the Logos”, has designed logos for many rock bands and even for Rihanna some time back! Work isn’t consistent, though, so he also works part-time at a co-op in Exeter.

8. A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox (Henrik Karlsson’s Substack):

Well, it’s a self-explanatory title. It’s a nice (but perhaps made antiquated by LLM-powered AI) story of how online writing helps you find people who get it the way you do.

9. Who Can Name the Bigger Number? (Scott Aaronson’s blog):

I really do wish I’d been able to share this last week along with the busy beaver article. This essay is written before the value of the fifth busy beaver was computed–it’s essentially talking about our fascination with naming large numbers, and why that’s scientifically and simply humanly fascinating (even if totally useless).

10. Making Friends With Your Past and Future Selves (Knowable Magazine):

Again, not a longform piece - this one is more of a summary of recent research into “self-continuity”, and how it translates into improved health and well-being.