Hope you’re having a great weekend! Apologies for the late dispatch, was caught up with a lot of work today. Here’s this week’s list.
- Reading Lists are the new Mixtapes - This piece made me smile very very wide. Would’ve been nice if this piece would’ve been part of #1, come to think of it.
If nothing else, tailor-made reading lists can function in the way that mix-tapes once did: to define a memorable time in our life, the way we think about a particular life juncture, the way we feel about the extraordinary times we live in. The internet has changed a lot of things, but the singular and simple joy of reading something surprising and unexpected is one it thankfully has not yet touched. - Sleepwalking towards disaster - Amitav Ghosh (whose work I’ve never read, but have heard only good about) talks about climate change and how we’re marching towards bleakness. He has a new book out too that talks in detail about all this, and it’s called The Great Derangement. It’s on my to-read list.
- The Man who captured time - a detailed profile of Eadweard Muybridge, who captured the first instance of motion photography. Well, he should be known for much more than just proving that when horses gallop, all four of their legs leave the ground.
- Comic Strip about Trump - one of the best.
- Master Plan, Part Deux - Elon Musk details his plans for Tesla, and its something to learn from. Wish I could plan half as well in real life. Also, one thing that surprises me is the openness with which he makes these claims, much different from other firms who’d rather keep things in the dark until they’ve got them ready for launch.
- What it’s like being a professional hand model - yes, you read that right. Fascinating read.
Every article about it just seems to ask the same things—do you really moisturize 30 times a day, and are your hands insured for loads of money? The answer to both of those, by the way, is no. Those are myths, or at least pretty major exaggerations. The only concession I really make is that I use a dishwasher and avoid most of the cleaning products I actually advertise, which I guess is another strange unreality of this world—we use these images of “flawless hands” to sell products that no one with flawless hands could ever use. - Freddie Mercury’s mother on her ‘dear boy’ - interesting interview.
- How a colonial blunder grew into a part of the War on Terror - How the Durand Line, an arbitrarily border drawn between Pakistan and Afghanistan to appease regional rulers turns out now to be a major qualm and bitter issue between two countries trying to solve the problem of terrorism emanating and diffusing across this very border.
- How the Tour de France Encourages Cheating - Well, not exactly, but the rules aren’t exactly very clear, and it’s such a punishing and gruelling sport. The baseline has been ‘upgraded’, and its not just how well you cycle that matters, but how smartly you dope.
- A Peek Inside the Moonshot Factory Operating Manual - Astro Teller writes about Google[x] and so-called moonshot ideas, which aim to make the world a radically better place. How do you go about cultivating and grooming such ideas? Fascinating read, with something in it for everyone.
Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.
Cheers!