Greetings, friend. Here’s this week’s list. Hope you like :)
- A Year without Oliver Sacks - Essential reading.
Oliver’s greatest gift was sensitivity—seeing, feeling, and sketching what the rest of us had never even noticed. I referred many patients to Oliver. He spent two, three, or more hours on the initial visit. Some did not know “who he was,” but, after their consultation, all knew how special he was, all wanted more. His notes overflowed with nuances of their lives; he captured their voices and gained tender and brilliant insights that had escaped me during a decade of care. - How an Archive of the Internet Could Change History - Fascinating, a must-read of sorts.
- I was the one who bought George Zimmerman’s Gun - Hilarious piece about destroying Donald Trump’s horcruxes. I LOLed.
Donald plans to erect another horcrux in the Wall, and make Mexico cast the spell to put it there. Mexican officials say that makes no sense, and everyone agrees. It doesn’t. - This is Your Life in Silicon Valley - Very fun read about a near-dystopian life in Silicon Valley.
You commit to being a better parent this weekend and spending more quality time with him as you browse through the latest headlines on Flipboard. You recently realized he may not be the next Mark Zuckerberg after all — still you send him to a music school even though he’s only 3. You swear he’s a genius because he can say a few 4-syllable words and can clap perfectly to the beat of “Call me Maybe”. He’s special. He is destined for greatness and you’ll make sure he achieves every ounce of it. After all, both of you are so smart and accomplished. - Adding Ages - Nice Economist piece on how we’re trying to attain immortality. We’re really in a race against death, seems like. Very detailed and technical, I loved it.
- The 1-hour workday - Haha, not exactly a one-hour workday, but this piece talks about how a focused one hour each day works wonders for one’s productivity.
I have in no way mastered the writing game, but my 1-hour workday has certainly increased my academic output. And by keeping me focused and in practice, it has improved the quality of my writing and made the process much more enjoyable. It also offers an opportunity for deep thinking. I remember rarely having any such thinking time when I started out as a professor, but now I find that my daily keystrokes can lead to new ideas. When I string together days of successful writing, ideas flow and new connections present themselves even when I’m away from my keyboard, particularly on my bike ride to work or when I’m reading for pleasure. - Amazing Proposal Stories - Hilarious. Sadly, fictional.
- The Tyranny of other people’s Vacation Photos - Haha!
Equally jarring, some Instagram and Facebook users seem to want us to know that their summer is more inherently summery than ours: more barefoot, more glistening, more sarong-driven.
These folks are biting into the fresh fig of life, and this biting produces carefree laughter. My natural habitat is an oceanside bonfire where a Viggo Mortensen look-alike strums a weathered guitar! All backyards are enlivened by a spray of 8-year-old girls in sundresses! Everything I eat in August is cooked on a stick! - This Leaf got me Thinking - Camouflage at its finest. Great series of photographs.
- The Lenny Interview: Lidia Yuknavitch - Fascinating interview, makes me want to read Yuknavitch’s The Chronology of Water.
I believe in art the way other people believe in God. I’m not trying to make a tricky sentence. It’s just true. I have found reasons to breathe again by living in communities of people who choose self-expression over self-destruction. It’s another way to form hope, without hierarchizing it so that you’re looking up toward a God, or someone smarter or more famous than you are. It’s a lateral definition of hope where you just need each other, and you need to stand up and not leave each other hanging.
Have a great Sunday!
V