Is it August already? Here is another roundup of the best reads, podcasts, internet people + projects, and anything else I’ve discovered the past month.
Subscribe to my blog (in the footer of this post) or Substack to get these roundups in your email once a month.
Here are the past Roundups: April, May, June, July.
Podcast Recommendations
1.) Why The Doomsayers Are Wrong, Josh Szeps
Fun interview with Tyler Cowen on: how to identify talent, what makes someone talented, has “wokeness” peaked, why most people overestimate how bad things are, and more.
2.) Lost in Borges’ Garden, Very Bad Wizards
I’ve been on a Borges binge all year so I decided to revisit the suite of Borges episodes covered on the Very Bad Wizards podcast. Here Tamler and Dave discuss the intricate genius of Borges’ The Garden of Forking Paths. I highly recommend you read Borges, listen to this episode, and check out their other Borges episodes (particularly their episode on Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius)
3.) Andrew Callaghan, Yeah But Still
Andrew is the genius behind Channel 5 (and previously All Gas No Brakes), a gonzo journalism outfit in the era of YouTube and content abundance. Andrew travels the country with his team (two best friends of his) and documents some of the strangest (yet important and often under-reported) cultural and political moments happening today. Basically think of any crazy shit that went down recently, and it is highly likely that Andrew was there filming and talking with people. He was there for January 6th, he was in Minneapolis just three days after George Floyd was killed by police, he camped for weeks in Seattle’s “autonomous zone” known as CHOP or CHAZ, he traveled alongside the “People’s Convoy” of truckers protesting COVID restrictions and vaccine policy, he was in Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded, he talks to Flat Earthers, QAnon folks, pro-choice and pro-life protesters, and basically anyone with a lot on their mind. He has an expert style of listening to the people he interviews, nodding along and asking simple questions to draw out their true beliefs for the camera (and consequently gets some wacky beliefs recorded for all to see). I highly recommend subscribing to his show. Also keep an eye out for his new documentary on January 6th / “Stop the Steal” coming out soon.
4.) Stephen King, The Kingcast
I’ve been on a Stephen King kick this year. I read It, 11/22/63, and The Shining back to back to back. It was particularly cool to see Jake Epping, the main character from 11/22/63, run into two members of “the losers club” (from It) when traveling back in time to 1958 Derry, Maine. Anyway, after finishing The Shining (on Father’s day no less) I felt a little burnt out on King (no pun intended). But then I found this podcast entirely dedicated to the work and worlds of Stephen King. It is delightful. They bring on some pretty well-known guests and talk about a specific King book each episode. For this special episode, they talked to King himself. It is a great interview, with questions King has never been asked.
Here are some new Twitter accounts I started following recently that I’d recommend:
- @jsomers: James Somers is a writer and programmer. Some how, when stumbling on his personal site and browsing his past writing, nearly everything interested me. These three pieces from James sold me: I should have loved biology, Keepers of Secrets, and The Friendship That Made Google Huge.
- @ProfEmilyOster: Emily Oster writes wonderfully about parenting, education, and more at her Substack ParentData. I’ve started to think more about education / education reform lately, and Emily has been a great entry point. Her writing is clear and extremely informed.
- @elilondon100: I found Eli after he tweeted out these amazing photos of old men playing chess, poolside, in Budapest. Absolutely fantastic.
- Tweet of the week(s): @adampickard shared one of the coolest uses of DALL-E I’ve seen yet. For those unfamiliar, DALL-E is the name of a new tool which can generate unique images based on a text prompt. The people who built DALL-E “trained” it to be pretty versatile and accurate by showing it hundreds of thousands (maybe more?) of images from the web and labeling them. Adam Pickard used DALL-E to recreate the incredible Powers of Ten film from Ray and Charles Eames, entirely with images generated from his text prompts.
Cool Projects
I’ve launched my first Open Source project!
A productivity tool I built for myself that combines my Calendar / time blocking, daily planning / task management, and “work sprint” workflows received some internet love. After receiving 35ish waitlist signups I decided to make this Open Source: https://github.com/polymathematics/remotetool. This means that anyone can contribute code to the project and thereby help improve it. This project also got me my first ever GitHub star and already has been forked / added to by a collaborator. Would love any programmers to join us in making this generally available and better! And here is the waitlist for anyone interested.
Tools and Tips
1.) Unsubscribe feature on Gmail
The built in tiny unsubscribe button within email headers is surprisingly effective. If you’re like me, you simply tolerate the 80% of irrelevant spam that lands in your inbox. I took twenty minutes to go through my unread and use the unsubscribe button Gmail added and my inbox is already significantly lighter. It is much faster than individually finding each unsubscribe link within an email.
2.) “Want To Buy” Lists
A tip I’d heard a while back that Tessa reminded me of recently is to add anything you’re thinking about buying to a list within your Notes app. Then, each month, review the list and remove anything you no longer want or need. You’ll be shocked by the number of entries you remove. Add a tally next to anything you keep on the list so you know how many reviews it has passed. Set the review cadence and purchase cadence based on preference, but I’d say review monthly and then buy an item or two if they’ve stayed on the list for three or more months.
Reading Recommendations
As always, you can keep up with what I am reading here. Here are some recent reads that stood out to me.
1.) No, America is Not Collapsing — Noah Smith
One of the best things you can do for your sanity is to find smart optimists and read their work. Even if you are naturally disposed to be pessimistic, try this. So much doomerism today, so find sources that directly challenge it, if only to encounter the Steelmen.
2.) THE MAINTENANCE RACE — Stewart Brand
This is a public draft of a chapter from an upcoming book Stewart Brand is writing (presumably all about maintenance). This chapter tells the epic story of the race around the globe, by nine solo sailors in 1968. I had never heard these harrowing stories about Bernard Moitessier, Robin Knox-Johnston, or Donald Crowhurst’s time at sea. Here, Stewart Brand tells the captivating story of their race, focusing on their different approaches to maintaining their vessels while at sea.
3.) June Huh, High School Dropout, Wins the Fields Medal — Jordana Cepelewicz
The story of the poet turned mathematician and how his unique (and slow) approach to solving forty year old mysteries in geometry and patterns won him the highest prize in all of math.
That’s all for this month. You can subscribe to my blog here (in the footer of the page) or subscribe to my Substack to get these roundups in your email once a month.
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