Problems vs. situations: When facing a problem, ask yourself “is it a problem or a situation? Problems, by definition, have solutions. You might not like the cost of the solution, the trade-offs it leads to, or the time and effort it takes, but problems have solutions. On the other hand, situations don’t. Situations are simply things we need to live with.” Excellent life advice from Seth Godin. Working with problems
“If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?” Outstanding productivity advice from Tim Ferriss.
Feynman stories, Richard Feynman and scientism
A “Feynman story” is “any anecdote that someone tells that is structured so that the teller comes off as a genius and everyone else in the story comes off as an idiot.
“[Many people] seemed to think Feynman was a great guy…. [many] other people didn’t think he was so great. So Feynman seems like a standard case of a guy who was nice to some people and a jerk to others.”
Also:
Feynman couldn’t see the value of something like sociology because intellectually he was prone to extreme scientism – to the view that forms of knowledge that can’t be pursued exclusively via the methods of the natural sciences aren’t real knowledge. The ironic paradox here is that someone who has any grasp of the sociology of knowledge would immediately recognize that this idea – a very common one in our contemporary intellectual culture – is false, and in a very socially pernicious way, as can be seen in contemporary attempts to defund the humanities and social sciences.
Richard Feynman was a brilliant physicist, raconteur, teacher and popularizer. But he was only human.
Lawyers, Guns & Money: Feynman, pedagogy, and the two cultures -
“Avoid situations that someone you love might later have to explain on a medical or government form.”
Merlin Mann has been collecting life lessons in a lengthy bullet list on GitHub.
Some more gems:
- Minimize the number of conversations you have through a closed bathroom door. Unless you’re outside the door and there’s a fire, or you’re inside the door and you’re out of toilet paper. Otherwise, have a little dignity, and wait for the door to open.
- Your refrigerator is not a library or a hope chest. So, if you decide to save some leftovers, write the current day of the week on them. Then, when you rediscover your treat 3-5 weeks from now and wonder “Now, which Sunday was that?” Yeah. Time to deeply curate your odd little food museum.
- Remember that, like babies and balls, you can bounce. The extent to which any given event—often an imagined event—might derail or even destroy you is, at least in small ways, still something that’s in your control. Especially when you remember that you can bounce.
- As you get older, you will increasingly fear losing power, and you will become bitter, defensive, and angry about change. Curiosity, acceptance, and exposure to new people can help with this. But, man are you ever going to get weird about people with purple hair who are not afraid of you.
- Related: almost no one has ever actually been afraid of you.
- Relatedly related: the only people who were ever actually afraid of you were the handful of people who loved you and desperately wanted you to love them back.
- If the soap in a guest bathroom is new and shaped like anything besides a bar of soap, do not use it. Also, do not eat it. Because I know you kinda want to. Especially those shiny little sea shells.
- … if you really want to help someone, offer something extremely specific. “I’m here for you! 😬👍” is not nearly as cool as “Can I drop off a lasagna at 4?”
- Whenever your first solution to a problem feels like it should involve buying something plastic at The Container Store, consider a second solution.
- Try to save some parts of your life to be just for you. Including some special things that you’re happy about or are even a little proud of. If your only private things are shameful things, you will become very sad and will eventually despise your own company.
- Maybe almost never say anything about how someone looks ever.
- Related: if you are commenting on how someone looks, only ever compliment them on a thing that they have chosen.
- Relatedly related: but, yeah, maybe still almost never say anything about how someone looks ever.
- Never argue on the internet. No one will remember whether you won or lost the argument; they’ll just remember that you are the sort of person who argues on the internet.
What Old Age Is Really Like. Writer Ceridwen Dovey discusses the role of the very old in society, literature and lived experience, and talks with very old writers.
Are Men Obsessed With the Roman Empire? “In posts shared on social media, women have been asking the men in their lives how often they think about ancient Rome. ‘Constantly,’ one husband responded. ‘Like, every day,’ said a boyfriend. As of Thursday night, a thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, went on like this for MDCLXXIX messages.”
Aack! A Millennial’s Audio Odyssey Through the ‘Cathy’ Comic Strip . “The comedian Jamie Loftus returns with another limited-run podcast, this time exploring white boomer women through the lens of a much-maligned comic strip.” I loved Loftus’s multi-part podcast about the Cathy comic strip and its creator, Cathy Guisewhite, though I found the Boomer-bashing infuriating at times.
Turn Off Push Notifications. App developers want to blast you with trivial notifications all day, every day. The best way to take your attention back is to get rid of notifications altogether (or nearly so).
I’m extremely online, but nearly all my mobile notifications are switched off. There’s nothing Facebook has to say to me that needs my immediate attention.
Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles
I read Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire” when I was a teen-ager, and did not find it erotic, and didn’t realize it was intended to be erotic. The eroticism just went right over my head. I thought it was long-winded and Louis was a self-absorbed whiner. But I did finish the book.
When I was in my 20s, I read “The Vampire Lestat” and loved it. Again: If it was intended to be erotic, I didn’t realize it or even register it. I grooved on it as a science fiction nerd. It turned a science fiction cliche on its head—the belief that a person from the past, transported to the present, would have his brain fried by all the technology and science. Lestat tells us he grew up in the French Enlightenment—science, technology, sexual freedom and exalting the common people were all familiar to him.
I loved that the book “Interview With the Vampire” existed in the Vampire Chronicles universe, and Lestat felt about that book exactly as I did.
I loved the idea of vampires as heroes. Or at least protagonists.
And I loved the Deep Time history of it. You think events in the Enlightenment were long ago? How about Ancient Rome? OK, you think that’s old—how about ancient Egypt? I’m still a sucker for that kind of thing today. I’m currently reading Kage Baker’s series about the Company; she makes ancient Egypt look like current events.
The Incredibly Strange Career of Anne Rice
Anne Rice is known for her Vampire Chronicles, including “Interview With the Vampire” and “The Vampire Lestat.” She also wrote bestselling BDSM erotica and two historical novels about Jesus, and fought in a fan war against her own movie. The Our Opinions Are Correct podcast discusses her career and the movie and TV adaptations of her work., including the “Interview With the Vampire” TV series.
I tried to draw a turkey in spray cheese for the dog’s Thanksgiving dinner last night.
Spray cheese is not my medium.
However, the dog was not unhappy with the outcome.
AI developers have turned science fiction stories about godlike supercomputers into a religion, leading to the current infighting at OpenAI. “The field of AI … is profoundly shaped by cultish debates among people with some very strange beliefs.” Crooked Timber: What OpenAI shares with Scientology
OpenAI’s alignment problem. The company’s board failed the institution. But did it have a point?
Casey Newton defends – or at least explains – the OpenAI board’s position. The company was supposed to be moving slowly and avoiding the harms of AI while harnessing good for humanity. Altman was running the company as a fast-track start up.
