2023
When was the first time a waiter asked someone whether they saved room for dessert? Is that guy getting royalties?
Want to read—nonfiction: Empires of the Steppes by Kenneth W. Harl 📚
From landlines to Zoom, a brief 30+ year history of business phone technology and etiquette. By Clive Thompson.
In the 90s, background noise was unprofessional. Today, if somebody’s cat zoombombs the meeting, business stops while everybody meets the cat.
Wanted: A combined RSS/Mastodon client. Yes, Masto generates RSS feeds but that doesn’t give you everything a Mastodon client does.
Cory Doctorow: How the kleptocrats and oligarchs hunt civil society groups to the ends of the Earth:
It’s a great time to be an oligarch! If you have accumulated a great fortune and wish to put whatever great crime lies behind it behind you, there is an army of fixers, lickspittles, thugs, reputation-launderers, procurers, henchmen, and other enablers who have turnkey solutions for laundering your reputation and keeping the unwashed from building a guillotine outside the gates of your compound.
One Weird Trick for Writing a First Draft. By Clive Thompson
Clive Thompson: How I Take Notes When I’m Doing Research
Excellent discussion of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
On the You Are Good podcast with hosts Sarah Marshall and Alex Steed and guest Rain DeGrey.
The only movie I’ve ever watched more than once in a single day. I watched it three times.
Though it is a great movie, I don’t know if I would call it one of my favorites. But something about it hit me hard on that particular day.
WSJ: Tech Leaders Emerge Behind Plan to Build New City Near California Air Base
Venture capitalists want to build a new city on currently rural land in California. This will go as well as crypto, Web3, and the metaverse.
An ode to “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast.
I loved this podcast. “… one of the great love letters to twentieth-century Hollywood.”
Some of the best guests were D-list stars even in their prime, who might only be remembered by the narrow age demographic that Gottfried and I shared.
What’s the biology behind why we find some people attractive?. On Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman
Last night before bedtime, I stepped into the backyard and found myself standing with a big red spider a couple of inches in front of my nose.
The spider was about an inch wide, and furiously busy tending its web, scurrying back and forth and moving its legs rapidly.
I took a step back and watched it for a while.
I tried to get a video but it didn’t come out great, and I know spiders give people the fantods so I won’t share the video here.
Casey Newton at Platformer: Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter.
I’m surprised to learn Casey is a note-taking apps nerd, like me.
And like me he’s a compulsive hoarder of clips and links.
And like me he wants a chatbot to be able to ask the hoard questions and get good answers.
Decluttering continues. Two observations:
• A surprisingly significant amount of the clutter in my office was empty boxes for me to put the clutter in. • Some days I think I’m smart and other days I try to flatten empty cardboard cartons without tearing them.
What Happened to Wirecutter?. By Charlie Warzel at The Atlantic.
I rely on Wirecutter for any unusual purchase under $200. If I need something I’ve never bought one of before, and it’s priced under $200, I just buy whatever Wirecutter recommends.
The police came by to do a wellness check. They said Amazon had requested it because I hadn’t had anything delivered in nearly a month, and they were worried that we were OK.
Things that are annoying me today:
- Password management
- The acronym PTO. I don’t care whether you’re getting paid for taking time off.
- Companies that sign you up for their email list without your permission, just because you did business with them one time.
- Pretty much everything. I’m irritable.