Podcasts Open Mike Eagle’s What had happened was is a gift to humanity. It’s the history of weirdo, independent hip hop from the horse’s mouth. Season One with Prince Paul (producer for De la Soul, Stetsasonic, MF Doom, Paul Barman, etc. etc.) was easily one of my favorite podcasts of 2020. I’m late to the Season 2 party with El-P (Company Flow, Run the Jewels, etc.), but it’s sounding good so far....
Articles A complaint about Google ditching Pixel 3 support. I have a Pixel 3 and sympathize. Google? More like Boo-gle. 👎 As the author says: here I am, with another piece of premature junk, made by the company that pledges to “maximize the reuse of finite resources” and “enable others to do the same". Books I’ve been listening to Ted Chiang’s collection of short stories, Story of Your Life and Others, on Audible....
I stopped updating this when I started a new job in October. I think I’m settling in a bit and hope to get back to providing weekly or near weekly updates to what I’m consuming. I also want to do some best of lists - books, albums, etc. Stay posted. 2022-01-03 Music Bunny is a Rider by Caroline Polachek. Try not to groove. Acclaimed Music’s 10,000 best songs of all-time Spotify playlist....
2021-09-28 Tweets GOP sliding into authoritarianism. How is the trend reversed? Or is this a misguided take - is the GOP not actually getting more authoritarian? Podcasts Amia Srinavasan on Conversations with Tyler. This was an amazing view of how disciplines can talk right past one another. The particularities of what you focus on when thinking about an issue shape how you think abou that issue so much. Very awkward, very good....
2021-09-12 Podcasts China talk I originally came across this podcast as an Adam Tooze fanboy. He’s been on as a guest a number of times and his episodes are as insightful and rich as you might imagine, but I listened to a trio of non-Tooze episodes on U.S.-China relations as part of my self-education on China’s shifting role in the global economic and political order. I am woefully undereducated in this realm and this podcast is an amazing resource....
2021-07-18 Podcasts David Epstein on People I (Mostly) Admire. Most interesting is the discussion on learning and knowledge retention. Ease is almost surely a sign you are not learning as much as you think. The bit on Fermi estimation (i.e. back of the envelope estimating everything) is also something I would like to try and incorporate into my thinking more. Lex Friedman’s interview with Roger Reaves is a trip. Laughing about insane torture in a Mexican Prison, running through the hills from federales....
Articles Nabeel Qureshi’s Notes on Popper Noah Smith on the Hispanic shift to the right. Come for the political drama, stay for the economic and social mobility charts. I hadn’t realized the degree to which Hispanics were moving up in the US. I want to send this other Noah Smith explainer newsletter on why economics isn’t just a way for rich folks to excuse themselves from social responsibility to everyone who has ever asked me what I think about stocks when they learn I studied economics....
2021-06-29 Articles “Smoke a fuckin’ fatty, ya fuckin’ Nazi” What is nostalgia like, under such historical conditions? I fear any attempt at answering such a question, today, will necessarily come up short. Today this is how we experience nostalgia: we become anchored to an era, and when it dies, when it is subducted under the ground of time, and we are reminded of that every day in the way other people around us are now dressing and talking and being themselves, in some important sense we die too, and live out our days as ghosts....
2021-06-22 Articles This article on Patrick Collison, Tyler Cowen and Patrick Jay’s reflections on the Fast Grants program they started to fund COVID related research during the pandemic. This quote stands out: Scientists are in the paradoxical position of being deemed the very best people to fund in order to make important discoveries but not so trustworthy that they should be able to decide what work would actually make the most sense!...
2021-06-15 Books A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age. I started this book some time ago, but didn’t really get into it. This time, I think I’ll finish it. The first part is a mostly personal history, which is interesting, but part two is really where it starts to get good. As someone completely unfamiliar with information theory, the basic concepts are presented very well and clearly....