It has been a busy week: I celebrated my birthday, went to a Mos Def concert, made some new friends, started getting over a new crush, had some old friends visit, and spent too much money shopping on M Street. I think it’s time to have a relaxing few days catching up on some reading.
Some really great articles in this week’s edition of the Weekender, but if you read only one, check out the second link — Paul Graham’s What You’ll Wish You’d Known — because it is one of the most important pieces of writing I’ve read since Merlin Mann’s Better.
A product is bought in order to be used. It must serve a defined purpose – in both primary and additional functions. The most important task of design is to optimise the utility of a product.
If I were back in high school and someone asked about my plans, I’d say that my first priority was to learn what the options were. You don’t need to be in a rush to choose your life’s work. What you need to do is discover what you like. You have to work on stuff you like if you want to be good at what you do.
Human beings crave social contact and connection. We want to talk to people face to face, or at least hear their voice. Not just for the joy of it, but because we look for vocal and facial queues about how the person we are talking to feels.
For most of its history, the debate over what leads to genius has been dominated by a bitter, binary argument: is it nature or is it nurture — is genius genetically inherited, or are geniuses the products of stimulating and supportive homes?
Getting to know one another is tricky. There are a number of hurdles, various stages of awkwardness, and a bunch of baggage brought to the community table. Even friendships can be difficult, but if you’re lucky, you make it through to the other side and soon you’re splitting popcorn.
Now, audience members don’t have to wait to clarify things they don’t understand. They can tweet their question and another audience member will tweet back with the answer. Audience members who tuned out because they didn’t understand now stay engaged.
Cooking is a human universal. No society is without it. No one other than a few faddists tries to survive on raw food alone. And the consumption of a cooked meal in the evening, usually in the company of family and friends, is normal in every known society. Moreover, without cooking, the human brain could not keep running.
Each of us is, more or less, an egg. Each of us is a unique, irreplaceable soul enclosed in a fragile shell. This is true of me, and it is true of each of you.
I still find disfigurement hard, and I feel the loss of my right, normal body every day. I sometimes catch a glance in the mirror after a shower and think sadly, “Really?”
In my early teenage years, I would often imagine what life would be like in my late twenties.
I would hope that, in my late twenties, I would be living on my own in a big city, happy with my career and surrounded by people I loved. I would hope that, by my late twenties, I had changed at least one person’s life and accomplished at least one thing that inspired someone else.
Most of all, I would hope that, despite entering my late twenties, I would still have hopes and dreams and ambitions, and I would still believe in the goodness of humanity and still be trying, every day, to make people smile.
Today, as I celebrate my twenty-seventh birthday and enter what is officially my late twenties, I’d like to assure my teenage self that I have never stopped dreaming and that I’m still driven by smiles.
No matter what may have changed from my original vision over a decade ago, I’ve still got that.
I’ll be honest. I’m too tired and too busy to write descriptions of every article I’m listing in this week’s Weekender. I’m inserting quotes from the articles instead.
To be honest, this might be of even better value to you, the reader, than my personal opinions on each piece. Let me know if you like this format better. Or not. I won’t be too upset either way.
Here we go: your weekend reading for February 20, 2009, as selected by me.
“Unless we’re willing to rethink today’s Internet,” says Nick McKeown, a Stanford engineer involved in building a new Internet, “we’re just waiting for a series of public catastrophes.”
In a major change of strategy, the new head of GlaxoSmithKline, Andrew Witty, has told the Guardian he will slash prices on all medicines in the poorest countries, give back profits to be spent on hospitals and clinics and — most ground-breaking of all — share knowledge about potential drugs that are currently protected by patents.
The Starbucks’ menu options are built on a complex framework, offering 14 dimensions along which customers can make choices to “design” their own drink.
“All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans. We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”
Anyone who’s given Gmail a fair shake will quickly find conversations indispensable. Going back to any other email client is agonizing and disorienting, like being knocked around and dumped out of the back of a pickup on the outskirts of a strange town.
“How long will it be before you come out of the subway and you hold up your screen to get a better view of what you’re looking at in the physical world?”
Although the specialization identified by Adam Smith creates powerful efficiency gains, [Jane] Jacobs argued that the jostling of many different professions and different types of people, all in a dense environment, is an essential spur to innovation — to the creation of things that are truly new. And innovation, in the long run, is what keeps cities vital and relevant.
Gene Siskel and I were like tuning forks. Strike one, and the other would pick up the same frequency. When we were in a group together, we were always intensely aware of one another. Sometimes this took the form of camaraderie, sometimes shared opinions, sometimes hostility. But we were aware.
It’s not just the content of our moral judgments that is often questionable, but the way we arrive at them. We like to think that when we have a conviction, there are good reasons that drove us to adopt it.
Today, on my way back from work, I ran into a young lady staring at a map of Washington DC, obviously confused. There was a look of desperation and sadness on her face.
Nothing makes me more upset than knowing someone is sad.
I offered to help her find her way around. Her eyes lit up. “I just moved to DC yesterday and I can’t seem to figure out how this city works. You’re the first person to offer to help.”
Her name was Hannah.
We ended up going for coffee. I shared my limited knowledge of the city, she shared her story of moving from Phoenix for a new job on the Hill. I told her how to get to work. She told me about how she missed her mom, her little sister, her wallpaper in her room. I told her how to find the closest grocery store. She told me about how nervous she was starting her new job, how she was scared she wouldn’t make any friends in the city.
After our short conversation over lattes, we decided to go our separate ways. She thanked me for being “the one nice guy” in the city that was willing to help.
“Thank you so much for helping me out and making me feel less alone. You have no idea how hard it is to land in a new city and not really have anyone there for you.”
I didn’t say it, but a quick response crossed my mind:
“Trust me Hannah, I understand the feeling much more than you know. Thanks for helping me feel a little less alone today too.”
Friday the 13th. Every time I mention the date, everyone seems to shudder and say “ooh, Friday the 13th” as if just uttering the date was going to cause the apocalypse.
Apart from a series of less-than-mediocre films, what’s so horrible about Friday the 13th? Well, here’s my promise to you: this edition of The Weekender will not be scary or gory or horrible. I personally love the number 13 — and plus, tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day.
Here we go: your weekend reading for February 13, 2009, as selected by me.
Does He Love You?
It may not be as powerful or as touching as his first part, Does She Love You, but Pasha Malla’s advice for women who are curious about where their relationship stands is hilarious and heartening all at the same time. And that last quote he includes made me cry. Still does.
The Lecture System in Teaching Science
The best professors I ever had weren’t good lecturers. They were the professors that came to class without a canned lecture, without a slide presentation, without a single-track methodology for teaching, but instead who engaged each and every single student in their classroom through their own individual learning styles.
How To Save Your Newspaper
I’m not entirely convinced that it will work (in fact, I agree more with Clay Shirky when he says it won’t, but I’m not officially linking to Clay’s article here because I promised no doom and gloom this week) but the idea of using micropayments to save the newspaper industry is an intriguing one.
How More Info Leads to Less Knowledge
This article is the complete antithesis of my Weekender series which tries to provide you with lots of information and lots of reading, but Clive Thompson makes a good point: when you’re faced with too much information, it makes it harder to actually “know” anything for sure.
The Hardest Job in Football
I know a camera operator that works hockey games, and the way he describes his job, you’d think that he was doing more work than the hockey players. Ever wondered what it’s like to be staring at all those camera shots and picking the best ones? Read this — you’ll see that the players have it easy.
Withoutlove Valentine’s Brown Bag Campaign
It’s great to dote on your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, but it’s completely possible to do something nice for someone else as well. This year, don’t buy flowers and chocolate, and instead donate some non-perishable food items to help end hunger. Feed your hungry heart later.
The Canadian Solution
Fareed Zakaria has it right: Americans may think that Canadians are boring, but what they can’t argue with is that our systems works, particularly in a time of financial crisis. Yeah, we can be smart sometimes.
Mindfuck Movies
Amazing list by Matthew Baldwin of movies that make you think, that mess with your head. I’ve been lucky enough to see 13 of the 16 on this list, and I’m definitely seeking out the other three.
How Tweet It Is
Twitter doesn’t quite make money yet, apart from the massive funding it receives because of its enormous potential, and now, cultural cachet. It’s good to know that founders Ev and Biz are focused more on just a business model: they’re interested in taking the ways we communicate and making them better.
Amish Hackers
The Amish are always portrayed as simple, backwards people who live completely disconnected from our current reality. Kevin Kelly shows how that’s not entirely the case, and how there’s a lot of interesting innovation happening in Amish communities.
The Age of Mass Intelligence
You know all those articles and books saying the digital world is making is dumber? Well, it turns out that living in a connected world is actually making us smarter, more cultured, and more diverse. Exactly what I thought.
You’ve heard the warnings before: don’t drink the water.
As someone that used to travel quite extensively for work, it’s a warning I would hear quite often. I spent more money buying bottled water in Hong Kong than I did on souvenirs and taxi fares; bottled water is more expensive than rum in the Dominican Republic; several of my friends were bedridden for days after drinking the tap water in Uganda. The stories are endless.
What about those people that can’t afford to buy bottled water? How do they heed the “don’t drink the water” signs?
Charity: water is non-profit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. There’s a lot more information over on their website, so I won’t say much more here — but I will tell you one way you can help the organization and have fun at the same time.
Twestivalicious.
You can help give to charity: water and have a great time by coming out to Twestival tonight. Twestival is a local gathering in dozens of cities around the world, bringing together a diverse group of people with all proceeds going to help bring drinking water to people who need it most.
Now sure, Twestival may not be as organic as other Twitter-run events like #hohoTO and participants may not feel the same kind of ownership over the event like they do with Twitter-initiated events like ChangeCamp, but those are criticisms for the organizers to consider for next time. Tonight, however, you’ve got a chance to help make a difference and meet all sorts of new and exciting people all at the same time.
A few people have told me that — while they enjoy the links I share in the Weekender every week — they’d much rather I attach some context to each link rather than just share a small image. In that light, I’m changing up the way I present this week’s links.
Let me know what you think of the new approach. Do you like the added context, or did you prefer the visual panache of the image-based link posts?
Here we go: your weekend reading for February 6, 2009, as selected by me.
2009 Will Be a Year of Panic
The economy is tanking, conflicts are cropping up around the world each day, and there’s a general gloom in the air. So it’s not surprising that Bruce Sterling is able to come up with several reasons why 2009 will be a pretty bad year. (My video rant about this.)
In Praise of Lo-Fi
In an ever-connected world, it’s easy to get lost in a deluge of information. Sometimes, we need to consciously take some time and disconnect, to live a lo-fi life, and letting your mind wander. (My previous post on this.)
Escaping the Caboose
Feeling overwhelmed? Maybe the reason you’re not driving your own train is because you’re refusing to make the necessary decisions to get out of the caboose. Make the right decisions, and change your life. Simple, eh?
The Virtues of Godlessness
Many of us were raised with the notion that we had to act morally and virtuously or we would face the wrath of God. What about those people that weren’t raised in such a climate? Are they still virtuous and morally good?
The Economics of Giving It Away
When facing a downturn in the economy, giving away services for free may seem counter-intuitive. Instead, this “free” environment may actually encourage true innovation and lead to better returns for small businesses that are willing to keep trying new things.
When No News Is Bad News
There’s a lot of articles out there that are bemoaning the fall of investigative journalism (particularly when it comes to newspapers and print journalism as a whole) but there are few that tackle the problem as articulately as this piece by James Warren.
Tip: Encourage Daylighting
Your employees may not spend 100% of their day working on their job-specific tasks; instead, they may be purusing their own side projects. That’s a good thing. Letting your employees explore and create will make them even better at what they do.
The Case Against Everything Buckets
Want to know why tools like Yojimbo and Evernote don’t work so well for me? Because I use different services to sort and package different types of things. Alex Payne does the same and writes about why “everything buckets” aren’t really making your life any better or easier.
Newcomers Adjust, Eventually, to New York
As someone who has recently settled in a new city, any tales of settling and fitting in are intriguing to me. Like newcomers to New York, newcomers to any city need to find their place before they can truly call it home.
How Twitter Was Born
It may be the darling web service of the media right now, but Twitter had humble beginnings. I’m glad Dom Sagolla wrote this article to remind us of how the Twitter craze all began.
A Letter I’d Like To See, But Won’t
Michael Phelps put up a forced and obviously insincere apology after a photo surfaced of him smoking some cheeba. Think what you want about marijuana, this “fake letter” from Phelps puts the whole silliness into context.
It’s Just Garbage
Cory Doctorow hangs out with a man who makes a living selling things he finds in dumpsters. Dumpsters in my old neighborhood in Toronto, in fact. Now that’s finding a creative business idea.
I LEGO N.Y.
Experience New York City in a way you’ve never done before: through Lego. Also, this piece contains one of the best way to teach newcomers about how the taxis work in the city.
The Serious Need for Play
I had quite a few structured activities growing up, but the best thing my parents ever did was to let me fill my own time with play — whether with other children or alone with my imagination. Playtime was some of my favorite time growing up, and this article shows how it may be some of the most important times in a child’s life.
The Smart Growth Manifesto
Umair Haque is my hero. Has been for a while. This article on rethinking capitalism and growth cemented his hero status, and his manifesto is simple: Outcomes, not income. Connections, not transactions. People, not product. Creativity, not productivity.
Can We Transform the Auto-Industrial Society?
Stimulus packages, bailouts, buyouts: all buzzwords that are being touted as the answers to current financial crisis. Emma Rothschild argues that the best stimulus package is one that invests in public transit and transforms the way we interact with our public infrastructure.
What Do Women Want?
I went into this article hoping to get the goods, I came out with a much better understanding of the science of desire and arousal. Not quite the goods I was looking for, but an interesting read nonetheless.
The $20 Theory of the Universe
According to this article, there’s a lot of power in the $20 bill. It gets you places, it gets you stuff, it gets you respect. In the end, however, it’s all about attitude and how you use it. Really good tips here on how to wield some muscle using a simple twenty-dollar bill.
I have a splinter stuck in the palm of my left hand, and I don’t mind.
The splinter came from my (eventually successful) efforts to light the fireplace in my new apartment this past Saturday evening. I spent the rest of the night sitting on a cushion in front of the fire reading The Morning News Annual and sipping tea.
I had almost forgotten the joy of sitting and reading by a fire. While I often consciously make time to disconnect, relax, and engage in personal reflection, living in a continuously-connected world makes it difficult to step back and slow down.
My issues with Comcast over the past week have meant that I have spent the past ten days (and counting!) without any access to the internet outside of work. My iPhone is with AT&T for repair, and I don’t have a television to fall back upon when I’m looking for quick entertainment.
Instead, I’m spending my time reading magazines, building fires, and chatting with strangers in cafes. I’ve been living in a lo-fi world, and I’ve been so happy that even a splinter in my palm can’t bring me down.
Eventually, I’ll get back to my always-connected world, and when I do, I want to be reminded of the wonderful things I’ve done in the past few weeks — things that are decidedly unconnected and lo-fi, but have been full of small joys and an appreciation of the people and things around me.
Activities like:
Skipping rocks on the Potomac River at 9am on a Sunday morning.
Climbing trees on large hills to get a better view of the city.
Helping a local fruit farmer sell pears at the farmer’s market.
Writing heartbreak poetry collaboratively with strangers at a cafe.
Playing dodgeball with kids at the local after-school program.
Singing with the busker playing the guitar at the metro station.
Discussing a recent Economist article with a stranger over lunch.
Sitting on the roof of my building and watching the sun rise.
Sipping oolong tea outside on the curb while I watch shivering strangers bump into each other as they hurriedly rush to get out of the cold.
What do you do when you’re disconnected? What are the little, lo-fi joys in life that keep you smiling? How do you remember to savor those joys and that beauty even when the world is moving so quickly around you?
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