Daily Investments
Nicholas Bate is back at it with seven more basics. This time he’s focused on daily investments.
In your wellness: walk everywhere and move a lot.
In your future: read to learn and practise to master.
In your security: build your value through mastery and save, then spend.
In your relationships: how much fun can you have without a phone?and love is a verb.
In your quality of life: daily, need less to be happy and spend more time in nature.
In your peace of mind: develop systems and prioritise by pay-off (not urgency, ease…).
In you. All of the above. Daily. More in You, Only Better.
All the Small Things
Michael Wade asks everyone to do all the small things today and not worry about the big things. Pretty good advice.
I’m Only 9, And I’m Already In College. Here’s What Life Is Like For Me.
Kairan Quazi is nine-years old and wrote an essay in the Huffington Post about what’s it’s like to profoundly gifted.
I was a 3-year-old preschooler when I corrected my teacher’s knowledge of the constitutional requirements to be U.S. president. In kindergarten, I learned that telling my friends that Bashar al-Assad was using chemical weapons against his own people would cause kids to cry on the playground. My parents received a call from an unhappy principal that day. And telling my third-grade science teacher that her knowledge of gravity lacked depth earned me a spot on her naughty list for the rest of the year.
Trump is Compromised and is a Useful Idiot
Garrett Graff in Wired doesn’t mince words―
In short, we’ve reached a point in the Mueller probe where there are only two scenarios left: Either the president is compromised by the Russian government and has been working covertly to cooperate with Vladimir Putin after Russia helped win him the 2016 election — or Trump will go down in history as the world’s most famous “useful idiot,” as communists used to call those who could be co-opted to the cause without realizing it.
At least the former scenario — that the president of the United States is actively working to advance the interests of our country’s foremost, long-standing, traditional foreign adversary — would make him seem smarter and wilier. The latter scenario is simply a tragic farce for everyone involved.
From what I’ve read and watched, it seems like there’s something to the “compromised by Putin” accusation (money and quid pro quo) and “useful idiot” (shutting down the government).
I don’t see how Trump can leave office and not be charged with multiple Federal and State crimes. A President Pence or a President (pick your Democratic darling) could pardon him for the Federal crimes, but I don’t see a scenario where Trump is not charged with State crimes and that pardon doesn’t work for those particular criminal acts.
Of course, I’m predicating this with the caveat that he doesn’t win reelection in 2020.
The First Real Season
Bernie Miklasz, writing in The Athletic, has a full review of the challenges St. Louis Cardinals skipper Mike Shildt is going to be facing in his first full year as manager of the club. Personally, I think how he manages Dexter Fowler and Adam Wainwright will be the most interesting things to watch. He doesn’t need to be a zen master of the bullpen, just run it smartly and efficiently.
There’s pressure, so let’s see what he can do. I feel pretty confident, but you know, it’s January. Ask me again in July.
Signal v Noise Exits Medium
Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson on the reasons Signal V Noise has left Medium and created a new Wordpress site.
These days Medium is focused on their membership offering, though. Trying to aggregate writing from many sources and sell a broad subscription on top of that. And it’s a neat model, and it’s wonderful to see Medium try something different. But it’s not for us, and it’s not for Signal v Noise. […]This fascinates me because for a short while I thought I might actually be able to use Medium as a platform for my own brand of writing. As much as I love the look and feel and audience of Medium, I wasn’t making any money with the partnership program and I decided the way Medium changed from a social networking blogging platform into a subscription based magazine wasn’t for me. It’s turned into something akin to the Huffington Post. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just not what I want.Beyond that, though, we’ve grown ever more aware of the problems with centralizing the internet. Traditional blogs might have swung out of favor, as we all discovered the benefits of social media and aggregating platforms, but we think they’re about to swing back in style, as we all discover the real costs and problems brought by such centralization. […]
That doesn’t mean we regret our time at Medium. Being on Medium helped propel some of our best writing to a whole new audience. But these days there’s less of a “what Medium is doing for us”, and a whole lot more of “what we’re doing for Medium”. It was a good time while it lasted, but good times are gone.
So, I’m in the slow process of removing various posts from Medium as well as writing and posting to my own site. I think I prefer it that way.
If You Could Play Any Sport, Which One Should You Choose?
Will Leitch, in his New York Magazine column, advances an interesting question.
If we accept that the world will no longer allow for multiple-sport stars, what sport should a burgeoning superstar choose?
His only metric is the “universally accepted do-what’s-good-for-your-bottom-line” one, which is basically making a lot of money playing this specific sport. Leitch’s “mythical, hypothetical 18-year-old wunderkind” wants to maximize his earning potential and have the highest possible quality of life.
I was a bit surprised that individual sports like golf, tennis, and NASCAR did not translate into vast paydays, comparatively speaking.
His answer is fascinating. At the onset of reading his piece, I guessed Major League Baseball, but I was wrong.
Not Normal
Tom Nichols has a pretty damning piece in USA Today about all the recent news regarding Trump and Russia.
This is not normal, in any way. As things stand, more people in the Kremlin than in Washington know what Trump said to Putin. It is almost certain that there are readouts and analyses of Trump’s discussions with Putin — but that for now, they are in Russian.
Finally, it is exhausting but nonetheless necessary to point out again the titanic hypocrisy of the Republican Party and of Trump’s apologists in the conservative media. If President Barack Obama had shredded his notes of a meeting with the Iranian president, or if Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager were sitting in jail for lying about meeting a Chinese business associate — and alleged intelligence officer — to share polling data, that alone would have been enough for the GOP to impeach everyone from the president to the White House chef.
This entire sordid affair is the worst scandal in recent American history. It surely eclipses Watergate and Iran-Contra.
Trump is compromised. It’s as simple as that. He should be removed from office.
And here’s the thing… his 30% cult following of the American people? They aren’t going anywhere after he leaves office by impeachment, indictment or electoral college in 2020. In fact, if he does lose in 2020 (the most likely way he will no longer be President) I expect him to actively not leave the White House until forcible removed by the Secret Service.
The Surreal Nostalgia of Arcade Longplays
Steve Rousseau, in Digg, writes about a unique thing to a certain age group: the nostalgia of playing arcade games. It’s amazing how the internet has not killed nostalgia but amped it up. I think I’m more than a touch older than the author, but I’m with him every step of the way.
What’s it like to watch someone play a video game of your childhood better than you could possibly imagine in 1080p at 60 frames per second? It’s absolutely enthralling. It’s the past, but perfected. It’s better than you remember because it’s not you playing, and it’s not being played on a big fuzzy CRT screen in a big loud arcade that’s desperately trying to suck quarters from you. It is the idealized childhood no one could ever possibly have. That’s the most intoxicating nostalgia when the past is better than you remember because it’s been upgraded and played by an infallible machine with infinite money.
The Expected Unexpected
Michael Wade on being prepared.
The day is planned. Time is blocked out. You finally have the chance to catch up on things and then, well, you know what happens.The expected unexpected arrives.
Fortunately, it was always in the back of your mind. You weren’t sure what form it would take but you knew that the odds of its non-appearance were small. That’s why you always book in some cushions. As the old line goes, it is better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.
It also reminds me of a Old West saying about having a revolver: you didn’t often need one but when you did, you needed it real bad.
Big Slip
Stepping out this morning to walk the dog, I took one step onto what looked like a wet driveway and did a full cartoon slip, and landed straight on my back. I’m lucky I didn’t crack my head open. I managed to hold on to the leash as well, although Rocco was wondering what the heck I was doing.
In any case, be careful out there.
On the Necessity of Rest and Relaxation
Greg McKeown, from his book, Essentialism:
If you believe being overly busy and overextended is evidence of productivity, then you probably believe that creating space to explore, think, and reflect should be kept to a minimum. Yet these very activities are the antidote to the nonessential busyness that infects so many of us. Rather than trivial diversions, they are critical to distinguishing what is actually a trivial diversion from what is truly essential.
HT: Shawn Blanc
Reading
Nicholas Bate on finding more time for reading:
1. Always read for 30 minutes before any Netflix viewing.
Get some in audio format and listen on the commute.
Read for 20 minutes before settling to sleep.
Join the library. Go there often. Find a book. A comfy chair…..Take the kids.
Take a couple of real books on the business trip. Read in line, on the transfer bus, in Starbucks, while waiting for buddies in the lobby to get the uber to the conference.
Schedule reading ‘binge blocks’ of four hours and tackle the book stack and read a few books in parallel. The binging which is good for you.
Fall in love again with reading.
Nothing Like a Wall
Another parody by Randy Rainbow has hit the interwebs. With this one, I’m ashamed to admit, I had no idea what musical song was being parodied. Doing a bit of research I realized it’s “Nothing Like a Dame” from South Pacific.
Socially Accepted Disassociation
Reading is socially accepted disassociation. You flip a switch and you’re not there anymore. It’s better than heroin. More effective and cheaper and legal.
― Mary Karr
HT: Patrick Rhone
7 Things Successful People Ignore
I’m a sucker for listicles about what successful people do every day. Josh Spector has a good one.
Successful people share a common ability, but it’s not what you think.Read the rest.We hail them for their hard work, vision, and dedication, but overlook what truly sets them apart —an ability and willingness to ignore things.
No matter how talented or dedicated you are, your ultimate success hinges on your ability to overcome a gauntlet of powerful forces that can tempt, distract, and derail you.
Ulysses and Markdown
I want to use the word processing app Ulysses more. It’s just not quite working out.
Distraction-free writing is all the rage with sheets and groups and ebook outputs and “you can write a novel using Ulysses.” These are all fine and spiffy, but I just want a better word processor than MS Word (and I kinda like Word just fine…)
I want to like Ulysses, but I can’t seem to get the hang of writing in it, and I know the reason why: Markdown.
I don’t want to write in Markdown. Yes, yes, I know. It’s the greatest thing in the world for writers. You can just write and use these odd symbols to indicate all the things you want the text to do, and it just does it in the output. It’s supposed to help keep the natural flow of the writing and leave the format stuff to later. This is anathema to me, and I can’t tell if it’s because I’m loathe to try something new or my mind just doesn’t work that way after decades of writing in Word or Pages.
At the beginning of the year, Shawn Blanc at The Sweet Setup archived the site’s best articles, tips, tricks, etc. for Ulysses. I’ve read them all, and it just isn’t clicking for me, and I’m frustrated because this should be the ideal software for me.
Maybe I just need to dive in headfirst.
Quoting Alan Moore
It’s super amusing to me to watch how newly elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez understands pop culture and social media. Apparently, some House members are irritated with the fact that she’s a young, beautiful, smart, extremely progressive rising star in the party.
So, in response, she tweeted out a quote from Watchmen, the award-winning 12-part maxiseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
I’m impressed she knows Watchmen, and with that tweet, she might’ve secured the nerd vote forever. However, don’t forget, she’s quoting Rorschach, an extreme right-wing character who gets blown to smithereens by an all-powerful, naked, Smurf-man. If any Republicans understood that, they might be able to fire back, but they don’t because they are bereft of any culture except Dennis Miller, Jon Voight, Ted Nugent, and Kid Rock.
The Role of the Deceased Mouse
Roger Sherman, writing for The Ringer, had this visually entertaining bit of writing in his story on Clemson throttling Alabama in the College Football National Championship.
“When did you feel that you had broken their will?” ESPN’s Rece Davis asked Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney on the championship podium after the game. Davis later asked starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence, “When did you feel that you guys had complete and total control of the game?” These are the types of questions you would like to ask a boa constrictor about the small mammal it just strangled and ate. For a decade, Alabama has been the boa constrictor; Monday, the most dominant college football program of the century was relegated to the role of the deceased mouse.I watched exactly zero downs of the College Football National Championship, and while I probably would have enjoyed the spectacle, it didn’t hold much interest for me. Sherman’s hot take―that the college football hierarchy has been upturned is probably true. I don’t know. However, I do know I wouldn’t want to be that mouse.