1 of 13 Presentations on the ideas of Marxism.

“As a part of this course, I’m sharing rough drafts of pieces of a manuscript I am working on, a sort of textbook on Marx’s political economy.

I’m experimenting with crowd sourcing the revision process.”
http://davidharvey.org/2022/01/new-course-the-abc-of-contemporary-capital/

I’ve talked about Hypothes.is for annotating in the past. I haven’t watched this particularly series, but I have read some of Harvey’s books and have found them useful. Bookmarking for later.

Protons: An Update

October 21, 2022October 21, 2022 ~ cafebedouin

“The positively charged particle at the heart of the atom is an object of unspeakable complexity, one that changes its appearance depending on how it is probed. We’ve attempted to connect the proton’s many faces to form the most complete picture yet.”
-Charlie Wood, “Inside the Proton, the ‘Most Complicated Thing You Could Possibly Imagine.” Quanta Magazine. October 19, 2022

Every Style of Beer Explained

August 23, 2022August 24, 2022 ~ cafebedouin

Dru Riley’s 100 Rules

August 20, 2022August 21, 2022 ~ cafebedouin

“3. “Not wanting something is as good as having it.” — If you don’t want something, you’re just as satisfied as someone who has it. Naval Ravikant says that “…desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.”…

42. “It’s easier to resist in the beginning than the end.” — Mistakes become harder to correct the longer they linger. Sunk costs play tricks on us. Suck it up and rip the bandaid off now. Toxic relationships, bad hires and tough conversations. It’s immediate pain versus chronic pain…

82. “Play long-term games. Compound returns.” — Focus on the long-term. Most benefits come from later stages of compounding. Pick up habits that you can see yourself sticking with. Jeff Bezos says to focus on what doesn’t change…

90. “Live below your means for freedom and options.” — Establish a margin of safety to take more risks. James Clear says that ‘Your success depends on the risks you take. Your survival depends on the risks you avoid.‘
Dru Riley, “100 Rules — Personal Philosophy.” druriley.com. Accessed August 20, 2022

I might tweak some of these, such as 82 should be infinite games and build on the ideas of James Carse in Finite and Infinite Games. But, this is a good list.

The Insane Cost of Cars

August 18, 2022August 18, 2022 ~ cafebedouin

Daniel Mendelsohn on the Odyssey

August 15, 2022August 15, 2022 ~ cafebedouin

“…I always resist the “classics is impractical” line that people love to come up with when they are critical of the higher study of these fields. You can study accounting. It’s authentically practical in one way. But when your father dies, your accounting degree is not going to help you at all to process that experience. Homer will help you. The Odyssey will help you. Great literature will help you think about mortality and losing loved ones. That seems very practical to me.

A broad education in which you’re deeply read in literature, and history, and philosophy, and mathematics, and science: this teaches us how to be human beings and it teaches us also how to be citizens. I know that sounds very idealistic, but if the current social and political situation in this country is in any way a marker of what a generation spent focusing on STEM does, then I think clearly we need a different answer. The crude preoccupation with moneymaking as the only goal of a college education is giving us a citizenry that is extremely degraded, as far as I’m concerned. I think it’s only the crudest and least interesting practicality that has no time for the humanities.”
Daniel Mendelsohn, “Daniel Mendelsohn on the Odyssey.” The Octavian Report. August 12, 2022

Of course, an important question is which Odyssey do you read, Emily Wilson’s, Richmond Lattimore’s or someone else’s? Another think that I found interesting is how they talked about life being tragedy and comedy modes of viewing the world mentioned a few days ago.

DARVO

August 11, 2022August 11, 2022 ~ cafebedouin

“DARVO is an acronym for “deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender”. It refers to a reaction that alleged perpetrators of wrongdoing, particularly sexual offenders, may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior.^[1] Some researchers and advocates have indicated that it can be as a common manipulation strategy of psychological abusers.^[2][3][4] An abuser (or alleged abuser) denies the abuse ever took place, attacks the person that alleged abuse (often the victim) for attempting to hold the abuser (or alleged abuser) accountable for their actions, and claims that they are actually the victim in the situation, thus reversing what may be a reality of victim and offender.^[2][4] It often involves not just “playing the victim” but also victim blaming.^[3]
-Wikipedia contributors, “DARVO,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=DARVO&oldid=1100548671 (accessed August 11, 2022).