Read, "Didi" by Amber Caron reprinted on the Electric Literature website as "A Teenage Girl is a Funhouse Mirror," and I liked it quite a bit. I thought I'd reference it here because I can imagine referring to it again in the future. The key takeaway that I took from it is that it is … Continue reading The Self: Presented, Perceived & Real
Category: writing
Thinking in Ethnicities & Nationalities
I was talking with someone about someone else, and they asked, "Are they South Korean?" I found the question interesting because I don't tend to think about Koreans as South Korean or North Korean. I just think of them as Koreans. i found myself wondering. Well, how do I think of ethnically Chinese Filipinos? Wikipedia … Continue reading Thinking in Ethnicities & Nationalities
Employment Society
"Healthcare in the United States is in the midst of a massive wave of consolidation. For example, fifty years ago, virtually all non-academic, non-government U.S. physicians had an ownership interest in their practices. Today, approximately 70% of U.S. physicians are employed by hospitals or other corporate entities. Likewise, mergers and acquisitions have landed more than … Continue reading Employment Society
Brief Comments on Consensual Hostility
"Once consent becomes the only value by which an individual can assess sex to be good or bad and justify their assessment to their partner or anyone else, all that’s left of seduction is contract negotiation fueled by whatever mix of horniness and loneliness brought the two parties together. There’s an alternative. As Srinivasan herself … Continue reading Brief Comments on Consensual Hostility
For the Love of Reading
"Today, children are being introduced to books and stories one paragraph at a time. They might be reading something as wonderful as Peggy Parish's Amelia Bedelia, but when you have to stop and answer questions, in detail, often word-for-word, about random paragraphs, there's no way you can learn to care about the characters or the … Continue reading For the Love of Reading
Exploit, Explore, Copy
"Instead of looking at two strategies [such as Exploit or Explore], Laland and associates included a third: observe. That is, you can watch other people deal with a situation, and then copy them. Arnold Kling, "Exploit, Explore, Copy." arnoldkling.substack.com. May 30, 2023 Exploit seems like optimize. You create efficiencies based on scale, refining processes or … Continue reading Exploit, Explore, Copy
XYY & XXY
"This abnormality is pretty common among chromosomal disorders. It happens in 1/500 to 1/1000 of male babies. It shows symptoms like height over 180cm, a longer torso and limbs, weak muscle strength, uncoordinated movement, lack of symmetry in the face, long ears, and skin lesions. Although patients typically have normal IQ development, most of them … Continue reading XYY & XXY
Parking Lots & Cultural Stans
"The twin gods of Smooth Traffic and Ample Parking have turned our downtowns into places that are easy to get to, but not worth arriving at.” The quote is from urban designer Jeff Speck. It’s hard to think of a pithier one to describe the parking pandemic blighting America’s city centers — except perhaps the … Continue reading Parking Lots & Cultural Stans
You Can’t Tell People Anything
Over the last few years, I've come to a fundamental belief: you cannot tell people anything. Coming to a new belief means you need all the infrastructure for that belief, and it generally means giving up other beliefs. It's rare for people to do that without a lot of preparation, and in most instances, the … Continue reading You Can’t Tell People Anything
Three Years After “Grim News”
Three years ago today, I predicted: "So, why is the above important? It means to get to herd immunity, something like 82% of people will have to get infected and of those that get infected, 0.4% will die. Then, we can calculate: Population * Percentage of People For Herd Immunity * Death Rate = Deaths … Continue reading Three Years After “Grim News”
A Taxonomy of Hate
I have been thinking about what distinguishes misanthropy from various forms of X-ism, whether racism, sexism, classism, or some other thing. Various X-isms seem like special cases of misanthropy. Sexism is a kind of hatred of women. Racism is a kind of hatred of one or other races. When framed in that way, it occurs … Continue reading A Taxonomy of Hate
Inositol
I saw this thread on Twitter on Inositol. https://twitter.com/acesounderglass/status/1622013321192017921 I think I'm going to give it a one month N of 1 trial and see if I find anything worthwhile. Even if I think it could be beneficial, I realize there could be confounding factors, such as placebo effect. But, I think it might be … Continue reading Inositol
The Five Love Languages
According to Gary Chapman, the five love languages are: words of affirmation (compliments) quality time receiving gifts acts of service physical touch This book, "The Five Love Languages," was published 30 years ago. I think it is a good mental model for thinking about relationships, and it probably helps to think of them as a spectrum. It's … Continue reading The Five Love Languages
Readow.ai
"Write the title of the book you last read and liked. You can also enter just any book you like.The more titles you add to the list, the more our recommendations will match your preferences." —https://readow.ai/ Artificial intelligence offering book recommendations. All that is needed is a CSV file upload, Good reads API, or similar. … Continue reading Readow.ai
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