Web Miscellany: Compilation #70

Hello, and Happy Friday! Can you believe it’s already February? I hope 2021 has been good to you thus far. I had some medical testing done this week to assess my heart and immune health, so I’m looking forward to getting those results back soon. It is already freakishly hot in Phoenix, but I’m hoping we’ll have a few more sub-80 days before the summer steamrolls us. Have I mentioned before how confused I am by the hordes of people moving here?

Do you have anything planned for the coming week? I’m hoping to read my friends’ new novel, work on some sewing projects because I’m acquiring fabric much more quickly than it is be used, and bake some cookies (that is, if I can find a decent gluten-, dairy-, and nut-free option that doesn’t taste like sawdust and shame). We’re also researching how to sell and OG Gmail address from 2004 (back when single word options were readily available) and 80s video games and consoles.

I hope that your weekend and the week ahead are filled with joy and wonder, and that you and your loved ones continue to stay safe and healthy. Here are a few links from around the web. Feel free to share anything interesting you’ve stumbled upon in the comments.

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1. “The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.” — Mary Oliver
2. From the archives: How To Apply Minimalism to Your Beloved Book Collection. Of the 700 books I sold or donated five years ago, there are four that I wish I still had. It’s been nowhere near as traumatic as I imagined and none of my book are living in moving boxes. However, once we expand beyond our 1,100 sq ft condo, I am insisting on a full in-home library.
3. Self-help gurus and positive psychologists tell us that we should be coaching ourselves to happiness. The painted-on smiles they want to sell us are a pathetic substitute for actually improving our societies. Against Happiness. I took a masters-level psychology of happiness course in 2010 and have been fascinated in the topic since.
4. 65 of Raptitude’s most helpful posts – according to David and his reader — grouped by topic, with short descriptions when necessary. I’ve read most of these over the last decade, and have been revisiting over the last few days.
5. 10 ways to fight back against woke culture from Bari Weiss. “By any measure, we have achieved incredible progress and enjoy extraordinary freedoms. And yet people aren’t acting that way. They are acting, increasingly, like subjects in a totalitarian country.”
6. “When we can’t trust each other, nothing works. As we participate in our communities less and less, we find it harder to feel other people are trustworthy. But if we can bring back a sense of trust in the people around us, the rewards are incredible.” The High Price of Mistrust
7. I kind of want this 1,000 piece Fanfuckintastic jigsaw puzzle.
8. The Robinhood Redux Edition from Why is this interesting? This was a fascinating read given the current news regarding retail investors.
9. “Any platform that’s reasonably open has a long tail. That means that a few people get most of the traffic and most people get very little. If there’s money involved, that’s definitely what happens.” Chasing the cool kids from Seth Godin.
10. Kurt Vonnegut on how to write a short story: