Weekend Reads v. 6.12.2024
Pass the Glühwein.
Ah, December. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Or at the very least, this month is a serious case of mall walking. I’m not quite sure who put extra sugar in everyone’s coffee this week, but things have felt Manic Level 9.7 around here. We were a bit late in decking our halls with trees and lights and all the other festive things influencers started doling out before Halloween, so maybe that’s added an undercurrent of everything-is-happening-and-must-be-completed-right-this-very-minute-thank-you-very-much to my life. As I write to you, the tree is up but still needs ornaments. Unwrapped gifts sit in piles waiting to be transformed from an episode of TLC’s Hoarding: Buried Alive into a wannabe spread from Martha Stewart Living circa 1999. We shall get there! Because this isn’t a marathon! It’s a mad dash from JCPenney to Sbarro in under 7 minutes flat!
This weekend I shall carve out a bit of time (and space amongst all my holiday décor bins) to admire my tree and drink a cup of hot cocoa from Dandelion that somehow made its way into an online shopping cart filled with other people’s gifts. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?!
Speaking of gifts, I have one more big gift guide coming your way very soon. This one is for the amazing women in your life. I also have another guide for those last-minute gift needs that happen even to the best planners among us. (Unexpected gifts abound this time of year thanks to situations like coworkers who insist on WFH until there’s a holiday party!)
Sure, we’ve got still got quite a few days to go until Christmas, but you should pour yourself a cup of holiday cheer this weekend because I’m darn sure you’ve already earned it! Here are a few links to keep you entertained while you enjoy that cup ‘o cheer.
The average teen receives more than 200 app notifications a day. This essay talks about the anxiety that comes with managing our phones and the fact that most people seem to primarily share their life through social media apps.
Apparently, talent is underrated (and Malcolm Gladwell slightly misread the science all wrong with his famous practice-for-ten-years theory).
“Let’s dispense immediately with the notion of “innate talent”. No one is born being able to play a beautiful cello sonata or solving a complex math proof. Virtually every complex human skill and invention is developed over time. However, I still think we can still save the concept of talent.
I view talent as any package of personal characteristics that accelerate the acquisition of expertise, or enhance performance given a certain amount of expertise (see this paper by Dean Keith Simonton for evidence supporting this view).
Note that our entire suite of personal characteristics— including our motivation to practice in the first place— is a complex mix of nature and nurture. Viewed in this way there is something very personal about talent. To downplay talent as unimportant, in my view, is to downplay a person’s individual potential. I mean, where do you think the motivation to master a domain comes from, anyway? It’s obviously not just environmental. We all differ in terms of what catches our attention, and more importantly, what we do with that attention.” Source
The arc of the “public intellectual” looks a lot like that of a successful novelist. Both feel very catch-22, what with the need to achieve success in order to be successful.
Women are twice as likely than men to have visible and hidden tattoos.
From Rob Henderson: "poor people who go to [religious] services several times a week are happier than rich people who never go...attending services has a bigger impact on your happiness than wealth. Money buys a fair bit of happiness, but connection gives you more bang for the buck"
Was reminded this week of this amazing website from a Spanish chef. It’s full of really good recipes from a chef born in Spain, raised in CA, and now living back in Spain. Typing that just gave me jet lag.
This essay about living in NYC reminded me of living in LA. (The subtle jab at Boston, lol)
“No matter how much you love living in New York, you have to admit that there is an element of Stockholm Syndrome at play. The demands it makes on you are so extreme, and yet very quickly you identify them as virtues.” Source
Absolutely 100% watching this movie. Might have to take a trip to the theatre to see it!
IsItPacked.com is a genius idea for a website. It tells you when theme parks and amusement parks are likely to be the most crowded. Now if they could just make this site for the grocery store, and the mall, and well everywhere.
Guy Ritchie designed my dream home.
Enjoy your weekend!