Beyond Doomscrolling and Into Action
+ Bits of Advice, Russians in the Basement, Realtime Dracula (#393)
I hope you're having a good week. In case you've missed it: I have launched the 2022 edition of the Weekly Filet Book Club and I'd love for you to share a recommendation: What book makes you feel hopeful?
David Bauer
And with that, here's what I found on the internet this week that I think you'd want to see, too.
1. Beyond Doomscrolling and into Action
On the surface, this is about the attack on women's rights. However, to quote from the essay: «It’s all connected. We need to build a whole ecosystem of change-making.» The author shows ways to translate anger, fear and powerlessness into action. I particularly liked one idea that addresses the obstacle that each individual feels overwhelmed by the challenges ahead: It's thinking of change as fractals — big change is made up of smaller versions of the same change.
Ashley Fairbanks
2. Undue Burden
This impressive piece, published in March, has become highly relevant again this week. It illustrates current restrictions on abortions in the US and what would change if the Supreme Court follows through with overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that protects women's right to choose. It does a great job of examining the different aspects of the topic, making it a worthwhile read even if you're not particularly interested in the situation in the US.
Anna Wiederkehr, Amelia Thomson-Deveaux
3. 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known
A great list to come back to every now and then. Some favourites:
- Don't keep making the same mistakes; try to make new mistakes.
- When you forgive others, they may not notice, but you will heal. Forgiveness is not something we do for others; it is a gift to ourselves.
- Three things you need: The ability to not give up something till it works, the ability to give up something that does not work, and the trust in other people to help you distinguish between the two.
- The optimal balance for exploring new things vs exploiting them once found is: 1/3. Spend 1/3 of your time on exploring and 2/3 time on deepening.
- When you don’t know how much to pay someone for a particular task, ask them “what would be fair” and their answer usually is.
