Not today
Plus: Why «Ask for what you want» is a key skill for the 21st century (#587)
This is David, curious and easily excitable generalist at your service. You're reading the Weekly Filet, the newsletter for folks who love when something makes them go «Huh, I never thought of it this way!». Thanks for inviting me to your inbox.
Before we begin: I have created a new collection from the vast archive of the Weekly Filet, with some of the best reads and podcasts on friendship and connection.
All collections.
1. A day is short, a life is long
A personal essay on optimisation, in the broadest sense. I think it will speak to anyone who gets excited by new possibilities almost constantly. Anyone who knows the feeling all too well when a possibility («Oh, that's interesting, I could do that!») turns into FOMO («I must do this, otherwise I'll miss out on something interesting!»). The author, upon turning 35, describes how he learned that it's perfectly okay to start something that excites you, stay excited for a bit, and then abandon it «before I reach whatever arbitrary finish line I invented at the beginning.» And that while you're trying to everything all at once, zooming out is the superpower. That's what the title of the essay is about. Not everything that's important to you needs to happen every day. «It only becomes an issue when not today becomes not this year.»
People who felt seen by this essay also felt seen by this video: The truth about being multi-passionate.
2. Eating Alone
«This is the discomfort that comes from the virtual and real worlds overlapping. Most of us exist in both places. Yet the rules of the real world don’t always apply virtually, and the behavior of the virtual world, in real life, is typically weird and antisocial.» Good reflection on the second-order effects of convenience.
Longreads
3. Are Prediction Markets the Best Forecasting Tool Ever — or Just Another Casino?
Prediction markets – platforms where you can bet money on whether specific events in the near future will happen or not – have a bad reputation. For a reason. If that's where you're starting from, this episode is worth listening to. It explores why prediction markets could be great at forecasting, and why, in reality, things are messier. There's also an important lesson for anyone making predictions (and think about it, you constantly make predictions): They force you to think not just about whether you believe something will happen or not – but how certain you are.
Stephen J. Dubner
4. ‘Ask for what you want’ is a key skill for the 21st century
As someone who has been building with AI extensively over the past 12 months, I found this very reflective of my experience. Robin Sloan makes the point that the most effective (and sane) approach to AI is not to have it by your side constantly, but instead to ask it to build what you want, then «stuff the genie back into the lamp.»
5. Coffee
New addition to my most precious collection: in-depth profiles of stuff our modern world runs on (favourite nerdy sub-genre).
Dataguessr of the week
Update your knowledge of the world. One quiz at a time. This week:
What else?
Instant-gratification links that make you go wow! or aha! the moment you click.
- How many bubbles are there in a glass of champagne? Scientists were kind enough to research it so you have a nice fun fact for your next gathering.
- Winners of the 2026 Pure Street Photography Awards
- Winners of Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2026
- Interesting take on a guessing game: Can you guess in the correct ballpark?
- Your age, but written as a version number? (I think this would be much more interesting if you actually thought about your own life and tried to define when updates and patches happened.)
- A bit more than 100 billion humans have ever lived. This site lets you draw «a random life» and learn about it based on real data.
Books for curious minds
Some new ones as I read them, some older ones that continue to inform how I look at the world and myself.
Priya Parker's «The Art of Gathering» is among my all-time favourites. I've just finished her new book, and it's every bit as good. It's a warm, clear-eyed companion that works for all kinds of relationships and the conflicts they hold – romantic ones, among family and friends, or at work. About the importance of learning when and how to face conflict, but also of knowing when it's time to part ways and do so gracefully. Highly recommend it. Buy it here.
A gem from the archive
David Bauer
The Weekly Filet archive offers more than 3000 hand-picked links since 2011, like this one. You can search by interests, explore collections or shuffle for a gem.
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. I wish you a nice weekend and hope to see you again next Friday!
— David