Numb numbers
+ Friendship, Waste Age, Levels of Hype (#377)
Last week's call for help with great novels for someone who usually prefers non-fiction worked almost too well. Thanks for the dozens of recommendations I will never be able to get through 🙂 Anyway, if you'd like to follow along, I've started tracking my reading for 2022 here.
In case you've missed it last week: For all of January, you get to read the extended version of the Weekly Filet, as if you were a Premium member. If you like what you're getting, please consider supporting me with a membership.
1. Does Not Compute
«The ones who thrive long term are those who understand the real world is a neverending chain of absurdity, confusions, messy relationships, and imperfect people.» An essay on numbers and stories, and why numbers alone can't be counted on.
Morgan Housel
2. The Lingering of Loss
«She’d found out she had leukemia right about when I started trying to get pregnant. Her cells divided. My cells divided. Our selves divided.» A gem from pre-pandemic times. Jill Lepore's beautiful, slow-paced reflections on friendship, on life, and death.
3. Worst. Year. Ever.
If I asked you to name the worst year in your life, you'd probably be able to come up with a shortlist fairly quickly. But what about...the worst year ever to be a human on this planet? How do you even define that? In absolute terms? Relative to what could reasonably be expected at the time? Radiolab has answers — they make 2020 and 2021 look a bit better in comparison.
4. Why I’ll Keep Saying ‘Pregnant Women’
A really thoughtful case for sticking with using «pregnant women» instead of the more inclusive «pregnant people» (not everyone who is pregnant identifies as a woman). It is not your usual rant against inclusive language — quite the opposite. It manages to show the complexities of inclusive language and undesired side-effects it might have, while accepting the premise that inclusive language is, of course, desirable.
Helen Lewis
5. The Waste Age
An essay by the London Design Museum's chief curator. Waste is not an unfortunate byproduct, but central to everything we design — «deliberately generated as the very metabolism behind economic growth». Recognising this, he argues, is key to transforming the future.
Justin McGuirk
What else?
- Five Levels of Hype. A bit like the famous five stages of grief, but for willing something into existence.
- 🎧 on repeat this week: Breathe, by The Slow Show.
- This is some serious card trick sorcery.
- This guy ran 100 miles in less than 11 hours. That's a pace of 6:31 per mile, or 4:03 per kilometre.
- Stop asking: Are you sure? Instead, ask: How sure are you? (via)
- The past 7 years have been the warmest 7 in recorded history (and also some of the cooler ones of the near future).
Thanks for reading. Have a nice weekend, stay safe, and take good care of each other.
I'll see you next Friday!
— David 👋
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