Yet weirdly, life goes on

Plus: Questions worth asking in uncertain times. (#532)

David Bauer

13 Jun 2025 — 5 min read

This is David, your decidedly human web crawler, and you're reading the Weekly Filet, the newsletter for curious minds who love when something makes them go «Huh, I never thought of it this way!». As every Friday, I'm here to help you to make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be. It's great to have you.

📚 We already have 34 great book recommendations for this year's Weekly Filet Book Club. I have an inkling that yours – yes, yours specifically – might be missing. This is the final call to participate and make everyone a tiny bit happier: What's a book you wished you discovered sooner?

1. Systems are crumbling – but daily life continues. The dissonance is real

As I read this essay, I couldn't help but think of the very relatable vending machine. As if the state of the world wasn't troubling enough. There is something disconcerting happening in parallel: life goes on. «Witnessing large-scale systems slowly unravel in real time can be profoundly surreal and frightening. [...] the routines of life continue, albeit threaded with mind-altering horrors.» This essay addresses this strange feeling and offers the framework of hypernormalization to understand what we’re feeling and why.

2. In Uncertain Times, Ask These Questions Before You Make a Decision

Some guidance on how to navigate uncertainty, this one focused on the professional sphere. The four questions to ask are: 1. What decision today will still make sense a year from now? 2. If a year from now this decision was used as an example of our leadership, what would it teach? 3. What if this isn’t the storm—what if it’s the climate? 4. What’s the cost of waiting?

3. Our Lives Are an Endless Series of ‘And’

And if all else fails, turn to Kathryn Schulz. I've praised her memoir «Lost & Found» many times – this is Schulz speaking to Ezra Klein for a good hour. No matter how you feel before you press play, you will feel better (and more at ease) afterwards, you have my promise on that.

4. For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal

How will we know when America has crossed the line into authoritarianism? The experts on the matter recently proposed one thing to watch closely: the cost of opposing the government. What has happened in Los Angeles these last few days shows clearly how the Trump administration is intent on making opposition more costly. And it is, as David Frum argues, «a warning of what to expect when Trump's hold on power is threatened.»

5. The strange sadness of Algiers

Beautiful episode of «We Built This City», a series of photo essays on African cities. In each essay, a photographer shares their unique view of the city they call home, and what it means to them.

What else?

Instant-gratification links that make you go wow! or aha! the moment you click.

Beautiful visualisation of the migration paths of blue whales (and other big whales) across the world's oceans.
Every day, literally every minute, Raycast is making my life in front of the screen a little easier. And yet, as this video taught me, I've barely scratched the surface.
If you have an iPhone, give this «Haptik Trailer» for a new racing movie a try.
New (and final) season of the Netflix Tour de France documentary is dropping on July 2. Trailer.
An interactive visualization of technological history from the first stone tools 3 million years ago to today.
AI interviews people from the 1500s.
A directory of boring (yet useful) websites.