reading, watching & listening to

fascinating historical perspective.

our ancestors experienced day-to-day unpredictability (you could die from childbirth, starvation was a constant threat, etc…) but global stability (if your parents were peasants, you’d prob be a peasant).

modern humans inverted that - routine defines us but there is global instability (the world is constantly changing - technology, climate, politics)

other weird things about modern life:

• children teach their parents how to use tools that are critical to thriving in modern society, a complete inversion of the transmission of knowledge through generations.

• non-local social comparison - we compare ourselves to billions of people, not a few hundred in close proximity to us.

• we are distanced from nature, whereas for generations before survival was tied to understanding the natural world.

How Amazon created the Kindle

an evocative, beautiful piece of writing about new york city written just after 9/11. recommended by Andy Weissman.

this was a beautifully honest retrospective

When a restaurant gets a Michelin star: Customer expectations rise, employee wage demands rise, suppliers expect you to pay more, and the restaurant is more likely to go out of business in the ensuing years.