Espresso Shots 3-8-26

It's that time again for my weekly update, which includes a short collection of noteworthy finds, posts that inspire, as well as a few reflections from the past week or two. I'll aim to land these in your inbox by the weekend, in time to pair with your morning coffee (or your preferred cup of inspiration).

The Latest Drippings ☕️

• Endless Scroll, Empty Soul - The Tyranny of Reading Later. I've been through all the tools: Pocket, Matter, Instapaper, ReadWise, to name a few, over the years. For a long time, it was a crucial part of my flow for inbox overload: 'If it’s something that I need for information later, it quickly goes into the 'year' folder. If the email was a link to an article, a video, a podcast or whatever else that I can consume later, it quickly goes into Pocket. Then the email is deleted.' No more. This post spoke to my soul as I've been on the relentless pursuit of less: 'Let that stream of articles pass by you and grab the few that interest you. Be okay with all the stuff you won't get to. Don't fall for the trap of performative goals meant to impress other online people.' See also: The Purge.
• Everything Is Signaling. A real think piece on the nature of signaling. 'Politics is about signaling tribal affiliation, charity is about signaling virtue, art is about signaling upper-class shibboleths, and education is about signaling intelligence, work ethic, and rule-following ability to elite employers. The implications are soul-crushing.' One part that I really enjoyed is the implications of the filter we all have. 'Humans have a filter in their heads, screening out verboten impulses in nearly every waking moment: the 'what will people think' filter. Practically everything we do passes through this filter, even when we’re in the privacy of our own homes or in an anonymous situation.' A really great piece worth reading, imho, to understand the three core human traits that drive this.
• The Bravery of Being Out of Range. I've been thinking a lot about this song lately from Roger Waters' fifth album, Amused to Death. As a rule, I try to stay away from political discourse here, but watching the news as of late leaves me with the creepy feeling that the people in charge are playing video games. 'Just love those laser guided bombs / They're really great for righting wrongs / You hit the target and win the game / From bars 3,000 miles away /3,000 miles away'. Nuff said on this.
• Memento Mori for the Chronically Online. Marcus Aurelius is quoted as saying 'You could leave life right now... do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life.' The idea of Memento Mori. 'Every living organism moves away from death. Bacteria swim from toxins. Insects flee shadows. Deer bolt at the snap of a branch. This is not remarkable. What’s remarkable is that humans are the only species that knows it’s going to die long before it happens, and has to figure out how to keep functioning anyway.'
• Treat Your To-Read Pile Like a River. Following up on the previous link to 'The Tyranny of Reading Later', Oliver Burkeman continues to circle the idea that things are more 'stressful than it needs to be to build a fulfilling and productive life: the problem of too many needles.' I do like his solution (something that the new app, Current attempts to replicate): 'Treating your to read pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it).' Reminds me a lot of the concept of an anti-library.
• Pablo Neruda on How to Hold Time. I do love a good read about time. 'Most of us are drowning in bewilderment at where the time goes, burning with the urgency of being alive while waiting to start living, wandering the labyrinth of life with wayward presence, wishing that time ran differently as the cult of productivity turns each minute into a blade pressed against the vein of our transience.'
• The Real Story Behind 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'. It's been some time since I've read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which chronicles a 17-day motorcycle journey from Minnesota to California, during which the narrator grapples with his past, particularly after a severe mental breakdown and electroshock therapy that left him with fragmented memories. I remember this being a fascinating read, but the deeper dive into the mythos that inspired the book is equally as interesting.
• 3 Ways to Think and Talk Like a Philosopher. I recently subscribed to BigThink, and I find their videos not only inspiring but also always pushing me into interesting new places to discover some wisdom. This post covers a few interesting techniques you can use to shift your perspective and challenge your thinking. 'Keep your epistemic plasticity' was particularly good.
• How to MacGyver It. YES! 'You just dropped your house key down a street drain. Most people call a locksmith. MacGyver grabbed a wire coil and a car battery, built an electromagnetic retrieval device, and moved on with his day.' A perfect reminder that you should never use a lack of resources as a reason to wait. Use it as an invitation to get creative.'
• David Lynch's "Revenge of the Jedi". Today I learned that, in April 1981, George Lucas offered the job to direct the third Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi (then called Revenge of the Jedi) to none other than David Lynch. Yes, the same director who recently passed away, of Twin Peaks fame. The whole story, Lynch's response, and the inspiration around the choice are all part of this post.
• How Musicals Use Motifs to Tell Stories. I recently discovered the amazingly cool pudding.cool site (WARNING: it's a rabbit hole that I spent hours on, especially the happy map). This post was a wonderful visualization of how musicals use motifs to tell stories. Well worth pouring a second cup of espresso and savoring it slowly.
• "Our Programs Are Fun to Use.". I'm old enough to remember Beagle Bros Software, a 1980s software company that made apps for the Apple II. There's a lot for any creative to learn from them - they created some of the most fun and informative posters ever in the computing space. This post really gives a great glimpse of something missing from today's mega-corp crap: a sense of fun, curiosity, and wonder. Check out their online archive as well.
• Listen to Earth's Rumbling, Secret Soundtrack. The headline pulled me right in: 'A New England artist makes music from the imperceptible noises of nature using tools that usually detect hidden nuclear explosions.' I never knew about infrasounds until this post.
• The Four Rules for a Good Walk. Just taking a walk is a good walk, but this post about city planner Jeff Speck (and his TED Talk), on the 'walkable city', carves out specifics. 'The typical American city, in which most people own cars and the temptation is to drive them all the time, if you’re going to get them to walk, then you have to offer a walk that’s as good as a drive or better. What does that mean? It means you need to offer four things simultaneously: there needs to be a proper reason to walk, the walk has to be safe and feel safe, the walk has to be comfortable, and the walk has to be interesting.' Also: Do Walk.

Amor Fati ✌🏻