Shattered

This is a semi-whenever list of interesting articles, podcasts and videos that I come across during the week. Hope you enjoy it, have something new to think about, and share it with your friends.

Ever since my dad took me to the movie theater in 1978 to see the first Star Wars movie (later to be called officially “A New Hope”), like so many of my generation, I’ve been a fan. It was with the same child-like excitement many years later, I was able to experience with my own kids to see “The Force Awakens”. And while the last trilogy of films have been met with many mixed feelings and reviews, I personally felt they were simply fine. However, if you really want appreciate the essence of Star Wars, the real story has been continued in off-shoot series such as Rebels, The Mandalorian, and the Clone Wars animated series. All are excellent in their own rights and I promise this is spoiler free (mostly).

Over the last few weeks, Disney+ has released the final season of the Clone Wars, and I’ll say it — this is the Star Wars you’ve been missing. If you’re a fan and want to get the whole story of what’s been going on (and I surmise will lead into Mandalorian Season 2), you really should spend some of your time while we’re isolated to catch up on Dave Filoni’s masterpiece.

The “Siege of Mandalore”, the origin of the DarkSaber, Thrawn, what really happened to Darth Maul (and how he made that shocking cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story and that he was actually right), and the overarching story of one of the series best characters, Ashoka Tano, are all told in the many seasons.

While the latest chapter (Shattered) aired last night and wraps up next Monday, I wanted to share a bit of the behind the scenes on how they used Ray Park (the original actor/stuntman) behind Darth Maul to bring his true fighting style to life in one of the best lightsaber battles of the series.

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This weeks “Deep Links”

Since last week’s post on “Brain Forests” and the search for organizing knowledge collected, I’ve been going deep into the rabbit hole around a backup brain, association and long term retention (perhaps ill end up doing a blog post on knowledge systems). This read asserts that the internet has become “a dark forest” of information — More

Being busy can give people an “illusion of productivity”; but are we getting too busy to enjoy life? — More

Why We All Need To Pause Right Now — Watch

Ever wonder, um, why we say ‘um’? A super interesting look at ‘conversational minutiae’ and filler words — More

Maybe I’m in the majority, but I’d love to see the studios start doing simultaneous releases on digital as well as theaters; personally I’d easily pay $100 for a release day viewing of something like Black Widow, but it seems like the movie theaters aren’t up for it. AMC, while down, cuts off their nose to spite their face — More

The changing landscape of camel startups (those that survive unforgiving environments) and what it will take to be around now that the world has changed — More

Last August, I had a heart attack while running on the treadmill. However, what’s made me a true believer in the Apple Watch, was that 2 weeks earlier it was warning me about atrial fabulation (which I promptly ignored); here’s 5 stories about people that didn’t and it saved their lives — More

A huge miss by Apple in a time when everyone is alone, but together — I don’t understand why they don’t release FaceTime on AppleTV, and allow you to plug in a USB-C webcam, creating a “FacePod” — More

Nigglywiggly; a new word that my son taught me this one this week. Did anyone actually know that’s what the paper in a Hershey Kiss was called? — More

A bad outcome doesn’t necessarily mean you made a bad decision. Pixar and the concept of “ugly babies” and “loonshots” — More

Really liked this concept of (AFK — Away From Keyboard) that I’ve started to implement it myself. With “zoom fatigue” setting in — setting aside mindful time to read, write and even play; this time has become invaluable for me — More

Great read about “shadow IT” and the dangers it places on an organization. The first rule of security is that “security isn’t policy”, and what most companies don’t realize is that by making their employees lives harder by instituting weird security things, they are inviting more of this into their world — More

The benefits to walking keep making themselves known; I used to love going for “walk and talks” for 1:1’s rather than sitting in the office — More

Embracing the beautiful mess — More

The fear of missing out (FOMO), and how it has negatively effected our life. Personally, I felt a huge relief when I quit from Facebook, and this article dives into the psychology behind “the joy of missing out” — More

A facinating look at the details of how Stephen Wolfram keeps track of his “personal infrastructure”; from his desk environment to how many keystrokes an hour he types — More

More on the COVID-19 Front:

• The Effect of the Global Pandemic on Active Lifestyles — More
• Why not to ask “how are you?” these days — More
• The Pandemic Will Change American Retail Forever — More

End Thoughts

It’s all of us!
The entire Grand Army of the Republic has been ordered to hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights.