For some reason, structure and willpower seemed to vanish in September. No books this month; I have been stuck in Arguing with Zombies by Paul Krugman – mostly because the topics depress me.
However, I am looking forward to boring, reasonable thoughts, and complete sentences.
Updated stats through October:
Here are my most influential reads – in no particular order:
- It’s a Slow-Moving Car Wreck and We’re All In It – “The United States, Fukuyama argues, is in many ways, no longer spiraling up, but beginning to spiral down.”
- How to Live Like You’re Already Retired – “As Oliver encourages: give yourself permission to put forth your best effort toward the things that provide happiness and meaning while half-assing the less important stuff in life.”
- Useful Hacks – “Career hack: Work harder than is expected of you and be nice to people.”
- I called everyone in Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book – This one is full of some great lines. “This wasn’t some masterful hack into the global aristocracy. It’s what everyone does. It’s what the whole thing is. There is no scam here. It’s grifters grifting grifters all the way down.”
- Dear Dad, Please Don’t Vote For Donald Trump This Time – “You demanded better of me in the papers I turned in when I was in middle school.”
- Trump Kills Fiscal Stimulus Negotiations – “McConnell has had plenty of opportunity to make a deal, but hasn’t. I suspect that he just isn’t falling in line with Trump. It’s Trump that has to fall in line with McConnell, and McConnell really only wants one more thing from Trump, and that’s the Supreme Court seat.”
- The first rule of the game – “All players must agree to not cheat.”
- When the Republican Party Was Sane – “That same year, Eisenhower moved against the ultra-right-wing Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who was convinced that the federal government was riddled with actual communists—a precursor to today’s Republican obsession with the “deep state.””
- Why I Ride, and Putting Things in Perspective – “I’ll tell you why. It’s simple. Because I love the feeling of asking my body to perform, and having it respond.”
- How to Negotiate — Virtually – “For Americans and others from more individualized cultures, evidence suggests that seeing yourself during a video call tends to increase self-consciousness and self-criticism. Particularly if you already have these tendencies, you might want to turn off the self-view when video conferencing.”
Note: This is based on when I read the article, not necessarily when it was first published. Unfortunately, my backlog of things I would like to read always seems to dwarf the amount of time I can devote to reading.