Microposts

🔗 The leader in your mirror by Paul Wells

We put too much burden on our leaders, and it makes them act silly. They shouldn’t be the perfect weapon of our vengeance, or the model of every virtue we admire but never quite get around to practicing. They don’t need to know everything. They can’t possibly get everything right on the first try, and we court trouble when we ask them to pretend they’ve managed the trick.

Lights On by Annaka Harris is a fascinating “audio documentary” exploring the idea that consciousness is a fundamental building block of the universe, rather than emerging from complexity. Like Harris herself, I find the idea almost too wild and I’m not yet convinced. That said, the topic is fascinating and the documentary is really well done

Finished reading: The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey is a really promising (though often bleak) start to a new sci-fi series about humans (presumably) overcoming an alien invasion 📚

Finished reading: The Future of Us by Jay Ingram is a broad overview of how science and technology is affecting all parts of our lives from food, to transportation, and to health. I’ve read deeper books on the individual topics. This one provides the overview 📚

📖 The latest Sutherland Quarterly book has arrived: At the Trough: The Rise and Rise of Canada’s Corporate Welfare Bums by Laurent Carbonneau. Likely going to be a provocative and frustrating look at government policy

A person is holding a book titled "At the Trough: The Rise and Rise of Canada's Corporate Welfare Bums" by Laurent Carbonneau, featuring artwork of a man falling while holding an umbrella and money bag.

🎶 The Rush 50 release is delightfully epic and much more than a greatest hits collection. Fun to hear their really early stuff again and to revisit later songs that didn’t get enough attention.

📚 Finished reading: The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger is a fascinating book about how sophisticated and under appreciated plants are: they can detect relatives, “see” their surroundings, manipulate their environment, and make complex decisions.

Near the end, Schlanger writes:

Now when I spot a tendril that is making its way through a crack in the sidewalk, I internally commend it for its resourcefulness. I feel I know about some of what it took for the plant to do that-the small miracle of its germination, the craning of its elongation, the articulation of the hundreds, maybe thousands of fine root hairs, right now probing its belowground world for sustenance. I think about the stem cells in each of its growing tips, poised and ready to become whatever sort of flesh the plant needs them to be. The whole being a sensitive, decisioning network spread throughout hundreds of limbs, thousands of roots. A body in motion, adapting in real time to every subtle shift, flowing like water through its surroundings and taking note of the shape and smell and texture of it all.

🚴 My first workout with the Zwift Ride was good. The bike is comfortable, quiet, and smooth. Plus, I liked not having to move furniture around before starting while still only half awake.

Finished reading: Waves in an Impossible Sea by Matt Strassler is a fascinating, comprehensive, and clear book about field theory in physics. I’ve read a few books on this topic and this is the best one. If you’re curious about particle physics and want to avoid math, you’ll like this one 📚