This cartoon by Max Wittert in the New Yorker (17 November 2024) certainly feels apt!

“Don’t you just love curling up with a good phone?”

“The Age of Diagnosis: Sickness, Health and Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far” by Suzanne O’Sullivan sounds fascinating. Looking forward to reading it when it’s out in March.

This is a delightful list of 52 things Kent Hendricks learned in 2024.

Fascinating data visualisation of the changing ways couples have met since 1930.

First use of my new tea tray that I got for Christmas.

After five nights in three different houses, it was wonderful to be in my own bed again last night! The older I get, the more grateful I am for my own bed.

Fascinating write-up of Jimmy Carter’s life in The Economist. He was, in the truest sense of the word, a remarkable man. RIP.

When fundamentalism rules the day, new information becomes a threat.

This quote is from back in 2012, but it feels more apt than ever.

Thanks to Grant Sowter for pointing me towards this.

Didn’t get to see the #LeicesterTigers game against Harlequins earlier, but sounds like it was a cracker. Great to see Twickenham sold out for it too. #Rugby

I’ve watched surprisingly little TV this Christmas. Lots to catch up on when we’re home tomorrow!

Been on the road since Christmas Eve, but having a lovely time seeing family in Leicestershire, Chelmsford, Surrey, and Oxford. One thing I’ve very much not been enjoying is the traffic! So many cars on the roads. Hope everyone has been having a nice few days, whatever it’s looked like for you.

Not only does our Evri delivery driver say, “See you tomorrow,” every time he delivers something lately, but we now wave at each other when we see each other in other parts of our area too. #TooManyPackages

News that Saka has a significant injury is a huge blow, especially so soon after Ødegaard’s injury. It’s not been a lucky season for Arsenal on the injury front. I agree that it could be an opportunity for Martinelli though. A reset via playing a different position might be exactly what he needs.

I enjoyed Federico Viticci’s write-up of how, after 12 years of trying, he’s now able to do everything he needs to for work and pleasure via an iPad Pro 11”. Does seem like a lot of extra effort (and expense) though!

“Trying to make a damn but of sense of the assisted dying debate”

We’re all thinking of those we know who’ve died, and how they died. It’s not the sort of issue we should approach through dogma, or with too much fire in our soul. It should be done calmly and generously and with the steady conviction that you might be wrong.

I appreciated Ian’s take on this. I think I probably land similarly to him, but this felt like a fair, honest, open reflection on the legitimate questions, doubts, and fears around the assisted dying debate.

[iandunt.substack.com]

I left Substack ages ago, but Anil Dash’s latest article) offers a helpful perspective, and counsels why, even if you are using it, you shouldn’t talk about is ‘your Substack’.

I know you think you have control over your subscribers on Substack. But understand this: every single new feature Substack releases, from their social sharing to their mobile apps, is proprietary and locks you into their network.

This is a smart, sensible take from Suzanne Wrack on the challenge of building sustainable fan bases in women’s football.

For Arsenal, games at the Emirates becoming the norm will naturally see some fans picking and choosing which they attend before they are fully invested in the journey of the team. And that will come as the relationship between the team and fanbase strengthens. It takes time. Arsenal are three steps ahead of the rest, but they show what is possible and demonstrate how to get there.

The Guardian

Good piece on the importance of just continually showing up.

In my experience making content, writing stories and producing work online, I have learned one thing.

You can’t count on much more than the power of consistency.

—Joan Westenberg

Wasn’t anticipating having to abandon the car coming home after seeing Gladiator II! (Which is great by the way—and definitely one to watch at the cinema.)

All the energy you put into arguing with reality comes at the expense of improving your situation. The mountain doesn’t care how much you yell at it, but you’ll find a path around it if you stop and look.

—Shane Parrish

fs.blog

“I’m changing the way I read news”.

This is good from Laura Hazard Owen:

I’ll read news, not other people’s reactions to news. I have resubscribed to print newspapers because they are finite; when you’re done, you’re done. Here, I’m taking a cue from Kelsey Richards, the “print princess” and “media literate hottie” who reads print newspapers on TikTok. “When you read print media, you give yourself that space to feel those emotions compared to if you read something online and then you immediately switch over to Instagram…and then you go on Twitter….and then you go on Facebook…and then a CNN notification comes up on your phone,” she told Slate last year. “With all those distractions, those emotions no longer belong to that blocked-out time period. They are now convoluting your schedule, your work, the fact that your mom just texted you that something’s going on with your grandparents — it’s just too much for your body to handle. Print media gives us the opportunity to sit down, and decide when we want to feel the emotions we want to feel, rather than letting some arbitrary algorithm decide how we should feel.”

It’s so easy to get sucked into a way of life where we’re never not looking at the news. But it’s not good for us.

I don’t have a print subscription, but I do tend to mostly just read one newspaper each morning for 30 minutes on my iPad. And then I check in on my RSS feeds a couple of times a day. I’ve found this approach so much better.

[niemanlab.org]

Reinhold Niebuhr on why we need faith, hope, love, and forgiveness.

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.

—Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History

[cac.org]

“If you’re waiting for inspiration, you’ve already lost.”

The hard part isn’t knowing what to do; it’s doing it daily, whether you feel like it or not.

The challenge isn’t knowing you should work out; it’s putting on your shoes and running in the cold when you’d rather sit at home under a warm blanket. The challenge isn’t determining the most important project; it’s sitting down and doing it when you’d rather browse social media.

If you’re waiting for inspiration, you’ve already lost.

In other words, get off your backside already!

[fs.blog]

The Strong Words Sunday Book Club.

We all get lots of email newsletters. I’m pretty disciplined at unsubscribing when I no longer read one, and this ensures that most of what arrives in my inbox is because I want it. That said, there are some newsletters that stand out above others; newsletters I truly look forward to receiving. As a book lover, ‘Strong Words Sunday Book Club’ is absolutely one of those. I’m also a recent subscriber to the quarterly magazine. I would readily recommend both to any fellow bookworms out there.

[strong-words.co.uk]

Qualities of masculinity.

How should re respond to the crisis of masculinity? This is spot on:

Instead of talking about being an alpha, high-T lion, or whatever other pseudoscientific garbage proliferates on the internet, why not refocus our attention and create mental models for masculinity that include the following qualities:

– Being a good father, brother, friend, and husband.
– Having integrity and honor.
– Caring deeply about others.
– Showing real toughness based on equanimity and embracing challenges instead of a fake and performative machismo that avoids feelings and emotions.
– Pursuing meaningful work and showing up consistently.
– Modeling and showing a diverse array of career paths.
– Being a protector of the weak.
– Showcasing your physicality in competitive pursuits (if you are so inclined), and doing so within the rules and ethics of those competitive pursuits.

[thegrowtheq.com]

100 new words a year thanks to TikTok.

Fascinating look at the impact of social media on language:

On social media words spread far and fast. At least 100 English words are produced, or given new meaning, on TikTok a year, reckons Tony Thorne, director of the Slang and New Language Archive at King’s College London. Some linguists think the platform is changing not just what youngsters are saying, but how they are saying it. A “TikTok accent”, which includes “uptalk”, an intonation that rises at the end of sentences, may be spreading.

[economist.com]

Avoiding mental junk food.

A good reminder from Shane Parrish:

Before diving into the news or scrolling through feeds, ask: “Will this still matter next year?” If not, it’s probably mental junk food. The sugar high will leave you craving even more.

Avoid mental junk food. Feed your mind substance. Your future self will thank you.

[fs.blog]

The science of Zoom fatigue.

Much to ponder in this excerpt from a new book called ‘Your Stone Age Brain in the Screen Age’ by Richard E. Cytowic:

Only a few months into 2020, “Zoom fatigue” became a discussion topic. Most complaints were about sound or video dropping out because of poor connectivity. But video callers speak about 15 percent louder than they do in person, need effort to focus and shift attention while looking on-screen at a dozen or more participants, and must constantly gauge whether they are coming across as engaged. All this requires extra emotional effort compared to face-to-face conversation. As a result, virtual meetings went from novelty to a source of exhaustion.

The cognitive load of online meetings eats up your capacity to think, too. When face-to-face we process a slew of signals without having to consciously think about them: facial expression, gesture, posture, vocal tone and rhythm, and the distance between speakers. We read body language and make emotional judgments about whether others are credible or not. This is easy to do in person, whereas video chats force us to work to glean the same cues. This consumes a lot of energy.

Interesting reflection on ‘mirror anxiety’ too, with the suggestion of having more audio only calls:

The mental strain of having to look at oneself over hours of Zoom meetings results in what Stanford University psychologists call “mirror anxiety,” while “Zoom dysmorphia” describes a user’s anxiety about dark circles, wrinkles, or bad hair. From a sample of 10,322 subjects, 14 percent of women felt “very” or “extremely” fatigued after Zoom calls, compared to only 6 percent of men. The researchers devised a Zoom and Exhaustion Fatigue scale to assess how serious the problem felt across five dimensions of fatigue: general, social, emotional, visual, and motivational (readers can test how susceptible they are at bit.ly/332zRaS). In addition to mirror anxiety, more women than men felt trapped: they took fewer breaks and felt obligated to hover within the camera’s frame. Established research tells us that looking in a mirror raises self-consciousness and self-criticism about one’s appearance. In what sounds like a good idea, researchers suggest making some meetings audio-only as a way to “reduce the psychological costs, especially given that these costs are born unequally across society.”

[bigthink.com]

How would we write differently if…

Love this hypothetical raised by Todd Rogers, author of ‘Writing for Busy Readers’:

How would we write differently if we thought 90% of those…

…reading books stopped after one chapter?

…reading memos stopped after the introduction?

…reading academic articles stopped after the abstract?

…reading legal decisions stopped after the Summary?

Reality may not be very far from this hypothetical. If that’s true, I’d likely write more like journalists by using the inverted pyramid where the first paragraph has all the key information and what follows is more detail.

[writingforbusyreaders.com]

Screenable: the new app supporting digital parenting.

Om Malik, the San Francisco-based writer, photographer, and investor, investigates a new app the makers describe as ‘the kid phone for Apple families’:

Screenable, an app available for download from Apple’s App Store, allows parents to limit the features and functionalities of their child’s device. Currently available for iPhones and iPads, it offers settings appropriate for kids of varying ages.

In the words of CEO Tom Clifton:

The idea is to offer parents an easy way to dial down the phone to the right level of power for each kid’s age and stage. It’s not about locking everything down forever, but about gradually opening up access as they demonstrate responsibility.

Why do we need this app—an app that isn’t free—when Apple already offers screen time controls? Well, because, sadly, Apple has dropped the ball somewhat in this area. In my own experiences, Apple’s controls are both flaky and too fiddly. What appeals about this app (which is currently only available in the US) is its simplicity. Looking forward to testing it when it comes out here in the UK.

[om.co]

TikTok knows its app is harmful for teens.

For the first time, internal TikTok communications have been made public that show a company unconcerned with the harms the app poses for American teenagers. This is despite its own research validating many child safety concerns.

The confidential material was part of a more than two-year investigation into TikTok by 14 attorneys general that led to state officials suing the company on Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges that TikTok was designed with the express intention of addicting young people to the app. The states argue the multi-billion-dollar company deceived the public about the risks.

No surprises here.

[npr.org]

Nature absorbed almost no carbon last year.

The hope is that this is temporary, but the implications of this could accelerate the heating of our world dramatically:

In 2023, the hottest year ever recorded, preliminary findings by an international team of researchers show the amount of carbon absorbed by land has temporarily collapsed. The final result was that forest, plants and soil – as a net category – absorbed almost no carbon.

There are warning signs at sea, too. Greenland’s glaciers and Arctic ice sheets are melting faster than expected, which is disrupting the Gulf Stream ocean current and slows the rate at which oceans absorb carbon. For the algae-eating zooplankton, melting sea ice is exposing them to more sunlight – a shift scientists say could keep them in the depths for longer, disrupting the vertical migration that stores carbon on the ocean floor.

[theguardian.com]

“My girlfriend dumped me by text — and my iPhone sent me a summary”.

A software developer discovered that his girlfriend was splitting up with him on his birthday through a new AI feature on his iPhone. It summed up her messages as: “No longer in a relationship; wants belongings from apartment.”

I’ve been testing the new Apple Intelligence features myself, and the summaries of notifications and emails have been something I’ve taken to. It’s fair to say I hadn’t considered these kinds of scenarios though!

[thetimes.com]

Vaping teenagers.

…parents are passing vapes through the school fence to pupils, according to head teachers. A tidal wave of teenage vaping has normalised the habit in many areas, and some parents are buying vapes for their children or turning a blind eye because they reason it is better than them taking drugs…

…43 per cent of schools catch children vaping daily and 30 per cent weekly.

The acceptance of vaping as a better alternative to smoking is something that will, I fear, properly come back to haunt us.

[thetimes.com]

When empathy is too hard.

A series of experiments led by Pennsylvania State University psychologist C. Daryl Cameron found that most individuals prefer to opt out of the cognitive effort empathy requires, especially if they don’t know the other person well:

…it’s harder to empathize with someone who feels distant or unknown than with a close loved one. “The more shared experiences you have with someone, the more of a rich, nuanced representation you can draw on,” Cameron says. But empathy for someone whose experience feels alien—the person who disagrees with you online, the man in a tent outside the subway or even a cousin who spouts extremist views—is a different matter. A host of disquieting unknowns arises: Is identifying with this person going to put you in danger? Will it compel you to sacrifice something important, such as time, money, tranquility?

When such anticipated costs overwhelm people, they’re more prone to withdraw altogether rather than trying to understand where the other person is coming from. “We are quite adept at learning how to manage our emotional environments to cultivate what we want to feel,” Cameron says. “Empathizing with a stranger, taking on their experiences—either negative or positive experiences—people find it difficult, they find it costly. And the more they feel that way, the less they opt in.”

Harvard social psychologist Erika Weisz points out there is hope though:

…another way to nudge people toward empathy—and keep them there—is to embed them in communities where empathy is a baseline expectation. “People want to increase their empathy if you tell them, essentially, it will help them socially,” Weisz says. “That is a perfectly reasonable leverage.” Unlike empathy skills training, which teaches specific methods of relating to others, Weisz’s approach involves building communities that value and reward empathetic behavior. It draws on a kind of constructive peer pressure.

[scientificamerican.com]

Inventing good and evil.

The Economist reviews ‘The Invention of Good and Evil’ by Hanno Sauer, concluding:

…despite the fury of the culture wars, Mr Sauer sees “an enormous… unrealised potential for reconciliation”. After hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, people share more moral values than they think, and this could help them cast off the identity politics that tells them they are enemies. “Between the extremes of ‘being on time is white supremacy’ and ‘we must revitalise Western Christianity’s cultural hegemony,’ there is a silent majority of reasonable people,” he concludes. He is surely right.

[theeconomist.com]

Finalists from the 2024 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards competition.

Here are the finalists from the 2024 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards competition. Winners will be announced on the 10th of December 2024. Voting for the People’s Choice Award runs from 26th September until 31st October.

Plenty to make you chuckle!

[comedywildlifephoto.com]

Why ChatGPT made this teacher quit teaching.

Victoria Livingstone, a writer, educator, and editor:

…I found myself spending many hours grading writing that I knew was generated by AI. I noted where arguments were unsound. I pointed to weaknesses such as stylistic quirks that I knew to be common to ChatGPT (I noticed a sudden surge of phrases such as “delves into”). That is, I found myself spending more time giving feedback to AI than to my students.

So I quit.

[time.com]

How AI can help diagnose depression and anxiety.

This feels like it could be genuinely transformative:

By analysing the acoustic properties of speech, these ai models can identify markers of depression or anxiety that a patient might not even be aware of, let alone able to articulate. Though individual features like pitch, tone and rhythm each play a role, the true power of these models lies in their ability to discern patterns imperceptible to a psychiatrist’s ears.

[theconomist.com]

ChatGPT uses four times more water than previously thought.

You may be hungry for knowledge, but your chatbot is thirsty for the world’s water supplies. The huge computer clusters powering ChatGPT need four times as much water to deliver answers than previously thought, it has been claimed.

Using the chatbot for between ten to 50 queries consumes about two litres of water, according to experts from the University of California, Riverside.

[thetimes.com]

Number of non-believers is surging in Britain.

Britain is entering its “first atheist age” as parents increasingly fail to pass on religious beliefs to their children, according to the largest study of its kind…

…It has long been known that children raised by non-religious parents are more likely to grow up as “non-theists” themselves, but academics have found the same is true for children whose parents believe firmly in God but do not actively participate in religious rituals or devote much “time or money” to their faith.

Of course, this is all blurry. People may not believe in ‘God’ as prescribed by a particular religion or denomination, but that doesn’t mean they don’t embrace the idea of a ‘higher being’ and actively practice spirituality.

[thetimes.com]

What makes a good manager?

Really want to be a manager? You probably wouldn’t be a good one.

The researchers found that a competent manager had about twice as much impact on the team’s performance as a competent worker. More usefully, they also found out which traits were associated with good and bad managerial performance. Teams run by people who said they really, really wanted to be managers performed worse than those who were assigned to lead them by chance. Self-promoting types tended to be overconfident about their own abilities; in a huge shock, they also tended to be men.

[theeconomist.com]

Zero cases of cervical cancer among women vaccinated before age 14.

A historic new study out of Scotland shows the real-world impact of vaccines against the human papillomavirus: The country has detected no cases of cervical cancer in women born between 1988-1996 who were fully vaccinated against HPV between the ages of 12 and 13.

Many previous studies have shown that HPV vaccines are extremely effective in preventing cervical cancer. But the study, published on Monday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the first to monitor a national cohort of women over such a long time period and find no occurrence of cervical cancer.

Remarkable.

[statnews.com]

“Holding death close so I remember to live”.

Kelly McMasters, writing in the New York Times:

I wrote my obituary last week. I often do so once a year; it has become a kind of ritual.

…I’m grateful my mother brought the practice of looking at death this way to the dinner table all those decades ago and continued to do so through all the stories of her dying patients after that. Just as my aunt taught me the value of keeping a journal, my mother’s obituary exercise taught me the practice and value of holding death close, so I could remember to live.

[nytimes.com]

New London restaurant is staffed by the recently homeless.

Love this story.

In cities across Britain and the world, homelessness and joblessness feed upon each other. Most employers won’t hire someone who does not have a stable address, which means the homeless can’t earn the money to afford a place to live.

Home Kitchen aims to break that cycle by training people for a career in the restaurant industry. Before opening day, recruits took a three-week culinary crash course and then spent two weeks in a kitchen at the Megaro, the five-star hotel where Mr. Simmonds was recently appointed chef patron.

[nytimes.com]

New law: All tips must go to workers.

All tips, whether in cash or by card, must be shared between workers by law in Britain, with millions of workers such as those working for cafes, pubs, restaurants, taxi companies and hairdressers most likely to benefit…

…The Department for Business and Trade has predicted the new law will mean a further £200m will be received by workers rather than their employers.

Some rogue employers will no doubt still find workarounds, but this feels like a good step.

[bbc.co.uk]

Why Malcolm Gladwell still appeals.

With the recent release of his newest book, The Economist explores the ongoing success of Malcolm Gladwell’s books:

Two things are near-certain about this book: it will wind up, probably soon, on bestseller lists. His detractors, also soon, will sneer at it. Steven Pinker, a psychologist at Harvard, said in a review in 2009 that “Readers have much to learn from Gladwell the journalist and essayist. But when it comes to Gladwell the social scientist, they should watch out.”

This line of criticism misses the point. Mr Gladwell is not a social scientist, nor does he claim to be. He is a journalist who popularises ideas from social science using what he has called “intellectual adventure stories…Their conclusions,” he concedes, “can seem simplified or idiosyncratic.” But stories are also, to use a Gladwellian phrase, sticky. The 10,000-hour rule is memorable; “work hard” is the forgettable line that every coach, teacher and parent has said a million times over.

[theeconomist.com]

Broken Britain.

Fascinating essay by Ben Southwood, Samuel Hughes, and Sam Bowman unpacking why Britain has stagnated:

…the most important economic fact about modern Britain: that it is difficult to build almost anything, anywhere. This prevents investment, increases energy costs, and makes it harder for productive economic clusters to expand. This, in turn, lowers our productivity, incomes, and tax revenues…

…Britain’s economy has stagnated for a fundamentally simple reason: because it has banned the investment in housing, transport and energy that it most vitally needs. Britain has denied its economy the foundations it needs to grow on.

[ukfoundations.co]

The return of the knob.

Turns out that making everything a touch screen interface isn’t what we want. Christopher Mims, technology columnist at the Wall Street Journal:

Companies have spent nearly two decades cramming ever more functions onto tappable, swipeable displays. Now buttons, knobs, sliders and other physical controls are making a comeback in vehicles, appliances and personal electronics…

…Fundamentally, the problem with touch-based interfaces is that they aren’t touch-based at all, because they need us to look when using them. Think, for example, of the screen of your smartphone, which requires your undivided gaze when you press on its smooth surface.

[wsj.com] / [Apple News]

On Monday Britain will become the first rich nation to quit coal.

A good news story on Britain’s energy transition.

On Monday Britain’s last coal-fired power station will spew vapour from its massive towers for the last time. When it shuts it will end 142 years of coal in Britain…

…In 1920 virtually all of Britain’s electricity was produced by burning coal. Today, after advances in wind and solar power, it accounts for almost nothing.

[thetimes.com]

Chance and fortune.

Thought-provoking conversation on the Start the Week podcast, hosted by Tom Sutcliffe:

‘Professor Risk’ David Spiegelhalter delves into the data and statistics to explore the forces of chance, ignorance and luck… Whereas life is uncertain, he shows how far the circumstances of how, when and where you were born have an overriding influence on your future. But he warns against confusing the improbable with the impossible.

[bbc.co.uk]

Oscar-winning star Maggie Smith dies aged 89.

Maggie Smith, the prolific, multi-award-winning actor whose work ranged from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to Harry Potter to Downton Abbey, has died aged 89.

The news was confirmed by her sons Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens in a statement. They said: “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday 27 September.”

What a truly incredible career.

[theguardian.com]

“Sometimes heaven is just a new pair of glasses.”

Mirabai Starr, the American author and speaker:

Living as a mystic means orienting the whole of yourself toward the sacred. It’s a matter of purposely looking through the lens of love. Contemporary wise woman Anne Lamott says (quoting Father Ed, the priest who helped Bill Wilson start up Alcoholics Anonymous) that “sometimes Heaven is just a new pair of glasses.” You know what it looks like when you wipe a lens clean of smears and dust. And you also know how it feels to bump into the furniture when your vision is fuzzy. When you say yes to cultivating a mystical gaze, the ordinary world becomes more luminous, imbued with flashes of beauty and moments of meaning. The universe responds to your willingness to behold the holy by revealing almost everything as holy. A plate of rice and beans, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, your new baby, the latest political scoundrel, the scary diagnosis, the restless nights.

[cac.org]

Less open-plan, more nooks.

Max Rollitt, an antique dealer and decorator:

We’re seeing a reversal of open-plan living – walls and doors being put in, rather than taken out. People are spending more time at home and, in doing so, they’ve needed more of a delineation of space. Nooks needn’t be architecturally led. You can create one almost anywhere simply by defining the space, be it with furniture or fabrics.

[ft.com]

Why is it so hard to get humans back on the moon?

All about the money.

[The current programme] Artemis is expensive, but Apollo was exorbitant: the program cost around $290 billion in today’s dollars, according to the Planetary Society, compared with Artemis’s $93 billion. In those years NASA was often blessed with 4 percent of the nation’s budget. Today it’s lucky to get around 1 percent, with the additional burden of many other spacecraft, telescopes and research projects beyond human spaceflight to fund.

[scientificamerican.com]

“Israel’s pager attacks have changed the world”.

Bruce Schneier, a security technologist and a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, highlights what Israel’s recent actions have revealed about the vulnerabilities throughout our world:

The bottom line: our supply chains are vulnerable, which means that we are vulnerable. Anyone — any country, any group, any individual — that interacts with a high-tech supply chain can potentially subvert the equipment passing through it. It could be subverted to eavesdrop. It could be subverted to degrade or fail on command. And, although it’s harder, it can be subverted to kill.

[nytimes.com]

How the medical profession made peanut allergies worse.

In a second clinical trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015, [Dr. Gideon] Lack compared one group of infants who were exposed to peanut butter at 4-11 months of age to another group that had no peanut exposure. He found that early exposure resulted in an 86% reduction in peanut allergies by the time the child reached age 5 compared with children who followed the AAP recommendation [of no peanut exposure until children are three]. 

Fascinating look into how the medical profession ended up inadvertently creating a peanut allergy crisis with non-evidence-based advice.

[wsj.com] / [Apple News]

More to snoring than just being an annoyance.

Graham Lawton, staff writer at New Scientist, explains how snoring is more than a nuisance:

That’s the thing about snoring: many of us consider it to be little more than an embarrassment or an annoyance and grudgingly put up with it. But accumulating findings suggest that this trivialises an important, and common, health problem.

Snoring isn’t just associated with broken sleep, it can be a warning sign of trouble ahead and also appears to have some potentially serious impacts on the snorer’s cardiovascular system. Despite a proliferation of remedies, there is a paucity of evidence about what works. But as sleep researchers increasingly wake up to the hidden dangers of snoring, there is hope the nightmare will soon end.

[newscientist.com]

Animals don’t worry what tomorrow will bring.

The psychologist Steve Biddulph on his new technique for transforming mental health:

We are born with this skill [to use the left and right side of our brains] and our ancestors used it for thousands of years. It’s just a matter of noticing it again. Animals don’t worry what tomorrow will bring. They live in the moment and when something comes up they’re all adrenaline and sharp teeth, but then they are peaceful again, whereas we get all caught up in our left brain.

[thetimes.com]

Keir Starmer’s excessive freebies.

If you’re in the UK, you’ll be well aware that the political news cycle this week has been dominated by the amount of freebies Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been receiving. Two and a half times more than the next closest MP, apparently. It’s not a good look, even if there’s no actual wrongdoing.

As Marina Hyde quipped in her weekly Guardian column, ‘Can someone gift the prime minister a designer spade? He wants to keep digging.’

[thetimes.com]

“The nonviolence of courageous action”.

Jean Zaru, a Palestinian Quaker, reflects upon her lifelong commitment to peacemaking:

As Palestinian women, we have a special burden and service. We are constantly being told to be peaceful. But the inner peace of which I speak is not simply being nice, or being passive, or permitting oneself to be trampled upon without protest. It is not passive nonviolence, but the nonviolence of courageous action…

What is that inner force that drives us, that provides regeneration and perseverance to speak the truth that desperately needs to be spoken in this moment of history?… If I deserve credit for courage, it is not for anything I do here, but for continuing in my daily struggle under occupation on so many fronts, for remaining samideh (steadfast) and, all the while, remaining open to love, to the beauty of the earth, and contributing to its healing when it is violated.

[cac.org]

“Are we too impatient to be intelligent?”

Instinctively, people love to codify things, and make them numerical, and turn them into optimization problems with a single right answer. Because the second you acknowledge ambiguity, you now have to exercise choice. If you can pretend there’s no ambiguity, then you haven’t made a decision, you can’t be blamed, you can’t be held responsible. And what’s the first thing you remove if you want to remove ambiguity from a model? You remove human psychology, because human psychology, particularly around time, is massively ambiguous.

The whole essay, adapted from a talk given by Rory Sutherland, is fascinating.

[behavioralscientist.org]

Instagram is now restricted for teenagers.

Starting today, Instagram will begin putting new and existing users under the age of 18 into “Teen Accounts” — a move that will affect how tens of millions of teens interact with the platform. The new account type automatically applies a set of protections to young users, and only users 16 years of age and older can loosen some of these settings.

Too little, too late for many, but a good move moving forwards.

[theverge.com]

Comparing Apple under Tim Cook to Apple under Steve Jobs.

John Gruber, the technology writer who has been writing about Apple for several decades, has written a fascinating article pondering why he – and others – felt a little underwhelmed by Apple’s latest product announcements. In particular, he explores the contrast between Apple when it was led by Steve Jobs and Apple as led today by Tim Cook.

Cook has patience where Jobs would grow restless. In the Jobs era, when a keynote ended, we’d sometimes turn to each other and say, “Can you believe ____?” No one asked that after last week’s keynote. Much of what Apple announced was impressive. Very little was disappointing. Nothing was hard to believe or surprising.

This isn’t bad for Apple, or a sign of institutional decline. If anything, under Cook, Apple more consistently achieves near-perfection. Tolerances are tighter. Ship dates seldom slip. But it’s a change that makes the company less fun to keenly observe and obsess over. Cook’s Apple is not overly cautious, but it’s never reckless. Jobs’s Apple was occasionally reckless, for better and worse.

[daringfireball.net]

Shōgan wins big at the Emmy’s with several firsts.

The hit FX samurai series is the first non-English-language show to win best drama, while stars Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai are the first Japanese actors ever to win Emmys.

Delighted to see this show recognised with some awards. It is by some distance the best show I’ve watched this year.

[hollywoodreporter.com]

“Citizens’ jury in England backs assisted dying for terminally ill”.

Thirty jurors were selected from 7,000 invitations sent to randomly selected households across England. They met between April and June, spending a total of about 24 hours exploring and deliberating on the issues. Two of the jurors were unable to take part in the final session due to illness.

The jury backed assisted dying for people who have a terminal condition and have the capacity to make their own decision. They supported both assisted suicide, where healthcare professionals would prescribe lethal drugs to be taken by eligible patients, and voluntary euthanasia, where a healthcare professional would administer lethal drugs.

The top three reasons given for supporting a change in the law were to stop pain, having the option to end your own life and knowing you could die with dignity.

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens with Labour MP Jake Richards considering bringing forward a bill to the House of Commons soon.

[theguardian.com]

The 365 most famous quotes of all time.

The quotes are grouped into 27 categories, with each category containing between 10 and 25 quotes. There’s also a bonus category of proverbs and sayings with 30 entries.

Here are the top three:

1. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” — Jesus Christ
2. “Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered.” — Julius Caesar
3. “I know that I know nothing.” — Socrates

[baos.pub]

Arsenal manager’s contract extension highlights rarity of managerial stability in the Premier League.

Amy Lawrence, Arsenal correspondent for The Athletic, comments on the news that Mikel Arteta, Arsenal’s football manager, has been given a three-year contract extension.

…here we are five years down the line with a new contract which will take him to 2027 and close in on a decade in charge. This is at a time when, according to UEFA’s study from a year ago, the average tenure for a manager across their top divisions is 1.3 years.

It’s hard to believe that last detail.

And Arteta’s longevity is all the more incredible when you consider that when he took on the role aged 37, he had never managed a game of football in his life.

[nytimes.com]

“People can be better than the worst thing they’ve done”.

Author and activist, Shane Claiborne:

…grace offers us another version of justice. Grace makes room … for justice that is restorative, and dedicated to healing the wounds of injustice. But the grace thing is hard work. It takes faith—because it dares us to believe that not only can victims be healed, but so can the victimizers. It is not always easy to believe that love is more powerful than hatred, life more powerful than death, and that people can be better than the worst thing they’ve done.

[cac.org]

“Goodbye Tinder, hello Strava”.

Singletons looking to shack up with their soulmates online have relied on two key routes in the past decade or so: take your chance on dating apps, or befriend as many mutuals as possible on social media, in the hope that you find the one.

But some have found a third way, using services such as Goodreads and Strava to meet partners with whom they hope to spend the rest of their lives. Those couples proved to be trendsetters. So-called hobby apps – built around activities such as running, reading or movie-going – are having a moment, and not just for love.

People finding meaningful connections around shared interests rather than through a dating app, who would have thought?

[guardian.com]

Australia looking to ban children from social media.

Children in Australia could be banned from social media under government plans to set an age limit to use platforms including Instagram and TikTok. It would make Australia among the first countries in the world to impose an age restriction on social media, as it aims to tackle mental and physical health concerns linked to online activity among the younger population.

Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said that a minimum age of between 14 and 16 for the use of social media apps is being considered. He then had this to say when making the announcement:

I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts. We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm.

[inews.co.uk]

Free speech for humans (not bots).

William Hague, the former Conservative MP, highlights Yuval Noah Harari’s compelling proposal to address the challenges of reducing misinformation’s dangerous impact without censoring views:

Harari’s solution is to be clear that free speech is for humans, not for automated bots or algorithmic programmes that are designed to turn us against each other. If, he argues, a group of people were standing in the street discussing politics when some robots approached them, entering the discussion and spreading unfounded rumours, the people would give them very short shrift. Yet in the online world we allow robots to speak to us as equals, believe what they say and let them choose most of what we hear. He offers two solutions. One is to “ban the bots”, passing laws to prohibit any attempt by a non-human agent to pass itself off as human.

[thetimes.com]

Apple updates AirPods Pro with new hearing health features.

On the day Apple introduced their newest iPhones and Watches, it was an update to an existing product that may have the most significant impact.

Apple is providing the world’s first all-in-one hearing health experience with AirPods Pro with active Hearing Protection, a clinically validated Hearing Test feature, and an over-the-counter Hearing Aid feature. The first-of-its-kind software-based Hearing Aid feature helps make access to hearing assistance easier than ever at an approachable price point.

[apple.com]

World’s first physically disabled astronaut.

John McFall, a Paralympic sprinter who later became an orthopedic and trauma surgeon, has had an esteemed career fueled by his intense drive and curiosity. Now he’s adding yet another acclaimed career to the mix: astronaut.

[scientificamerican.com]

Free speech too important to become a political football.

Free speech has become a black-or-white issue for many. But, like pretty much anything that truly matters, the truth is in the nuance.

Jemima Kelly’s article in the Financial Times does a good job of navigating this.

Too often, the conversation around free speech is reduced to “misinformation bad!” from the left, and “censorship worse!” from the right. Too often, there seems to be a reluctance among right-thinking types to condemn censorship simply because of the dubious credentials — not to mention self-interest — of some of the characters who do complain about what they call the “censorship industrial complex”…

…It is clear that there are important conversations to be had around how to regulate platforms such as X, to change the profit incentives away from promoting hateful and incendiary content. It is also the case that there must be limits to free speech, as laid out by the law in many countries — “free speech absolutism” is neither a reality nor something we should aspire to. But we must not allow our most important principles to become tainted by the people who defend them. Free speech is far too important to become a political football.

[ft.com]

Never admire quietly.

Chimamanda Nzozi Adichie, author of Half of a Yellow Sun, offers some simple yet important advice:

If I admire something about someone, I tell them. We humans are so fragile. It’s important we give people their flowers while they are still here. Never admire quietly.

[harpersbazaar.com]

Micro kindnesses.

Sometimes the simplest nudges towards a change in behaviour are the most powerful and effective.

This from Vanessa Van Edwards is one such nudge:

Whenever you see an opportunity to perform a small favor that would take 30 seconds or fewer – like holding the door for someone, offering directions, or even giving a compliment – take it.

The more we seek out opportunities for these kinds of micro-kindnesses, the more we will see them. And before we know it, these kind gestures will have simply become part of who we are.

[instagram.com]

Parenting getting more and more stressful.

Camilla Cavendish, columnist at the Financial Times, reports on the growing isolation and stress experienced by parents.

Even with the amount of time parents spend with their kids increasing, there are downsides to this. The rise of one-to-one time with children is coinciding with a decline in the play date and parenting alongside friends. Hence the growing feelings of isolation.

Cavendish concludes:

When you’re already feeling stressed, being told not to pass your anxieties on to your children feels counterproductive: a recipe for piling on the pressure. But challenging society to support parents, and reduce isolation, is right. As the UK Covid-19 inquiry began its hearings this week on the impact of the pandemic on children, there will be much evidence about the traumatic impact of lockdowns on young people. But someone also needs to ask how parents are faring. We know that time spent with friends, which fell precipitously in lockdowns, has not recovered as robustly for parents as for non-parents. A big question is why. 

[ft.com]

“Put the smartphones away, I’m trying to eat.”

Giles Coren, the restaurant critic and Times columnist, argues that atmosphere is as much a part of dining out as the food itself, and if you’re scrolling or texting, you’re ruining it for everyone:

…people with their smartphones out, scrolling, texting, swiping while they eat or between courses or at any time at all between walking in and walking out drives me into conniptions. Because if you’re on your phone, you’re not there. You are sucking the energy out of a room that was built to welcome and cherish your presence. You are disrespecting the low-paid workers who serve you and spitting in the faces of paying guests who have come to take part in an atmosphere of which you are an integral part.

[thetimes.com]

Why is India so bad at sport?

Tej Parikh, the Financial Times’s economics leader writer, delves into why, despite its population size and GDP, India does so poorly when it comes to sport.

…whether it is the Paralympics or Olympics, India underwhelms on the global sports stage, relative to its demographic heft. It has won just 41 medals at the Olympics since 1900. On the balance of probability alone — accounting for 1 in 6 people in the world — the nation’s recent performance is embarrassing. It amassed just six medals at the Olympics this year…

…Success at the Olympics tends to scale with GDP partly because it acts as a proxy for sport expenditure. “Capital-intensive sports — including gymnastics, sailing, swimming, rowing and diving — accounted for 28 per cent of available medals this year,” notes Green. America, China and Britain excel in many of these. “Economic development also means more leisure time and the creation of a sporting culture.”

India’s economic emergence has, however, not translated into stronger investment in sport, or more recreation. Expenditure on physical recreation has not been a priority for successive governments. As a result, wannabe athletes have faced significant hurdles in the form of poor funding and a lack of access to facilities, coaching and equipment.

Poverty remains a challenge. India’s GDP per capita by purchasing power parity is just over $10,000, according to the World Bank, placing it below the likes of Iraq and Eswatini. Parents and teachers, understandably, encourage children to pursue better paid, high-status professions as doctors and engineers.

There is, of course, one sport – cricket – that India does excel in.

[ft.com]

Religion should be grounded in nature.

Franciscan friar and ecumenical teacher, Father Richard Rohr:

I am beginning to think that much of institutional religion is rather useless if it is not grounded in natural seeing and nature religion…

…When we are at peace, when we are not fighting it, when we are not fixing and controlling this world, when we are not filled with anger, all we can do is start loving and forgiving. Nothing else makes sense when we are alone with God. All we can do is let go. There’s nothing worth holding on to, because there is nothing else we need. It’s in that free space, I think, that realignment happens.

Perhaps there’s an argument to be made that the more disconnected institutional religion is from nature, the more disconnected it is from reality. And usefulness.

[cac.org]

Studies confirm shared experiences, more than material things, bring people together.

I think we all intuitively know (even if we have buried the knowing) that experiences are more meaningful than possessions. But as the quote below highlights, with this being true, there is a responsibility for cities and towns to facilitate the opportunity for experiences that bring people together.

One clear takeaway from this research—like the many studies on experiential spending and happiness done to date—is that people would likely be wise to tilt their spending toward “doing” rather than “having.” But our work points to another implication as well. Communities could benefit in many ways from encouraging experiential pursuits. Policymakers can support access to public parks, beaches and museums, for example. Improved funding for the arts and performance spaces can be a way for communities to ensure that shared experiences continue to bring people together, as the National Endowment for the Arts has highlighted. Our work hints that such investments could kick off a virtuous cycle. Directing resources toward more community engagement might spur improvements in societal well-being.

[scientificamerican.com]

Will AI ever be able to make true art?

Ted Chiang makes the case for AI never being able to make true art:

Some commentators imagine that image generators will affect visual culture as much as the advent of photography once did. Although this might seem superficially plausible, the idea that photography is similar to generative A.I. deserves closer examination. When photography was first developed, I suspect it didn’t seem like an artistic medium because it wasn’t apparent that there were a lot of choices to be made; you just set up the camera and start the exposure. But over time people realized that there were a vast number of things you could do with cameras, and the artistry lies in the many choices that a photographer makes. It might not always be easy to articulate what the choices are, but when you compare an amateur’s photos to a professional’s, you can see the difference. So then the question becomes: Is there a similar opportunity to make a vast number of choices using a text-to-image generator? I think the answer is no. An artist—whether working digitally or with paint—implicitly makes far more decisions during the process of making a painting than would fit into a text prompt of a few hundred words.

[newyorker.com]

“Mobile phones not linked to brain cancer”.

The review found no overall association between mobile phone use and cancer, no association with prolonged use (if people use their mobile phones for 10 years or more), and no association with the amount of mobile phone use (the number of calls made or the time spent on the phone).

“I’m quite confident with our conclusion. And what makes us quite confident is … even though mobile phone use has skyrocketed, brain tumour rates have remained stable,” said Karipidis, Arpansa’s health impact assessment assistant director.

Surely that puts this issue to bed once and for all?!

[guardian.com]

Incredible cloud art!

Adore this cloud art that artist Chris Judge has been sharing on Instagram since summer 2020. Can’t believe I’ve only just stumbled across this account!

[instagram.com]

Pickleball ever more popular, but tennis is better for fitness.

I’ve only played pickleball once but thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not nearly as big a deal in the UK as it is in the US, though it’s something I’d be open to playing more.

But fitness coaches say that tennis is better when it comes to fitness.

The big picture: Tennis players sprint across a wider court, swinging at heavier balls than pickleheads. The average heart rate recorded on an Apple Watch while playing pickleball was 143 beats per minute, while tennis averaged 152 beats per minute, according to a study by Apple Heart and Movement.

What gets missed is that it’s not usually decisions between pickleball and tennis that people are making; it’s between pickleball or tennis and nothing.

So, if you’re enjoying pickleball, there’s no need to feel bad!

Whether you want to stick to being a picklehead or enjoy a higher-intensity workout that is tennis, both sports are great for staying active and healthy.

(Not loving the name ‘picklehead’!)

[axios.com]

All forecasting is storytelling.

Morgan Housel serves up a good reminder:

…while data-driven storytelling doesn’t mean guessing, it doesn’t mean prophecy.

We can use historical data to assume a trend will continue, but that’s just a story we want to believe in a world where things change all the time.

We can use data to assume a crazy event will revert to the norm, but that’s also just a story in a world where unsustainable trends last longer than people think.

[collabfund.com]

Why we should all be writing more.

There are plenty of science-based benefits to writing. Here’s just one of them:

By expressing our thoughts and emotions on paper, we can process difficult experiences more effectively, reduce negative feelings, and even improve our practical outcomes. Whether you’re facing job loss, personal setbacks, or any other hardship, taking the time to write about your experience could help you bounce back faster and stronger.

[nesslabs.com]

Over 6,000 suicides in England and Wales last year

Lots of alarming statistics on suicide rates in 2023, but these stand out:

Three-quarters of the deaths were of males, but the female suicide rate reached its highest level since 1994.

Rates increased across all age groups compared to 2022, especially among those aged 45 to 64 years.

The suicide rate for women across England and Wales was 5.7 per 100,000 people. The rate for men was 17.4 per 100,000 but increased to 25.5 for men aged 45 to 49.

As a man in that 45 to 49 age bracket, these statistics feel particularly poignant. We men still have a long way to go with being vulnerable and not leaving one another to struggle on alone in silence.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie.

[theguardian.com]

Beetlejuice!

My daughter and I watched ‘Beetlejuice’ tonight. I had never heard of this movie until a few months ago! She’s been super excited about the new ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ movie coming out in September though, mostly because Jenna Ortega is in it. So, we decided to watch the original tonight to get in the mood for the new one. I enjoyed it! It was weird, wacky, and wonderful – very Tim Burton!

The Democrats scrap plans to abolish the death penalty

Shane Claiborne, the activist and author, has drawn attention to a quiet move by the Democratic Party in the United States to remove abolishing the death penalty from the party platform:

Unfortunately, on at least one issue, the Democrats have gone backward rather than forward, in a move that caught many of us by surprise. As the festivities finished up in Chicago last week, the Democrats quietly removed abolishing the death penalty from the party platform, a move that certainly will not help them distinguish themselves from Trump and win this election.

Living in a country where the death penalty has not been enacted since 1964 (although it was only officially removed in 1998), it’s hard to comprehend that it still exists in America, and that the Democrats are abandoning their plans to abolish it.

Claiborne adds:

It is disappointing that this key commitment, and a signal difference with the Trump agenda, has been removed from the DNC platform. President Biden and Vice President Harris need to do more than pause executions for the remainder of their administration; we need them to stop executions for good.

[religionnews.com]

Food allergies have doubled over the last decade

Analysis of data from GP surgeries in England revealed 4 per cent of under-fives had a “probable” food allergy in 2018, up from 1.2 per cent in 2008. Across all age groups, the prevalence of food allergies has increased from 0.4 per cent of the population to 1.1 per cent over the same decade.

That’s a pretty dramatic rise! And scientists still don’t fully understand why, though they do have some theories:

Experts also believe that changes in the Western diet, including a shift towards ultra-processed food, and the timing of weaning babies onto solid food, may be playing a role in driving up allergy rates. There is now good evidence that introducing allergens such as peanuts early into a baby’s life, from four months old, helps to reduce the risk of allergies compared with holding off until children are older, as had previously been advised.

[thetimes.com]

The need for more ‘social prescriptions’

Interesting article in Scientific American discussing the need for more ‘social prescriptions’ within the medical profession.

Why?

80 percent of our health outcomes are driven by social factors in our environments, while only 16 percent are related to clinical care.

Do social prescriptions actually work?

One review of 86 social prescribing programs in the U.K. found patients who received social prescriptions experienced not only a decrease in anxiety, depression and negative mood, but also an increase in self-esteem, confidence, mental well-being and positive mood. This complements decades of research demonstrating the ways certain kinds of social prescriptions are effective for treating certain kind of ailments, like exercise for depression, or forest bathing for stress and heart diseases.

Clearly, there’s no either-or to this. But it seems a no-brainer, when health services are so constrained, to promote more of these social prescriptions.

Clint Smith on dealing with criticism as an artist

From an interview with Brené Brown:

Criticism is and always has been a part of what it means to be an artist. Obviously, the difference now is that there is a different type of proximity we have to the feelings folks have about the work we put into the world. Oftentimes, that is a really beautiful and meaningful thing. For example, when I see tweets or Instagram posts from teachers who are sharing my work with their students, it means more than I can say. And sure, there will always be those who feel differently about you or your work. I simply try to accept that I have no control over that and do my best to focus on what drew me to the work in the first place: a pursuit of my own curiosities and the space to wrestle with complex questions.

New London tube map idea is great, but this is all I need:

Image source: The Spectator

Behind the scenes with the system prompts guiding Claude AI

Interesting to get a sneak peak at some of the rules defining what Claude AI (an alternative to ChatGPT) can and can’t do.

Every generative AI vendor, from OpenAI to Anthropic, uses system prompts to prevent (or at least try to prevent) models from behaving badly, and to steer the general tone and sentiment of the models’ replies…

…Anthropic, in its continued effort to paint itself as a more ethical, transparent AI vendor, has published the system prompts for its latest models…

…The latest prompts, dated July 12, outline very clearly what the Claude models can’t do — e.g. “Claude cannot open URLs, links, or videos.” Facial recognition is a big no-no; the system prompt for Claude Opus tells the model to “always respond as if it is completely face blind” and to “avoid identifying or naming any humans in [images].”

Kyle Wiggers, author of the piece, then concludes:

If the prompts for Claude tell us anything, it’s that without human guidance and hand-holding, these models are frighteningly blank slates.

“How ‘Inside Out’ and its sequel changed therapy”

Amazing to see how an animated movie is having such an impact, helping both mental health practitioners and educators, as well as parents.

“Return-to-office mandates hurt employee retention, productivity, survey says”

Surprise, surprise: forcing people back into offices may not have the effect employers are hoping for.

…remote workers were 23 percent more likely to say they have “a psychologically and emotionally healthy workplace,” 19 percent were more likely to cite “high levels of cooperation,” and 18 percent were more likely to say that people avoid office politics and backstabbing.

‘Free speech’ and online offences

Today’s briefing in the Guardian explores what we can learn from the recent UK riots about the criminal justice system.

British courts have long held that freedom of speech does not entitle people to incite violence. Part of the outrage may be due to a perception that online behaviour is somehow exempt from this general principle; these sentences may change that.

Cassia Rowland, a researcher focused on criminal justice at the Institute for Government, added:

I think most people have been aware for some time that online behaviour may be illegal. But they may not see that their own behaviour can qualify to be taken seriously as a criminal offence, especially in this kind of context.

What it feels like living in a tourist hotspot

Locals against tourist stories have been in the news a lot lately. This is a thoughtful article, recognising some of nuances that are involved.

Tourism is very important, and if it disappears, we’ll be poorer. But we want to preserve the island and have a better quality of life and better access to housing. Diversifying [the economy] is the obvious answer, but that’s really hard at this point.

“The Marshmallow Test does not reliably predict adult functioning”

We’ve all likely heard about the Marshmallow Test. Kids are given an option of a marshmallow now, or more marshmallows later. And, supposedly, the kids who resist eating the marshmallow now do better in life. Delayed gratification is, we were told, a key indicator of various success measures later in life. I was never totally convinced about this to be honest. And it appears to have now been debunked:

Using a preregistered analysis, Marshmallow Test performance was not strongly predictive of adult achievement, health, or behavior… No clear pattern of moderation was detected between delay of gratification and either socioeconomic status or sex. Results indicate that Marshmallow Test performance does not reliably predict adult outcomes.

“Consensus is the enemy of greatness”

Brian Halligan, co-founder and former CEO of HubSpot, on why he stopped looking for consensus:

“For a long time, I looked for consensus. I think consensus is really the enemy of scale, and so I used to say, “Whenever we’re making an important decision, there should be winners in the room and losers. We shouldn’t find that negotiated settlement that everyone is happy with. Somebody should be unhappy, three or four people should walk out unhappy, and one should walk out happy, and we’re all going to be good with it.” As you get bigger, the gravity pulls you towards consensus, and I think consensus is the enemy of greatness.”

“Hopefulness is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism”

Beautiful and moving response by Australian musician Nick Cave to a letter from a fan feeling empty and cynical.

Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us, and can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position either. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism. Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like, Valerio, such as reading to your little boy, or showing him a thing you love, or singing him a song, or putting on his shoes, keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time, we come to find that it is so.

Do we no longer want to be unique?

Fascinating study showing that fewer people want to stand out in public.

The study looked at three dimensions of uniqueness: concern about other people’s reactions, desire to break the rules and the willingness to defend beliefs publicly. All three facets declined but the most dramatic were people being hesitant to defend their beliefs publicly (a 6.52% decline) and becoming more concerned with what people think about them (a 4.28% decline).

This data suggests that individuals see that expressing uniqueness might compromise their ability to fit in with others or may even lead to being ostracized.

How it feels to be a British Jew after October 7

Many on the Left most energised by Israel and Palestine can’t accept they could ever be anti-Semitic because they believe they’ve always fought racism. Well-meaning people end up being anti-Semitic by accident, susceptible to peer pressure, half-truths and outright falsehoods. That means that those who have convinced themselves they possess the facts – let alone the armies of previously uninterested and ignorant newbies – feel their desire to be morally right outweighs the sensitivities of those they see as wrong.

I’m hesitant to even venture near the subject of Israel and Palestine. Sadly, for many it is become a black and white, either or issue. Reality is always more nuanced.

“If cynicism was a pill, it would be a poison.”

An interview in New Scientist with a recovering cynic on what science tells us about the impact of being cynical.

Cynicism hurts us in basically every way a scientist can measure. Cynics suffer in terms of their mental health. They are more depressed and anxious. They tend to abuse substances like alcohol more; their relationships are shorter-lived and less satisfying. Their health is worse – everything from cellular inflammation to coronary disease to diabetes, all these are predicted by cynicism. They do worse financially.

Rude disregard for female teachers is unprecedented

Alarming, anonymously written, piece in The Times by a senion pastoral leader at a school in England.

I had a lesson recently where Andrew Tate was mentioned by a boy who remarked on all the cars and money he seemed to have as a reason that he was someone to emulate. One of the girls tried to cut in and say, “But you do understand that he’s a bad person?” And the boy said, “Well, you can’t say that; he’s doing pretty well for himself.” At this point I added, “He’s also someone awaiting trial for sexual offences. And I think we’re going to shut this conversation down.” Wealth equals good in class, with little regard for how it is achieved.

Tim Harford on AI and plausible bullshit

Not for the first time, we learn that large language models can be phenomenal bullshit engines. The difficulty here is that the bullshit is so terribly plausible. We have seen falsehoods before, and errors, and goodness knows we have seen fluent bluffers. But this? This is something new.

Long Way Home: New motorbike adventure with Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman

The new season follows Ewan and Charley as they ride lovingly refurbished vintage motorbikes from Ewan’s home in Scotland to Charley’s in England — but rather than take the shortest route, they go the long way! They head across the North Sea to Scandinavia, all the way up to the Arctic Circle and then down to the Baltics and through continental Europe, before eventually hopping back over the English Channel two months later. It’s an adventure that will take them to more than fifteen countries, through spectacular scenery and along some of the greatest driving roads in the world. Along the way they’ll immerse themselves in each country’s culture, meet the locals and try their hand at unique and eclectic activities.

I’ve loved all three of the previous adventures; can’t wait to follow along with this one.

Adam Peaty: Why silver is better than gold

As soon as you define your whole life by medals, you’ll have no one to share it with. I’d rather get silver and have someone to share it with than gold and be on my own.

Quite a remarkable transformation.

People with type 1 diabetes may soon only need to give themselves insulin once a week

Scientists have found a solution that experts say comes as close to a cure for type 1 diabetes as any drug therapy could: smart insulin that lies dormant in the body and only springs into action when needed.

This would be transformative for so many people.

Be nice – but not too nice – to chatbots

Using polite prompts…can produce higher-quality responses from a large language model (LLM)—the technology powering AI chatbots. But there’s a point of diminishing returns; excessive flattery can cause a model’s performance to deteriorate, according to the paper.

“Trump and Musk share tips on running companies into ground”

“I think the key to turning any business into a disaster is simple,” Musk opined. “You have to take a brand that people love and make it toxic. I don’t mean to brag, but that’s kind of my superpower.”

“That’s true up to a point, but you also have to make sure that the product itself is horrible,” Trump responded. “Ask anyone who’s stayed at one of my hotels and found it infested with bedbugs.”

😂

Season four trailer for Slow Horses

One of the best productions to have emerged from Apple TV+ is, undeniably, Slow Horses, the TV adaption of the books by Mick Herron.

Grab a subscription and catch up ahead of the release of season four on 4 September. You won’t regret it.

“Mother Father God”

In Fr. Richard Robr’s daily meditations this week he is reflecting on the life and teachings of Julian of Norwich. This recent post on God as ‘mother’ is brilliant.

Julian helps me finally understand one major aspect of my own Catholic culture: why in heaven’s name, for centuries, did both the Eastern and Western Churches attribute so many beautiful and beloved places, shrines, hills, cathedrals, and works of religious art in the Middle East and Europe, not usually to Jesus, or even to God, but to some iteration of Mother Mary? I’ve always thought it was scripturally weak but psychologically brilliant. Many people in Julian’s time didn’t have access to scripture—in fact, most couldn’t read at all. They interpreted at the level of archetype and symbol. The “word” or logos was quite good, but a feminine image for God was even better.

“How to do one thing at a time”

Chris Guillebeau outlines a helpful, simple process:

1. You must identify the one thing.

2. It must be specific and measurable.

3. You must commit to doing only the one thing.

Simple doesn’t mean easy though!

Graham Thorpe’s daughter: We’re not ashamed of talking about his suicide

I grew up watching Graham Thorpe play cricket for England. It’s devastating to read of his mental health illness that led to the taking of his own life.

I love what his daughter had to say about why they’re sharing more details about his illness and death though:

We are not ashamed of talking about it. There is nothing to hide and it is not a stigma.

Archbishop Justin Welby: “Christian iconography that has been exploited by the far right is an offence to our faith”

…the Christian iconography that has been exploited by the far right is an offence to our faith, and all that Jesus was and is. Let me say clearly now to Christians that they should not be associated with any far-right group – because those groups are unchristian. Let me say clearly now to other faiths, especially Muslims, that we denounce people misusing such imagery as fundamentally antichristian.

Prima Facie play coming back to UK cinemas

Jodie Comer has announced that the recording of her performance of Prima Facie is coming back to cinemas from 12 September.

Having watched this with my wife last year, I can confirm this is not to be missed.

One of the most remarkable performances I’ve ever seen.

More details on the dedicated website.

Adam Grant on why he was wrong about the Olympics.

“You can love your people without hating others.”

He also adds:

I used to think the ideal state of the world was striving to transcend borders altogether. The Olympics reminded me that rejecting negative nationalism doesn’t require us to abandon positive patriotism

“Inside the ‘cult’ of the Far Right”

This interview with Kaelin Robertson, a former friend and ally of Tommy Robinson is insightful and definitely worth listening to. The journey of how someone became radicalised is informative. The comments below are undeniably worrying though.

“Somebody that is tweeting the things that he’s tweeting, he doesn’t believe half of it, but it doesn’t matter because the truth is totally irrelevant to him, will genuinely disrupt normalcy in the UK. The majority of people that have been protesting and rioting in the last few days who are far right have done so because they saw his tweets. What we saw with the riots in the last few days, I genuinely think is just the beginning.

Somebody that doesn’t care about the truth and somebody that doesn’t care about anything other than blowing up their own profile, regardless of what happens to Britain, is extremely dangerous.”

“Concentrate! How to improve your focus”

Lots of good tips and reminders in this article in The Times.

We tend to think mostly of behaviour around screens, but being able to focus is as much about what we eat and drink, sleeping well, and exercising.

What lies beneath: the growing threat to the hidden network of cables that power the internet

Fascinating article in The Guardian looking at how the internet really works, and the threats that would cause havoc if realised.

Turns out a quantum leap isn’t what I thought it was. (Who knew ‘quantum’ doesn’t mean huge? I didn’t!) And the significance of this to our personal development is fascinating. Love this latest article – The Quantum Self – by AleXander McManus.

What would it mean to be done for the day?

What you realise, the moment you ask “what would it mean to be done for the day?”, is that the answer can’t possibly involve doing all the things that need doing – even though that’s the subconscious goal with which many of us approach life, driving ourselves crazy in the process. If there are a thousand things that need doing, you’re going to need to arrive at some definition of “finished” that doesn’t encompass them all. Maybe it’s two hours on your main current project, and three detailed emails you’ve been meaning to write, plus a couple of quicker tasks? Your definition of “done” may be very different, of course, depending on your work, energy levels, and existing commitments. But merely by asking the question you’ll be leaving behind the daily quest to do more than you can – which systematically prevents you taking satisfaction in whatever you do manage to accomplish.

Always enjoy reading and pondering on Oliver Burkeman’s thoughts and perspectives.

UK disorder: What’s Elon Musk’s game?

Mr Musk has highlighted his concerns that the media doesn’t hold power to account any more. And yet most of the time, when I want to ask questions of both him and of X - there is no response from the social media company.

Good article by Marianna Spring.

“Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”

I love this quote from the Catholic saint, Augustine, quoted by Steve Chalke today in his ‘Pause for Thought’ on BBC Radio 2. And then what Steve went onto add was great too:

“…one of the ancient words the Bible uses for ‘hope’ is ‘tikvah’, which comes from the word for a ‘multi-stranded rope’.

That’s what Martin Luther King understood. Hope has to be tangible! When you’re down a deep hole, you need a strong woven rope to climb out with, rather than empty optimism. That’s what he and his friends gave their lives to weaving.”

The far right riots, Starmer’s response, and the role of Elon Musk

This episode of The News Agents is a helpful take on the recent rioting, the far right, policing, disinformation, and more.

And I thought this comment on the two-tier policing accusation was apt:

“…this accusation of like two-tier policing, one of the things that’s come out in the last 24 hours is to say, oh well, the police were much gentler when looking at what was happening with the Gaza protests over the course of the last year or so.

It’s like, hello, this is sort of crazy critique. Yes, some of the things that were said on those Gaza protests were distasteful. They were racist, they were anti-Semitic, anti-Semitic tropes.

They reported that on that at the time. Sometimes, they were intimidating to Jewish people who were there. But they weren’t going lot around orchestrating that level of violence and disorder, and they weren’t going around burning down shoe zones.

These were largely peaceful by comparison. So yeah, there’s two-tier policing in the sense that different sorts of protests and if different sorts of crimes are committed, have different sorts of responses from the police. That is kind of how justice and the law works.

You do different sorts of things, you get treated differently by the police.”

Emphasis mine.

Can’t help but enjoy this photo of Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bowing down to Rebeca Andrade after the Brazilian beat them to Olympic gold in the floor final in Paris.

Elon Musk’s misinformation machine made the horrors of Southport much worse

We’re in danger of sleepwalking back in time to the world dissected by Hannah Arendt six years after World War Two: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (ie the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (ie standards of thought) no longer exist.”

Whole article is worth a read. What we’re seeing across the UK following the Southport murders is horrific. And it’s hard to disagree with the premise that X is making it worse and shoulders culpability.

Appreciated this on interested versus committed from Shane Parrish’s latest post.

Most people are interested. Few are truly committed. Interested people act when it’s convenient; committed people act no matter what.

Talk to your neighbour, your barista, or the person on the bus, your health could depend on it

This is a good interview with David Robson, author of The Laws of Connection.

An important reminder to stay social if we want to stay healthy

After a ten-year hiatus, my long-time friend and mentor, Alex McManus, is back writing.

The Digital Grim Reaper - by AleXander McManus

There’s a ton of great thoughts and reflections in his article, but it’s this one line that I’ve been musing on for days:

“Utilize AI for the purposes of making the world more human.”

“It’s good to mock and make fun of people who are bad or want to do bad things. It’s also necessary politically… Good thrusting mockery cuts right through that. Yes, they’re dangerous. But they’re also insecure, stunted degenerates.”

From: Are You on Team ‘Weird’?

How decline of Indian vultures led to 500,000 human deaths

This is both fascinating and alarming in equal measure.

“Vultures are considered nature’s sanitation service because of the important role they play in removing dead animals that contain bacteria and pathogens from our environment - without them, disease can spread. Understanding the role vultures play in human health underscores the importance of protecting wildlife, and not just the cute and cuddly. They all have a job to do in our ecosystems that impacts our lives.”

–Eyal Frank, an assistant professor at University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.