No more war related content this time out.
Some pandemic related, a lot more science and tech, some sport.
As always, all links on this newsletter can be found here.
History, Culture, and Religion
A slightly biased retelling of the history of the BHU, its founding, the initial troubles, its founder, and his values.
Why do Chinese people like their government?
The idea that a populace can 'like' its government is quite weird to me. This was an eye-opener in terms of the history of conflict in China when authority waned. This is an op-ed at the end of the day, but, very well written.
The Sports Industry’s Gen Z Problem
In the US, the next generation isn't as sports crazy as the millennials, this article is an attempt to understand why and its implications - potentially other countries in the next 3-5 years unless nu-age culture starts flowing in the other direction.
Tech, Science, and Math
Luck and the Entrepreneur, Part 1: The four kinds of luck
This is Part 1 in a 4 part series by Marc Andreessen, the creator of Netscape and currently one of the most well known VCs at a16z.
Only Part 1 was available here, would've been interesting to see the other 3 parts as well. If you do find it, please do share.
We May Never Find Life on Mars—And That Could Be a Good Thing
I've been reading up as much as I can superficially on this Mars thing and came across this article that explains some abstract concepts in astronomy, the concept of life and evolution in simple terms which I found helpful.
You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food?
A lovely data driven article from the team at OurWorldInData.
Dives into the specifics of how to figure "how you're eating" and "what you're eating" contributes to your carbon footprint with neat examples to boot.
Seeing Theory - Brown University
I've been brushing up on my math of late and I found this superb interactive website sometime last month.
Concepts in probability and statistics explained with some of the best interactive examples I've seen, still going through the course, so far 10/10.
Everything else
How can you tell if someone is lying?
An excellent deep dive into the art of lying and the science of figuring out whether someone is lying. Links and explains some detailed studies done in the past and explores real life examples. Found this interesting.
Study Finds Artists Become Famous through Their Friends, Not the Originality of Their Work
In the age of NFTs, this is perhaps more relevant than ever before.
The article is based on a study that explores how "well known" an artist was based on whether they were mentioned in historical texts and drawing a map of connections from that.
It does delve into the arena of drawing causality from this which I'm not sure is fully valid, but, the fundamental point made is incredibly true today - the more famous you are, the more likely you are to be successful as an artist. Yes, creativity and talent is important, but, it is not and has never been enough of a differentiator/predictor/something that increases likelihood of success.
Thank you for reading
Do subscribe if interested and do reply with interesting stuff
Sainath