Restarting this theme, hope to send this out every week going forward.
Assorted set of links from the past 4 months.
I haven't put too many summaries of articles in this post, I just wanted to rebuild the habit this time, but, that isn't a comment on the quality of the articles/podcasts themselves, they're all quite excellent
As always, all links on this newsletter can be found here.
History, Culture, and Religion
Bunch of articles on mostly culture, not too much religion or history this time around.
I finally can say I understand one abstract art piece post 1940, I found this picture essay fascinating.
How a Gray Painting Can Break Your Heart - The New York Times
This austere work by Jasper Johns doesn’t seem to invite much of a close read. But its cool surface belies a depth of feeling, which shows us all the power of artistic restraint.
Omicron Has Created Two New COVID Attitudes - The Atlantic
COVID has always divided Americans. The Omicron wave is even dividing the vaccinated.
Shoutout to my most favorite standup comic ever, miss you Norm ❤️
My Greatest Gig | The New Yorker
In an excerpt from his upcoming meta-“memoir,” “Based on a True Story,” the comedian Norm Macdonald recounts his best standup gig.
On left wing politicking
Imposing orthodoxy Left-wing activists are using old tactics in a new assault on liberalism
It is possible to detect eerie echoes of the confessional state of yore | Briefing
And how the left learned to love psychiatry
China’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle Class | The New Yorker
My students from the nineteen-nineties grew up in rural poverty. Now they’re in their forties, and their country is unrecognizable.
“The intention of deep listening and loving speech is to restore communication, because once communication is restored, everything is possible.”
Tech, Science, and Math
Mostly tech, no math much like last time, I really haven't been staying close to math of late, planning to take a course on statistics later this year.
Dev and open source drama, a lot of code broke over the past month, count yourself lucky if you work in tech and weren't affected by it.
Log4Shell explained – how it works, why you need to know, and how to fix it – Naked Security
Find out how to deal with the Log4Shell vulnerability right across your estate. Yes, you need to patch, but that helps everyone else along with you!
Dev corrupts NPM libs ‘colors’ and ‘faker’ breaking thousands of apps
Users of popular open-source libraries ‘colors’ and ‘faker’ were left stunned after they saw their applications, using these libraries, printing gibberish data and breaking. Some surmised if the NPM libraries had been compromised, but it turns out there’s more to the story.
Your regular dose of crypto drama, lots happening in this space, it's really becoming a 'block' chain
Moxie Marlinspike >> Blog >> My first impressions of web3
Despite considering myself a cryptographer, I have not found myself particularly drawn to “crypto.” I don’t think I’ve ever actually said the words “get off my lawn,” but I’m much more likely to click on Pepperidge Farm Remembers flavored memes about how “crypto” used to mean “cryptography” than …
CryptoPunk 9998 NFT Sale for $532 Million of Ethereum Wasn’t What It Appeared - Bloomberg
A white-haired, green-eyed pixelated character known as a CryptoPunk 9998 just sold for more than half a billion U.S. dollars — or so it appeared — the latest wild development in the booming non-fungible token space. But the Ethereum blockchain shows the money from the NFT trade ended up right back where it started, raising the question of why anyone bothered.
”You Don’t Own Web3”: A Coinbase Curse and How VCs Sell Crypto to Retail
the one where Marc Andreessen blocks me
Crypto Non-Drama, excellent pieces on pseudonymity and what benefits it offers
Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech | Knight First Amendment Institute
After a decade or so of the general sentiment being in favor of the internet and social media as a way to enable more speech and improve the marketplace of ideas, in the last few years the view has shifted dramatically—now it seems that almost no one is happy.
The Pseudonymous Meritocracy with Bored Elon Musk - The Deep End | Podcast on Spotify
Listen to this episode from The Deep End on Spotify. Bored Elon Musk (one of Twitter's largest pseudonyms with 1.7 million followers) joins us to discuss the nature of pseudonyms and his investment activity.
Mirrortables are to cap tables what stablecoins are to fiat currencies. They streamline the logistics of angel investing.
The Founder of Sci-Hub Is Absolutely Unrepentant
Alexandra Elbakyan is the founder of Sci-Hub, where you can download any scientific article you want. Journals are furious, but she doesn’t care.
LastPass users warned their master passwords are compromised
Many LastPass users report that their master passwords have been compromised after receiving email warnings that someone tried to use them to log into their accounts from unknown locations.
“I don’t think I will ever understand aging fully. And I don’t think the field will. … But I also believe that we don’t have to understand it fully to be able to have an impact on the biology of aging through interventions.” —Matt Kaeberlein
China’s Tiangong space station | Space
Tiangong is China’s space station in low Earth orbit.
Everything else
The Melting Face Emoji Has Already Won Us Over - The New York Times
Of the 37 new emojis approved this year, one has stood out as a visual proxy for our collective malaise.
I don't think i've included any post from Wired this time around but, I did find this by Kevin Kelly last month and felt it was worth sharing.
💡 Kevin Kelly: The Case for Optimism
Kevin Kelly is the founder of Wired Magazine and author of several books, among them The Inevitable. For Warp News he presents his case for optimism.
For lovers of wordle who spend every day just waiting for the next wordle to appear, its worth knowing the story behind it
Wordle Is a Love Story - The New York Times
The word game has gone from dozens of players to hundreds of thousands in a few months. It was created by a software engineer in Brooklyn for his partner.
I found this piece/speech and especially the image below quite motivational! Ship daily, that needs to be my motto.
Class of 2020: from one data scientist to another | by dj patil | Medium
This is my commencement speech to the inaugural graduating class of data scientists at Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, UC San Diego given on June 15, 2020 — “You’re the ones that will ensure that…
A slightly dark piece on the horrors an individual suffered in gitmo
Waiting in Darkness: My Time At Guantánamo ‹ Literary Hub
I waited in darkness for death. The interrogators were done with me. You aren’t valuable enough to keep alive, they said. I didn’t have the intelligence they wanted on al Qaeda’s chain of command. …
Couple of posts on the theme of 'How to be' which I enjoyed reading
How To Be Oblivious - The Drift
Social media didn’t invent apathy, but it has a particular genius for reproducing it. At times, scrolling through one’s feed feels like reading a rollicking…
How to be useless | Psyche Guides
Follow the Daoist way – reclaim your life and happiness by letting go of the need to produce, strive or serve a purpose
Book
I usually read a book that I hope inspires me to attack the rest of the year at the start of every year, this year it was The Practice by Seth Godin, I hope you find it as motivating as I did!
The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin
The Practice book. Read 372 reviews from the world’s largest community for readers. From the bestselling author of Linchpin, Tribes, and The Dip comes an…
Thank you for reading
That’s all I have for this week.
Do subscribe if interested and do reply with interesting stuff
Sainath