It's been a while since OM's last Things from my Newsblur, and the reading pile has not disappointed. This edition runs the full gamut — from the personal to the philosophical to the financial — with a few pieces that, on the surface, seem unrelated but share a common thread: what happens when we stop valuing the things that actually matter.
Proof You Can Do Hard Things
Something OM tries to instill in his kids — do hard things, not because they're useful, but because proving to yourself that you can is the whole point.
(Nat Eliason’s Newsletter)
The Decline of Deviance
The world is getting less weird — and not just in the ways you'd expect. Fewer cults and teenage pregnancies is a good thing, but there's also less original art, stranger architecture, and scientists willing to rock the boat. This isn't because of the internet — it started long before. When life gets safer and more comfortable, the incentive to be genuinely strange and creative quietly disappears.
(Adam Mastroianni, Experiment History)
10 Questions to Answer Before You Die
Proof You Can Do Hard Things
Something OM tries to instill in his kids — do hard things, not because they're useful, but because proving to yourself that you can is the whole point.
(Nat Eliason’s Newsletter)
The Decline of Deviance
The world is getting less weird — and not just in the ways you'd expect. Fewer cults and teenage pregnancies is a good thing, but there's also less original art, stranger architecture, and scientists willing to rock the boat. This isn't because of the internet — it started long before. When life gets safer and more comfortable, the incentive to be genuinely strange and creative quietly disappears.
(Adam Mastroianni, Experiment History)
10 Questions to Answer Before You Die
Avoiding death planning doesn't protect you or the people you love — it just moves the chaos to the worst possible moment. A practical, no-excuses guide to the things that actually matter; not just the financial stuff, but the conversations, the medical decisions, and the things left unsaid.
(Maura Mcinerney-Rowley, Hello, Mortal)
Your Power Tools Got Worse on Purpose
OM isn't a tool guy, but this is what happens when people who don't make things buy the people who do. Two conglomerates hoovered up every tool brand on the shelf — one invested and left the craftsmen alone; the other optimized the financials and extracted all the value until there was nothing left. You've already seen this happen in other industries whose products you do use!
(Maura Mcinerney-Rowley, Hello, Mortal)
Your Power Tools Got Worse on Purpose
OM isn't a tool guy, but this is what happens when people who don't make things buy the people who do. Two conglomerates hoovered up every tool brand on the shelf — one invested and left the craftsmen alone; the other optimized the financials and extracted all the value until there was nothing left. You've already seen this happen in other industries whose products you do use!
(Keyana Sapp, Worse on Purpose)
The Ethiopian Running Secret
Ethiopian runners dominate marathons while largely rejecting the data-driven individualized training that Western sports science swears by. Have we become so seduced by quantification that we've stopped recognizing expertise that doesn't come with a spreadsheet attached?
(Michael Crowley, AEON)
The Ethiopian Running Secret
Ethiopian runners dominate marathons while largely rejecting the data-driven individualized training that Western sports science swears by. Have we become so seduced by quantification that we've stopped recognizing expertise that doesn't come with a spreadsheet attached?
(Michael Crowley, AEON)
The Bezzle and the Bull Market
Bull markets make us all 'feel' wealthier - and that feeling makes fraud, illusion, and self-deception much easier to sustain. Nobody questions things when everyone's getting rich. The reckoning always comes later.
(Novel Investor)
Two Takes on New Fed Chair Ken Warsh
Ken Warsh (Claudia Sahm, Stay-At-Home-Macro)
Weighing Warsh (Marvin Barth, Seriously, Marvin?!)
Most of the commentary has focused on whether Warsh is a hawk or a dove but is it the wrong question?
Sahm's piece uses his 2010 FOMC record to argue he's unfit for the role.
Marvin Barth has a completely different view; Warsh represents a genuine philosophical rejection of how the Fed has operated for the last 16 years. If he's right, the debate isn't about interest rates but about whether the post-2008 central banking experiment was a mistake.
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