2023-06-10 Links

Stowe Boyd: Blinded by the illusion of control

Sketchplanations: Be Spontaneous: “The tremendous liberation, fear and confidence that comes with believing that you will do the right thing in the moment without knowing what it is beforehand.”

Getting back to the idea of a better future: “We may not be in control of what the future holds or able to predict it, but we should rediscover the hope that it will be better.”

Wonky. This is a fascinating article using sound, instead of mere text or video.  “When you learn music, you’re trained to think [in terms of a] “right way” and a “wrong way.” It’s all just made up. You have to find your own way. And so often [in making music], the things that are deemed wrong, or unconventional, or strange — those are the things that work the best and move people the most, because people are moved by things that aren’t perfect.

John “Cougar” Mellenamp: I’m going to quote Bob Dylan to you. Bob and I were painting together one day, and I asked him how he wrote so many great songs. In all seriousness, he said, “John, I’ve written the same four [expletive] songs a million times.” I’m going to get in line with Bob on that. It’s always the same song, just more mature or with a different angle.”
“I’m good friends with Stephen King. I said, “Steve, why are we such hypochondriacs?” He said it’s because we make stuff up — a song, a story, a painting — and when we’re not doing that, we turn it on ourselves. You think, “Oh, I can’t breathe.” And even though you were breathing fine, all of a sudden you can’t, because you focused on it.

Mortimer Adler: How to speak, how to listen +100

3Blue1Brown: How to send a self-correcting message

A lecture on Learning to Learn by Richard Hamming, who invented those  ‘parity checks’ in the video above.