At least a few of these will be new to you, as they were to me!
Joy to you baby – Josh Ritter [Music Video]
The most dangerous, toxic financial product in the market [Article]
It’s the mortgage, says Faisal Islam, writing about the property market in Britain (and the concepts are true regardless of the country). Worth a read.
A list of Amazon customer reviews, that can be great material for a standup comedy! [Link]
If you’re feeling down, have a read of this Amazon’s hilarious list of customer reviews.
Why we need nomads [Article]
Another awesome article, this time by Vanessa, writing about the need for nomads in society, a breed that is fast disappearing, or is very healthy, depending on your current situation in your life.
We learn from the nomad that happiness comes in different shapes, despite society’s insistence that more money equals more freedom. We see nomads working as their own bosses, or exploring their true passions. Watching them gives us the courage to do the same.
People simply empty-out [Letters of note]
In 1969, publisher John Martin offered to pay Charles Bukowski $100 each and every month for the rest of his life, on one condition: that he quit his job at the post office and become a writer. 49-year-old Bukowski did just that, and in 1971 his first novel, Post Office, was published by Martin’s Black Sparrow Press.
15 years later, Bukowski wrote this letter to Martin and spoke of his joy at having escaped full time employment….
what hurts is the steadily diminishing humanity of those fighting to hold jobs they don’t want but fear the alternative worse. People simply empty out. They are bodies with fearful and obedient minds. The color leaves the eye. The voice becomes ugly. And the body. The hair. The fingernails. The shoes. Everything does.
The cookie-killing girl finds a job [Article]
For the technologically / advertising /job-hunting inclined: Rachel Law was in the news last month with her creation, called “Vortex” It is a browser extension that’s part game, part ad-targeting disrupter that helps people turn their user profiles and the browsing information into alternate fake identities that have nothing to do with reality. She got her degree recently, & has found a job as “Creative Technologist” at an ad agency.
A young musician needs all the support she can get! [Video]
The irrelevance of LinkedIn endorsements from your in-laws [Article]
When your mother-in-law starts to endorse you on LinkedIn, it’s time to question endorsements, writes Eliza Kern. I think this commenter on the article sums it up best:
I often get messages from friends I have never worked with asking me to endorse them for specific skills, and in exchange they will endorse me. 95% of the endorsements I have are from people who have never directly worked with me and have no firsthand knowledge of whether I have the skill or not. Therefore I see little reason to trust endorsed skills I see on others’ pages.
In praise of cynicism [Article]
It’s claimed that at the age of 44 our cynicism starts to grow. But being cynical isn’t necessarily a bad thing, argues Julian Baggini. It’s at the heart of great satire and, perhaps more importantly, leads us to question what is wrong with the world – and strive to make it better.