Who needs fiction when you have the last few days of the Trump Administration? Kieran Healy’s speculation of the Capitol attack makes for a great read.
Links
[Link]: Ed Yong, How Science Beat the Virus
Long read from one of the best science writers.
[Lifehacks]: Google Calendar Search by Date
Thanks to Kevin Kelly in the weekly Recommendo newsletter
A really useful, but non-obvious, shortcut to search Google calendar for a particular date is simply to hit the letter G while on the calendar page. Instead of scrolling back month by month, you hit < g > and then enter the date you want.
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[Link]: In praise of the humble products all around us
Tim Harford shines a light on the astounding resourcefulness required for the products around us we don’t give even the slightest thought to.
[Link]: Quote of the Day: Scott Galloway
Mark Zuckerberg is what happens when you replace civics with computer science.
Prof. Scott Galloway. Definitely read the whole thing here.
[Link]: Wendy Grossman, The Most Dangerous Game
An under-discussed aspect of the gap between politics – Beltway or Westminster – and life as ordinary people know it is that for many politicians and media, making preposterous claims they don’t really believe is a game.
…All these posturers score against each other from comfortable berths and comfortably assume they are beyond repercussions. It’s the same dynamic as the one at work among the advocates of letting the virus rip through the population at large, as if infection is for the little people and our desperately overstressed, traumatized health care workers are replaceable parts rather than a precious resource.
Read in full here
The 7 Day Habit Challenge [NYT]
“The friction you set up or remove in the environment is going to have an effect long after you’ve gotten discouraged and are less excited about the new behavior,” said Wendy Wood, a research psychologist at the University of Southern California and author of “Good Habits, Bad Habits.” “That’s why friction is so powerful. It persists.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/well/mind/healthy-habits.html
Medicine studies Meditation
Resistance is Real
Steven Pressfield reports finding it again, despite all his accomplishments.
The Public Speaking Fear Grid
Public speaking is terrifying when you do it in person. It’s even more so when you do it virtually. 2020 has been one uncomfortable year for any sort of public speaking for me – and the one I’m most interested in improving this year.
I ended last year with a couple of presentations delivered virtually to an “unknown small audience”. When I finished, I knew immediately that I wanted to get better at this format.
John Zimmer lays out some ideas on how to tackle this very personal fear in a 2017 post, well before the days of the pandemic. Titled “The Public Speaking Fear Grid“, he also suggests a few ideas to tackle this fear head-on. I’m going to seek out a few opportunities this year to try them out.