This Week on the Lindy Newsletter

What books, ideas, or even prominent figures are going to be destined for Lindy status? Who will people in the year 3040 still be reading or watching? Anyone from today? It's hard to tell. Is there a way we can use present technological tools to at least get a sense of what art will become immortal?

This week I wrote about Google Ngrams. Google has digitized the contents of over a hundred million books. Ngram lets you look up how relatively frequently a text comes up out of all the words published in all the books in any year from 1800 to 2019.

Sales bombed. Moby Dick sold only 500 copies in the United Kingdom, compared to 6,700 for Melville’s first book, “Typee.” 

The book faired better in the US, where reviewers appreciated Melville’s originality and complexity. Still, Moby Dick sold fewer copies during Melville’s life than any of his five previous books.

It slowly gained popularity over the 20th century and today, it's considered the American National Epic

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Weekend Reads

The United States had its midterm elections this week. In a surprising twist, the Republicans did not end up controlling the Senate or the House of Republicans (as I write this). Many of Trump's candidates lost. Meanwhile, Florida Governor DeSantis won a major victory in Florida. Trump responded to DeSantis' potential 2024 Presidential campaign in a real wild statement.

Branko writes about work under socialism. "Socialist enterprises were organized much less efficiently. There were no real owners who cared about profitability and in consequence they did not either care if labor was employed eight hours per day or four. On top of that, the overall system was less efficient: so often raw materials would not show on time and there would be no work to do. Then, there was surplus labor within companies, hired just in case they needed it to fulfill the quota (or, as in Yugoslavia, which was not a planned economy, just in order to hire family and friends). Companies were encouraged to increase hirings because local politicians were afraid of unemployment in their area and under their watch."

It's important to remember that one doesn't necessarily come up with great ideas by thinking about things. They usually erupt when one is thinking about something else.

It's difficult for a new state to enter the union because the political parties will fight over it would be a potential republican or democrat state. However, that doesn't mean a region of one state couldn't leave and join with another state. We like to think borders are fixed. But recently, there has been movements from regions within states to leave. Illinois is the latest.

Sometimes I watch footage of the ongoing Russian-Ukranian war. I'm glad I don't have to fight in a war. It looks really terrible.

Here's a video of a drone dropping a grenade on a soldier hiding in a trench, who picks it up and throws it away right before it explodes.

Refinement culture in Soccer. Refinement culture in Basketball

An honest interview from a homeless person

Music