January 2022

This Week on the Lindy Newsletter

I wrote about why it's hard to feel happiness with our contemporary progress. You wouldn't choose to live in another time period than this one, but for some reason we still feel a malaise when it comes to progress.

In this article I explore 4 trends that cloud our view of progress. 1) the 2-income household; 2) the price of important things is rising;

3) the quality of our entertainment has dropped dramatically; 4) our obsession with freedom and 5) our relationship with time

Weekend Reads

Sidewalks are too narrow. When I used to live in New York I'd hit another person with my shoulder all the time. A wider sidewalk just

Here we can see what share of each state’s population was born in that state. We can immediately see a very strong geographic pattern. The Mid-West and part of the Deep South is where the highest percentage of people were born in the state of residence. Louisiana has the highest share, where 78.1% of its population was born in Louisiana. Michigan (76.3%) and Ohio (74.9%) are just behind Louisiana.

Say what you will about Michael Avenatti, it’s completely insane that he “spent 74 days in solitary confinement, in the high-security cell once occupied by El Chapo.” This is a great piece on how far you can fall in life.

The people of Kazakhstan protested a recent gas increase which led to riots, the sacking of the government, deaths and the military intervening. The govt shut down the internet. A few thoughts on Kazakhstan.

• It's generally frightening to see governments be able to shut down the internet in countries. The internet is too important to be shut down, at this point.

• What Sacha Baron-Cohen did to the reputation of Kazakhstan is terrible in retrospect. He mocked an innocent country and used the global media to ensure that anytime you hear the name of the country you immediately think of Borat.

• In 70 percent of countries, the military exists to suppress any type of interior issue. It isn't about war with another country, like in previous years.

I saw the new Bond flick, "No Time To Die," you may have noticed that Rami Malek is the worst Bond villain of the Daniel Craig era. There's a theory that he was originally making a virus but they changed it to nanobots in post production. Here is a nice summary on the lab leak theory.

Here is an essay on the decline of cinema

Why are meetings so bad and boring?

A long piece on the things you can't measure and that seem crazy but make all the difference in the world.

This youtube series really does a good job in exploring places that are very difficult to film in.

Money is the great motivator.

I wrote about stuck culture 2 years ago. It's no surprise we are still here. People are starting to notice it.

Someone wrote about working two jobs at the same time while being remote. The key is setting low standards.

Music

Great, great song. Really catchy has a great groove and I think the lyrics are nice too. And how can you not love the funky guitar section and solo? We're in the middle of winter, but this is a summer song. Sometimes you have to listen to summer songs in the winter.