Jamie Todd Rubin's Blog, page 25
March 31, 2022
Field Notes “Signs of Spring” Edition Has Arrived
The mail on March 18 arrived with two packages: contact lenses for Kelly and my latest Field Notes quarterly edition, “Signs of Spring.” The timing was just about perfect since this year, the vernal equinox is March 20 (tomorrow, as I write this). This edition is something of a milestone for me. By my count it is my 25th conesecutive quarterly special edition. I began buying annual subscriptions beginning with the Summer 2016 “Byline” edition.
The most current edition comes with a yellow, textured cover and dot-grid pages. In addition, the package came with an extra standard Field Notes notebook, with a back cover matching that cover the subscription box, itself something of a work of art. Also in the box: a Field Notes “band of rubber” and a pen. These pens usually go to the family, since I use Pilot G-2s. Field Notes pens are scattered around every room of the house.
Front and back of the special edition with the artwork on the back cover.I always look forward to the begining of spring. It is the best season. It is hard to appreciate the spring without having preceeded it with a winter that includes cold weather and snow. It is those winters that make spring all the better. Spring used to mark the new year, and I like that. My birthday falls toward the beginning of spring and one’s birthday seems the most logical way to mark a new year, since it is quite literally the beginning of a new year for you.
The name “Signs of Spring” is fitting for an edition released in conjunction with the vernal equinox. We tend to think of spring as a time of beginnings. Flowers beging to bloom again, leaves reappear on trees. Spring cleaning is a kind of renewals too. It was at the beginning of spring that for many years, I reread Isaac Asimov’s 3-volume memoir.
Ideally, the beginning of spring marks a perfect time to start a new Field Notes notebook. But I started one not too long ago, lost it, found it, and still have not filled it up yet. I like filling a notebook before moving onto a new one, so this spring, the timing isn’t quite right. In the meantime, my “Signs of Spring” notesbooks have been added to my Field Notes collection. I’ll fill one eventually, and probably give one or two away as little gifts along the way.
Written on March 19, 2022.
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March 30, 2022
Real Science Books
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="900" height="646" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="gray and black galaxy wallpaper" class="wp-image-21732" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1812w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.comIn the taxonomy of categories that bookstores–online and physical–provide, the category of “science” is frequently far too broad. For one thing, it is often combined with other categories, as in “Science and technology.” When that happens, the science part seems to lose out.
Each Tuedsay, when new books are released, I head over to Audible to see if there are any new releases I might be interested in. I have a process that I follow. I don’t skim all of the new books. Instead, I skim certain categories. I usually start with “Biographies & Memoirs,” followed by “History” and then “Science & Engineering.” Lately, however, a lot of the books I’ve found listed under “Science & Engineering” are dubiously classified as such.
Growing Lavender for Profit: The Complete Guide to Building a Successful Lavender Business by Aaron Martinez is categorized under Science & Engineering. “Business & Careers” seems like a better category for this book.
Sweet Surprise: A Secret Weight Loss for Over 40, Hormone Balance, Stop Sugar & Refine Carb Cravings, 21 Days Sugar Detox for Your Best Beach Body by Triya Redberg is categorized under Science and Engineering. The only thing that remotely calls to mind “science” in this title is its length. Call me skeptical. This book seems better suited toward “Relationships, Parenting & Personal Development” because of the latter in this catchall category.
There are several survialist books that appear under “Science and Engineering.” I think this is sneaky. We all know that this is not what we mean by science or engineering.
Selling Cars: A Step-by-Step Car Selling Guide for Beginning Used Car Dealers and Entrepreneurs — from a Licensed Car Dealer’s Perspective by Dr. Ezekiel Fierce Zeke is categorized under “Science and Engineering.” Here, I take it that the taxonomers meant “social engineering.”
As far as I know, the authors of these books don’t categorize them themselves, and so they are not at fault for this. Indeed, they may be dismayed at having their books put into the Science and Engineering bucket in the first place. Surely “Self-Help” sells better than science.
Still, fully one third of the new science and engineering books released this week on Audible were not remotely close to what I think of as science and engineering. I feel like science and engineering is getting short shrift here. When I think of books of science, I think of the kind of books that Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov wrote. I think of books by Martin Gardner and Stephen Jay Gould and Neil deGrasse Tyson. I think of books by Katie Mack or Sy Montgomery. In short, I think of book that contain ample quantities of, and are mostly about the physical sciences, the scientific method, the history of science and related mathematical branches. Selling used cars, growing lavender for profit, and rapid weight loss are nowhere on this list.
We should be able to do better than this.
Written on March 16, 2022.
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March 29, 2022
Practically Paperless with Obsidian, Episode 24: Use Case: How I Capture Field Notes in Obsidian
Welcome to my blog series, “Practically Paperless with Obsidian.” For an overview of this series, please see Episode 0: Series Overview.
I have been a dedicated user of Field Notes brand notebooks since 2015. Since then, I have rarely been without a Field Notes notebook in my back pocket. These Field Notes notebooks represent my short-term memory. They contain fleeting notes, lists, ideas, names of people (if I don’t write them down I am liable to forget them), and just about anything else I need to remember. Here are 2 annotated pages from a notebook from 2016.
Capturing my Field Notes in ObsidianMy process for capturing my notes in Obsidian is straight-forward. At the end of each day, I open my Daily Notes file for the day and do the following:
Flip through notes in my Field Notes notebook looking for anything worth saving.Tranfer those items worth saving into my daily notes.Elaborate on these as necessaryMost of what I jot in these notebooks stays in the notebooks. The most common things to go into Obsidian are:
blog post ideasnotes jotted about things I read or listed tonotes from experiences, like tours, museum visits, etc1.I will frequently elaborate on notes as I enter them. For instance, if I entered a post idea for “capturing field notes in obsidian” in my notebook, when I add that note to my daily notes, I might expand it, add some sub-bullets, flesh it out a bit, or clarify it so that it is more useful than what I scribbled in the notebook.
For a while, I prefaced these items in my daily notes with an “FN” to indicate that they came from a Field Notes notebook, but I gave that up as completely unnecessary.
I do try to fit the notes into the rhythm of the day in my daily notes. If I jot down a blog post idea on my morning walk, that will go into the earlier part of my daily notes for that day. If I wanted to note a particularly good restaurant where we ate dinner, that will go in the latter part of the day
Usually, I don’t add a whole lot and probably spent less than 5 minutes each day transferring notes from my notebook into Obsidian.
Below is a page from my current Field Notes notebook from March 6, 2022, followed by my daily notes for the same day. I’ve highlighted the notes in the notebook page that I moved into Obsidian, and highlighted them in Obsidian so you can see the end result.
Page from my Field Notes notebook. Items highlighted in the red boxes were transferred to my Obsidian daily notesAnd below, here are the my Obsidian daily notes for the same day:
My daily notes from March 6 — items in the red boxes came from my Field Notes notebook.Why not just capture these notes directly in Obsidian?People who see me with my Field Notes notebook frequently ask why I don’t use a note-taking app for these notes. “Aren’t you the paperless guy?” they’d ask back when I was Evernote’s paperless ambassador. Plenty of people do capture their notes directly in Obsidian and it works perfectly fine for them, there are 5 reasons why I use a notebook for these fleeting notes instead of an app.
1. A notebook is faster for meIn my experience, nothing is faster or more convenient than a pen and a notebook. Believe me, I have tried. I’ve measured the time it takes me on paper and in a dozen or more note-taking apps over the years. A notebook is always faster. I think there are few reasons for this:
In the time it takes to pull out my phone, unlock it, open the app I want, and create a new note, I’ve already jotted the note in my Field Notes notebook and moved on to other things.Over the years I’ve developed a kind of shorthand that makes jotting notes even faster.2. I enjoy using a notebookI like using a notebook. There is a tactile difference to jotting notes with pen and paper that I enjoy and that I probably wouldn’t give up even if an app was developed that was more convenient than paper.
3. A notebook doesn’t run out of battery lifeI don’t have to worry about a dead or dying battery with a notebook. I may run out of pages, but when I am down to the last few blank pages in a notebook, I always have a second with me. I may run out of ink, but I always carry two pens.
4. A notebook gets me off screens, for at least some of the dayI try to avoid screens for everything. When I walk in the morning and have an idea for a post, or want to jot a note on the book I am listening to, I don’t want to look at a screen. My notebook provides a convenient way to capture fleeting thoughts without depending on my phone.
5. A notebook acts as a good filter for fleeting informationAs I said earlier, not everything that goes into my notebook needs to be kept. I don’t need to put shopping lists into Obsidian. I don’t need to record the name of our server in the restaurant we’re eating at in Obsidian. For those things that are worth keeping, the shorthand in my notebook reminds me of them and I when they do go into Obsidian, I can elaborate on them as needed.
What about the notes I don’t capture in Obsidian?For a while, I considered scanning the pages of my notebooks and storing them as PDFs in Obsidian, but that seemed like too much work for too little gain. Put another way, it seemed impractical to do that. Instead, I’ve found that capturing just those things that I find useful in the future is enough.
As for all of the other notes: when I fill up a notebook, it goes into a box with all of the other Field Notes notebooks I’ve filled up over the years. Any time I want, I can flip through them and see the stuff that I needed to remember on a given day. It is difficult to search the notebooks this way. I once spent quite a bit of time searching for a beer brand in my notebooks. But that’s why I lean toward keeping notes in Obsidian that I think will be useful in the future. In Obsidian, I could easily locate what I am looking for.
A box of my Field Notes notebooksIn next week’s episode, I’ll talk about how I use Obsidian to manage my writing, illustrated through 5 use cases
Prev: Episode 23: Protecting My Data in Obsidian
Next: Episode 25: 5 Use Cases for Managing My Writing in Obsidian
Written on March 17, 2022.
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Yup, I’m that guy with a notebook out jotting furiously as a tour guide leads us through Monticello, Mount Vernon, or some other place. ↩March 28, 2022
My Life In 50 Front Pages
A large package was delivered today from the New York Times. I was puzzled. I didn’t recall ordering anything from the Times, but then again, I sometimes don’t remember if I washed my hair in the shower, a possible side-effect of achieving the half-century mark. Curious, I opened it up and found inside a large book with the following emblazoned on the cover:
Jamie Todd Rubin
Your Birthday
March 27, 1972
The New York Times
Along with the book came a note of happy birthday wishes from my parents, my brother and my sister. In this case, then, my memory hadn’t failed me. I did not order something from the Times. My family had.
I spent the next hour flipping through the pages of the book. The first 49 of them were images of the front page of every March 27 issue of the New York Times from 1972 through 2021. (Obviously, the 2022 edition was not yet out when the book was made. However, I obtained a copy of it and folded the front page into the book. I am nothing if not a compleatist.) I would include some of the more interesting covers pages here, but along with the book came this admonition from the Times:
This certifies that the accompanying product is an authorized reproduction from the New York Times. This product is for personal use only. Publication, reproduction, use in advertising or for purposes of trade is prohibited without written permission.
Instead, let me summarize some of the highlights that I discovered in this trip down memory lane.
1972: “The Einstein Papers: Childhood Showed a Gift for the Abstract” by Walter Sullivan. This featured item, above the fold on the day I was born caught my eye. The Princeton University Press in an agreement with the Einstein estate planned to publish thousands of Einstein’s papers. Given my own curiousity about the universe seven years later, this article naturally caught my eye.1973: “Sir Noel Coward, Playwright, Dies at 73” by Albin Krebs. Front page below the fold when I was just a year old.1974: “Watergate Tapes Used to Question Dean Testimony” by Martin Arnold. Lead story. My two year-old self was completely unaware of this, but storm clouds were gathering in Washington.1976: “Postal Service Is Warned Mailcuts Jeopardize Aid” by Ernest Holsendolph. Sometimes, the same story repeats itself decades later.1979: Large font, 3-line heading across the top of the paper proclaims: “EGYPT AND ISRAEL SIGN FORMAL TREATY, ENDING STATE OF WAR AFTER 30 YEARS; SADAT AND BEGIN PRAISE CARTER’S ROLE”. Lead story is by Bernard Gwertzman.1982: Two items caught my eye, this year: (1) “Ground Broken in Capital For Memorial on Vietnam” by Bernard Weinraub; and (2) “Flight Continues Despite Failures of Shuttle Radio” by John Noble Wilford.1983: “Despite 1967 U.S.-Soviet Treaty, Drive for Space Weapons Goes On” by John Noble Wilford. Ah, remember those long lost days when we fretted over nuclear anihilation? Are we all glad that is a thing of the past?1985: “Goetz Balks at Facing Grand Jury As Limit on Questions Is Refused” by Marcia Chambers. Remember that short span when Bernie Goetz was a household name?1987: Two items caught my eye here as well: (1): “For Yankees’ Fans in Bronx, TV Schedule is Bush League” by Esther B. Fein. Why? “…as many in the Bronx had feared, 100 games will be broadcast exclusively on SportsChannel, the cable television company that is a stranger in almost all their homes.”; and (2) “18 Are Seized in Illegal Use of Mobile Phones” by Leonard Buder. Mobile phones? In 1987? I had no idea.1988: “Plaza Hotel Is Sold to Donald Trump for $390 Million” by Robert J. Cole.1989: Two items again this year: (1) “SOVIETS SAVOR VOTE IN FREEST ELECTION SINCE ’17 REVOLUTION” (muliple articles under the headline); and (2) “Unlicensed Mate Was in Charge of Ship That Hit Reef, Exxon Say” by Richard Mauer. Talk about throwing the mate under the bus; or in this case, the ship.1991: “Bronx Hospital Give Gay Couples Spouse Benefits” by James Barron.1995: “Labor Board Seeks Injunction Against Baseball Club Owners” by Murray Chass. This on the heels of the strike that ended the 1994 season early.1996: Two deaths noted on the front page: David Packard, 83 (of Hewlett Packard); and Edmund Muskie, 81.1997: “39 Men Dead at California Estate in Apparent Suicide” by James Sterngold. This was the lead story for this day.1998: Suddenly, beginning this year, the photos on the covers are in color.1999: Two items this year: (1) “NATO LAUNCHES DAYTIME STRIKE; MILOSEVIC RESISTING FIERCELY; TWO SERB JETS ARE SHOT DOWN” by Francis X. Clines and Steven Lee Myers; and (2) “Dr. Kevorkian Is Murderer, The Jury Finds” by Pam Belluck.2000: “Putin Wins Russia Vote in First Round, But His Majority Is Less Than Expected.” Time-travelers take note. Also on the front page, Oscar winners including Hilary Swank for Boys Don’t Cry and Kevin Spacey for American Beauty.2003: Headline across front page: “1,000 U.S. Paratroopers Open Nothern Front”2007: “ULSTER FACTIONS AGREE TO A PLAN FOR JOINT RULE” by Eamon Quinn and Alan Cowell.2009: “When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking” by Noam Cohen. This may be the earliest mention I’ve seen on the Times front page.2011: “She Ended the Men’s Club of National Politics” by Douglas Martin: front page obit for Geraldine Ferraro.2012: Top of the front page, right of center: “U.S. Requests Tougher Rules On Data Sales” by Tanzina Vega and Edward Wyatt. The subtitle reads, “Seeks ‘Do Not Track’ as Option Online.”2015: “Fatal Descent of Plane Was a ‘Deliberate Act,’ French Authorities Say'” by Dan Bilefsky and Nicola Clark.2020: “JOB LOSSES SOAR; U.S. VIRUS CASES TOP WORLD”. Most of the front page is a chart showing unemployment claims since 2000. 2020’s claims go from the bottom fo the page to just below the masthead.2021: Dual front page obits for writers: (1) Beverly Cleary: “Charmer of Young Readers, via Ramona and Pals” by William Grimes; and (2) Larry M. McMurtry: “Unromantic But Beloved Storyteller of the West” by Dwight Gardner.
Me, completing my 50 years of NY Times front pages with the front page of the paper from March 27, 2022.One other thing I’ll note. The price of the weekday edition of the Times in the year I was born was 15 cents. It was forty cents, eighteen years later when I was about to graduate high school. It was fifty cents a few months before I graduated from college, 75 cents six years later in 2000, two bucks in 2010, and last year, the weekday edition was $3. The Sunday edition for March 27, 2022 was $6.
I look forward to spending more time pouring through these pages, particularly the earlier ones when my awareness of the world was still growing. This was a delightful present to receive for my birthday. The only trouble is its size. I’ll need to find a place on my bookshelves that can hold a book so large!
Written on March 19, 2022.
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March 27, 2022
A Revisionist Birthday
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When I was about five years old, I remember laying in bed at night, staring at the ceiling, and thinking how old fifty sounded. My grandfather was in his fifties at the time and he was even older than my parents! One clear thought I had then that has stuck with me ever since was this: When I turn fifty, I should remember the day when I was five years old, laying here in bed, thinking about what it would be like to be fifty. Remember that I was once five, even though I am old now.
Today, I turn fifty, and my first thoughts are with that boy, one-tenth my age, who so worried about what it would be like to be fifty and old. That five year-old still lives somewhere inside me, and what I would say to him today is: fifty doesn’t seem that old. Sometimes, I still feel like I am five.
Fifty years seems an odd milestone for people to celebrate. I think of milestones that have some practical value: at sixteen one can obtain a driver’s license; at eighteen one can vote in the United States. At 21 one can buy alcohol. At 25 one can serve in the House and at 30 one can serve in the Senate. At 35, if one was daring enough, one can become President. At 59-1/2 one can begin withdrawing from retirement savings like 401(k)s. These are practical ages to mark as milestones.
The half-century milestone is not. For most of human history, few people lived to be fifty. In psalm 90:10 the Bible proclaims that “the days of our years are threescore and ten” as if seventy years is the utmost maximum one can expect. Indeed, the subsequent passage seems to indicate that anything beyond this just isn’t worth the effort: “and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away1.” No mention of fifty is made anywhere, except in greeting cards.
You have have to be 62 (or maybe 65, I can’t quite tell) for the dubious title of “senior citizen.” I call this dubious because it has become synonymous with “old folks” rather than experienced, wise folks.
Centenarians–those few who reach the 100 year mark–have a milestone worth celebrating. That is quite the achievement, and is frequently recognized by a letter from the President of the United States. At this moment, I’d have to live an entire lifetime (another 50 years) to reach that impressive mark.
On the off-chance that I make it that far, when I go to bed tonight, I will stare at the ceiling in the darkness, and think to myself, When I turn one hundred, I should remember the day when I was fifty, laying here in bed, thinking about what it would be like to be one hundred–remember that I was once fifty, even though I am old now.
If I am still able to write here on the blog fifty years hence, you can rest assured I’ll remind you all of this.
Me, at fifty, with my birthday shirt, courtesy of the folks.Written on March 16, 2022.
But wait! There’s more! After all, this is my birthday! You see, I am not particularly comfortable with my birthday, and I seem to grow increasingly less comfortable with it as I get older. The result is that I have written several drafts of this post. The one you just read was the final and most recent. But I thought I might use this day and this post as an opportunity to pull back the curtain a bit, and show you a little of how my mind works. What follows are the previous drafts, in reverse chronological order. From these you can see how I handled my discomfort with my birthday and ultimately succumbed to posting about it, despite my original intention to ignore it entirely.
Previous (second) version of this postToday is my birthday and I am spending it offline, as I do most of my birthdays. I’ve written before about how I am uncomfortable with my birthdays. I’d prefer to treat my birthday as any ordinary day. But people get carried away with milestone birthdays and I decided a fair comproimse would be to acknoweldge that milestone here and move on.
Today I am fifty.
Inside, where that little voice lives, I often still feel five. I still wake up each morning and greet the kids with unique, silly names for each of them. “Good morning, Herman Melville Showercurtain,” I’ll say to one of them. “Good morning, Gretta Moonshine,” I’ll say to another. Like I said. Five, not fifty.
Ten years ago, as I was approaching forty, I wrote a series of posts leading up to the big day. I was more comfortable with my birthday then, I suppose. This year I had to beg and plead with people to not make a big deal about the day. No surprises. A quiet day is all I am looking for. Fortunately, it is Sunday, a day that is usually more quiet than most.
It is possible that Kelly and I will get away for a night and day. (I am writing this almost two weeks ahead of time so there is still some uncertainty here.) That would probably be the best possible birthday. It is extremely rare that we have time together away from the kids.
I debated even putting this post up. What finally decided me was history. I’ve been writing this blog since I was 33 years old. That means long-time readers have been with me for 17 years. It seems only fair to record here on the blog that I turned fifty today. Daring readers can go back to that first post and work their way through the years and get a sense who I am and what I like to think about. I say daring because some of those early posts are hard for me to read. But like me, like this birthday, they are part of the historical record.
Rest assured that I am having a good day offline, something too rare these day (the offline part, not the good day part). And because I didn’t want folks here to think that I was out seeking birthday wishes (I mean, really?), I have turned off the comments on this post2. It is for the record. Otherwise, this is just another normal day on this journey around the sun.
Written on March 15, 2022.
Previous, previous (first) version of this postI am taking the day off today and I hope no one minds too much. Given that these days, I am generally writing these posts about 2 weeks ahead of time, it makes it a little easier to have a backlog and pick a day in the future to completely disengage. I don’t just plan on taking a day off here on the blog, but also on social media in general. One day free from the pull of social media.
This post, announcing my day off, is to quell any concern of regular readers, who are used to seeing a post from me every day. Indeed, as of this post, I’ve managed to post here on the blog for 450 consecutive days. Therefore, this post serves two purposes:
To allay any concerns about me. I’m fine, great, cheerful, dandy.To ensure that my 450-day posting streak remains unbroken.You can be assured that I will be back online tomorrow with regularly scheduled programming here on the blog.
If you are looking for other stuff to read in the meantime, you should check out any of the following:
Melanie Novak’s blog — she’s usually got a new post on Sundays and they are always entertaining.The Waiter’s Pad by Mike DarianoJason’s Kottke’s blog (the home of fine hypertext products) — which I recently discovered and which has been around for 24 years — beating my own blog by 7 years.Those should get you through the day. Have a great one!
Written on March 14, 2022.
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I used this verse as the title for my story “If By Reason of Strength” published by 40K Books, about a man sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison, who somehow manages to survive to his eventual release. ↩ I ended up leaving them on. The comments, too, I decided, are for the record. ↩March 26, 2022
Reading for the Week of 3/20/2022
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="900" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="person reading newspaper" class="wp-image-21195" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.comHere is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. This number in parentheses after the books are as follows: # of books I’ve read so far this year / # of books I’ve read since 1996.
BooksFinished The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer (17/1145). This was an outstanding history of the Second World War from inside the Third Reich. Much of the information comes from captured documents that the Allies obtained, many of which were used at Nuremberg. It is the first Shirer book that I’ve read, and I was delighted to discover that his writing style is remarkably similar to Will Durant, a favorite of mine. That really shouldn’t come as a surprise, since both came up the same age.In Progress Twentieth Century Journey, Vol 1: The Start: 1904-1930 by William L. Shirer. I am always fascinated by the person behind a great work. Shirer, beginning in the 1970s, published a 3-volume memoir, of which, The Start is the first volume.Articles/postsPlanners Battle Over Marking U.S. 250th Anniversary by Jess Bravin (Wall Street Journal, 3/19/2022). I have vague memories of the celebrations surrouneded America’s bicentennial. But actually, the 250th is of more interest to me because it also markes the 200th anniversary of the death of both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. I wonder if that will be lost in the overall celebration?The Curse of Imposter Syndrome by Susan Orlean (Medium, Mar. 2022). This is something I feel almost daily, from the work I do at my day job (I can’t possibly be a real programmer since my degree isn’t in C.S. or software engineering) to my writing, even here on this blog.Does Not Compute by Melanie Novak (blog, 3/20/2022). Yeah, I have a drawer full of old flip phones that I keep saying I’ll get rid of someday.Why every software engineer should use vim | Level Up Coding by Rajob Raihan (Medium, 1/30/2022). I’ve been forcing myself to use Vim keyboard mappings in Obsidian and in Visual Studio Code so that I can finally use a single set of keyboard mappings instead of having to remember different ones for different applications.Why I dislike open-source by Leo Liou (Medium, 9/30/2021). This is one of those trolling posts that appear now and then on Medium. I like open source for all of the reasons that this guys dislikes it.What everyone is missing regarding Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter by MIchael J. Sullivan (blog, 3/21/2022). Michael, who has also run many successfull Kickstarter campaigns, highlights the importance of building email lists from a fanbase.Thinking fast, associations by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 3/21/2022)Dolly Parton Just Did ‘The Most Punk Rock Thing You Could Imagine’ by Margaret Renki (NY Times, 3/21/2022)Fewer hot showers, less meat: How retirees on fixed incomes are dealing with inflation by Agu Bhattarai (Washington Post, 3/21/2022)To Have and Have Not (1944): Tabula Rasa by Melanie Novak (blog, 3/23/2022)The power of TK by Seth Godwin (Seth’s blog, 3/24/2022). I’ve occasionally used the TK trick in manuscripts to keep from getting distracted.Fun Stuff Coming by Joe Posnanski (JoeBlogs, 3/23/2022)Humans and ratings – The Waiter’s Pad by Mike Dariano (The Waiter’s Pad, 3/23/2022). Although I’m not a fan of rating systems, I like Mike’s idea that sometimes, we need a way to break out of the mold we are presented with to get our views across.How To Quickly Delete Words While In Insert Mode In Vim by braindead (Medium, 1/20/2022)Where do symbols live? by Seth Godin (Seth’s blog, 3/25/2022)The Secret of Lasting Friendships by David Brooks (NY Times, 3/24/2022)How High Inflation Will Come Down by Paul Krugman (NY Times, 3/24/2022)Mayor Eric Adams Turns NYC Vaccine Mandate into Farce with Ruling that Benefits Yankees, Mets by Molly Knight (The Long Game, 3/24/2022). Molly captured my anger over this move by Eric Adams perfectly. This is a stark and blatent example of privilege in professional sports and stardom.Obsidian Roundup: Differentiate file versions & embed web apps by Eleanor Konik (Obsidian Roundup, 3/26/2022)We Aren’t Just Watching the Decline of the Oscars. We’re Watching the End of the Movies by Ross Douthat (NY Times, 3/24/2022). This long piece by Douthat really had me thinking about why I don’t watch movies and television shows much anymore. It had me thinking about my own personal heyday of movies and television, which was probably around the same time as his–the latge 1990s. I suspect you’ll see a post on this from me in the next couple of weeks.Any recommendations for books, articles or posts I should read? Let me know in the comments?
Written on March 26, 2022.
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A Phone Tree of Twisty Little Passages
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." loading="lazy" width="900" height="599" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="aerial shot of maze" class="wp-image-21729" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.comI had to make–for me–a rare call to the bank to get some information about the title to a car we’d paid off. I put this off for as long as I could because calling support for just about anything is one of my least favorite things to do. Alas, there was no option to perform this particular activity online, and when I could wait no longer, I dialed the number. As the automated customer service line opened up, I was transported into some Kafkaesque hell. Here I was, a lone adventurer, like the one in the classic text adventure game, Zork, standing in a maze of twisty little passages.
The first problem, always, is figuring out how break out of the maze and get to an agent. The usual spells didn’t work. I tried casting an “agent” spell, but the menu of options was just repeated. I tried casting a “zero” spell, but the support center “did not understand that request.”
Unable to break from this prison, I tried to establish the “shortest path” to my goal. After several fledgeling minutes, I found a promising avenue. I was asked to enter the last four digits of my social security number. I did that. I was then prompted for my account number. I did that. The system didn’t recognize my account number. Rather than ask me for it again, it went back to the “last four digits” cavern. I repeated the last four digits of my SSN, and then, thinking I may have miskeyed my account number, keyed it in very slowly.
No luck.
All I wanted to do was talk to a person and ask a simple question that wasn’t among the dozen or so most common options that the phone tree was designed to support.
They say the definition of insanity is trying the same thing more than once and expecting different results. This time, I entered the last four digits of my SSN, keyed in my account number carefully, and then, on whim, finished by hitting the pound key. That worked! (The system never told me to hit the pound key. I double-checked.) I had escaped from one passage, only to find myself in another. I navigated trees, branching left here, right there, wandering in what seemed like darkness, until finally (finally!) ten minutes into the call, I was told, “please hold for our next available representative.”
Then I was told that “call volumes are higher than usual” and would I please wait. I can no longer remember a time when call volumes were not “higher than usual.” This is never an encouraging sign. If so many people are calling the support line of a service that their call volume is constantly higher than usual, it tells me there is a problem with the underlying service. Why else would anyone commit themselves to the hellish nightmare that is automated phone support?
Two minutes later, however, “Chris”–a real live human being so far as I could tell–came on the line. I had been on the phone for 12 minutes at this point. Ten in the phone tree of twisty little passages and two on hold with loud music. I still can’t decide which was worse.
Chris was able to answer my question in under two minutes. The entire call lasted 14 minutes. The usual part of the call lasted about 2 minutes. How on earth is that efficient?
I no longer see the point of automated phone support. One might argue that not everyone has access to the Internet and the phone support provides access for those people who can’t get online or use a computer. I can’t see much of a difference. The phone tree swallows people whole. Given how many times I have personally given up on phone trees, I can’t see that they are much better than no support at all. These days, I even prefer bots to phone trees.
Companies that use automated phone support as a primary support tool should not be allowed to claim that they provide anything better than “mediocre” customer support. I don’t mind a phone tree that triages some basic information that makes it easier for a support person to find my account, so long as once I enter the information, I am directed to a real person and not a tree. Those companies can continue to claim they provide outstanding customer support. But if all you do is tie up customers in a maze of twisty little passages, the best you can say is you provide customer support. No superlatives allowed.
Written on March 16, 2022. (A day after the events described above, when I have had a chance to cool down and think more clearly about this. If I had tried to write this post yesterday, it might have caught fire.)
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March 25, 2022
Notes on The Rising Sun by John Toland
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="900" height="596" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="black and white mountain over yellow white and blue sky" class="wp-image-21713" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.comOver the years I have managed to read quite a few books on the history of the Second World War. Virtually every one of them focused on the war in Europe. The closest I’ve come to war in the Pacific was by way of biographies of people involved in the Pacific front, or books like The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, which had a significant impact on the Pacific front.
That changed recently when I read John Toland’s Pulitzer prize-winning1 history The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire. I’ve had a fascination with Japanese culture ever since reading James Clavell’s Shōgun–quite possible the single best example of worldbuilding that I’ve ever encountered. Indeed, the fascination may have started even earlier than that, with the later chapters of Will Durant’s Our Oriental Heritage, the first volume of his Story of Civilization.
Cultural differencesCultural differences between “east” and “west” permeated The Rising Sun. Much of it is from the Japanese point of view, and the huge cultural differences in all aspects of life and thought gave it a unique feeling, one that differed from any of the books I’ve read on the war in Europe.
One of the the things I found interesting was that despite such large cultural differences from the United States, the early Japanese emulation of American democracy and capitalism led to some eerily similar results. For instance, while reading about the attempted insurrection (gekokujo) in 1936, I couldn’t help but think of a similar attempted insurrection in the U.S. in 1865–one that took the life of Abraham Lincoln, while attempting to take the lives of other high cabinet officials.
The culture of the Japanese military was another fascinating area. It was especially interesting to read what Japanese soliders and sailors thought of their American counterparts, both directly and through the veil of propaganda.
The outlook of soliders on both sides showed dramatic cultural differences. Suicide was a perfectly acceptable cultural norm in Japan, in both attack and surrender. It is hard to imagine American soldiers considering this option in either case.
Lessons in military tacticsNaval battles played a huge role in the Pacific war on both sides. I came away from the book more curious than ever about things like naval tactics (there are desciptions of large ships zigzgging to avoid torpedoes); naval formations (why do the ships form up as they do?); and the role of each ship in its formation.
The aresenal of democracyThe book describes the battles fought, largely from the Japanese viewpoint. It covers the political and military aspects of Japan during the war. One thing that fascinates me is how quickly the U.S. was able to ramp up production after Pearl Harbor. I’d definitely be interested in books on the technical aspects of how that was done. It has to combine not just a massive economy, but technical power and ability, to say nothing of project management skill. The U.S. didn’t just rebuild its navy to fight in the Pacific. It built aircraft and naval vessels for both the Pacific and Europe. It provided military arms, ammunition, supplies. It did this while developing the atomic bomb in secert. It seems an incredible feat.
The atomic bombThe book described Hirshima and Nagasaki from both sides. The descriptions of those who witnessed the bomb from the ground and scenes that followed were almost unimaginable. But one thing that really stood out was a small detail that my writer’s brain immediately hooked. The clock tower at Hiroshima University survived the blast, but the clock–like all clocks in the city–was frozen at 8:15 am. Except, the clock tower clock had actually stopped at that time two days before the bomb was dropped on the city. It is one of those odd coincidences of history (like Adams and Jefferson both dying on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence) that almost defies belief. My writer brain whispers to me: was a time-traveler from the future trying to warn people?
Public war and secret warToland had access to a wealth of sources for this book. Like many books about war written in their aftermath, two stories emerge: the public war and the secret war. What the Japanese people were being told was far different from the information that the Japanese military and political leaders had. Propaganda is a part of just about any conflict, but it was interesting to see the damaging effect that propaganda had as the war progressed. The government had been touting successes and then had to annouce a surrender, which seemed incongruous to the information they had been putting out. That in turn led to attempts to “change the Emperor’s mind” regarding his decision to surrender. People believed he’d been mislead when in reality, the military leaders knew the facts and had mislead the people about them.
Seeing a war fought at the highest military levels looks far different than at the lowest ranks, and the access to the documents that Toland had made this clear.
There really wasn’t a dull part of this history. Indeed, I finished it with a short list of additional books to follow-up on later on. But, having read about the decline of the Japanese empire, I figured I needed to balance that with the decline of the German empire, and I started reading William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich shortly after finished The Rising Sun.
Written on March 15, 2022.
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In the general nonfiction category in 1971. ↩March 24, 2022
Housekeeping and Cleaning Tips
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="900" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="brown wooden floor" class="wp-image-21695" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.comRecently I had an inquiry about cleaning articles. Not cleaning as in editing my posts, but cleaning as in articles about the act of cleaning. My correspondent “noticed we cover similar topics, such as housekeeping and cleaning tips.” I immediately began to worry about my memory. I’m rapidly approaching 50 (birthdays in this mirror are much closer than they appear) and it occurred to me that I had gone on some kind of spree writing posts about housekeeping and cleaning tips.
I immediately ran a search of the blog for the term “housekeeping.” Sure enough, there were six posts returning in the search results:
Hotel Alarm Clocks (January 24, 2021)December Housekeeping (December 12, 2013)A Couple of Housekeeping Notes for Friday (October 30, 2012)Some Housekeeping Notes (October 10, 2012)Going Paperless: Answers to Your Questions on Paperless Lifestyle (August 15, 2013)2 hour nap (July 3, 2007)Honestly, I was surprised there were six. That was about six more than I expected. 6 posts out of about 7,100 comes to about 1/800th of percent of all of my posts. Of course, I couldn’t leave it at that. I had to search for the term “cleaning tips” as well. I couldn’t imagine there were six of these. I am the last person I know who should be giving cleaning tips–with the possible exception of my kids. It turned out there were four matches in the search results:
Going Paperless Quick Tip: 5 Spring Cleaning Tips for Streamlining Evernote (April 29, 2014)Going Paperless: Automatically Tracking Business Mileage with an Automatic Link, IFTTT, and Evernote (May 6, 2014)Going Paperless: 5 Paperless Spring Cleaning Tips (March 26, 2013)Going Paperless (undated)Okay, well, these at least make sense. And they are all related to my Going Paperless series from 8-10 years ago.
I can’t help but be a little suspicious when I get an email request to add a link to a post from someone who says they’ve been enjoying my posts on housekeeping and spring cleaning — but doesn’t mention a specific post. It’s not that I am not grateful that someone is interested in the blog. But I get enough of these requests that I can tell pretty well when the person sending them hasn’t read a word I have written.
Still, I am grateful to the sender’s message because it reminded me that I’ve been meaning to do some housekeeping1 here on the blog and revise my Site Policies page. I took care of that earlier today. I also updated the automatically generated email that goes out to requests for guests posts, link sharing, advertising, etc. What’s more, I got a blog post out of it, too, which is always a win.
Written on March 14, 2022.
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Now this term will return 7 posts. ↩March 23, 2022
What It Means to Read a Book
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" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." width="900" height="600" src="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c..." alt="black corded headphones with colorful books in between" class="wp-image-21215" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1880w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 400w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 550w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 768w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/jamierubin.net/wp-c... 1800w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" data-recalc-dims="1" />Photo by Stas Knop on Pexels.comA troll on Reddit1 had a post in r/books that berated anyone who considered listening to an audiobook “reading.” Their post has since been deleted (possibly they realized how silly they sounded) but part of their claim was that it wasn’t reading unless you were doing it with your own eyes and brain.
I posted a brief, mild objection to that claim, but I figured I could elaborate at length here by asking what it means to read a book.
I have previously written that when I listen to an audiobook, I colloquially refer to “reading” the book. My reasoning is that how I consumed the book is less important than the discussion of the book itself. Also, if I say, “I recently listened to…” it inevitably leads to a discussion about the mechanics of audiobooks, which further digresses from the point of the conversation.
For anyone who is still learning to read, the act of reading words from a page is important to build the skill. There is no doubt about that. But at some point, at least based on my own experience, the skill plateaus. At least, I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t feel like my abiliity to read is getting noticably better, even though I read more than ever before.
Once the skill has been established, however, what matters most to me is the content. Let’s use a real example. I am currently reading The Rising Sun by John Toland. And when I say “reading” I mean mostly listening to the audiobook. That said, I frequently take notes when I read so I also have an old paperback edition of the book that I follow along with.
Now, if I listen to the audiobook and you read the paperback, we can both still have a detailed and in-depth discussion of the book and will recognize what the other person is talking about. I didn’t use my eyes and you didn’t use your ears, but we both consumed the same content and ended up at the same place. That seems to be the most important thing.
And besides, the idea that reading has to be done with one’s eyes must be incredibly insulting to blind and otherwise visually impaired people who read using their fingers. Add my old college pal Rusty (who was blind) to our little reading group and let him read a Braille edition of The Rising Sun and he, too, can discuss the decline and fall of the Japanese empire along with us. We are all on the same page, so to speak.
Content is what matters. I’m reminded of a passage from Isaac Asimov’s memoir In Memory Yet Green, when he describes the oral exams for his Ph.D in biochemistry. He was asked by one of his examiners how he knew the potassium iodide he used was indeed potatssium iodide. Asimov responded, “Well, sir, it disolves as potassium iodide does, and yields iodine as potassium iodide does, and it gives me my end point as potassium iodide would, so it doesn’t matter what it really is, does it?” The same can be said for reading The Rising Sun on paper, on audiobook, or in Braille. The words are in the same order, so what does it matter?
Indeed, content is so much the key to this that I find myself getting annoyed when the content doesn’t quite line up. While the audiobook version matches the main body of text in the paper edition, the footnotes in the audiobook are sometimes truncated. That annoys me and I find myself pausing the audiobook at every footnote I come across in paper edition so that I don’t miss any.
Reading in its broadest sense, which encompasses consuming written content in different forms, is one way that we learn new things and improve ourselves. It should be accessible to everyone, and yet there are people who struggle with it and potentially miss out on its benefits. Moreover, before young children have the ability to read we read to them. Audiobooks are a great tool for bridging this gap, bringing content and knowledge to people who might not otherwise get it.
For me, reading a book is to consume its content. The method of consumption may go through your eyes, your ears, or your fingers, but they are just conduits to your brain which is where the magic happens.
When I say I read a book, it means I may have listened to the audiobook, or read the paper or e-book edition, or any combination thereof. How I consumed it shouldn’t matter. What matters is what I got out of it.
Written on March 12, 2022.
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Can you believe such a thing? ↩
