Brian > Recent Status Updates

I returned this to the library. I wasn't reading it quickly enough and it was due. It was too self-improvement-y even if it's all coming from a legitimately interesting and relatable place. There was a lot of focus on telling people simple things that they should really know. I'll probably shelve it as read but unfinished someday soon.

Wildness VS Wilderness

Always love seeing the actual levels of depraved, indefensible idiocy to which the Trump administration the Republicans stooped to “win” political battles against their “enemies” while leaving a trail of destruction behind; in this case, dropping migrants into the middle of democratic cities to overwhelm their social service departments.

It’s a bit of a Michael Lewis trope that more than half of the people he profiles have moments in their lives when they say some variation of “right then and there is how I decided to become a _______.”

Uh oh, AF about to do something dumb!

I’m already going to miss Manager.

The impact factor in academia and research; the absurd psychology of data qualifiers; more fodder for ideological conformism.

Personalization is wack.

"Internet-centrism is beginning to block our ability to think of effective technological solutions to problems that do exist."

Government data and campaign finance information via search results all seem nice and simple when it's just a click away. The end product has no context. It's just a snapshot. Even when the aims are noble, the information being presented so easily is not productive.

Is the internet even an accelerant for change (revolution?) or are we just in love with telling ourselves that itvis?

I am a very big fan of fiction writers who make sure to mention even insignificant times when characters eat, because you know, people do have to eat to survive.

"The phrase worked, especially when used to refer to Western expansion, to reconcile the dissonance, the crying contradiction, of Jacksonian America, a nation founded on unparalleled freedom and unmatched unfreedom." - p74

UNFREEDOM- I really can't believe this isn't a MAGA rallying cry yet

Donald Trump’s presidency is Andrew Jackson’s reincarnated but with way more stupidity.

I’m finally going to say it, now that I’m into the chapters on the creative professions —- capitalism ruins everything. All industries have just turned into marketing and salespeople trying to justify their own existence while skimming whatever they can from whatever real work is done.

And of course, the types of people who need to realize it or should read a book like this never will.