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- The Connection Newsletter 61 - Same thing we do everyday
The Connection Newsletter 61 - Same thing we do everyday
The Connection Newsletter 61 - Same thing we do everyday
Hello!
This is edition #61 of
The Connection
, the weekly email I send family, friends, and future friends (hello!) Glad you're here.
My son turned 1-year-old this weekend! When he was born, I remember seriously debating whether or not to post any of his pictures to social media. It’s early but for now, I feel like we made the right decision - just being able to easily scroll through my feed and watch how much he’s changed this year is a joy.
For any new(ish) parents, I strongly recommend taking as much video as possible. Pictures are great, but it’s amazing to look back and
watch your child figure out how to hold their bottle, how to crawl up the stairs, how to play with their toys, etc. If you don’t want to make these public, you can just save them to an external hard drive or set them to private on YouTube.
Also, set-up their email account and start writing them letters. There are so many feelz, all the time, and you can’t always capture this with a camera. Write little notes they’ll be able to open years from now, like a digital treasure trove of love.
That’s it - hope you had a terrific weekend. Thank you, as always, for reading.
Onto the articles:
Make sure to hit "Display Images" above to see puppy pics.
There’s this trend to hyperbolize every thought and deed when discussing certain public figures.
Whether you’re listening to Nick Bilton whine about the lack of moral fiber in Sheryl Sandberg and Donald Trump in equal measure, or Taylor Swift sycophants deconstructing every lyric of “You Need to Calm Down” (don’t get me wrong, I’m a Tay Tay superfan, I’m just saying it’s not Shakespeare).
In this case, the writer makes Jeff Bezos sound like The Brain of Pinky and The Brain fame, trying to (once again) take over the world.
“Jeff Bezos wants Amazon to be the core infrastructure on which everyone depends, and then use this power to exclude competitors and privilege his own businesses,” said Matthew Stoller, a fellow at the anti-monopoly non-profit Open Markets Institute, on Amazon’s business model. “He doesn’t seek to run a business, but to govern all commerce.”
I’m not saying Amazon can’t improve their practices, treat employees better, or that they haven’t made controversial decisions. But to paint Bezos in this world domination light turns him into a caricature and makes it hard to take the argument seriously.
---
Paul Jarvis asks us to consider the nuances owning vs. renting
. We’re moving further on the spectrum
away
from owning anything and
towards
leasing or renting everything: homes, office space, transportation, web servers, data, communication, etc ad nauseam, and the cost might be greater than we ever anticipated.
It’s a good point, and this admission coming from someone who’ll trade most of my personal data for an extra 2 minutes of convenience. Favorite quote:
“We simply need to consider the ramifications of trading ownership for ease. Sometimes it’s worth it, but other times, it leaves us at a supreme disadvantage with no leverage to fix.”
---
Turns out, you may end up exercising more.
---
Speaking of kids, my friend Carlo’s husband wrote about his experience taking
, and how he made it work. I think both parents should have the option to take extended time off (minimum three months, with pay).
Or just as important, take less time if that’s what they want and not feel like a bad parent about it.
I took two weeks off, then dove back into work. That’s what worked for me at the time. On the next one, maybe I’ll take more, maybe less. The point is, it’s a personal choice, and we need to have options to do what’s best for our families.
---
. Have you ever ghosted someone? Just phased them out of your life? I have - not proud of it, but I felt like it had to be done. This is a great way of quantifying poisonous relationships you’re better off removing.
I found Shane’s approach to this particularly helpful in untangling the different qualitative signals e.g. the act of betraying your trust shouldn’t be given equal weight to the fact the same person remembers to call you on your birthday every year.
---
Imagine: An app that lets you get into strangers’ cars. An app that lets you stay at random peoples’ houses. Disappearing photos. A site that doesn’t let you play video games, but you can watch other people play. The question we should ask ourselves: “Is this idea dumb? Or am I just getting old?”
---
. I found this particularly helpful as I hack away at learning SQL: Few problems are “brilliance constrained” --meaning only geniuses can properly solve them—the vast majority are simply “effort-constrained.” Put in enough work, and they get done.
The more work put in, the better the results, far beyond what you might consider the point of diminishing returns. (h/t Margo Aaron).
---
I loved this
- aka the Demon Dog of American Literature, author of
LA Confidential, The Black Dahlia, White Jazz, American Tabloid,
and his latest
, This Storm
. I can practically hear his gruff voice barking into the telephone as he declares:
“I am the greatest living writer in my genre. Maybe all genres.”
---
Apparently that new Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston movie Netflix is pushing at the top of your feed did almost 31 million views in the first 3 days? And according to Vanity Fair, a "view" is 70% of a show or TV watched (h/t Andrew) so if these numbers are true, that's pretty incredible.
“30,869,863 accounts watched Murder Mystery in its first 3 days,” the tweet read. “The biggest opening weekend ever for a Netflix Film. 13,374,914 accounts in the US and Canada, and 17,494,949 more worldwide.”
Thanks for reading!
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