Hello you, hope all is well. How is it Wednesday already, I ask myself. In contrast to last year feeling fallow, this one feels hectic. Not complaining, though. Anyway here’s some fun things upon which to click. Shall we?
🙋♀️ How to Ask Useful Questions: Asking useful questions is a skill, and it requires practice. Inexperienced questions go unanswered because answering them would take too much effort, so the recipient doesn’t bother. For better answers, you’ll need to tailor the form of the question to the type of information you’re seeking.
🏖 The power of time off: Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often overlooked value of time off and shows the innovative projects inspired by his time in Bali.
🕰 The Tyranny Of Time: The clock is a useful social tool, but it is also deeply political. It benefits some, marginalises others and blinds us from a true understanding of our own bodies and the world around us.
🎙 50 Reasons to Love Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’: The singer-songwriter questioned everything on her fourth album. Twenty-five musicians speak about the LP’s enduring power on its 50th anniversary.
💰 Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax: ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth—sometimes, even nothing.
🧘♀️ Fighting the pressure for pandemic personal growth: Lockdown was not a sabbatical. Don’t worry if you haven’t grown as a person during the pandemic. See also: For peace of mind in the pandemic, let go of impossible to-do lists.
💭 How To Think Beyond Ourselves: Many of the qualities that define our species and have permitted its success throughout the millennia are now causing its undoing. As technologists rush to develop an artificial general intelligence to outstrip our own, it’s worth remembering we still have only scant understanding of the human brain. Which begs the question just how wise is man really? See also: Will brains or algorithms rule the kingdom of science?
👋 What Quitters Understand About the Job Market: Quitting your job is a sign of optimism. Is the workplace undergoing a revolution—or just a post-pandemic spasm?
🌡 Does the flow of heat help us understand the origin of life? The cliché that life transcends the laws of thermodynamics is completely wrong. The truth is almost exactly the opposite.
🏛 Spite buildings: when human grudges get architectural: Feuding brothers, thwarted lovers, and a lot of spoiled views: ‘spite buildings’ are our smallest human pettiness made manifest in bricks and mortar. Here are some of the best/worst.
🚮 Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in UK every year: Undercover filming from inside Amazon’s Dunfermline warehouse reveals the sheer scale of the waste: Smart TVs, laptops, drones, hairdryers, top of the range headphones, computer drives, books galore, thousands of sealed face masks—all sorted into boxes marked “destroy”.