Hello there lovely email friends, it’s Mo here. Hope you’re well and everything. You look well, anyway. This is one of my favourite times of year so, regardless of all the many and varied things that are going on at the moment, I’m doing my best to be present and not miss it.
🤞 Hope is the antidote to helplessness. Here’s how to cultivate it: Several decades ago, two psychologists stumbled upon a phenomenon that changed the way we think about adversity. When faced with a difficult situation that feels uncontrollable, people tend to act helpless and depressed. As millions have had their lives upended, this idea feels more relevant than ever. It has inspired work that offers positive insights into how people can remain resilient, even in the face of uncontrollable adversities. The key is having hope.
⏳ The Strangest Time for Nostalgia Is Now: We live in a time of deep nostalgia. Part of this has been brought on by the pandemic and a yearning to experience life before masks and lockdowns and a constant fear of terminal illness, even if it’s just experienced through a screen. But more acutely, the nostalgia on offer right now seems to live squarely in the 1990s—the (seeming) halcyon days right before the 9/11 attacks.
💸 Behind the Sky Pool: This week a Tube extension extended for the first time in ages. This was financed through a deal between Tory Wandsworth Council & developers. £266 million of the developer tax used to build social housing was instead spent on the Tube. A large reason why Nine Elms will produce only 15% ‘affordable’ housing. In this era of putting corporate needs first, what giveth also taketh away.
🧱 Bricks and the Industrial Revolution: I’m currently staying on the site of a former brickworks, although any evidence of it has been all but removed. Brick has a long history of use as a building material - in one form or another, it’s been in use for thousands of years. And though today brick is mostly used as a high-end architectural finish, up until the mid-20th century it was the standard material for constructing a building.
🥊 10 great songs that musicians used to insult each other: Over the years, reams of chart-topping hits have dropped hints at some behind the scenes bitterness; many of these tracks have seemed ill-advised or childish in the cold light of day, but there are others that outshine the downside of cynicism and stand-up as golden moments of music at its most visceral. A notable omission from this list has to be How Long (Has This Been Going On) by Ace which, I am happy to argue, is by some margin the loveliest song here.
🎻 Violinist Nigel Kennedy cancels concert after Classic FM stops Hendrix tribute: I like Nigel Kennedy. I like the idea of him being so damn talented that he can resist bullshit while at the same time inflicting his own bullshit right back: a noble ambition for us all, perhaps. With only days to go, Kennedy has pulled out of a concert at the Royal Albert Hall after accusing the radio station he now calls “Jurassic FM” of “musical segregation”, preferring him to play Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
🙊 Mailchimp Insiders React to Employees Getting No Equity From Intuit Sale: When employees were recruited to work at Mailchimp there was a common refrain from hiring managers: no, you are not going to get equity, but you will get to be part of a scrappy company that fights for the little guy and we will never be acquired or go public. But the two founders did sell, for around $12 billion in stock and cash, placing them amongst the richest people in America. This account is based on conversations with half a dozen current and former employees.
💾 Sir Clive Sinclair: Personal computing pioneer missed out on being Britain’s Steve Jobs: the visionary pioneer of computing for the British masses and creator of the legendary ZX Spectrum, has died at the age of 81. His legacy is the British tech scene as we know it today. Reminds me to watch Micro Men again: the enjoyable BBC film dramatising Sinclair battling it out with ex-employee Tim From The Office, founder of Acorn Computers, for market dominance.