Welcome to Friday,
After this long short week, I am happy to welcome the weekend once again. Let’s get right to the links, shall we?
Have you seen the recent declaration that the Internet “died” five years ago? A circulating theory posits that rather than humans, the entire Internet is inhabited by bots. I can assure you I am very real, but then, isn’t that what a bot might say?
The screenwriter of the James Bond movies on the tension between being creative and commercially viable. While this particular article seems a bit hysterical to me, I understand where the tension and fear come from, especially in an age where both Justice League and Zach Snyder’s Justice League exist- or Red, and Taylor Swift’s version of Red. Studios are infamous at this point for creative interference in the name of boosting sales. Hollywood is a relatively small business (less than half the adult population was going to the movies once a month even back in 2019), which depends on making art to be consumed by millions of people. Is there a way to find a viable balance of those interests, or is ‘art for profit’ always destined to be a choice between lesser evils?
The fascinating twists and turns marking the life of England’s first female novelist, Lady Mary Wroth, who wrote her first novel in 1621.
How to Excel from investor Graham Duncan:
“[Tennis champion] Novak Djokovic said in an interview with the Financial Times that “I can carry on playing at this level because I like hitting the tennis ball.” The interviewer replied in surprise: “Are there really players who don’t like hitting the ball?” Djokovic answered, “Oh yes. There are people out there who don’t have the right motivation. You don’t need to talk to them. I can see it.”
If you can find the thing you do for its own sake, the compulsive piece of your process, and dial that up and up, beyond the imaginary ceiling for that activity you may be creating, my experience is the world comes to you for that thing and you massively outperform the others who don’t actually like hitting that particular ball. I think the rest of career advice is commentary on this essential truth.”
Finally, this week, I was introduced to Cunningham’s Law, which states “the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.” While I wish this weren’t true, I’ve seen enough Internet to know it is.
Currently reading: The Great Influenza by John M. Barry
