Happy Friday,
Here are five articles I thought worth sharing this week:
While author Michael Lewis is certainly correct in pinpointing a the current delight and quickness to engage in anger these days, I’m not sure that entirely explains the negative reactions to Lewis‘ rather sympathetic portrayal of Sam Bankman-Fried in his book, released last week. Wow.
We owe much of the English language, dozens of plays and tragedies, along with countless quotes and interpretations to three men: Shakespeare’s brave friends and fellow actors who saved his play scripts from the Globe Theater fire in 1613, and later gathered and published all his manuscripts in a single edition.
“The iron law of internet activism: viral animal video + quotable scare stat = ‘great moral cause of our time.’”. In our era of daily outrage and social media ‘activism’, people are prone to performing empty gestures meant to signal social consciousness. Here Theodore Gioia shares a stunning example of what happens when the adults in the room don’t bother to double-check the claims they pass along. In this particularly stunning instance, a nine-year-old’s community project became public policy around the world. On one level, it’s a piece about overzealous activism, but probing deeper, the question really comes down to how do American citizens think, respond to statistics, and make decisions about the sorts of messages and claims they pass along? Frighteningly, the answer seems to increasingly be citizens and journalists simply don’t think consider the responsibility we all share to vet stories and figures before passing them along.
“Be Wary of Imitating High-Status People Who Can Afford to Countersignal”: High-status achievers can afford to counter-signal. If you are looking to step up your level of achievement, you’re likely better off imitating those slightly ahead of you, not the top performers.
For decades, running experts said breaking the 2:02 marathon mark was impossible. Then Eliud Kipchoge did it (twice). Now more athletes are doing it. Why now, how, and what is next?
Currently reading: “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe
Have a great weekend.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
