Week 01-24 - Curiosities
Greetings from the Mesa
Welcome back to the Curiosities newsletter. It's been a hot minute. Where did 2023 go? Happy to say byeeeee to a year of utter exhaustion. I'm ready to ignite 2024. Let's go!
No resolutions here this year. No point... what will be will be. However, I have a couple goals to accomplish:
1) No Amazon all year. I think it's good to ask why when making goals? Why? Because Amazon doesn't deserve my $ any more, plain and simple. I made one last purchase on 12/31 using a gift card, and I'm done. I'll keep you abreast of how this goes. In 2023 I discovered that buying directly from a brand's website was generally cheaper or the same price. I would rather give the money directly to the brand or small business. But really, this is all about making more mindful choices when spending hard earned $. Do the billionaires need more of our money? No.
2) No personal Instagram (I would like to get rid of it altogether but I have business). Why? It's really the only social media I do, and I keep calling it Adstagram. The ads feel invasive, I feel like 2024 is going to be a political $hit$how in the US, the algorithm is garbage, and it's not fun any more. Instagram is end-stage enshittified IMHO. I gave up owning a TV for similar reasons AGES ago, and have never gone back. I'm sick of feeing huckstered and 'nickel and dimed' all the time (i'm death-glaring you streaming media services).
"USE LESS = useless" anything you feel you need to use less is useless. Mode du 2024.
Did you toss aside resolutions/goals for the year - or are you forging ahead as usual?
Curiosities of the Week
Should Patients Be Allowed to Die From Anorexia? (NYT) Is there a palliative approach to mental illness, and is it ethical? This is an illuminating and thought-stimulating article on treatment resistant anorexia.
The NYT has been doing some excellent investigative reporting lately. They've also been publishing a lot of TikTok trend puff pieces though. So make of that what you will.
We have had several rounds of freezing fog this fall/winter. What is freezing fog? It leaves giant beautiful crystals that sparkle in the moon/sun light. I'm currently waiting for the fog to lift to drive to town while simultaneously watching the recent snowfall sublimate. Sublimation is one of those phenomena you have to witness first hand to really understand and appreciate.
The Stanley Cup TikTok Craze Puts The ‘Social’ In Social Contagion (Forbes) "social contagion—the spread and adoption of affects, behaviors, cognitions and desires due to peer influence." And the lemmings leapt... I can't wait for the influencer era to be done.
Neil Gaiman’s Radical Vision for the Future of the Internet (Cal Newport) I am 100% for returning to the past... "It’s a place where the Neil Gaimans of the world don’t need to feed their thoughts into an engagement engine, but can instead put out a virtual shingle on their own small patch of cyberspace and attract and build a more intimate community of like-minded travelers. "
Yaar parivaar Indian young adults are cohabiting with their best friends. "Across these conversations, what emerges is a kind of partnership and companionship unburdened by the usual trappings of marriage, like “stress or drama”."
Consuming
Books: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Fiction) This was a can't put down it's so good book even though at times I hated all the characters, and at others loved them. I'm not afraid to say that it made me misty in a couple places.
TV/Movies: We finished the final season of The Crown. Wonderful production, wonderful acting, but I think there is something in my genetic make-up that abhors all things Royal. Watching the show was like constantly taking sips of pepto and gagging.
Thinking about: AI, and that...
Our data is being used to train the machines.
Thanks for reading, see you next week!