Hey friends,
It’s been a month! I checked off one of my goals for the year by sort of surfing! At least, me, a surfboard, and the ocean were in the same place at the same time… I also broke my over three year streak and acquired COVID. I’m pretty much better now, just going stir-crazy sitting at home alone for the last week.
In other news… I’ve been continuously updating my page of smile-inducing, gratitude-provoking, and otherwise noteworthy moments... While doing so, I realized that the 2022-2023 academic year is the first I’ve fully completed since 2014. I don’t talk about it a lot, but some relevant past reflections about what made this possible are linked here. Trying to live by my values and share more about this part of my life, because I never know what connections or difference it can make. Always happy to chat more “offline” too!
Back to the usual: some links recs, good quotes I came across, and books I’ve read. What’s been new in your world?
Cheers,
Maya
Links
- 🦈 How changes in 3D genome arrangement allowed sharks to evolve into skates — the noncoding genome is so very powerful.
- 🎣 A daunting story of the life of an observer on a fishing vessel… that highlights “how little words like “sustainably caught” and “certified” may mean when it comes to protecting the humans in the supply chain. And how much grocery and retail brands profit anyway.”
- 📚 Mapping America in 1,001 books— sorta like what I’m trying to do across the globe! Great idea for visualization that I want to explore.
- Yet another person on my book per country journey— so many recommendations, so little time I’m motivated to read…
- 🚘 Why do electric car name suck so much? They’re just trying way too hard…
- 👤 A personality test can’t tell you who you are— the caveats of relying too much on categorizations… Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, even your horoscope.
- 👁️ 151 optical illusions and how they work
Quotes (a brand new section!)
- “We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.” — Denis Diderot, via Dense Discovery
- Confirmation bias, perhaps, when what we believe is not the whole picture? We want things to be simpler than what they truly are.
- “Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” — Rainer Maria Rilke, via Joseph Fosano’s Twitter
- Life is hard, but it’s also wonderful. Stay for the wonder.
- “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” — Annie Lamott in Bird by Bird, via Dense Discovery
Books
- Broken April — Ismail Kadare
- Albania book.
- Focus on the traditions of the blood feud, which is a quite a frightening thing.
- The paranoia conveyed by the main character is so striking.
- The Arbornaut — Meg Lowman
- [A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us]
- Fascinating to note only in the last few decades have we studied the canopies rather than focusing on trunks and the forest floor. So much to be discovered.
- She Said — Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey
- [Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement]
- Another side of the momentous story told in Catch and Kill
- Landmarks — Robert Macfarlane
- On language and it’s power to shape our sense of place…
- Focused on the British Isles, so could count for my Ireland book!
- A rare audiobook that puts me to sleep. I’ll treasure it forever!