What I highlighted the week of February 15, 2021
Articles
This interview with Pankaj Mishra like every interview with him is chock full of great insights, critiques and dunks, including the unforgettable phrase "proud boys of the mind."
During the NYT vs SSC chronicles, I ran into this long diatribe against the NYTimes by the founding CEO of Soylent that I had never read before. I don't really know what to make of it but it stuck in my mind.
Speaking of which, Will Wilkinson's description of SSC v NYT is one of the best ones I've read. Also, Elizabeth Spiers commentary is very good
this OpEd by Heather McGhee author of "The Sum of Us" has a remarkable quote
“So where should we make the point that all these programs were created without concern for their cost when the goal was to build a white middle class, and they paid for themselves in economic growth? Now these guys are trying to fundamentally renege on the deal for a future middle class that would be majority people of color?”
I liked this essay on late bloomers and "opsimaths" that lauds the importance of life-long learning, persistence, and luck in a successful life.
I like this framing of racism as a lose-lose for every citizen, summarized from a new book called The Sum of Us, especially this quote:
“So where should we make the point that all these programs were created without concern for their cost when the goal was to build a white middle class, and they paid for themselves in economic growth? Now these guys are trying to fundamentally renege on the deal for a future middle class that would be majority people of color?”
I had never read this contra-Tolentino essay by Lauren Oyler but it is a thing to behold.
Alex Ross on Tarkovsky, another thing to behold.
This Aeon essay on industrial policy in India and its relationship with Hindutva politics was pretty good
By producing images of the nation and its culture, and marketing them to global investors, the state asserts its power. Historians of nation-states have a saying: states make (or, in this case, re-make) nations, not the other way around. State power demarcates the ‘domestic’ affairs of the nation as a forbidden territory for external actors. But the tacit bargain is that the state manages and facilities capital mobility and, in return, retains the power to rearrange the domestic sphere without external interference or sanctions.
I had no idea about Paul Graham's life long relationship with painting. There's a lot of interesting ideas about what you choose to work on over the course of a life and career, too.
Patricia Lockwood on Elana Ferranté is entirely way too quotable
I liked this essay on YouTube as a medium of master-apprentice knowledge transfer
Movies
I had never seen Down With Love, 2003 rom-com with Reneé Zellwegger and Ewan McGregor, but it was a delightful Valentines Day watch.
And I really liked Judas and the Black Messiah
And Robert Altman's The Player
TV Shows
I finished Search Party and really liked the last 2 seasons. A remarkable difference what HBO can do for a show vs TBS.
And we continued our Mad Men rewatch.
Podcasts
- I started listening to the Working It Out podcast with Mike Birbiglia and have been enjoying it. I particularly liked episodes with
