Every Friday I highlight the most interesting or entertaining items from my media diet of the past week.

Articles:

• The Big Lessons from History (collaborativefund.com): “How do people think about risk? How do they react to surprise? What motivates them, and causes them to be overconfident, or too pessimistic?”
• The Biology of Dads: How Raising Children Can Change a Father’s Brain (aeon.co): New research shows how men are changed by the experience of fatherhood (reduced testosterone, increased oxytocin, dopamine activation, and more).
• Every Thought about Giving and Taking Advice I’ve Ever Had (guzey.com): An article about the challenges of giving good advice—poor communication, misunderstanding the recipient, misunderstanding your own ideas about good advice—that ends up being pretty good advice!
• How I Read (substack.com): His approach is quite different from mine but interesting to consider (I strongly disagree with not taking notes).
• How to Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs (markmanson.net): Yes, it’s a self-help article, but that doesn’t mean the message isn’t a damn important one.
• Information Overload Helps Fake News Spread, and Social Media Knows It (scientificamerican.com): “Understanding how algorithm manipulators exploit our cognitive vulnerabilities empowers us to fight back.”
• The Inspiring Quest to Revive the Hawaiian Language (smithsonian.org): The story about the Harman family’s efforts to keep the Hawaiian language alive in their family (as someone who grew up in Hawaii, island-themed content will always figure into my link lists).
• Intel’s Disruption Is Now Complete (medium.com): James Allworth considers Clayton Christensen’s disruption theory in light of Apple’s recently launched M1 chip (supplanting Intel chips in Apple computers).
• The Last Children of Down Syndrome (theatlantic.com): Prenatal screenings placed a new power (and moral dilemma) “into the hands of ordinary people—the power to decide what kind of life is worth bringing into the world.”
• Megatrends Shaping the Next Decade (medium.com): People are generally terrible at prognostication, but it remains a fascinating exercise to ponder the future. Peter Diamandis offers up his thoughts.
• My Priceless Summer on a Maine Lobster Boat (outsideonline.com): Wonderfully evocative story of a female college student’s experiences.
• Not Every Trump Voter Is Racist or Misled. There’s a Rational Trump Voter Too (thecorrespondent.com): Nesrine Malik cautions those on the left not to be so dismissive of the votes Trump accrued in the 2020 general election: “There’s a rational Trump voter who we need to understand if we want to keep the forces of populism at bay.”
• On How to Be Discovered (stevecheney.com): Inspirational piece from 2019 on the serendipity and opportunities created via blogging.
• Reading Quickly Is Reading a Lot (commoncog.com): Cedric Chin considers the compounding returns of digging deeply into books covering the same topic.
• The Reality that People with a Full-Time Job Have to Have a Home Inside a Tent (washingtonpost.com): Profiles of people living in Tent City 4 in Seattle, WA.

Podcasts:

• A Bit of Everything with Adam Grant (simonsinek.com): Conversation between Grant and Simon Sinek. Many insights about business, leadership, status, and personal growth.
• Daily Stoic: Matthew McConaughey On Winning the Role of Life (dailystoic.com): Host Ryan Holliday talks to the actor about his new book and philosophy. McConaughey is an energetic, charismatic and thoughtful guest.
• Status Games with Eugene Wei (nfx.com): Conversation that draws on Wei’s well-regarded “Status-as-a-Service” article and explores product design ideas, digital scarcity, virtual goods and social status.
• Think Like an Economist (art19.com): Excellent and accessible economics 101 lessons from a pair of married economists.
• Vice: Source Material Podcast (apple.com): New program in which real-life events unfold from the voices of those who experienced it. Episodes aired so far: life on a COVID cruise ship, a shooting at a popular BBQ spot, a fire in a London residential tower.