Great read on why being right is not enough to convince people to get on your side. You have to show kindness too. In this post, Ryan breaks down what makes online debates and discussions so toxic nowadays. And how we can hopefully fix it.
As we’ve become more polarized and more algorithmically sorted, we care a lot less about the people who think differently than us and put little effort into persuading them. That’s because persuasion is no longer the goal—it’s signaling. And with signaling, it’s vehemence that matters, not quality. The constraints of social media also reduce the space for any nuance or qualification you might be inclined to offer; 140 characters or even 240 does not leave much room for humility or kindness. And the desire for viral sharing heightens the need for aggressive, simplistic arguments.
Another reason why you should share your thoughts on your blog, instead of on social media. Use social media to point to your blog, instead of making social media your blog.
Last week I received an email from a reader who recommended this site. Read This Twice is in the same vein as the Good Books website. Both websites serve up book recommendations based on books that influential people have read. I'm always up for finding more sources of books to read. This one is a good one to bookmark too. I will also say that compared to the Good Books website, this site loads a lot faster on my devices. Not sure why that is, but that is just an observation.
Note that both websites make use of Amazon affiliate links. I'm in no way affiliated with any of these two websites or their owners. I'm just sharing because they have good content.
Cal in his post, shares a wonderful essay about a professional sport climber who ditched social media and improved her career. Both posts, from Cal and Madison are really good reads. Be sure to check out the comments too, especially on Cal's post.
It was then that Madison’s athletic career moved to the next level. “There’s nobody I’m here to perform for,” she writes. “I just train and silently work on achieving my own definition of success.”
That quote above made me reconsider keeping my blog “public”. By that I mean having my posts show up on the read.write.as feed. I sometimes feel that I'm performing for someone when my posts show up on the read.write.as feed. Like I'm in a competition, trying to keep up with everyone else.
Ignore the negative people. Instead of whining and complaining, focus your time and energy on living. Focus it on actually doing or creating something. That's a far better use of your time and energy. And you'll be a better person for it.
Love this. This is similar to what Jocko Willink said in his book Discipline Equals Freedom — ignore and outperform. Love it.
The Facebook Dilemma is a two part documentary from Frontline. Here is a description of the documentary from their website:
The promise of Facebook was to create a more open and connected world. But from the company’s failure to protect millions of users’ data, to the proliferation of “fake news” and disinformation, mounting crises have raised the question: Is Facebook more harmful than helpful? This major, two-night event investigates a series of warnings to Facebook as the company grew from Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room to a global empire. With dozens of original interviews and rare footage, The Facebook Dilemma examines the powerful social media platform’s impact on privacy and democracy in the U.S. and around the world.
Overall, it was a pretty good documentary. They weren't lying about the original interviews and rare footage. It reveals insights into company culture — why Facebook is the way it is now and how they got there.
Another great, informative and fun read from Mark Manson. I always learn something new from his writings. It is well researched too. He adds references in the footnotes section of his post as proof.
Our aversion to pain and struggle in any capacity has become so ingrained in everything we do that it’s compromising our ability to learn, grow, and function as healthy and stable adults. It shocks and appalls me that companies and products that are supposed to help this issue are only making it worse.
You don’t build psychological resilience by feeling good all the time. You build psychological resilience by getting better at feeling bad.
There he goes again with his counter-intuitive logic. Except, it does make sense to me.
A great read on why reputation matters so much now. Especially in light of how much information is available to the public nowadays. Plus some light history lesson on where the “Moon Landing” conspiracy theory came from.
In the average-case scenario, you trust newspapers, magazines or TV channels that endorse a political view which supports scientific research to summarise its findings for you. In this latter case, you are twice-removed from the sources: you trust other people’s trust in reputable science.
Huh, I actually didn't think of it that way, but that's true though.
So, do we now have to fact check everything we read or see online? No, that would take absurd amounts of our time. Not to mention, we probably won't come up with the correct answers doing our own research. Instead, we should ask the questions the author presented in the article, that I quoted below. It can act as sort of a checklist or framework for quickly verifying the accuracy of new information.
Whenever we are at the point of accepting or rejecting new information, we should ask ourselves: Where does it come from? Does the source have a good reputation? Who are the authorities who believe it? What are my reasons for deferring to these authorities? Such questions will help us to get a better grip on reality than trying to check directly the reliability of the information at issue.
My newborn was the love of my life. I almost couldn’t pull my eyes away from his perfect face. I knew every cry and exactly how to comfort him. I fed him and changed diapers and breathed in the sweet scent from the top of his head.
I never knew this kind of LOVE existed!
Then one morning I picked him up from the crib and found a chubby baby. His bright eyes danced at the sight of me, and his dimpled face broke into a drooly grin.
I got a link to this post from Coney. It was written by a mom, for moms. But, even as a dad, this post still tugs at my heart strings. You'll never know when your child grows up and moves on from one stage to another. Today he might still sleep in your arms, tomorrow he will sleep on his own bed. Today he might still be a toddler, tomorrow he might already be a preschooler. You'll never know if today was the last day you got to carry your kid. This is why I've started recording on my journal the days that I got to carry Davin. I want to remember the last day I got to carry him. Eventually, I will do the same thing for Caleb when he grows older.
A really good introduction to the sacraments of the Catholic Church. It also covers the first sacrament, the sacrament of Baptism. Questions like: What are the sacraments? Why are they the most important thing in the world? What is the fundamental sacrament? What happens when people get baptized? How is grace tied in to the sacraments? And more questions are answered in this episode.
One of the most enlightening parts of this first episode for me, was when Bishop Barron talked about the duties of a baptized Christian. As a baptized Christian, we are priest, prophet and king. What does it mean to be a priest? How do we live out our prophetic duties in today's world? And what are our kingly duties in modern society? All those are covered in this episode.
Have had this open on a tab on my browser for awhile now. I finally got to it. Good list of apps, tools, utilities and even tips for Windows users. There's also some information on alternatives if you're on MacOS.
Somehow, I did not discover Alt-D until 2018, which means that I had spent the entirety of my 24 years since triple-clicking to select every single URL I’d ever copied. I built a media company this way, and I can’t believe nobody told me about this shortcut. Open any given web browser, use Alt-D, and your selection will move to the URL in the address bar on top of the page. It’s very possible this will be of little use to you, but anyone who regularly shares or copies links will save themselves so much time.