I have been playing around with are.na for the past week or so, trying to figure out how to make use of it. I've seen it mentioned in one of CJ Eller's posts, From Blog to Blocks. I'm still slowly finding a use for it, but while I'm not ready to share how I am using it just yet, I did find a “channel” that seems to be a great “digital minimalism” resource. This channel contains links to a number of articles related to reducing smart phone use, eliminating distractions, better ways to use social media, etc...
Cannot remember where I found the link, probably from the Panda Newsletter that I'm subscribed to, but here is a website focused on recommendations for good books to read. What separates this site from others is that the book recommendations on this site come from “successful people.” Whether that matters to you or not, there are some pretty good books listed on the site. You can sort by categories, or by people, or you can view their Top 100 list of good books to read. Seems like a good site to bookmark.
Interesting read on why so many of the world's oldest companies are in Japan. And when they say old, they mean really old. Like a construction company that's been founded in 1610. Or a tea house that's been open since 1160 AD. Or, how about a hotel that's been open since 705 AD!
It was also interesting to read about the differences in mentality between business owners in Japan and the West. In Japan, they are focused on keeping their business running for as long as possible. Meanwhile most western companies are focused on rapid growth and dominating the competition.
By the way, got the link to this article from this post. If you're not following The Monday Kickoff, you should. Scott always comes up with really interesting articles to share every week.
For years I've read that there is no direct correlation between playing violent video games and real world aggression. “You know those are just pixels, right?” That is the usual response from gamers who don't believe that video games can somehow make people aggressive in real life. I would like to believe that too. However, here is one study I ran into that might say otherwise.
For individuals with a good family environment, exposure to violent video games had only a direct effect on aggression; however, for those with poor family environment, it had both direct and indirect effects mediated by normative beliefs about aggression. This moderated mediation model includes some notions of General Aggression Model (GAM) and Catalyst Model (CM), which helps shed light on the complex mechanism of violent video games influencing adolescent aggression.
Now I'm not a psychologist so it's possible that I'm interpreting this incorrectly. If so, feel free to educate me by getting in touch with me. Anyway, from what I'm reading on here, it seems like the combination of playing violent video games and growing up in a poor family environment could lead to aggressive behavior in the future. So, if you allow your kids to play Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed or Grand Theft Auto, you better make sure you're not fighting with your spouse. Actually, don't allow them to play those games until they're older, especially not Grand Theft Auto.
It must be noted that the study is limited to a small number of participants in China. It would be nice if other countries perform the same kind of study on their own. I would be curious to see the results. So, while it might not necessarily apply to me and my family, since we don't live in China, this is still an interesting study to me. Especially as a parent who plays video games around my kids and whose kids will more than likely be playing video games as well in the future. It's already happening now. Davin already knows how turn on the Xbox and play PES 2020 by himself.
A really interesting read on how dystopian narratives can incite real-world radicalism. By dystopian narratives, think something like the Hunger Games novels.
To test the impact of dystopian fiction on political attitudes, we randomly assigned subjects from a sample of American adults to one of three groups. The first group read an excerpt from The Hunger Games and then watched scenes from the 2012 movie adaptation. The second group did the same, except with a different dystopian series – Veronica Roth’s Divergent (2011-18). It features a futuristic US in which society has split into factions dedicated to distinct values; those whose capabilities cross faction lines are viewed as a threat. In the third group – the no-media control group – subjects were not exposed to any dystopian fiction prior to answering questions about their social and political attitudes.
What we found was striking. Even though they were fictional, the dystopian narratives affected subjects in a profound way, recalibrating their moral compasses. Compared with the no-media control group, subjects exposed to the fiction were 8 percentage points more likely to say that radical acts such as violent protest and armed rebellion could be justifiable. They also agreed more readily that violence is sometimes necessary to achieve justice (a similar increase of about 8 percentage points).
Yeah the world is contingent and everything in it. It comes to be, it passes away. What does that tell us? It tells us that nothing in the world contains within itself the reason for its own existence. Nothing in the world explains itself. If it did, it would always exist. It would have within itself the reason for its being. So, since it comes into being and passes away, we know it doesn't contain in itself the reason for its own existence.
Therefore, by a very healthy instinct, and every single scientist in the world knows this, by a healthy instinct we begin to look for... causes.
– Bishop Barron
All it took was for me to watch the intro to this video and I was hooked. You don't even have to be religious to be intrigued by what was said in the intro. Bishop Barron doesn't even mention the word “God” until the last 2 minutes of the video.
He goes on to discuss about contingency and contingency of the world. I was blown away. It's something I've never even considered or much less thought of.
Work from home setups. And really beautiful ones at that. I'm too embarrassed to share my setup at home, but the ones on this page are definitely worth looking at.
Got this link from the wife. I have gone through the whole post. This might be the most comprehensive and well researched post on COVID-19 that is helpful to the general population. There's a good amount of info on how to avoid getting the virus, including info on how to strengthen the immune system. There is also this:
Apart from regular hand washing, I believe that daily and frequent nasal irrigation is one of the MOST important things that we can do to prevent influenza and other viral respiratory infections from taking hold. This is because after exposure to a virus, the influenza virus tries to invade and multiply in your nasal passages for at least 1-2 days before you develop any symptoms. Nasal irrigation can wash away viral particles before they have the opportunity to take hold, and thereby prevent many infections from happening in the first place!
I've heard of irrigating your nose. At one point, I even had my own Neti pot at home. What I didn't know is how helpful irrigating your nose is for general health, until I read the quote above.
I’m talking about even those moments when inspiration strikes. You have a “brilliant” thought and you sit down to write but what comes out is banality. Your sentences don’t flow and your words can hardly express what’s really in your head. It all feels like a farce.
– From The thing about writing by Rebecca Toh
Yep, that's me. That's why I can't rush my writing. When I do, it always ends up as crap. The best advice I've seen on writing was a post here on Read.Write.As, about waiting a day or two before hitting the Publish button. Allow yourself some time to sort through the jumble of words coming from your head.
But writing is also my vice. It is an obsession, all consuming, something that I can't stop thinking about even when doing other things. It is a habit I cannot shake, one that I must live with, am more than willing to do so.
Because I still want all of this to mean something.
– From Colin Walker
Isn't that what we all want in the end? For all of this to mean something? So true.
Just wanted to point out that me and my wife have been enjoying reading the On Parenting series that Daniel Rose has been sharing on the Read.Write.As feed. As a young parent, I find a lot of the info shared in those posts to be useful and refreshing. Refreshing in the sense that it makes me reconsider what I think I know about parenting. And it also challenges my preconceptions of how I think parenting should be done.
When you choose experience over stuff you are also choosing relationship. Just giving children stuff communicates that you would prefer them to be seen not heard. Experiences are almost always linked to engagement. Leaving town or heading out on a local adventure usually means that there are significant times where the phones are put away and we are doing something together.
– From On Parenting: Experience Over Stuff
My wife texted me that quote after I sent her a number of links for reading. She said she loved it, so do I.