Intro / Preface / Extra Words
Thanks for signing up. I'm going to be really honest: I'm so excited that newsletters are kind of hip right now. I think Calvin-age-10-3/4 would have been really proud of present-day-Calvin for starting one. I wrote so many "newsletters" and "announcements" to my siblings when I was a kid. I've actually discovered several of them while cleaning out my house recently. Ask me about this IRL.
Since this is the first issue, I wanted to give a quick definition for each of the categories you'll see below.
- Timeless Things: these are what cool blogger types call "evergreen content". It's not based on trends or current events, it's just good content that you could read today or next year or five years from now and still get something out of it.
- Random Things: these articles are nothing like the above. It's just random, trivial junk I see in the weird corners of the Internet I frequent.
- Work / Productivity: I'm a sucker for a good post about someone's morning routine or how they've gotten their crap together and are now 10x more efficient at brushing their teeth (or something like that). I will endure all the eye-rolling these articles bring my way, because they make me happy.
- Business Time: This is a reference to a show I didn't really watch but the song is really funny. These will be links to articles about business and the economy and stuff, and you'll be able to cite these articles to impress your friends and coworkers.
- Sports (Basketball): I don't want to pretend that all the sports links won't be about basketball. They'll be about basketball.
- Science And Stuff: Yep.
- Further Reading: These are real-life books with paper pages, covered in ink, bound together with glue and not reliant on batteries. Some of them are books I've read, some I haven't read but I am pretending that I will read them. In actuality, they'll live on an Amazon wish list, where they will stay until I "accidentally" order them when Amanda is out of town.
Timeless Things
Lessons from the longest study on happiness
This isn't a new talk, but it's new to me. This study is ongoing, and was started over 75 years ago (!). What makes life "good" really boils down to one thing: relationships. And this is definitely a quality over quantity situation.
Random Things
Doomsday Prep for the Super Rich
Stole this from JD's Curated newsletter. It's long, but it's too weird to pass up. Fav quote from the founder of PayPal:
To Levchin, prepping for survival is a moral miscalculation; he prefers to “shut down party conversations” on the topic. “I typically ask people, ‘So you’re worried about the pitchforks. How much money have you donated to your local homeless shelter?’ This connects the most, in my mind, to the realities of the income gap. All the other forms of fear that people bring up are artificial.”
Terrorists are building drones. France is destroying them with eagles.
Goodness gracious, this is just really badass. No other way to say it. I immediately thought of Return of the King and a flock of Great Eagles swooping down to save the day.
Work / Productivity
The 5 Productive Morning Routines Of Highly Effective People
I love Trello. I use it every day at work to keep a record of ideas for the products I manage. So you'll see a lot of links to the Trello blog here.
This article is pretty basic, but lots of good ideas and links to other ideas about morning routines. One dude has a "personal mission statement" he recites every morning. I really want to start asking people about their personal mission statements at parties.
I love technology (and science)
Neanderthals Were People, Too
The writing here is really good. I mean, sure, it's a pretty fun title and super interesting and a little science-y, but I really enjoy the writing.
"Even the sand that passed through the sieve was saved and driven back to a lab at the museum, where I would later find three other students picking through it with magnifying glasses and tweezers, searching for tinier stuff — rodent teeth, sea-urchin spines — while listening to “Call Me Maybe.”
Good stuff.
Further Reading
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life
I'm reading this book right now with a few of my friends. We're annoying each other so badly that it's come to this.
Not really. It's a book about setting yourself up for success in relationships by helping you understand the way you treat others and the way you handle relational responsibility from a Christian point of view. Worth the $8.