Heavy Rotation
Forgotify | Discover a previously unheard Spotify track
Plays a track for you that has never ever been played before by any user anywhere. Apparently there are millions of these just waiting to be discovered. The first one that came up for me was from a self-published album of folk music from India. Some person spent some portion of their precious lifespan making that song, and I was the first to listen to it (on Spotify). And for that song in particular, hopefully I was also the last. I want those three minutes of my precious lifespan back. -Brian
Timeless Things
Yale’s 367-year-old Dutch water bond still pays interest
Most bonds have a defined end date but occassionally bonds are issued that pay interest in perpetuity. One of these was issued in 1648 and is still paying interest; although the few bucks a year that comes to Yale (which has the bond in one of their libraries) highlights the power of inflation over time.
Here's a 4 minute video showing the waterworks the bond was originally issued to fund.
If you like this sort of monetary history, for further reading I recommend the excellent Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson. He covers the development of money and financial markets from ancient times through the present. Amazon Link Here -Brian
Nobilified - hand painted oil portraits of yourself as royalty
Katie and I are semi-seriously considering having a giant Renaissance-style oil painting of our family made for our living room. That would be amazing, right? -Brian
Random Things
When Did We Turn on the Mustache?
YES. Let's bring back the mustache! Who's with me?!?! -Brian
No. – Calvin
Business Time
Bitcoin Is Ridiculous. Blockchain Is Dangerous.
I know, I know, we covered Bitcoin ad nauseum (like literally we were nauseated) a few eps back. But technology doesn't sit still these days, and if you've been following this technological space it has been a wild ride with almost daily crashes and recoveries. If you still are trying to understand cryptocurrency (aka "Space Jewels") or just want to read the most entertaining article (author: Paul Ford) I've read in about 2 months check this one out. *-Brian
Work / Productivity
The “Spell” of Procrastination: Specious Barriers and How to Conquer Them
This article ties in well with a previous article I shared about the excuse "I don't have time". Procrastination is so attractive because it's safe; if you don't ever try to get something done, you have zero chances of failing to get that thing done.
I also enjoy the word "specious". Although if I tried to use it in a sentence with my accent it would just sound like "spacious" and everyone would think I was dumb. – Calvin
Productivity in 2017: What we learned from analyzing 225 million hours of work time
If the last article was motivational for you, this one will bring you back down to Earth pretty fast. Key takeaway here: you have so much less time per week to actually get things done than you think you do. We are hilariously optimistic when it comes to estimating the amount of time it will take to accomplish a task, and apparently we don't know much about how many calendar days it will take to accomplish that task either.
Caveat: this app only has data from people that use the app, but to me that is even more convincing. If you're someone that cares enough about productivity to install a productivity tracking app, then you're probably a high-performing individual. And if performance-minded folks are only able to cobble together 12.5 hours of productive time per week (that's 2.5 hours a day) then that is shocking. – Calvin
Follytics
Tim Keller & Jonathan Haidt at NYU (Full Version) - The Veritas Forum - The Veritas Forum
Atheist and Christian pastor find common ground in how we respectfully disagree with each other. It's long but it's really fantastic. You can find this same podcast on iTunes or the video on Youtube. -Brian
Trash Fire
45 E 22nd St # 60FL, New York, NY 10010 on Zillow
Two crazy properties for sale that you might want to add to your "when I win the lottery" plans.
Outro
That's it for this week. We'd love a little feedback: do you like the themed issues – like last week's Star Wars issue – or do you prefer our old format of links from all the random corners of the Internet that Brian and I frequent?
You can just reply to the email and let us know, or tell us to our faces next time we hang out :)
Have a wonderful weekend.