I’ve been dumping links into Safari’s Reading List since it was introduced in 2011 with Mac OS X Lion, but I have a spotty history of actually reading what I add there. In the interests of really using Safari’s features in a more deliberate way, and freeing myself from the never-ending “I’d-like-to-read-this-but-not-now-should-I-bookmark-pocket-instapaper-OmniFocus-it,” I thought I’d start pruning the reading list. Ultimately, I’m always near some device on which I can see the reading list, and since I very much enjoy reading on my iPhone or iPad in Safari’s Reading Mode, Safari makes great sense.
I am by no means reading every article that I added to the list since way back when, but I am clicking on things that catch my eye and deleting obviously expired and obviated links. As Oliver Burkeman counsels, we should treat this stuff like a river that passes us by, rather than a static pile to be defeated.
And noticing some things about Safari and the reading list… I really like the feature how it stays in reader mode and allows you to swipe from article to article; you don’t have to back out to the reading list to choose the next article. Plus, AI summaries now! These are really cool, and sometimes Apple Intelligence will generate a table of contents you can use to navigate the page.
Why We Procrastinate and What We Can Do About It? (New York Times)
It’s an emotion regulation issue that involves escape and avoidance. There are some squishy recommendations to help you work through the torpor.
Gabagool
The Soprano-ificiation of deli meats, explained.
There’s A Correct Number Of Drinks
It just depends on who you ask.
Rye, My Favorite Spirit, was Making a Comeback in 2015
Still, that’s why the “moment” seems more like momentum to me. Rye sales don’t even scratch the hide of 800-pound gorillas like bourbon and Scotch. But if you put rye sales on a bell curve, says Nick Crutchfield, master of whisky for Diageo — which has multiple Scotches in its portfolio, but also has Bulleit rye — the rise “would start around 2006, and then somewhere around 2011, it just shoots up. And I don’t think we’re going to see the other side of the bell for years.”
There are so many varieties of rye whisky available these days. I got into it back in the mid-2000s, I think, and all we could find was Jim Beam and Old Overholt.
Philosophy Is Useful For Journalists
Epistemology — the study of what we can know — turned out to be particularly useful, since people love to tell reporters what they believe as if it’s a fact. Well, to be fair, they often don’t know the difference between their beliefs and facts. They think the mere fact that they believe something is true — for example, that angels watch over us — makes it true. While it’s true that they’re not lying, exactly, sorting out meaningful information from the mis- and dis- versions used to be the job of ink-stained wretches. Nowadays most of us produce advertiser-driven content, of course, but still I find the discipline inherent in epistemology useful when dealing with car sellers, alternative health practitioners, and marketers of all sorts.
There’s A Weight Where You Don’t Have To Struggle?
There a weight where you don’t have to worry about taking the Oreo.
I’d like to stop worrying about the chocolate-covered pretzels.
You Can Woop Your Way To Success
YAF: yet another framework.
The Summer Slide Isn’t Inevitable
What makes these “outliers” different? Their parents, the investigators found, are significantly more likely than other low-income parents to take their children to the library during the summer and to check out books while there. The parents of these “exceptional summer learners” also read to their children for longer periods of time, and are more likely to check their children’s homework and have higher expectations for their children’s conduct grade during the school year — “types of parental involvement that could well carry over into the summer months,” the researchers note.
We always took the kids to the library, especially in the summer. First, everything was free. And we were grabbing hundreds of dollars worth of kids books by the bagful and taking them home for a couple of weeks. To read. For free. Whenever we wanted.
Remember Maker Spaces ?
I feel the same way about project-based learning these days.
It’s Not A Mid Life Crisis. Just An Existential One
No shame here.
You Can Escape Zip Ties
Prone To Procrastination? Structure It.
Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact. The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done.
Batman: Not So Innocent
Batman’s reputation has always been that he used non-lethal means. It was a code. This article points out that that hasn’t always been the case.
Blue light Discovered! Put down the iPad and get a Kindle.
We got blue-blocker glasses for Joe a long time ago. I have tried to stay away from an iPad or iPhone screen in bed (preferring my Kobo) but lately I’ve been spading. I don’t notice anything.
The SAT: Not so bad?
I didn’t do that great on the SAT. Whatevs.
Speaking of Mac OS X Lion, I have a very fond remembrance of it coming out. I had ordered my first MacBook Air, which I got just as we were leaving for vacation in Ocean City. So I had the Mac to set up and play with over a whole week of vacation. About it I wrote:
If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be the MacBook Air. It was my first Mac with an SSD, and I absolutely loved it. I only stopped using it because my son needed something to play Minecraft on; I was not in the market for a replacement. The 13” Pro I replaced it with was superior, technically, but I didn’t really need the extra power and the Air was just the right size for everything I needed it for.