Things I Like
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Placing these lands under collective Native control would be good not just for Natives, but for the parks as well. In addition to our deep and abiding reverence for wild spaces, tribes have a long history of administering to widely dispersed holdings and dealing with layers of bureaucracy.
This idea is a very good one and should be taken seriously, for the Tribes as well as for the health of the parks.
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Workers, moreover, tend to be pretty good at equipping themselves with in-demand skills when they have the resources to invest in themselves and when companies are hiring. The problem lies not with American workers, but with American jobs and American policy infrastructure. Too many jobs pay too little. They’re too dangerous. They offer too few benefits. They offer no union representation. They are inaccessible to millions of Americans who are pushed out of the labor market by illness, disability, poverty, the arrival of young children, or discrimination.
I hate the way we categorize jobs and it starts so early when we push high school students to think about what they want their "career" to be. We need folks to do all sorts of jobs and all of them can and should be good jobs, it's our choice to say that they aren't all good jobs.
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The forest gardens were filled with plants that benefited humans, but they also continue to provide food for birds, bears, and insect pollinators, even after 150 years of neglect. It’s evidence that human impact on the environment can have long-lasting positive effects.
I loved learning about this, a short article, but such an interesting thing to think about.
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As Field perceptively notes in her piece, “conspiracism…has the allure of the radical and of the forbidden”—conspiracism, like its cousin despair, is attractive—it makes one feel special. It is romanticism without the romance. As such, the politics of cultural despair has temptations for people in all social conditions.
Wow, this piece puts into words so well things I've been trying to put my finger lately.
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It seems to me that the reason that so many of us feel like we’re languishing is that we are trying to flourish in terrible conditions. It is spring outside — or the “unlocking” season — but it is still “Winter in America,” and, as any gardener knows, if you try to wake a plant out of dormancy too soon, it will wither, and maybe die.
I really like the way Kleon turns the idea of languishing into dormancy, which I much prefer as well.
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You don’t need a yard or a big house — people all over the world dry clothes on tiny high-rise balconies or in windows.
I've been hang drying most of my laundry most of my adult life. It started with a foldable rack in college and using the shower curtain rod, then I got a house and got more racks, then we got a house with a basement where we could put actual clothes lines, and now we're in a house and back to using three racks. And I've been able to manage it no matter what size my living space was. A small thing, but for some reason people are always surprised to learn this is possible.
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By consistently presenting nature as an untouched wilderness, many nature documentaries mislead viewers into thinking that there are lots of untouched wildernesses left. I certainly thought there were, before I became an environmental journalist. This misapprehension then prompts people to build their environmental ideas around preserving untouched places and to embrace profoundly antihuman “solutions” to environmental problems, such as kicking indigenous people out of their homeland. In truth, wilderness doesn’t really exist.
Really interesting perspective on how these really luscious looking documentaries are shaping the way people view nature. I'm still chewing on how by leaving people out of them we're telling a false narrative because people are intrinsically part of what's going on in the world.
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In an industry that is predicated on innovation, it seems absurd that young people are still encouraged to be frictionless. VC’s pride themselves on being contrarian, and yet the industry is still ruled by the same practices and principles that were established 40 years ago. And the lack of friction -- in our products, processes, and people -- has made it easier to cling to the status quo. If giving up my suite of no-code automation tools created more space to rethink and redesign the processes that define the venture industry, I would do it in a second. Maybe more friction -- more questions, slower processes, higher barriers to broadcasting every thought that comes to our minds -- is exactly what we need to break the status quo.
Interesting thoughts on how the way we make software has shaped the way in which companies operate and the way they're funded as well.
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I told her that I find myself craving role models my age who are not only righteous crusaders, but also humble and merciful, and that I’m not finding them where I live (online). Referring to the influencers who have filled the void religious faith has left for people like me, she said, “They might inspire you to live your best life but not make the best use of your life.”
So much in this piece that I'm thinking about, but I'm mostly struck by how much we look for meaning in life and we look to others to help us find it. But that line, living your best life instead of making the best use of it is rattling around in my head a lot.
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A really gorgeously created essay on one small painting that taught me so much. I'm loving these types of articles lately, even more now that I don't live near any museums, a way to experience art while I'm at home.
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...I subscribed to the idea that a particular number on a scale or dress size was required to feel good about myself, when actually the exact opposite turned out to be true. I decided to wear those things I was avoiding. As my confidence grew, I went brighter with the colors and bolder with the prints—Hello Polkadots! I found what clothes I liked to wear and slowly grew my wardrobe to suit my needs.
I'm really enjoying Philip's writing as I start to make more of my clothing, I love the way she talks about finding your style and what makes you happy.
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As difficult as it was to acknowledge the specter of death that loomed over us, it felt good to share it with my mother. Remaining silent and denying my own feelings wasn’t minimizing the harm I feared inflicting on her. The only way forward was to feel as much as we needed to, talking about it candidly over salted eggs. Perhaps that, too, could be a type of preservation.
An absolutely beautiful essay that brought me to tears. Thank you Nicole for writing it.
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Jessica admitted that Ravelry has struggled to pinpoint exactly what constitutes inappropriate content. “Some of this stuff is so nuanced,” she said. “Think about what tweet got Trump banned. It was not about attending the Inauguration.” She went on, “We went through some pretty crazy rabbit holes: ‘O.K., this is an eagle, but it isn’t really the Nazi eagle. Or is it?’ It’s just, like, ugh.”
There's a lot in this article, but it was super interesting to me as a Ravelry user. I'm on that site more than any other site these days, I track my projects, buy most of my patterns through it, and keep up with what my friends are making. But there's one part I don't really use much at all: the forums. And so much of what Ravelry is experiencing is happening in those communities and that's where the hard part of community management is. The other thing I was thinking about after this article is how much how Ravelry started (with the community buying things to raise the money) plays a huge part in how many of those same folks feel about the site, they feel a unique sense of ownership. Last thing: they lightly touched upon the topic of the new design and accessibility came up at the end and I agree with the developer they talked to, Ravelry isn't doing anything horrible in that department so the complaints have been really puzzling to me.
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That said, I suspect that intentional constraints on scope and scale allow for deeper, more satisfying, and ultimately more useful work. I suspect that a disciplined commitment to messy truths over smooth narratives would also breathe life into technology, journalism, and public health efforts that too frequently paper over the complex, many-voiced nature of the world. And I suspect that treating people like humans who are intrinsically motivated to do useful work in the world, and who deserve genuine care, allows far more people to do their best work without destroying themselves in the process.
Thank you Covid Tracking Project for all your work. I'm also sad that talking about caring for humans is a thing that needs to be said out loud, but it seems with capitalism constantly pushing, it is and I'm glad it was said so well here in so many ways.
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She thinks we’re too conditioned to see our lives as linear stories of constant progress. From that perspective, any setback or lull or loss in our personal or professional lives is an abject failure and a sign of doom. In reality, she sees our lives as cyclical, seasonal.
I really want to read this book, it's on my list, but so many are on my list! I've realized in the last few years that I very much live differently in different seasons, but the idea of my life as a whole being cyclical and seasonal is interesting and one I'll be thinking about for a while.