7 things worth sharing this weekend

5/4/24

Back from Nashville, where I had a fresh “moist” experience with humidity after being out of it for a few months…

Here are a few things worth reading this weekend.

1. What phones are doing to reading. At The New Yorker.

   • “The e-reading apps have their merits. At times, they become respites from the other, more addictive apps on my phone. Switching to a book from, say, Twitter, is like the phone-scroller’s version of a nice hike—the senses reorient themselves, and you feel more alert and vigorous…”

2. When do we stop finding new music? A statistical analysis from

   Daniel Parris

   • Hint: It’s older than I thought.

3. I watched a guy eat a barrel of cheeseballs from

   Caroline Cala Donofrio

   • Kinda gross, kinda inspiring, and it happened not far from where I live

4. The Life and Death of Hollywood. At Harper’s.

   • The streaming model was based on bringing in subscribers—grabbing as much of the market as possible—rather than on earning revenue from individual shows. And big swings brought in new viewers. “It’s like a whole world of intellectuals and artists got a multibillion-dollar grant from the tech world,” Smith said. “But we mistook that, and were frankly actively gaslit into thinking that that was because they cared about art.”

5. This 715-song playlist is scientifically verified to give you the chills. At The Big Think.

   • Frisson! Here’s the Spotify playlist if you want to just get the chills w/o knowing why.

6. Skills give you options, not obligations. New from me!

7. A lot of creators don’t like their audience, what’s the way out? From the archive.

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   Notes on reading/watching/listening

   1. So close to being done with Biography of X, it’s a good read, especially if you like the exploration of experimental art

      1. Not sure what I’m reading next

   2. I saw Civil War, the movie by Alex Garland.

      1. Some great cinematography, but the stakes seemed confused. It didn’t give enough backstory for me to be too invested. Interesting premise that didn’t go far enough.

   3. Just been watching a lot of NBA playoffs & traveling across the country & listening to Amy Grant tapes via my children’s new cassette recorder

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Last Thing

“Knowledge is not skill. Knowledge plus ten thousand times is skill.” — Shinichi Suzuki

Keep going-

Josh Spilker