We’ve nationalized so many of the events over the last few decades that the federal government is involved in virtually every disaster that happens. And that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. It stresses FEMA unnecessarily. And it allows states to shift costs from themselves to other states, while defunding their own emergency management because Uncle Sam is going to pay. That’s not good for anyone.
How a Smart Conservative Would Reform FEMA – Jordan Weissmann – The Atlantic
Dark Shadows. DNF. It’s terrible.
Two-Lane Blacktop. There’s not a lot of explicit plot motivation or dramatic arc. The characters are enigmatic drifters, and with one exception, don’t really talk a lot (there’s definitely some Western genre flavor here). I can totally see how someone might hate it. But not me. Besides the novelty of seeing James Taylor and Dennis Wilson acting, it’s got: surprisingly great photography, Warren Oates playing one of my new favorite movie characters, a nice slice-of-life/picture-of-an-era thing going, and the commitment to do its thing all the way through.
The very type of deep work that provides the nutriment for remarkable results also defies all our instincts for how a productive day should feel. I don’t have a specific set of strategies to suggest here. Instead, I just want to point out that when it comes to our understanding of how to build towards something important in our working life, there is a lot that our current conversation about work — which focuses on themes like courage, passion and productivity — seems to be missing.
Study Hacks » Blog Archive » The Joys and Sorrows of Deep Work
A case can be made that people who read a preposterous number of books are not playing with a full deck. I prefer to think of us as dissatisfied customers.
Some of my best, most mind-expanding conversations have occurred with good friends who agree with me on almost everything––but not quite everything. Bottom Line: Want to learn and get smarter by talking to people? Seek out those who agree with you on 99.9% of things, and then push, push, push at the niche-y, hyper-specific areas of disagreement. It’s not about groupthink; it’s not about confirmation bias. It’s about learning on the margin.
Cf. William Deresiewicz.
Introspection means talking to yourself, and one of the best ways of talking to yourself is by talking to another person.
You Learn From People Who Mostly Agree With You | Ben Casnocha
AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies.
I’ve seen a little over half of the updated list. Interesting to see how the rankings changed between the first list in 1998 and the revision in 2007. Vertigo, City Lights, and The Searchers each jumped over 50 spots. Doctor Zhivago and The Birth of a Nation, originally list in the top 50, failed to make the cut the second time around. But The Sixth Sense did!
AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Apocalypse Now. Um. Epic.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It really is really good. Best of the Star Treks I’ve seen so far, for sure. Parable aside, one thing I’m growing to appreciate in this universe is the space battles. There aren’t always hordes of TIE fighters and X-wings buzzing in frantic clouds. Just a couple gigantic-ass ships lumbering around. You’ve got torpedoes, phasers, shields, and engines. Pick one, because you can’t go full power on everything. Every choice has a cost.
I find two things especially noteworthy about these things that Everyone Knows: first, they tend to be really nasty-minded; and second, they tend to be equally tidy-minded — that is, they make the world a neat, simple place in which there are ever so many people one needn’t take seriously, or treat with anything other than immediately reflexive contempt, because one knows in advance of any particular encounter exactly what they’re like.
And they’ve got a tumblr.
Okay, definitely feeling some confirmation bias when I read this, but I was glad to see this criticism about a movie I never saw.
The Help fails to challenge us now, instead creating an easy, rather than troubling, space, in which we can laugh at the “pastness” of our past, especially its prejudices.
Thunder Road. It’s not amazing, but it’s fun, funny and memorable, which is close to the same thing. Good music. Nice engine roars. There’s one car crash that’s just amazing. Lemme spoil it: the car spins out, and skids off the road. Okay, no big deal. Then, wait, now it’s going downhill. And gaining speed. And then it catches fire! And tumbles end over end! And THEN it plunges into a waterfall! Exhilarating. Also, how could Mitchum’s character not go for Roxy?
The Long Goodbye. It’s all mood and meandering. I’m often okay with that sort of thing, but this one didn’t totally click with me. Gould is an excellent Marlowe, though. I think this is the only Robert Altman movie I’ve seen.
Oldboy. A lot of energy. It’s a revenge flick and a couple other genres, too. I’m not thrilled with the ending and various revelations, but I can’t complain when the journey there is so good. At the very least, watch the corridor fight scene. Ridiculous, but just real enough that it doesn’t feel like a total put-on. And how about that soundtrack? I watched on Tyler Cowen’s recommendation. I’ll have to look up some more good Korean movies, as I know basically nothing.
Worldview-crash is usually comprehensive.
Glass:
When I talk to young composers, I tell them, I know that you’re all worried about finding your voice. Actually you’re going to find your voice. By the time you’re 30, you’ll find it. But that’s not the problem. The problem is getting rid of it. You have to find an engine for change. And that’s what collaborative work does. Whatever we do together will make us different.
Philip Glass and Beck Discuss Collaborating on ‘Rework’ – NYTimes.com
Mark Larson 