T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 110
Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #110!
Here are some things I really like and that you might too.
Financial Independence/Work Life/Retirement Articles
How AI could spur a crisis of meaning (Financial Times) (possible paywall) – “The technology could upend politics if it disrupts as many jobs as is expected.“
Trying to make work feel meaningful may do more harm than good, according to new research (Fast Company) – “Tracy Brower explains why meaningful work programs that lack commitment and authenticity are counter-productive.“
Video
Our knowledge and understanding of the natural world is still nascent in so many ways, scientists are still discovering new things all the time. Recently a wolf in Alaska’s Katmai National Park was caught on camera dragging a harbor seal to shore and then consuming it. Some scientists suspected wolves preyed on marine mammals, but it was a debated theory. Now we have confirmation. Enjoy this fascinating video showing the incident.
What I’m Grateful For
My graphic design sales have been substantially lower this Christmas season, but I’m blessed to still make a decent supplementary income in an artistic pursuit.
Lyrically Speaking
I could spend my life
Out where the redwoods grow
I could pass the time
Watchin’ the rivers roll
From “My Life Alone” by Whitney
When I first heard Whitney I thought “well who’s this trying to sing like the Bee Gees?” Then I gave their fist album a stream and really liked it, they have a penchant for tight melodies and lush orchestration with horns and keys. And yes, they kinda sound like Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees with those twee falsetto’s. Whitney have 4 full-length albums, and to be honest I didn’t care much for their last release Spark. But I really love the first three albums and my favorite song of theirs is “Strange Overtones” from 2020’s Candid. If you like them you can support them on Bandcamp.
As for the lyrics above, any regular reader of this blog knows I could have written those 4 lines. The nature-boy is strong inside me.
Miscellaneous
High altitude training shows promise for patients ahead of surgery – “Many patients waiting to have major surgery have low levels of fitness, high BMI, sedentary lifestyles or anemia, simulated high altitude could help older patients at risk of health complications related to surgery.“
How To Build A Bike Lane In America – “Advocates are working across the country to make their communities safer and more accessible for cyclists, but not every effort is successful.“
Innovation and Social Progress Require Unfettered Free Speech – “Language, speech, talking to one another. These are social synapses that are firing in our collective brain. Restricting that firing reduces trust in one another and cripples our capacity for innovation. It is collective brain damage.“
Hi. Keep up the good work, I really enjoy your posts, reduced volume though it may be. Did you realise Strange Overtones was a cover? I’m sure you did, but the way you called it “favourite song of theirs”… it’s a good version though. I would like to follow up on your recommendations but there is so little time to listen to music for me, even though largely retired (in my mid 50s). I mainly listen to the BBC’s Radio 6 Music which gives me a good mix of familiar and new but is generally very eclectic – don’t know if you can get that on the internet in the US but I imagine so as they have many overseas (from UK) listeners.
Yes, Whitney does a lot of covers! They did “Take Me Home Country Roads” from John Denver and “Far Far Away” From Wilco too. I like Whitney’s version of Strange Overtones better than the original from Byrne/Eno because the original to me is too digital. I prefer analog sounds over digital almost always. I just tried that BBC 6 Music site and it appears to work for me, I’ll give it a listen – Thanks for reading and commenting!
Album cover on Strange Overtones is beautiful.
I don’t think meaning is the end all be all of making work great; it can help you put up with some crappy work conditions for awhile, but not matter how meaningful a job is, you get used to the purpose behind it yet it still keeps sucking. At least that was my experience.
Seems like the bike lane article and the making pointless jobs meaningful article share the same theme: If you do things for the wrong reasons, you’ll end up making stuff worse.
Where I live city hall went nuts over bike lanes so they could get on some national rankings as being “bike friendly” to try and attract people here. Having worked as a bike courier here I can tell you the arbitrarily painted lanes just made stuff more confusing. The few protected lanes are pretty sweet though. So it goes. At least we got your sweet blog to read, and even more cool music to listen to 🙂
The meaning thing is weird, I had it for many periods and then it’d vanish and the day to day BS would overtake it. But with my graphic design it’s different, there’s meaning for sure but it’s far more rewarding. And stoked you like the music, I really enjoy sharing stuff that others might not know about.
merry christmas, dude.
The same to you and the better half!
Hi! I’ve been enjoying your back catalogue of posts especially the ones related to W2 semi-RE post-FI… I think I was aware of the existence of your blog previously via RB40 etc., but never realized how far back it went beyond the Friday round-ups.
I have a dumb question about engagement: should I bother commenting under old posts, or are those comment sections sort of relegated to archival black-hole?
First off – THANKS for reading and especially for digging into my archive. Yes I’ve been blogging since 2017 and used to post a lot more frequently so I have a large corpus of posts, 577 published posts to be exact. And yes feel free to comment on old posts, I respond to all comments unless they are mean or obvious spam etc. Cheers!
Cool! Looking forward to leaving a breadcrumb trail as time allows. Some subjects are timeless and there is plenty that looks intriguing.
Yes please be mindful of the date of old posts as many were written in the height of covid or when some other stock market things was going on – cheers!