Plane of Focus

Photo of the Week

Grace inside an English willow at Kew.

Reading

I finally finished Robert Tombs’ astounding The English and Their History. It is probably one of the few books I’ve read that tries to go through all of history, and there’s probably no better narrative for understanding the world than the history of the English (often for good and often for ill), who have had an out-sized influence on world affairs for such a small “island” country. Tombs does a great job with this great task: the book is illuminating and engaging, and somehow often turns into a page turner. The book is written with the intent of illuminating how the English (and the world) have arrived where we are today, and it does a great job of tracing how obscure decisions made for important contemporary reasons have and continue to shape today’s world. Phenomenal.  Here’s a great review of the book from David Frum.

Listening

1. Game Plan on living abroad, a great look at some of the challenges of working abroad. The hit on my biggest: moving back to America where there’s no free healthcare is terrifying.
   
2. Super fascinating/scary look at the United States’ plans for running the government after a nuclear apocalypse. Somehow funny?

Photo of the Week

Highgate Cemetery, London

Reading

1. The Man Trap, a look from Emily Bobrow at the growing dissatisfaction with work-life balance amongst male professionals. Basically, and I can say this myself, we are stressing about an increased desire to be at home with kids intersecting with increasing work hours.
   
2. Great essay from Benedict Evans at Andreessen Horowitz on how to tell if a new technology is or isn’t a thing. Not even wrong: ways of dismissing technology.
3. Bob Dylan’s Nobel Lecture on how his music does or does not fit into literature is really just a celebration of literature. In the midst of describing the Odyssey: “In a lot of ways, some of these same things have happened to you. You too have had drugs dropped into your wine. You too have shared a bed with the wrong woman. You too have been spellbound by magical voices, sweet voices with strange melodies. You too have come so far and have been so far blown back. And you’ve had close calls as well. You have angered people you should not have. And you too have rambled this country all around. And you’ve also felt that ill wind, the one that blows you no good. And that’s still not all of it.“
4. You can see how your secrets line up with others in a survey of our secret lives
5. I’m getting more and more interested in product management, and this McKinsey report on doing product management right definitely has me considering it more.

Listening

1. Thinking and Friendship in Dark Times: Hannah Arendt For Now, a great interview from On Being with Lyndsey Stonebridge. One of the best views I’ve seen on how the 20th century led to the 21st (loneliness, statelessness) and how we can find a better future (moral imagination, a willingness to take risks to find solutions, and a willingness to forgive). The conversation looks at Hannah Arendt’s ideas, both how they formed and what they mean today. Highly recommended.
   
2. Fresh Air on the weird complicated history of the man that created Wonder Woman by drawing on the suffrage movement and pinup posters.
   
3. Tyler Cowen discusses American history with Jill Lepore (the same historian that discusses Wonder Woman above). Interesting views, but the best bit is her discussion of what it feels like to come from the middle class but break into the upper echelons.
   
4. A new Invisibilia episode about a man who uses a program to find completely random Facebook events to attend to break out of his routine.

Photo of the Week

Grace in the hedges at Ascott

Reading

1. Another look at the obliteration of American retail and the impact it will have on unemployment.
   
2. The New Yorker has a devastating piece on the opioid epidemic focusing on West Virginia from Margaret Talbot. A severe crisis with no end in sight under the current administration.
3. A paper on how CEO’s views towards time (pacing in particular) helps or hinders their organizations.
4. Trump is helping Canada’s AI industry by making tech people want to leave America.
5. Even The Economist likes Marx these days, to an extent.
6. Brainstorming is awful, because of groupthink, so try brainwriting instead.
7. Private equity always wins, which is exactly what happened to a previous company I worked for.

Listening

1. I recently discovered BBC 4′s In Our Time and have been going through their older episodes. Their episode on Seneca the Younger is particularly great, as is their discussion of Hokusai.
   
2. Tyler Cowen’s interview with Raj Chatty on teachers and social mobility is a great look at why education matters. I think we should double teacher pay and make the positions more competitive – and respected in society.

Photo of the Week

Reading

Still mostly reading The English and Their History:

’Whig’ and ‘Tory’, and the more modern ‘Liberal’ and ‘Conservative’ (terms borrowed from Spanish and French politics in the 1830s): are they now just archaic labels with no significant relationship to their origins in a society in which political choice is thought to fllow individual opinion and socio-economic interest? The prudent answer would be yes. And yet: in 2010 the Tories still won in the English counties and small towns, as in the 1840s; the anti-Tory parties were stronger in larger towns, especially in the north, areas where Nonconformity is or used to be strong. … 

Tories are still attracted by Disraeli’s and Burke’s ‘one nation’ ideal of unity and harmony, and would doubtless agree with the former that ‘the Tory party … is the national party; it is the really democratic party of England’. … They are attached to the traditional ideas of liberty, at least for people like themselves. … Tories often idealise the past, celebrating a triumphalist version of English and British history, and clinging to ancient symbols such as monarchy. …

By contrast, the anti-Tory traditions, Whig, Liberal and Labour, have a different myth of England and Britain. They reject the Burkean vision of harmony in favour of one of conflict – ‘the rich story of the people of these island who fought for and defended our rights’, in which [a long history of revolutionaries] are transformed into a torch-bearing relay of Progress. … The Nonconformist tradition … a view of politics as moral struggle (as opposed to ‘the art of the possible’).

But I did manage to find time for some other reading:

1. I’m a big fan of Daniel Dennett, so enjoyed both this New York Review review of his new book, From Bacteria to Bach and Bach: The Evolution of Minds and this long, meandering New Yorker profile.
2. Huge sections of Chicago’s Union Station are empty.
   
3. The absurd joy of museum 404 pages, curated by Hyperallergic.
4. The Economist explains What is Pluralism, in celebration of a new pluralism centre in Canada.
5. Also from the Economist: Date is the Oil of the Future and what that will mean for future businesses and the economy.

Listening

1. Joan C. Williams discusses her new book on the working class with HBR. A fraught topic handled well, with a good overview of what values to why and why.

Watching

1. Scott Galloway on how Amazon is obliterating retail.
   
2. The new season of Fargo has been great.

Doing

We’re moving back to the States in July, so I’ve been trying to take full advantage of our time in the UK by going for long early morning walks in London. This week was a nice ten mile walk through Chelsea, Battersea, Vauxhall and then back north to Euston. Walking, as always I think, is the best way to get to know an area.

Photo of the Week

My favourite part of Hidcote, my favourite English garden.

Reading

No articles this week because I’ve been diving back into the phenomenal The English and Their History. So here’s a quote instead:

“We like to think that liberty is fought for. Judging by occasional comments in the media and politicians, a widespread belief is that liberty was won during the [English] Civil War. The reality is different: the war almost destroyed liberty. Only when the country rejected fighting, and zealots had abandoned their visions of a compulsory New Jerusalem, was liberty possible. To the Whigs we owe the principle – Magna Carta restated in modern form – that rulers must obey the law and that legitimate authority requires the consent of the people. From the Tories came the principle – fundamental to any political order – that people have no right to rebel against a government because they disagree with it. Combining these seemingly conflicting principles produced characteristics of English political culture: suspicion of Utopias and zealots; trust in common sense and experience; respect for tradition; preference for gradual change; and the view that ‘compromise’ is victory, not betrayal.”

Listening

1. Marc Andreeson on the future, covering topics from is tech useful or useless, good or evil to flying cars and more
   
2. Bryan Stevenson on justice, poverty and the brokenness of the American justice system in an interview with Ezra Klein
3. Wide-ranging but fun and fascinating conversation between Steven Pinker and Tyler Cowen

Photo of the Week

Reading

1. Chicago approves North Branch redevelopment plan. I worked on Goose Island for eight years, and I’m excited to see the area undergo big transformations. Maybe I’ll work there again?
   
2. Also Chicago: choosing the right colour for street lights.
3. Developers are using Grand Theft Auto to test self-driving cars.
4. How to be perfect by the poet whose poetry is used in Paterson.
5. How the UK lost a post WWII lead in tech by excluding women.

Listening

1. Ezra Klein interviews Cal Newport on getting away from distractions to do deep work. I wonder how good or bad I am at doing this?

Cooking

1. I tried this teriyaki chicken recipe, which had a criminal lack of detail but was still delicious. Next time I’ll use a larger skillet and drain the chicken juices before adding any sauce and putting it in the oven.
   

Photo of the Week

Reading

1. Adrian Coles, who died on March 23rd, dedicated his life to saving British hedgehogs: the best obituary you’ll read this year.
2. Sheryl Sandberg on how to build resilience in kids, advice I’ll try to use but hope to never truly need.
   
3. Two Kellogg professors look at “insuring” people with pre-existing conditions. It amazes me how far the political conversation about healthcare is from the expert discussion about healthcare.

Listening

1. Businessweek’s Gameplan on how women breadwinners are treated at home in the office. Still a long way to go.
   
2. The Weeds, from Vox, continues to have the best analysis of AHCA.

Watching

1. Paterson is a calm, lovely movie about creativity within routines. It’s a pleasure to watch, and something I’m sure we’ll rewatch over the coming years whenever we want a reminder to slow life down and just enjoy it.
   
2. We also enjoyed The Good Place (we loved Parks and Rec). Very curious to see where it goes in future seasons.

I’ve missed a few weeks due to some holiday, but there’s plenty to catch up on.

Photo of the Week

Grace walking in an ancient oak forest near us (Stockgrove Country Park)

Reading

1. Great visual tutorial on machine learning from R2D3.
2. Digitising one of the world’s largest books from Hyperallergic. One seriously cool book.
3. The long history of “they” as a gender-neutral pronoun from The Economist. It’s settled for me and this is what I’ll use going forward.
4. A Kellogg professor on all the other decisions United could have made before beating up a passenger.

Also some updates on the list of books I’ve been reading.

Listening

1. America First vs. The American Dream, as discussed by a bunch of British cultural types.
   
2. Are you a conflict seeker or avoider? from HBR ideascast is a useful way of thinking how you approach conflict at work (and life)

Cooking

1. We’ve done this alfredo recipe a few times and it always works well. And will make your heart stop. Quick (other than the chore of grating a cup of parmesan) and super tasty.