1 / Reading

Took a break from books after the Hobsbawm sprint to peruse my copy of Noema.

I particularly enjoyed the essay on statecraft as soulcraft which reminded me of this blog post I wrote after reading Kissinger's World Order.

Values and culture are underappreciated as animating forces; perhaps because the algorithms are dictating culture?

2 / Building

Portico's moving full speed ahead. Have been working on a thought piece that articulates why we believe climate tech needs a new capital model—stay tuned.

Built a project over a weekend that I am so excited about: the Thucydides Daily Reader.

I have completely geeked out on this; I am so passionate about this book.

I detest effusive language, but studying "Thucydides on War" with Marco Cesa in Bologna changed my relationship with the written word.

If you've never read Thucydides, please explore the site I've built. No pressure to follow along every day—we've all got too much to do—but do please dip in occasionally.

It will transform your understanding of the world.

And I would love to talk to you about it.

3 / Listening

Been listening to two 'ID - ID' tracks from Andrea Oliva's appearance on the Keinemusik Radio Show on repeat:

1. The first track which sounds like an unreleased Masšh tune

2. This banger that I've heard before but don't remember where or when

The second track is a genius composition.

I can don some headphones, close my eyes, play it on repeat, and a cascade of memories will flood my eyelids ...

Memories of youth, faces of friends still with us and departed, recollections of dancing on hard floors and soft sand ... or holding my infant son close to my chest in the dark hours, moving to tunes to keep him calm ... bleary-eyed moments in clubs from Rio to Moscow, beautiful people, laughter, vitality.

Or I will just pet my dog who has been a veritable companion for a dozen years, tracing my finger along the ridgeline of her spine and the bones of old age, marveling at how the surrender of freedom and the embrace of obligation—love as a positive-sum phenomenon—invited me into a richer world.

4 / Number

507

Days in the Thucydides Daily Reader.

Thanks for reading!

Hit reply! I read every response.

Let me know what you’re reading, building, and/or listening to.

Abrazos,
Mike