Late summer tiny letter
The messenger matters
I give blood regularly with the Red Cross. It only takes around 30-40 minutes. I also gave platelets once, but that takes more like 2+ hours, and you have lines in both arms, so it's pretty much two hours of slack-jawed staring at whatever streaming program you choose. And you won't be able to use the remote control, so pick wisely.
Lately, the Red Cross has been hounding me rather insistently, calling both my phone numbers, the app is texting me offering a gift certificate and a free "donor" magnet for my car, and they send me direct mail as well. Now, I assume they are being so aggressive because folks really need platelets, and there is a shortage. But this got me thinking about what I call "the messenger problem." Who delivers a message is often just as important as, if not more important than, the message itself.
For example, it's often very difficult to convey health guidance, the matter how accurate or well-intentioned, to a family member. That same advice from medical professional may be much better received. Or in some cases, hearing first-person accounts from a member of one’s tribe (hunting aficionado, fellow churchgoer, etc.) could be necessary.
In this case, even though I find the Red Cross' aggressiveness annoying, I respect the importance of their work, so it doesn't bother me that much. I know they are trying to save lives.
I'm reminded of this Saturday Night Live skit.
Three simple policy heuristics?
Did you fall asleep at the headline? This essay is really good. I can't say I disagree with any of it. The author is correct, all he describes is easy to understand, and devilishly difficult to implement.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/three-simple-policy-heuristics1/There is a widespread belief that life is shit, “hard choices” have to be made, and those hard choices usually involve someone else suffering and dying.
Life may well be lousy, but most “hard choices” don’t have to be made, and those hard choices are one of the main reasons why life is lousy for so many people.
The most important thing to understand is this: Harm ripples, kindness ripples. People you hurt go on to hurt other people. People who are treated with kindness become better people, or more prosperous people, and go on to help others. Yes, there are exceptions (we’ll deal with those people), but they are exceptions.
mRNA FTW?
I couldn't tell you exactly what mRNA is unless I re-read a primer in advance. But I do know that a vaccine based on this technology is swimming around my body right now, protecting me and all the sane people I know from the worst effects of coronavirus. Now this technology will be used for a trial of an HIV vaccine. How tightly can we cross our fingers?
Moderna will soon begin human trials for their mRNA-based vaccine, according to information posted to the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) clinical trials database last week. Moderna is seeking 56 individuals, aged 18 to 50 and who are HIV-negative, for the trial, which is estimated to begin on August 19 and conclude in spring 2023. Moderna is also reportedly developing an influenza vaccine based on the same technology.
Moderna Is About to Begin Trials for HIV Vaccine Based on COVID-19 Research | Them
Forty years after the AIDS pandemic began, we may finally be close to its conclusion.
One damn good book
I find it hard to craft a summary of this book. The author spent years with several women (more than three - some dropped out of the running for inclusion in the book). Taddeo learned their stories and translated their experiences into a phenomenal book that reads like the best fiction about love/sex/relationships I've ever read (Philip Roth*, Lauren Groff). At times I had to pause in my reading and remind myself that, while this book certainly has a point of view, and memory is fallible, it describes true events, it is nonfiction.
Breathless reviews of the book have claimed that readers are somehow uncomfortable with an honest, complex, and full expression of female desire. I'm not sure that is true, but then, I suppose it depends who you ask. Are there works of literature by women, about women, with the popularity, critical acclaim, and reach of works like Philip Roth's? Perhaps not. So with this in mind, perhaps this book is groundbreaking, and overdue.
I just thought it was an excellent read. It's definitely in my top 10 of the year, and I give it a strong recommendation. If you read this and enjoy it, please recommend similar women-authored reads for me.
* Roth is one of my favorite authors.
Racial justice and representation
It's interesting how our motivations twist, pivot, and sway. I'm sure I'm not the first to noticed an explosion of diverse content in the media. Now that the library is open again, I can pick up a large stack of magazines and look through them at my leisure. Nothing about a screen beats a full-color magazine. Unless you want to share an article—hyperlinks don't work so well in print.
Opening Vanity Fair, Forbes, or GQ, I'm faced with a degree of diversity I've not seen there before. The representation of racial and gender diversity is wide. Just a few years ago, I did not see this. It's not that there was no representation at all, but to give one example, it seems the New Yorker magazine just started regularly including non-white characters in its cartoons very recently. Yes, there would be the occasional Black person represented, but that was uncommon. The magazine was founded in 1925.
So where did this come from? Did all these media outlets decide, coincidentally, at the same time, that they needed to widen the array of people they represent? I doubt it. Quite frankly, I think it was George Floyd. That is, the racial justice movement, as reinvigorated by the protests of his murder, seems to be the catalyst for reimagining who these magazines represent.
Now, when people protest racial injustice or police misconduct, I expect their demands go beyond legal, moral, and economic accountability. I expect these very same folks are in favor of wider representation in media. But that is not the central demand of protesters.
One could cynically argue that this increased representation, which is long overdue, is driven by white guilt. Perhaps. I don't know what, exactly, drives the motivations of magazine editors and their staff. Representation, of course, is not the same as racial justice, nor economic justice. It's great to have a wider array of people represented in all facets of life, and it's overdue. But it's also not the same as providing educational and economic opportunity for marginalized people. That is much harder.
For my part, I'd like to see both—a Black woman leading a large university, and increased scholarships so more Black women can attend. And one tends to support the other.
The Bullshit Industrial Complex
Over the years, I’ve read a lot of entrepreneurial/self-help books and advice. Some of it has been very helpful, but more recently, I’ve found many people in groups 3 and 4 below, and so I’m grateful for this article, because it makes clear just how many people are bullshitting their way to wealth and recognition, without really creating anything of value.
The bullshit industrial complex is a pyramid of groups that goes something like this:
Group 1: People actually shipping ideas, launching businesses, doing creative work, taking risks and sharing first-hand learnings.
Group 2: People writing about group 1 in clear, concise, accessible language.
[And here rests the line of bullshit demarcation…]
Group 3: People aggregating the learnings of group 2, passing it off as first-hand wisdom.
Group 4: People aggregating the learnings of group 3, believing they are as worthy of praise as the people in group 1.
Groups 5+: And downward….
The fact is, entrepreneurial success is difficult to reach. There are so many factors that affect the outcome of your efforts, and many of them are beyond your control. Exhibit A, pandemic. If you had just expanded your jujitsu school before Covid-19 hit, you were pretty screwed. If you were working on apps that make it easier for restaurants to manage takeout and delivery orders, you were sitting on gold.
The Creative World’s Bullshit Industrial Complex
Should you delete social media? That’s the wrong question
This is a short article that quickly gets to the point:
Think about it, everyone wants to be connected, so what’s the hold up?
Effort.
Who doesn’t want to connect deeply with people? Who doesn’t want to word-vomit on their friend about life problems? It’s, at the very least, cheaper than therapy. But it takes effort; to pick up the phone, to pay enough attention, to handle the lulls in the conversation, to say goodbye.
Real life is hard. Social media is easy.
Should you delete social media? That’s the wrong question – ምሕረት ብሩክ
Real life is hard. Social media is easy. So, instead of, should I delete social media? The question should be, what effort am I willing to make?
Featured album: Friendly Fires’ Pala
Presented with little comment, other than to say that this is my kind of busy, carefully crafted pop album. By now, you know the drill. Buy it on CD, and listen on a road trip. I challenge you not to dance in your seat.
Years have come and gone, but the memories linger /
wrapped around your heart, too cherished to depart
— Outlander
Loved everything you read? Hated it? Either way, drop me a line.