Life at 40
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/a40463065
I’m two years away from 40 and it’s true that the passage of time seems to accelerate as you age. 40 also reminds me of this beautiful sentence from a different article:
At 40, we’re no longer preparing for an imagined future life. Our real lives are, indisputably, happening right now. We’ve arrived at what Immanuel Kant called the “Ding an sich” — the thing itself.
A smart crypto critic
https://amycastor.com/2022/07/03/crypto-skeptics-step-up-lobbying-efforts-with-their-first-ever-conference
r/buttcoin has certainly picked up in activity and glee since the most recent crypto crash. I like to see what the critics and haters are saying because the best ones – such as Amy – share info and perspectives I would otherwise miss. But many – if not most – critics are against bitcoin and crypto for very personal reasons. And for those critics, I don’t understand why they would spend any of their limited time or energy or resources in this way. There’s not much to gain from it in a tangible sense, besides short-lived emotional rewards. Yet as I type that last sentence, I realize that much of what we’re motivated by is short-lived emotional rewards. Aren’t you glad you’re reading this
Learning calculus at 65
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/teaching-myself-calculus-at-sixty-five
I love the spirit of this post and would love to be actively learning and growing in such a conscious way at 65, 72, 89, whatever years I’m given. I love to read stories of people who go back to university in their 40s, or start a new business in their 50s, or move to a new country in their 60s, and so on. As Confucius says, 活到老，学到老.
Orwell on Hitler
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/george-orwell-s-1940-review-of-mein-kampf
In his own words:
Again, the situation in Germany, with its seven million unemployed, was obviously favourable for demagogues. But Hitler could not have succeeded against his many rivals if it had not been for the attraction of his own personality, which one can feel even in the clumsy writing of Mein Kampf, and which is no doubt overwhelming when one hears his speeches … The fact is that there is something deeply appealing about him
[…]
The initial, personal cause of his grievance against the universe can only be guessed at; but at any rate the grievance is here. He is the martyr, the victim, Prometheus chained to the rock, the self-sacrificing hero who fights single-handed against impossible odds. If he were killing a mouse he would know how to make it seem like a dragon. One feels, as with Napoleon, that he is fighting against destiny, that he can’t win, and yet that he somehow deserves to