[WITI No. 41] Lies, damn lies, & statistics, Recognizing what kids can do via manga, Invasive quote from Tom Waits, Waiting for the shot
Writing about a lifelong habit of reading from a father's perspective
Hallo and welcome to issue No. 41 of What is the Information? My weekly newsletter where I share with you what I’m reading, writing and thinking about. Special hello to our new subscriber this week. I would love to hear what you think!
I picked up Numbers Don’t Lie by Vaclav Smil. Bill Gates recommended the title. I’m not one for the celebrity endorsement of a book but the book is off the beaten path and is not the first Smil book Gates has recommended. The recent gossip surrounding Gates and his divorce, notwithstanding, I decided to pick it up.
The book itself is interesting in that each chapter is a standalone essay shining some light with a new way to think about a complex topic. So far I’ve read about world height distributions, world total fertility rates, and how sweating improved hunting for humans. The book has a similar feel to Hans Rosling’s Factfulness where one’s conventional wisdom is often incorrect. If you haven’t heard of Hans Rosling, his data visualizations on a TED talk, made him a social science superstar.
Rockstar social scientist - what a world we live in!
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This weekend I blew through a manga called Attack on Titan Vol.2. If you’re not familiar with manga, it’s a Japanese comic book. It was about 100 pages long and translated into English.
It. was. bizarre.
The premise of the story is the following:
Man-eating giants of various heights from two to eight times human size attack a human settlement. The humans have a defense force of elite fighters who jet up with portable gas propulsion to the giant’s weak spot (back of the neck) and slice them down, if they don’t get caught by the giants first.
The story makes mention of valor in the face of overwhelming odds asking the question: What are children capable of?
You might know my answer already. I’m bullish on children especially my own. With a little support and guidance, kids do amazing things every day. I’ll share an example- forgive me as I brag about my son. My son has created and published on Spotify over 25 songs. He’s amassed over 5,000 streams. I try not to be biased but some of these songs are really good. He’s learning so much by doing - and started simply by following Youtube videos. Oh, and he’s just 15 years old.
Someone on Twitter mentioned that children are time billionaires. I love this idea. As long as they have some commitment to invest just a little bit of that time, that small investment can compound. I can’t begin to imagine what the next generation comes up with. Einstein called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world but this compounding of learning has similar payoffs over time.
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I restarted listening to Everything in F*cked by Mark Manson which is available on Scribd, click here for a free trial. A Tom Waits quote from Chapter Two, stapled itself into my brain:
“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.”
Manson was talking about dual nature of our brain, the incorrect Classic Assumption where rationality and reason normally triumphs over emotion, and how lobotomies were in vogue once upon a time but rightfully, thankfully, the sanctioned scrambling of part of your brain is no longer a recommended psychological treatment.
I’m in a bit of a book drought while writing a lot more, this is the trade-off. Spending time reading or spending time writing. Yin and yang. Euphoria in creation, existential dread wondering if it’s good enough.
Find of the week
Expert nature photography is yeoman’s work. I can only imagine how many shots Carla Rhodes has taken to get this one impeccable shot. This shot is not as technical as this one where other photographers have made over 20,000 attempts without success.
This is another image that I could not take my eyes off.
Impressed by a kid? Belief system turned upside down with new understanding? Learn something new in an unusual way? Comment above. Feel like sharing What is the Information? Click below.
That’s all I got! Till next week.
-George