18: Notes To Self

Yo!

I finished Third Wall (it was gas) and hopped back on the history & eastern philosophy wave. Starting with On Liberty & then am gonna read some Jed McKenna. Lmk if you have any good recs.

Without further adieu, here is your weekly dose of 5 things I’m pondering and exploring. Click on each link to dive further on that topic.

1. Whoops, who left that line of code in there? (James Webb Telescope)

Back in August, the James Webb Space Telescope caught a question mark looking galaxy, .

We live in a simulation, change my mind.

2. 38 Rules To Reading (Ryan Holiday)

Some rules I liked:

• Do it all the time. Always bring a book with you. Have a pen on hand too.

• Err on the side of age. Classics are classics for a reason.

• In every book you read, try to find your next one in its footnotes or bibliography. This is how you build a knowledge base in a subject—it’s how you trace a subject back to its core.

• When you find an author you love, read them all.

• Don’t just read books, re-read books. We never step in the same river twice. The books don’t change, but you do.

• If a book sucks, stop reading it. Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy reading.

• Every time you meet a successful or important person you admire, ask them: What’s a book that changed your life?

• Don’t be satisfied just getting the ‘gist’ of things. The goal is to really understand things.

• “not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” - Harry Truman

3. My Techno Optimism (Vitalik Buterin)

The number of high-signal hyperlinks in here is incredible. Goes to show Vitalik’s wealth of knowledge.

My favorite insight was this chart showing the sheer magnitude of the unending march of improvements in food, sanitation, medicine and infrastructure that took place over the most technology-driven century in human history.

Let’s go humans!

4. The Pursuit (Spencer Kier)

This is easily of the best websites I’ve found recently. The Pursuit beautifully packages a practical philosophy for life in an impressively small amount of words.

8 pages of timeless insights. Highly recommend.

5. The Romans Were Wildin’

🤣

Thanks for wanting to know more today than you did yesterday! If you liked this edition, send it over to a friend who would like it too 🤝 

Cheers,

Luke

PS: Have a topic you think I’d like learning about? Send it to me here.

PPS: Got questions you want me to answer? I made an anonymous form for that.

PPPS: you can find more rabbit holes here & my writing here.