Monday, July 25, 2022

Summerlicious Tab Dump

 Some interesting things I've read:

  • A persuasive case that, despite its very real cultural value, no successful business makes money supporting the Long Tail
  • So You've Decided to Bungle your Company's Flexible Work Plan. It's funny because it's true. 
  • A few reads about current musical trends:
    • Why Music has Lost it's Charms. Risk-adverse labels yes, but also this: "[Labels realized that] they were being paid exactly the same amount per song whether the song was brand new or 50 years old. They quickly concluded that if their customers (stations and streamers) were indifferent to the age of the content and the end users were actually looking for the older music, there was little or no reason to rock the boat and push for new material. Investing in new talent turned out to be an incremental cost which they chose to avoid." 
    • The above quote is most likely at the core of why The New Numbers on Music Consumption are Very Ugly
    • Umair Haque makes the case that while the above is true, technology and algorithms are a technical reason why music doesn't sound like music anymore, another factor contributing to the problem
  • In The Lost Art of Looking at Nature, Rachel Reiderer astutely observes that in our current environment of terrible climate change and ecodoom stories, she appreciates the genius of David Attenborough: "The bulk of the screen time is spent shoring up this anodyne, if novel, notion: plants are sensory marvels. The beauty and strangeness acts as a spoonful of sugar, so diverting that you hardly notice the fleeting discussions of the ecological importance of plants and how they are endangered by monocultures and climate change. These less frequent passages are the series’ medicine. Attenborough’s films often end with a call to action. But it is savvy of him, both as an artist and as an activist, to make plenty of room for pleasure. ... To pause for a moment, guided by an old naturalist’s eye for curiosity and beauty, is restorative. It gives a viewer the energy to face the hard truths of the rolling crisis and serves as a reminder of the wonders outside the human world that are also at stake."
  • A visual guide to the Aztec Pantheon
  • Six Zen Buddhist livelihood guidelines

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