I’ve been putting off writing this post for a long time. But when I read that Gordon Ryan is retiring from competition due to stomach problems, it reminded me that I have a responsibility to share what I’ve learned. Stomach problems, even when not life-threatening, can be debilitating, painful, and drag on for years. If I can help even one person recover from gastritis more quickly, it’s worth sharing this post.
I’ve been meaning to write a superfood post for a long time, getting into the details of which foods I try to include in my diet most days to improve health and prevent disease. Something similar to Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen.
But it’s just too much information for one post. So I’m going to do one at a time, starting with cranberries.
I’m reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. I’d recommend it for many reasons. The book illuminates the distinction between racial antipathy and passively supporting social norms that limit the power and privilege of African Americans. While most Americans can truthfully say that they harbor no hate in the hearts towards people of other ethnic backgrounds, it’s a much smaller group that actively works to dismantle discriminatory systems and views that enforce the caste system in the US.
While not as explicit as the caste systems in India or Israel (both Dalits and Palestinians live under conditions that could accurately be described as apartheid), Wilkerson makes an effective argument that caste does indeed exist in the US.
I was somewhat skeptical of this idea before reading the book, but now I’m fully convinced. If you’ve read the book, please share your own views in the comments.
That’s all I’ve got for this week — we had a huge family event that has taken up most of my energy and bandwidth lately. In the next couple weeks I’ll be working on the final proof of The Last Crucible (Book 3 of Reclaimed Earth), which I’m hoping to deliver to Flame Tree in the first week of June.
I’m looking for book recommendations, both fiction and nonfiction. What are you reading and enjoying?
I enjoyed this post on Reddit yesterday:
There’s plenty to worry about when investing in cryptocurrency. Is it even an investment? Or is it simply hyped-up gambling?
About a month ago I opened accounts with Coinbase and Kraken. Kia and I each put in $1000. In that time our money has doubled, and Dogecoin went up tenfold (I sold half at the pre-SNL peak).
It’s an absolutely insane market. A major crash is all but guaranteed. There’s a significant chance one of the four coins we’re invested in (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Doge, and Cardano) will fall out of favor and plummet in value to zero or close to it.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if holding those coins for five years (and possibly buying the dips) yields an average gain of 50% or more annually. That sure beats a 3% bond yield or a .05% “high-interest” savings account.
Here’s my current approach and thinking:
The amount of high-level knowledge and technique being casually shared on YouTube, TikTok, and blogs is absolutely stunning. The world is collectively experiencing a Golden Age of accelerated learning with no geographic, economic, class, or age-related limitations. Anyone with a mobile phone can learn from the most talented people in their field, for free.
Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of human cultural evolution. Anybody who wants to can raise their game in a small fraction of the time it would have taken ten or twenty years ago.
The first time my mind was blown by this fact was maybe five years ago. The pipes in my house were making a weird loud vibrating sound. After a quick internet search I found a helpful guy on YouTube demonstrating exactly how to adjust the water pressure in your house. I ventured into the crawlspace under my house, found the valve, and make the adjustment. Problem solved.
But now I’m all about raising my art game. Yesterday I was completely humbled not once but twice, in two different fields. I watched Ian Kirkpatrick break down his drums on Dua Lipa – Pretty Please. I’ve been making beats for three decades, with a fair amount of success, but I found at least a dozen tips I could immediately implement from this one video. Multi-platinum-selling producers are willing to tell you exactly how they do it, for free.
Another one of my nerdy hobbies is painting fantasy miniatures. I’ve been painting off-and-on since I was a teenager, but resources for learning how to paint were scarce when I first started. I remember getting some very basic tips from a booklet that came with a paint set, and that was all I had for many years. It wasn’t until I started watching artists on YouTube that I really started to gain some technique. Watching extremely skilled painters like Miniac, Ninjon, Lyla Mev, and Squidmar is truly inspiring. But yesterday I discovered a painter on another level entirely. Watching Marco Frison speed paint a miniature using only three primary colors and black and white, exhibiting his color theory genius while mixing and blending on a wet palette — it blew my mind. It was almost too much. I felt overwhelmed by the quality and quantity of knowledge being dropped. But having slept on it, I’m excited to actually try some of Marco’s methods, even though my own first attempts will be clumsy.
For learning how to write better, YouTube isn’t the perfect medium. But I have read life-changing blog posts that have bettered not only my writing technique, but also my productivity. For example Rachel Aron’s breakdown of how she consistently writes up to 10k words per day. While I generally only write for a couple hours in the morning and average between 600-1000 words per day, I’ve used her advice to easily ramp it up to 2-3k per day when I want or need to.
It’s such a better situation than learning this stuff on your own by trial-and-error. Or paying tuition or course fees and slowly gaining knowledge from a small handful of individuals who may not even be that talented. I’m not knocking other forms of learning — you can’t replace working with a skilled teacher in person, or practicing with others and getting immediate feedback. But if you’re not also partaking of the free knowledge the masters are handing out for free, you’re missing out.
In conclusion, Sean O’Malley breaks down his signature jab. So that’s how he hits people as if his hands were invisible.