📚 #123: That time Nixon almost passed UBI
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#1 The bizarre tale of President Nixon and his basic income bill
On the same day that Nixon intended to go public with his plan, Anderson handed him a briefing. Over the weeks that followed, this six-page document, a case report about something that had happened in England 150 years before, did the unthinkable: It completely changed Nixon’s mind, and in the process, changed the course of history
check out the fascinating story of the flimsy report that influenced Nixon and how his tweaked plan led to a shift in how people thought about work through a lens of effort and vice.
#2 Jack English, the last of the mountain men, dies at 96
“Happiness,” he said, “is making other people happy. It’s a darn sight better than making them feel bad.”
#3 Slow Learning
I read two things this week, both recommended by a coding course I’m diving into about a “slow learning approach”
First, this essay on “Teach yourself programming in ten years”
And Chaucer (1340-1400) complained "the lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne." Hippocrates (c. 400BC) is known for the excerpt "ars longa, vita brevis", which is part of the longer quotation "Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile", which in English renders as "Life is short, [the] craft long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgment difficult."
…and then this quick read of a book called Mastery, which was published in the late 80’s but still rings true today.
"And despite our society’s urgent and effective war against mastery, there are still millions of people who, while achieving great things in their work, are dedicated to the process as well as to the product—people who love the plateau. Life for these people is especially vivid and satisfying."
#4 “Wealth Work”
I’ve written about David Autor’s research in the context of “middle-income” jobs disappearing, especially in cities. What are those jobs being replaced by? “Wealth Work”. Derek Thompson covers these type of jobs which are:
Low-skill, low-pay, and disproportionately done by women, these jobs congregate near dense urban labor markets, multiplying in neighborhoods with soaring disposable income.
Thompon doesn’t seem to be a fan:
“In a digital marketplace of maximal convenience, there is no room for the friction of intimacy.”
#5 Meaningness & Sub-Cultures
What drives the success or failure of subcultures? This essay titled, “Geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths in subculture evolution” explores that question
"Subcultures were the main creative cultural force from roughly 1975 to 2000, when they stopped working. Why?
I spent about half an hour exploring his writing. Highly recommended.
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