Kickoff For April 25, 2022
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Kickoff, a collection of what I’ve found interesting, informative, and insightful on the web over the last seven days.
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Science
The Uselessness of Useful Knowledge, wherein we learn how science often develops from ideas that have been in practice for decades (often, longer), with knowledge essentially flowing uphill.
How to Break a Theory, wherein we learn why physicists (and other scientists) stress test theories, and how that helps science, and our understanding, advance.
How to Talk to Science Deniers, wherein Massimo Pigliucci explains why it’s not a waste of time trying to persuade those who don’t believe in science, and looks at ways in which to do that.
Online Life
The Dirty Work of Cleaning Online Reputations, wherein we get a glimpse into the world of companies that try to fix peoples’ reputations on the web, a learn about the tactics (both legal and dodgy) that these firms use to achieve their goals.
Real Me and Fake Me, wherein writer Joe Dunthorne recounts his interactions with a person who, for a short while, was impersonating him online.
Taking Stock, wherein Rob Horning examines how the idea of being a creator has changed in the move from the Web 2.0 to Web3 worlds, and how in both worlds technology giants exploit what you create.
Productivity
The Time Hack Everyone Should Know, where in Michelle Drouin introduces us to social economizing, a technique that can help you consciously understand what you like to do and make small, significant shifts to making that a habit.
The curse of sliced bread, wherein Mary Harrington argues that so-called life hacks that purport to save us time and supposedly optimize our work and our lives actually do nothing of the sort, leading to miserable people and hyper-mediated personal productivity.
Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen, wherein Johann Hari laments our loss of focus and looks at why it’s happening.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.