Kickoff For December 27, 2021
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.
2021 is almost at an end. Not quickly enough for my taste. I thought this year would be better than 2020. It was, but only slightly. Which isn’t much to say. Here’s hoping that 2022 is an improvement on the last couple of turns around the Sun.
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
Work
Why the ‘Great Remote Work Experiment’ may have been flawed, wherein Bryan Lufkin argues that the so-called experiment in the title of this article started from a biased premise because during the COVID pandemic not everyone was working from home by choice.
Another Truth About Remote Work, wherein we learn that, in the United States at least, remote working isn’t as prevalent as it’s made out to be and why that is.
Replace Me, wherein Amber Husain recounts her year as an editorial assistant for a publishing company, a so-called professional position that was as dull and repetitive and soul-crushing as the casual jobs they worked prior to that.
Science
The Beauty of Crossed Brain Wires, wherein Sidney Perkowitz explains the neurological function called synethesia and how research has changed the perception and understanding of it.
Tool use and language skills are linked in the brain – and practising one improves the other, wherein we learn about the link between motor training and mental training, and how they complement each other.
A New Theory for Systems That Defy Newton’s Third Law, wherein we’re introduced to exceptional points, a system where similar properties become one and where Newton’s third law becomes moot.
Ideas
Send in the Clouds, wherein we learn how libertarian dreamers are trying to build what they called startup cities and what that actually means.
David Graeber’s Possible Worlds, wherein we learn about the life and work of the radical and unconventional anthropologist who believed that things did not have to be the way they were.
No One Cares!, wherein Arthur Brooks explains that we should care much (if anything) about the opinions that others have of us because others actually have much fewer opinions about us than we realize.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.