2024.04.DisappearingMoment
Reading. Everything about it. Right‽ You wouldn’t be here otherwise.
Our intrinsic pleasure is modulated by texts. Good writing enlivens us. Jargon sends us to the dentist, cliché to the physio.
The corporeal experience matters, too. Physical comfort. Lighting. Background noise. Scents. Are you reading this with a cup of coffee at hand? A Powers and soda? On the loo? (If it is all three, I am approaching perfection. Call the hospital.)
The reading interface is another intermediary. Words and lines need to be legible. Ease us into flow. Like clean laundry, neither fresh nor dirty. The sonorous waves and swirls of quietude. A picture frame we admire in the moment and forget when we recollect its painting.
Fonts are integral to visual reading, I hope you like the new section on free fonts.
Notes and Suggestions:
- Matthew Butterick’s Practical Typography is useful. It helps if, like me, you have a high tolerance for strong opinions.
- Richard Rutter did a nice job with The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web.
- I like Stephen Coles’s Typography and Type Design 101: Reading Lists.
- The legendary Jonathan Hoeffler has published some good essays about typeface design.
- Font design can feel like yet another boys’ club. I don’t know why that is, beyond the usual reasons.
- Avoid Google Fonts. Avoid anything and everything associated with Google.
Welcome to April 2024’s Disappearing Moment, an inventory of my experiences. I hope you enjoy it.
Podcasts
- MASS Office Hours (I Liked It): I avoid Rogan, his guests (e.g. Attia, Huberman, Sinclair), and employer. Truth matters, even in fitness.
- Money Stuff (I Liked It): Financial news, clever discussion, hosts who like each other. Kudos to executive producer, Brendan Francis Newnam.
- The Runaway Princesses (In the Dark) (I Liked It): A great podcast goes mainstream. It releases another podcast as its own. Ho hum.
- Skyline Drive (I Liked It): Astrology and Mourning. See also: Eclipses Should Be Celebrations of Science, Not Pseudoscience
- Violation (I Loved It): We have a criminal legal system, not a criminal justice system. Parole boards are part of the problem. America needs to address it.
Nerdy Software
I prefer alternative search engines: Ecosia; Right Dao; Mojeek; Alexandria; Stract. Avoid anything and everything associated with Google, Brave, Kagi, and DuckDuckGo.
Free Font
Frere-Jones Type, run by Hoefler’s former business partner, designed Intel One Mono. It’s open source, accessible, eases eye strain, and is legible at smaller sizes.
Bougie Products
I wear knee sleeves for deadlifting and leg day: 7mm, Neoprene, $50 or less, including shipping. I also love my nylon lifting belt.
Personal Finance and Investing
Don't pay for advice. Get it free from your brokerage or retirement plan. If you must, pay hourly, not a commission or percentage of assets.
Reading
- Maggie Appleton, On Opening Essays, Conference Talks, and Jam Jars (I Loved It): Good writing about good writing.
- Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) (I Loved It): A review of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea said that, like Kind of Blue, it created a world. That’s what Bradbury does here.
- Zeke Faux, Number Go Up (2023) (Worth My Time): A sneering look at repulsive people. Everything about cryptocurrency is dispiriting.
- Elle Griffin, No One Buys Books (I Liked It): Book publishers abhor transparency. As with most obfuscation, it’s helping a few and hurting everyone else. See also, Yes, People Do Buy Books.
- Eric Helms, When Should You Consider Taking a New Supplement? (I Loved It): The opportunity costs are minimal. The downsides are significant.
- Vu Le, Am I just preaching to the choir? Maybe. (I Liked It): Something of a manifesto. Plenty to consider. So much to answer for.
- Sabrina Little, When People Mess Up (I Liked It): “We can’t cure one bad action, cheating, with another bad action, gossip. It just means we now have two problems instead of one.”
- Katherine Long and Ashley Stewart, Twilio cofounder Jeff Lawson appears to have just bought The Onion (I Loved It): This is why I believe in journalists.
- Gordon C S. Smith and Jill P Pell, Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials (I Loved It): “The apparent protective effect of parachutes may be merely an example of the ‘healthy cohort’ effect.” See also, Robert W Yeh, Linda R Valsdottir, et al, Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial.
If I were in charge of the NATO phonetic alphabet
- Alfa → Apple
- Bravo → Beyoncé
- Charlie → Condom
- Delta → Dynamite
- Echo → Epidemic
- Foxtrot → Fabulous
- Golf → Gorgeous
- Hotel → Haberdasher
- India → Interrobang
- Juliet → Justice
- Kilo → Kangaroo
- Lima → Library
- Mike → Monster
- November → Noggin
- Oscar → Obsession
- Papa → Pulitzer
- Quebec → Quicksand
- Romeo → Rubber
- Sierra → Sombrero
- Tango → Tofu
- Uniform → Urinal
- Victor → Verklempt
- Whiskey → Wannamaker
- X-ray → Xylophone
- Yankee → Yesterday
- Zulu → Zhuzh
Thanks for spending a few moments with me. I look forward to corresponding again next month.
Brett
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