December 9, 2024
Back in NYC for a little bit. It is cold here.
I finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. This might be a top 10 book of all-time for me. There are so many memorable quotes, but this one is my favourite.
Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed. People talk sometimes of secret vices. There are no such things.
This book reminded me that some great experiences cannot be found online. There is nothing on Wikipedia, YouTube, Spotify, Reddit, Twitter, or Instagram that can give me what this book gave me. I wonder, if Oscar Wilde was born in this era, would he still have been a writer?
Speaking of which, I blocked Reddit and YouTube on my phone. The big social media companies have me hypnotized, and it’s only when I see the warning “This site is restricted” that the spell is broken. It’s been over a week and I still find myself navigating there automatically and unconsciously.
Moving forward I might let myself use social media on weekends. When I was younger, my parents only let me play video games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday up until 6pm. It was a great rule that made me a better person.
I had a dream about this product before I saw the tweet. No one needs a mouse-less trading platform, but how much are you willing to pay to look HYPER cool?
The response to the assassination of the United Healthcare CEO is fascinating. I never would have thought the general public would be on the side of the gunman.
What’s interesting is that of the people I know personally who’ve experienced both Canadian and US healthcare, so far all have claimed that US healthcare is better. I know there’s an obvious selection bias there, but one of my goals this year was to form more opinions from lived experience and fewer opinions from what I read online. There’s a lot I don’t know and I have to stay humble and curious.
I stumbled upon this song again. It’s so good. The whole album is great. Some other hidden Billy Talent gems:
I watched my first musical on Broadway: & Juliet. I came in thinking Max Martin had written an entirely new score, but it turned out to be all old songs. I didn’t mind. I’ve always enjoyed listening to covers by people with great voices.
A lot of people sneer their nose at pop music1, especially top 40 stuff, but Max Martin is, in my humble opinion, a genius. The only other songwriters who’ve been nearly as prolific as him in the last thirty years are Kanye West and Taylor Swift.
A few places in NYC I checked out for first time:
I’ve started doing drop sets at the gym. I do it mainly because they’re fun and the pump feels good.
And lastly, in today’s episode of guerilla ontology, the WSJ story of the Crypto Whale that commissioned his own survey to get an edge that he used to win ~$80mm on Polymarket.
I’m not one of these people. ↩