NYTimes on good habits for one’s brain: “Wear a helmet. Put in earplugs when you’re mowing the lawn. Get your eyes checked. Take a walk, and swap your chair for a stool. Manage your cholesterol. Floss every day. Join a book club. Wear a mask on smoggy or smoky days. Watch your neck. Sleep well.”
Mint: “Today, as companies advocate—and, in many cases, simply lip-sync—the need for empathy and a soft approach, a tough boss not only goes under-appreciated, the person may even attract whispers of derision. A tough boss is almost a synonym for a ‘toxic boss.’ However, over time, many of us have realized that a soft boss can also be a weak one, a quiet boss could be a strong one, and a popular boss may be a non-confrontational yes-man to his or her own superiors in the work hierarchy. And a tough boss can very well be the best boss you will ever have.”
FT: “In the same way that Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go used an extreme example to highlight the limitations on all our lives, On the Calculation of Volume makes us think about our own experiences of time, how so often we repeat our days on autopilot, without reflection — without truly experiencing them.”
WSJ: “Unlearning hustle culture isn’t easy. I began small. I carved out an hour each morning for exercise, coffee and a calm start to my day, which meant going to bed earlier and resisting the urge to “catch up” on emails at night. Even this small change was hard—there were always people expecting a response. But I began to see how sending emails before bed only invited more the next morning. It turned out I could just break this cycle and everything would still be OK. Instead of seeing weekends as a way to get a jump on the week, I started using this time to actually relax and be with people I care about. This was much more fun. I also felt more restored when it was time to get back to work. I started working outside when the weather was nice, stopped scheduling calls during my commute and gave myself time to just think. My ideas became sharper and I felt less stress. I also saw that nothing fell apart just because I took a step back.”
Economist: “The true winner of the AI race, however, may not be the country that invents the best models. It is more likely to be the country where governments, businesses and ordinary people use AI at scale every day. For everything from economic growth to military power, technological diffusion ultimately matters more than technological innovation. On that front, the race is closer than many in America believe.”
