Stuff I Liked This Week

Like me, you’ve probably noticed that we don’t yet have flying cars, nor are we wallowing in leisure time — I mean, we might be, but that’s because we’re underemployed. (No, wait, that’s me.) Technology was supposed to free us from the tyranny of work and traffic and genetics, but no, that hasn’t happened and what’s up with that? This remarkable re-asking of that question — What’s up with that? — is worth your time and focus. Make coffee, silence your phone, and read up.

[dropcap]i[/dropcap]f you visit San Francisco, this is something you’re likely to find unsettling. You’ll see people living in the streets, many of them mentally ill, yelling and cursing at imaginary foes. You’ll find every public space designed to make it difficult and uncomfortable to sit down or sleep, and that people sit down and sleep anyway. You’ll see human excrement on the sidewalks, and a homeless encampment across from the city hall. You’ll find you can walk for miles and not come across a public toilet or water fountain.

…

Despite being at the center of the technology revolution, the Bay Area has somehow failed to capture its benefits.

—What Happens Next Will Amaze You by Maciej Cegłowski on Idle Words

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This is ducking fantastic. Just read it.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here’s one other ghillie-covered human lurking nearby, and that’s the photographer who’s paired up with me for this story. Which means, if you’re keeping track at home, that he and I are in northern South Dakota to report on a filmmaker who’s shooting a movie inspired by a book about artists who make paintings based on photographs they took of ducks—which, in turn, they hope will become stamps.

With me so far?

—Duck Dynasty by Brian Kevin in Audubon Magazine

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Finding your way in the writing life is hard and you know what? It’s not (always) the meritocracy we are told it is. If you’re some kind of minority, it’s much, much harder. I found it refreshing to read this writer’s candid piece on how he found his way in his writer’s world.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]o “work” meant paying bills, paying rent, buying food, buying clothes. Work did not mean “write.” Work did not mean “read and be well read.” The creative class is a privileged one. In part because it is whitewashed, and in part because it is secretive. Should you want to pursue a creative career, it helps to know such a thing is possible. I didn’t think it was possible for me. It is still bewildering to me.

—This is How I Became an Editor by Mensah Demary on Catapult