My 2021 Influencers

Why I wrote this: I want to start tracking which content had the most influence on me, or put another way, which sources did I give the most of my attention to over a certain period of time. Plus maybe if you find yourself here and enjoy any of these links, it could be a good conversation starter!

My good friend Erin put together a 2021 Yearly Yeast: a collection of books, articles, videos, podcasts and more that moved or influenced people in her circle of bright and curious friends. It got me thinking: what did influence me the most last year?

My quest last year to build a “Second Brain” has me paying closer attention to — my attention. If our attention is our most precious resource, here were some investments that I made last year that really paid off.

Book: So You've Been Publicly Shamed. This one is ten years old, but I only just discovered it in 2021. It felt like it could have been written this year, with references to "cancel culture" really taking off. It's a well-written, funny and empathetic look at the early days of shaming people online. I like how it starts by showing the excitement of using our small voices to collectively hold people or corporations accountable— what did we achieve through public shaming? How was (is) twitter an equalizer in applying pressure? … And then how that little bit of power almost immediately got ugly.

This book was a timely discovery for me as author Jon Ronson has just launched a podcast called Things Fell Apart, where he continues to explore the origin of today’s culture wars from the perspective of the early soldiers and victims.

Long Read: A Chemical Hunger - SlimeMoldTimeMold. This one blew my mind. I loved the scientific rigour, but what really captivated me as a recent Write of Passage grad was the writing. It's incredibly well researched, also hilarious, thorough and important. The thesis is essentially that everything we think about obesity is wrong. Diet and exercise matter a lot less than we think when it comes to weight (still important to health, but do not explain most people who are 100 lbs overweight). They argue what does matter is environmental factors (and our genetics, which this article doesn't get into). I think this quote really sums it up:

"Unlike other major causes of preventable death and disability, such as tobacco use, injuries, and infectious diseases, there are no exemplar populations in which the obesity epidemic has been reversed by public health measures.”

Article: What About Jane? This summer I was walking around the streets of New York City, my happy place. It has been almost ten years since I lived there. Charlottesville, VA was where I first started to understand the importance of inclusive urban planning firsthand while working in an isolated neighborhood. New York City was where I started to be inspired by what was possible with good urban design and development. But “Jane’s hood” feels oppressively expensive now. And lately, I have been feeling a lot of tension between my work in affordable housing and slums and my interests in design, beautiful green spaces and neighborhoods with rich and diverse amenities. This article captures all of this tension between the love of what cities are and can be and how they continue to exclude/ neglect/ displace — and shows a bit of a path forward.

Podcast: You're Wrong About. Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes are SO fun. I took them with me everywhere this year: on walks, planes, grocery store lines. They really shine when they are talking about the satanic panic, serial killers and other dark mysteries but they did a trio this year on political correctness, the Dixie Chicks and cancel culture this year that I found really fresh. Those last three might irk some, but if you are open to at least considering that the forces of groupthink that have taken hold of us in the past could be at work again today then you’ll at least find them entertaining and well argued.

Super short read: Kletskassa: The 60 sec read that stuck with me this year, because it sums up what I see as larger trends about how all of our technology is actually starting to hit a breaking point in making us feel lonlier:

“The Kletskassa is a checkout especially for people who are not in a hurry and feel like having a chat,” a Jumbo representative wrote in an email to Motherboard. “Many people, especially the elderly, sometimes feel lonely. It’s a small gesture, but a very valuable one, especially in a world that is digitizing and getting faster and faster.”

Words of Wisdom: This is the quote that I tried to model my year around. 2021 was a year of transition for me. I left the company I have been building for 9 years, I moved continents (twice!) and I made an effort to use my extra time, travels and new perspective to read, learn and connect.

A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to do great things in this world.

- Naval Ravikant

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My 2021 Annual Review

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Making Friends Online