It's been too hot to have any original opinions. But this would probably be Episode Two of my Not Actually A Thing Podcast 'It's more complicated than that'.
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I read a thing about aphorisms, which included this one:
“Amazing that the chess clock never found a more general application. A more enlightened society would have made it as indispensable to conversation as shoes to walking.”
I liked that. Then I listened to this Revisionist History episode, which included an extended bit about the difference between chess, blitz chess and bullet chess. It's all down to the clock and the time allowed.
The chess master interviewed said that if top class chess players were allowed as long as they wanted per move every game would end in a draw. The thing that makes chess hard is the time constraint. And that blitz chess and bullet chess are often won by different people to the regular sort. The shorter time makes for a different game.
Gladwell compares this to standardised tests in the US which add a time constraint to the questioning - basically you have to read things quicker than you can can actually read them and develop strategies for guessing a reasonable answer without being completely grokking the piece; "processing without understanding"
This feels a lot like work right now. It made me realise that speed is the key difference between my current job and every other one I've had; everything's just so much faster. Maybe I should get a chess clock. That feels like a useful, enjoyable framing, a way to tip yourself from panicked to excited.
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Anna wrote a blog post about a coffee we had and made me sound much more coherent and useful than I actually am. It became moderately successful on the links and twitters which made me worry that people think I fancy myself as a Strategist. This is not the case. If I'm anything I'm a Communications Strategist, which is very different. It's the difference between being a Doctor and being the guy from Doctor and the Medics.
God, I hate this song.
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Anne has been complaining about 'the moon' all week. She's not anti-moon. She's anti all this moon nostalgia. I knew what she meant but couldn't quite understand why. This tweet explained it:
Sorry but baby boomers have controlled the media my whole life, every day has felt like the 50th anniversary of the moon landing and JFK’s death and the last day kids ever played outside
— Julieanne Smolinski (@BoobsRadley) July 20, 2019
And England winning the World Cup.
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If I was going to do another experiment in aggregating/sampling podcasts it would be called It's More Complicated Than That and season one would be about Plastics & Recycling and this would be the first episode. And this would be the second. Well worth a listen
July 21, 2019 | Permalink
I done another mix. Quite pleased with this one. Starts off all pleasant and ambient. Robert Haigh. Richard Norris. Ore. Then I got a bit bored and added some Yazoo. At which point it goes a bit random. Not bad though, except for the bit where I accidentally knocked the pitch up.
July 14, 2019 | Permalink
We walked a slightly overgrown country path this afternoon, nettles reaching in from both sides. So we were walking with our arms pinned behind our backs, like defenders in the penalty area under the new handball regulations.
Which, I realised, would have been a really good metaphor, if I was a sportswriter.
Wasted!
July 07, 2019 | Permalink