Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
Carlin routinely makes three 4-hour episodes on the topics he picks (he only releases one every 3 months). But don't the length scare you. You'll be hooked and suddenly find yourself thinking up extra excuses to go running to continue listening. Start with Wrath of the Kahns or Kink of Kings
Hunter S. Thompson - On Finding Your Purpose: An Extraordinary Letter
Wise words on picking a path or direction instead of a predefined goal. Choosing it on merit of whether the path allows you to efficiently use your abilities to gratify your desires. Written when he was 22 years old, before he had become the author we know. Foreshadowing his own path.
Slate Browbeat - The Strange Reason Nearly Every Film Ends by Saying It’s Fiction
It’s quite out there. Rasputin is involved. Funny how sometimes, 1 incident creates such sad fear driven standard/rule. Where else did this happen?
MIT Technology Review - Data Mining Reveals the Six Basic Emotional Arcs of Storytelling
Wait! Wasn’t every story some sort of Hero’s Journey? Turns out, not all are shaped like one. This researchers put 1,700 novels though a sentimental analysis to map the emotional journey of the story. Turns out there are 6. Check the one of your favourite novel here.
A Story about the Power of Questions
”You can eat an apple”, I said and gave him the green fruit.
It was as if he had seen an apple for the first time.
First he just held it there and smelled it, but then he took a little bite.
”Mum - mum”, he said and took a bigger bite.
”Did it taste good?” I asked.
He bowed deeply.
Tennesse Williams - The Catastrophe of Success
What happens to the drive of a creative when he gets success and the struggle is gone? In his letter from 1947, playwright Tennessee Williams tells that success made him depressed. Without the struggle, everything lost it’s value and he couldn’t create. Oh, and he shares how he got out of it.
The Week - Steve Jobs and the perils of being a corporate visionary
Caring too much about certain specifics of a vision is how I would describe it. That only one outcome counts as good enough, no matter what the costs. Despite it being another Jobs story, the point is quite profound. When do you care so much about accomplishing something that we do it at the expense of others? Or vice versa, when do you try to please others and forget yourself.
Jonathan Franklin - Lost at sea: the man who vanished for 14 months
Crazy read. So bizarre to follow the journey of this man being lost at sea for 14 months. Surviving the lack of food, the ocean and the loneliness. So impressive. While reading, images of movies like Life of Pi and All is lost continuously flash through my mind. 438 days later, he bumped into the Marshall Islands. Crazy!
Simon Parkin - The Brain in the Machine
Steve Grand. This guy! Holy smokes. He’s programming animals. But he’s not mimicking the behavior of animals in code. He’s programming them on an almost cellular level. Programming virtual neurons and enzymes. Animals get hungry, need to go hunting. To go hunting, they need to scout the surroundings. To do that they need to learn to move. Etc. It’s an insanely big project. That he does by himself!
Interview with Naomi Jacobs - The woman who woke up in the future
Stel je voor je wordt op de 15 wakker, maar je herkent niks om je heen. Je komt er langzaam achter dat je opeens 32 bent. Je een kind van 10 hebt. Dat je de laatste 17 jaar van je leven bent vergeten. Dat gebeurde deze vrouw. Haar brein had de laatste 17 jaar gewist.
Michael Finkel - The Blind Man Who Taught Himself to See
Click. Click. Click. "Je auto staat wel erg ver van de stoep af". Mooi verhaal van een blinde man die zichzelf heeft leren “zien”. Half vleermuis, half Daredevil. Door de echo van de klikjes weet hij precies wat waar is. Het wordt nog erger: hij racet de berg af op z’n mountain bike! Nu probeert hij andere blinden dit ook te leren. En stuit vervolgens op de beschermende reacties van blinden-instituten.