A collection of some of my favorite links, images, tweets and quotes from September. While these aren’t a comprehensive look at or summary of September 2019, they do capture the things that I found interesting, thought provoking, and/or cool over the past month.
Favorite Quotes
How (Not) To Grow Old
“The best way to overcome it [the fear of death]—so at least it seems to me—is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river: small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought that what was possible has been done.” — Bertrand Russell
Growing Up vs. Growing Old
“You put so damned much value on youth, it seems to me you confused growing up with growing old.” — Hemingway to Fitzgerald
Favorite Links
- Edward Tufte on Twitter: “A+ How to demolish a study in 20 words! (Have always used this list style in writing referee reports, whether favorable or unfavorable, put my time into reading the manuscript not writing long-winded review.)”
- BLUF: The Military Standard That Can Make Your Writing More Powerful
- Zach Tratar on Twitter: “One thing we do well at @stripe is write memos to collaborate on problems and potential solutions. These tend to follow the SCQA format for clarity. S = Situation C = Complication Q = Questions A = Answers Start with basics, say what’s hard, provoke thought, and then solve!”