Hey all!
Hope your weeks have been good and you've somehow made sense of the changing rulesets around you. (I haven't — can you meet with 3 people now or not??)
What's happening?
The great reopening is coming. I expect it's going to be bitter. We're used to the habitual rulebreaking by now, but what happens when the consequences really start to bite?
Look to South Korea for a picture of the future. A few weeks ago they reopened a few bars and clubs, after new cases had fallen to under 10 a day. Last weekend they closed them again after a spike in cases. Not surprising maybe — but here's where it gets bad:
18 of the ~60 cases reported that weekend were linked to one man. He's a 29 year old guy, he went on a night out, visited 5 clubs, and the following week tested positive for the virus. Since then ~100 cases have been linked to his big night out.
The scary part is: he's gay, they were gay clubs, and this event has sparked a wave of homophobia in the country.
Further reading: This letter from early April on corona-era gay culture in Tel Aviv, Shawn Reynaldo's take on what will happen with clubs, and ResidentAdvisor's roundup of what countries are thinking re: club re-openings.
In island news:
Coming at you straight from The Shetland Times (HT @essikert). Some of you may remember this from K.log #2 in which I advanced:
Island life is extremely zeitgeisty right now. For those of us who might secretly be enjoying parts of social island life, what better fantasy? You could even get discs.
Richard Branson might want to downsize (spoiler: ehh, not quite)
Linga has been on sale for 5 years.
Maybe having your own private island really is better in fantasy than in real life? For one, you need to put on a lifejacket to go to the shops, and your mates can't visit you without their own boat either Better to be in/on (the?) mainland.
Then again, perhaps the obstacle to buyers has been finding it. Turns out it's... a remarkably common name around those parts, and just means 'an island with heather on it'. Picture the scene as you arrive at the visitor's centre:
"Hello I'd like to visit Linga!"
"Is that the Linga a murderer kept a troublesome Norwegian bear on in exchange for his life?"
"No bears please."
"Or the Linga notable communist and poet Hugh MacDiarmid possibly wrote a poem about?"
"For £250k? Not sure..."
"Or the Yeti's Toe?"
"No, not the toe, nor the wart on the toe,"
"Little Linga? But you'll disturb the pups!"
"They won't be disturbed,"
"Phew, in that case you can't mean East Linga either..."
"Oh god no!"
"Well then... how about the Linga off Vementry? Or Yell Sound Linga? Or Round Linga? Or Linga Skerries? Or Calf of Linga? or the Calf of East Linga? Or the Calf of Little Linga?"
"...no."
"Oh! You mean the Linga with 4,000 trees, planning permission for a windmill, and a dead orca!"
"Yes! That one!"
(But, imagine all of that said in Shetland dialect.)
What's on my mind?
Kids love trucks. Why do they love them? It might be because they're struck in awe-verging-on-terror by the magnificence of modern logistics! And the hero of this story is THE TRUCKER. Did you know that 'Trucker' is the most common job in most US states? (Well kinda)
Sit with that for a moment — these jobs are literally just to move things from where they're not needed to where they are. If you've played Factorio you'll know this is a big deal.
And I know what you're thinking: what media do these truckers consume? Enter FreightWaves — the media company by truckers for truckers. As you can imagine, it's pretty political — lots of interesting stuff about Amazon's handling of COVID19, health and safety regulations etc. It could almost become a union.
But unfortunately — FreightWaves sell logistics software. They use the media to get to the truckers to then access the people who can buy their software. Shame. But it's an interesting illustration of the potency of a media-based model, isn't it?
What's telling?
Little Richard died last week. Here's what he wrote for his commentary in Rolling Stones' 100 Greatest Artists list. Excerpt:
I appreciate being picked one of the top 100 performers, but who is number one and who is number two doesn't matter to me anymore. Because it won't be who I think it should be. The Rolling Stones started with me, but they're going to always be in front of me. The Beatles started with me — at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, before they ever made an album — but they're going to always be in front of me. James Brown, Jimi Hendrix — these people started with me. I fed them, I talked to them, and they're going to always be in front of me.
But it's a joy just to still be here. I think that when people want joy and fun and happiness, they want to hear the old-time rock & roll. And I'm just glad I was a part of that.
He was number 8. The top 7? James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, Elvis, Dylan, and The Beatles. Powerful way to make your point.
In most meetings someone takes a long time to say very little. As chairman, your sense of urgency should help indicate to him the need for brevity. You can also suggest that if he is going to take a long time it might be better for him to write a paper. If it is urgent to stop him in full flight, there is a useful device of picking on a phrase (it really doesn’t matter what phrase) as he utters it as an excuse for cutting in and offering it to someone else: “Inevitable decline—that’s very interesting. George, do you agree that the decline is inevitable?”
An invaluable tip from a ~40 year old article on How To Run a Meeting. It's strangely charming. There are some nice notes about how to encourage newer members of your team, too!
What's on?
A megalist of John Peel sessions spanning from the 60's to the 00's. I'd be willing to bet you'll find a musician you're into in this list: from Bikini Kill and Broadcast through Hole, Queen, The Cure, The Specials, to X-Ray Spex, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Yo La Tengo being complete pricks as you'd expect, playing covers of remixes of their own music and playing two songs out of each speaker.
But, bizarrely, no Radiohead? Peel's take: "Although I've got nothing against Radiohead, I've never been that keen on the stuff that they've done, and the more people tell me that they're the most important band on Earth, the less inclined I am to believe that." Brutal.
(I discovered finishing up this letter that John Peel was actually a very sketchy guy? Unsurprisingly, yes.)
I've been loving these sessions by Maestros del Ritmo — deep house? What makes it deep? I don't know. I know nothing about these people other than I click the play button and I feel happy. Also I think they’re Romanian.
You might like this cute 4 minute film about a keychain.
What's cool?
"Be the first to touch your burger." — you can’t say it’s not a slogan. Some company called Creator has Created a machine that makes entirely pristine burgers. It's quite mesmerising to watch.
Anxiety dream of the week. You open your eyes and your buddy Elon is shaking you, "Hey, wake up! It's time to dock with the international space station!" Horrified, you glance across to see Grimes, who is looking at you like what the fuck just dock the SpaceX Dragon 2 already I'm starving. My experience playing this: 1. huh okay, 2. wait yeah this is easy I could definitely do this in real life! 3. shitshitshitshit!!
Will robots ever be able to beat humans at basketball? Why do we always have to fight? (Also: darts)
Remember ChatRoulette? I can't believe I never saw this at the time, but some musician named Ben Folds did it in front of a live concert audience once. You can't help but smile (I think).
What's next?
A new wave of globalisation of professional services is probably coming. At some point someone's going to notice you actually can hire developers from anywhere and it basically works out fine. Likewise with many other professions that don't have inbuilt cultural boundaries (so, no lawyers).
This and other pressures will probably lead professionals to move further out of cities. If you don't have to get to the office that often, why not live in a bigger, nicer place elsewhere? Even those who ideally prefer office life might be tempted.
All this could lead to a big revitalisation in local culture. People will still be interested in where they are, and if work can be hyper-remote then play can be hyper-local. I think we'll have seen this within a decade.
Also: something's brewing with touch. I don't know what it is, but the past months almost feel like a strange form of pleasure-denial, and we're moving now into a phase of 'edging' where touch feels even more dangerous and forbidden. I don't quite know where it's going yet but can you imagine what group sex people must be scheming up right now?
I'm sure you can't. Have a great week!
K
P.S. A puzzle here from Raymond Smullyan, as shared by HN user cstrahan:
Suppose I offer to give you one of three prizes — Prize A, Prize B, or Prize C. Prize A is the best of the three, Prize B is middling, and Prize C is the booby prize. You are to make a statement; if the statement is true, then I promise to award you either Prize A or Prize B, but if your statement is false, then you get Prize C-the booby prize.
Of course it is easy for you to be sure to win either Prize A or Prize B; all you need say is: "Two plus two is four." But suppose you have your heart set on Prize A — what statement could you make which would force me to give you Prize A?