Thought - Pete's Newsletter - Issue #30
Book of the Month
All That Man Is is an engrossing collection of short stories with male protagonists aging through life, from one page to the next. Szalay captures the changing desires of man from his teenage years, to his final acceptance.
Uncomfortably, he is not afraid to illuminate those moments when man's thoughts are at their desperate worst. Despite these moments of starkness, the stories feel essential and alive.
App of the Month
I just downloaded the Captain's Log (Clog) App and have found it helpful for writing out quick thoughts, when my brain is cycling.
I like this App because: 1) the UI is clean— it's only two clicks to start writing and 2) unlike a journaling App, it is designed for writing without intention of looking back and reading entries. It is designed around release.
Click here to read more about it and to install (it's a web app). Thank you to Nathan Baschez for creating Clog.
Here it is on my current home-screen (bottom left):
Here is the simple UI:
Song of the Month
Warning, this is a catchy pop song. And a nostalgic one at that. The lyrics seem to tell the story of a Homecoming dance, twenty years past. Poor guy.
Article of the Month
A fascinating read outlining the parallel rise of the U.S. and Argentina in the 19th Century and their striking divergence in the 20th century— bringing us to today.
Before the Great Depression of the 1930s, Argentina was among the 10 richest economies in the world. The millions of emigrant Italians and Irish fleeing poverty at the end of the 19th century were torn between the two: Buenos Aires or New York? The pampas or the prairie?
Interestingly, this article was published in 2009 as the U.S. embraced continued globalization and began its ascent from the 2008 economic crisis. Today, its description of Argentina's descent in the 20th century (from protectionism, income inequality, and a liberal use of Tariffs) may foreshadow the fall of some Western economies in the 21st.
[In 1944] ...the conference created the International Monetary Fund. The US and the Europeans also began talks to reduce trade barriers, to undo the panicked protectionism of the Depression. Argentina headed blindly off in the other direction, rejecting the tenets of open trade. Perón referred to foreign capital as an “imperialist agent”...Argentina’s obsession with itself was shared by few.
(link is behind a paywall so click through via Twitter)
Video of the Week
This is fun.