I'm a voracious reader but as I've gotten older and become a parent who has less free time, I've started to be more discriminating about what I read and why. I recently read The Creator Economy which contained this quote that struck a chord:

If you’re reading books to try to understand something that no one else understands yet, that’s research. But if you’re reading books without any goal in mind, that’s entertainment. (An enjoyable activity in itself! But not a primary aspiration to orient the world around, or else no one would be doing anything new.)

I'm ok with reading for entertainment sometimes, but I want most of my reading to be more than that. I would also be lying if I described most of my non-entertainment reading as research though.

Rather than a dichotomy between entertainment and research, I like the distinction outlined in this Farnam Street post between "levels of reading":

1. Reading to entertain
2. Reading to inform
3. Reading to understand
4. Reading to master

The important thing, I think, is to be clear to yourself when you are reading something or choosing something new to read about what your goal is. Depending on what "level" you are approaching the book at should determine the work that you do while reading and when finished to summarize what you've read so that you don't lose the insights the book gives you almost immediately after finishing it.

Furthermore, having a clear goal with why you are reading the book will also help you with writing notes about the book. Write notes with an eye to what you want to do with your insights from the book. Whether it's just to understand a topic or research you are doing, tag and organize your notes with those lines of thought and questions you are trying to answer. Later on when you find yourself working within those lines of thought or thinking about those questions, those notes will be easy to find and make use of.

I finished reading The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes recently.

On the surface, The Price of Peace is a biography of John Maynard Keynes, the economist who is, at this point at least for me, synonymous with Obama's attempt at stimulating the economy after the 2008 financial crisis. But the scope of the book is massive. This is partly because Keynes, from quite a young age, was directly involved in a lot of major 20th century events while he was alive. And partly because the latter third of the book careens through US economic and political history after Keynes died in the late 1940s through to the present day. Keynes's policies were utilized by all US. Presidents from FDR to Obama, with the notable exception of Clinton, whether they were used in ways that he would have approved of or not (reader, he would most definitely not have enjoyed watching Nixon stimulate the economy through Cold War armament and deployment of troops to Southeast Asia.)

Keynes attended Eton and Cambridge although had a relatively unconventional education and social life. He studied math at Cambridge and dabbled in philosophy. He didn't really have a formal economics training apart from attending the occasional lecture at King's College. He was a part of the Bloomsbury Group which included Virginia Woolf. Almost all of his close friends were artists. His early romantic relationships were mostly with men until he met and married the Russian Ballerina, Lydia Lopokova in his late 30's.

Keynes economic and political legacy comes across as almost tragic. Which seems absurd given how influential he was in his day and how popular he was. He almost single-handedly elevated the profession of economics and paved the way for economists to influence domestic and international policy in the UK and US.

This is first off because in the aftermath of both World War I and World War II, his recommendations were famously ignored to disastrous effects (although some disagree on this point). And secondly, where Keynes ideas did get enacted, like in the form of FDR's New Deal, they were viewed as such a threat on the right that they ignited a groundswell of opposition that started in the FDR years and which has only grown stronger and more powerful in our current age. In other words, the book seems to make the case that what we're experiencing in the early 21st century, is not so much the influence of Keynes but the impact of the rejection of Keynes. In the wake of World War II and the end of the FDR presidency, US aristocrat became disillusion with Keynes and FDR as they viewed their policies as giving too much power to government. The abandonment of individualism that was articulated by Hayek in "The Road to Serfdom". The story of the decades following this is the rise of conservatism and the dismantling of New Deal style government interventional programs.

Keynes ideas were rooted in using economic management to protect democracies from authoritarians and alleviate inequality to establish an environment where great art could be made and "the good life" were available to everyone. The book left me frustrated that Keynes's ideas have not found political leaders who were able or wiling to implement them at a time when they seem more relevant and necessary than ever.

I really loved this interview. Super interesting insights into working for/with Drag City including arriving at their decision to finally open up to streaming. Bill Callahan is poetic and funny as always. On song ownership (and readiness?):

I don’t feel like I own the songs at all. If somebody wants to try to sing them, they can. For me to be happy with a song, I need to ask myself if it can go and play with other songs. Can it hold its own at a cocktail party of songs?

Motif seems like a really cool IDE. Local-first data, apparently. And based on React and Tailwind. Basically your own Next.js app but with a nice markdown editor included.

1. Cassandra Jenkins: An Overview on Phenomenal Nature
2. Tyler, the Creator: Call Me If You Get Lost
3. Matt Sweeney / Bonnie “Prince” Billy: Superwolves
4. The War on Drugs: I Don’t Live Here Anymore
5. The Weather Station: Ignorance
6. Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / The London Symphony Orchestra: Promises
7. L’Rain: Fatigue
8. Mdou Moctar: Afrique Victime
9. Jazmine Sullivan: Heaux Tales
10. Parquet Courts: Sympathy for Life

Honorable Mention

• Arooj Aftab: Vulture Prince
• Sofia Kourtesis: Fresia Magdalena EP
• Olivia Rodrigo: SOUR
• Claire Rousay: a softer focus
• Grouper: Shade
• Turnstile: Glow On
• Steve Gunn: Other You
• Lucy Dacus: Home Video
• Jeffrey Silverstein: Torii Gates
• Hand Habits: Fun House
• Dry Cleaning: New Long Leg
• Buck Meek: Two Saviors

The air of the room chilled his shoulders. He stretched himself cautiously along under the sheets and lay down beside his wife. One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age. He thought of how she who lay beside him had locked in her heart for so many years that image of her lover's eyes when he had told her that he did not wish to live.

The Dead

Finished The Copenhagen Trilogy. One of the best books I've read in recent memory. The first two books were a beautiful portrait of a young outcast woman from a very rough part of Copenhagen, who knew she wanted to be a writer from a very young age and who wants to be saved from that life through her writing and men. And she gets what she wants. The third is a harrowing account of addiction told with composure that puts you in a trance like the one she was in.

Really enjoyed this Interview between Alex Ross and Jonny Greenwood. Greenwood's score adds so much to Power of the Dog. I'd never really thought before about how a mechanical piano could be used to make music that's not really possible when a human is playing the piano. Listen to this crazy little ditty from the soundtrack.

Also, I loved this bit about being concise of what people can do with synthesized sounds and trying to stay ahead of it by making music and sounds that aren't possible with stock plugins.

You start to recognize Penderecki-style plugins, for example. It’s quite a nice motivating thing in a way, because you end up writing things that are—O.K., well, you can’t do this sound yet, you can’t actually do this texture yet. So it’s the fight to keep your head above water that I get energy from, that I enjoy.