An interesting blog post. I liked this note about trees in Johannesburg by Herman. In our last apartment, the bedroom faced a quiet tree-filled backyard despite the apartment itself being on a major two-way avenue, so I woke up to birds chirping and almost non-existent street noise, and a view of lush greenery. In our current apartment, the bedroom faces a brick wall and a one-way side street adjacent to a one-way main street, so now I have a classic New York wakeup call which is horns honking, garbage trucks rattling, pigeons cooing and flapping, and occasionally people walking.
Random thought. Personal health and personal finance are similar in that there’s a lot of information asymmetry, but knowledge can be an equalizer and very empowering (and at the same time, having complete or near complete knowledge can only get you so far, even though that distance is quite far, because you can know everything about health or finance and still be physically or financially unhealthy)
Nice things about winter hikes:
- No bugs
- Fewer people
Another random thought. The difference between the best option and the “good enough” option is often marginal — consider body temperature measurement. Technically, rectal temps are the most accurate, but oral or even optical is often good enough (can you imagine if temperature screenings at major events were done rectally?), depending on the scenario and the consequences of being wrong
A moment. Riding my bike up the Hudson River Greenway the other day, a pedestrian and his dog stopped suddenly in the crosswalk, and I decelerated pretty quickly to pass behind them. The pedestrian didn’t see me, and angrily said “Hey!!” I looked him in the eye as I passed and said, “I see you!” and kept riding. I heard him say “Thanks!” in a somewhat surprised tone as I rode away.
Pride. This past weekend was Pride in NYC, and a truer meme was never meme’d than this one (if you don’t want to click for reasons, this is a tweet with the caption “Pride in your 20s vs pride in your 30s” and two panels side by side, one with young Kate Winslet removing her clothes in Titanic and one with weathered Kate Winslet as Mare of Easttown, on a gloomy day fully dressed no makeup leaning against a railing clutching a styrofoam cup wearing fingerless gloves). We didn’t do anything glamorous or special, just lived our lives.