The CUE Test, Desire Paths, Maintaining Control, etc.
In which I'm irresponsibly mad for you...
🚶Merlin Mann on desire paths, like “when strangers’ seemingly random independent decisions publicly accumulate into a pattern that suggests a more desirable if less formal option, you might just have yourself a desire path.” Here at Michigan State University, he notes, they leveraged desire paths to decide where to put new sidewalks. Mann draws parallels between these paths and personal habits, suggesting that our natural inclinations can guide us to more intuitive organizational systems.
📲 The CUE Test or, the CUEE Test or, why I deactivated all sortsa socials this week. Lauren Goode introduced this framework to evaluate the value of social media usage: community, utility, and education, suggesting that if one’s social media activity doesn’t align with these categories and devolves into unproductive behaviors like doomscrolling, it’s time to reassess. Jason Kottke believes entertainment should be added as a fourth category as seeking enjoyment is certainly valid.
✅ See also The Control Test:
“Is this within my control? If yes, what’s my next step? If no, how do I adjust to move forward anyway?”
💬 Remembering when the world “really made sense” on the newspaper comics page. “Wildly popular strips like Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, Cathy, The Far Side, and Doonesbury peaked in the 1980s, but they left their mark.”
‘I felt like the world really made sense on those comics pages,’ said Jeff Kinney, who went on to create the best-selling series Diary of a Wimpy Kid. ‘I looked at them and thought, this is where I want to be.’ Decades later, Kinney can still reel off the names of some of his favorite comic collections, like Tales Too Ticklish to Tell and Weirdos from Another Planet.”
It’s always convenient when you grow up during an art’s peak but this does seem like a golden era.
📖 NBA All-Star Victor Wembanyama got mocked last weekend for reading in the locker room. For one, Kareem would approve, and in fact should send Wembanyama some of his own. For two, neuroscience is on his side. For three, read more. “A 2009 study out of the University of Sussex in the U.K. compared various methods of calming yourself, including drinking tea, taking a walk, and playing video games. Reading a book for only six minutes beat them all, reducing markers of stress by 68 percent.”
🐠 While conducting studies in the Mediterranean Sea, researchers noticed that local sea bream would follow specific individuals who had previously provided food, ignoring others. Following experimentation, they now believe wild fish can recognize individual humans.
🎧 An album I love every week, in no particular order, figuring by year’s end I’ll have what would constitute my top 50.
(6/50) Various Artists, The Rocky Horror Picture Show: ‘50s rock & doo-wop turned batshit, gender-bending, sci-fi-infused camp-glam that has never lost its wild, rebellious charm.
🎤 More music:
Call me irresponsible.
I was dancing in the lesbian bar.
I wanta holler, but the town’s too small.
💙 Mishell Baker, who is dying from terminal cancer, draws a parallel to societal challenges. “There are times when I need to pay attention to the cancer, like, when I have to go to doctor's appointments, take a medication on time, or make choices regarding self-care to increase my quality of life. But when I am not doing those things, thinking about the cancer is actively harmful… in a given moment I can make my or someone else's life better, that is what I should be doing, rather than obsessing over my illness.”
✌️ Keep the Hoping Machine running.
Love,
Luke
