Adult Semesters, Toxic Positivity, Scientific Thinking, etc.
In which you’re never too old for new interests.
🇻🇦 A 3-D animated video that deconstructs the Roman Colosseum, showing the hidden technology — like trap doors, elevators, and the velarium (that massive retractable awning) — that powered its elaborate spectacles.
💊 Patrick Smith's animated short film Candy Shop offers a satirical examination of society's dependence on prescription medications. The film juxtaposes images of pills, capsules, and syringes with similarly shaped candies, highlighting their comparable sizes, shapes and colors.
⚖️ “When an opportunity is actually an obligation.” Leslie Kern critiques the culture of toxic positivity — the idea that we must constantly reframe challenges and negative emotions as “opportunities” or “silver linings.” Two big takeaways: Negative emotions have value and meaning. And if something labeled an “opportunity” feels wrong, investigate it.
🎙️ Twenty ways to matter: Maria Popova marks 20 years of Design Matters, Debbie Millman’s podcast that grew from design to exploring creativity, philosophy, and growth. To celebrate, Popova revisits past episodes, weaving insights from 20 voices into a poetic tribute to the creative life.
🎧 (15/50) Broken Social Scene, You Forgot It in People: Chaos by design. Anthems not only for seventeen year-old girls, but also the misfits and dreamers.
📸 Legendary baseball hall of famer Ken Griffey Jr. has become a sports photographer in later life, shooting everything from the Masters to the World Series.
I repeat: You’re never too old for new interests. What interests you?
🌎 From 1996, Carl Sagan on the decline of scientific thinking in America, emphasizing how skepticism and rational inquiry are being replaced by misinformation and anti-intellectualism, warning that without scientific literacy, democracy suffers, leaving societies vulnerable to superstition, authoritarianism, and manipulation.
📝 I do this: why you should divide your life into semesters, even when you’re not in school. “Instead of embarking without a plan toward broad ambitions, there’s value in incremental objectives in service of a larger aim.”
✌️ Stay skeptical, get mad when you’re mad, but on the whole, stay positive. Much better to keep the Hoping Machine running.
Love,
Luke
