Friday Finds (School, Sleep, Feynman, Homes, Design)

Hi friends,

Here's what I want to share this week:

1. ​Business Writing Podcast: The founder of Levels interviewed me about written communications in the corporate world. He did such a good job. Minute-for-minute, he led me towards more new ideas than almost any podcast I've ever recorded. We discussed the tradeoffs of writing memos, when it's better to communicate through audio or video instead, and how writing inspired the Industrial Revolution. You can find the podcast on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify.
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2. ​Why You're Christian: I've been studying Christianity for a few years now. The intellectual journey inspired me to write about the history of human rights and the moral foundations of the West. You can read it here.​
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3. The Story of Peter Thiel: Peter Thiel preaches the importance of questioning the status quo. He follows in the footsteps of his mentor, René Girard, whose Mimetic Theory shaped Thiel's worldview and inspired him to look for hidden knowledge, which he calls secrets.

Today's Finds

​Richard Feynman, on Textbooks: The Nobel Prize-winning physicist once served on the state of California's curriculum commission. He was tasked with determining which math and physics textbooks should enter public schools. He insists that he was among the few committee members who actually read the textbooks. The rest, he says, "judged the books by their covers." He points to one textbook which received high marks even though it consisted entirely of blank pages. Even when the textbooks had information, they were characteristically lousy, false, hurried, ambiguous, and useless. Feynman writes: "I was the only guy on that commission who read all the books and didn't get any information from the book publishers except what was in the books themselves, the things that would ultimately go to the schools." Yikes.

​Designing a New Old Home: Simon Sarris writes with a level of soul that you rarely find on the Internet, which I aspire to whenever I tap my keyboard. This two-part series outlines his thought process behind designing a rural home in New Hampshire, from ceiling heights, to room sizes, to the carpets in the kitchen. On his recommendation, I've also been enjoying a book called Get Your House Right, which applies the wisdom of traditional architecture to modern living.

​Alexey Guzey, on Sleep: It's so rare for somebody to question the idea that more sleep is better. This is a fairly compelling argument against not sleeping so much, though I think the comparisons to fasting and weightlifting are over-stated, mostly because I hate being tired so much. Here's how the author summarizes the piece: (1) since comfortable sleep is an unnatural modern phenomenon, we should expect sleepiness to be normal, like hunger; (2) depression comes from oversleeping, while mania comes from acute sleep deprivation; (3) occasional acute sleep deprivation is good for your health and promotes more efficient sleep; (4) we should be skeptical of the consensus on sleep research; (5) decreasing your sleep by 1-2 hours per night won't have serious negative side-effects in the long-term. Of everything here, I'd like to see more research about the idea that your sleep can become more efficient in the long run. For now, the only change I'm going to make is pulling all-nighters every once in a while if I get into a writing trance.

​Madonna Who Shows the Beauty in Going Overboard: I don’t remember the last time I enjoyed something so much from the New York Times. I continue to be frustrated by the quality of art education. Even the world’s top museums don’t always do a good job of providing context about their paintings. For inspiration, they should look at this series. If you like impressionist art, you’ll like this one. If you prefer a classical vibe, start here. This too reveals how software can make learning more enjoyable than books.

​Nicky Case: Nicky Case’s entire website is worth reading because of the way he teaches through simulations. The complex systems simulation is my favorite, but I also recommend this interactive comic on the science of memory and this one about game theory, which is inspired by a book called The Evolution of Trust, which I summarized here. If nothing else, these visualizations are a window into the future of online writing.