B5L Issue #023
Discover more from Bennett’s Five Links
B5L Issue #023
Empathibragging; Science Side-Obsessions; Marketing Loons and Domestic Hoons
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Round Two..
All the way back in B5L #001 I linked to a post I wrote about what I didn’t like about LinkedIn. I thought I had hit upon something insightful (i.e. all the humble-bragging isn’t just annoying - it’s isolating) but the post went nowhere.
Recently I’ve joined a small internet community focused on becoming a better writer. It’s called Foster. I’m really enjoying it, and I took that LinkedIn post to their edit room to see what feedback they could provide. A bunch of smart people gave feedback and I’ve recently posted the second version of the same article. I think it’s much better. It’s probably still going to go nowhere but I’m much happier with it.
I can’t wait to talk about version 3 in another 12 months!
If LinkedIn is All About Connecting … Why Does It Feel So Lonely?
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Two Vortex Rings Colliding..
So, five years ago some guy gets sent a link to a video of a fluid dynamics experiment by an academic at the University of Melbourne. The link includes some footage of the experiment but the video is shot on a potato. Dude gets real excited basically just by the fancy fluid dynamic shapes and patterns shown on the video. And, as you do, spends 5 years and countless hours trying to reproduce the experiment.
And, because I’m a weirdo, I eat that shit up!
I absolutely loved this short video of the dude telling his story.
Two Vortex Rings Colliding in SLOW MOTION | YouTube
(via r/interestingasfuck)
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Heave Ho..
I’ve said in this newsletter before that I’m a fan of the mighty West Coast Eagles. However, unlike many other West Coast Fans, I’ve never hated the cross-town rivals, the Fremantle Dockers. I’ve toyed with the idea of also signing up as a Dockers Fan from time-to-time, but I’ve always gotten stuck and unable to move past what I feel is the awful brand identity of the Fremantle Football Club.
It’s a lot better now, but I can’t forget their early years with gross red, green, white and purple colours. Their fascination with anchors and faux ‘dock worker’ personality. It has never resonated with me and, personally, I think it was a colossal fuckup at the time they were created.
So I laughed and laughed at this video on the marketing geniuses that came up with the brand. At about 1:28 in there is a list of some of the other names up for considerations. I’m shocked they didn’t go with the ‘Freo Flashers’.
Birth of the Fremantle Dockers Pt 2 | YouTube
(via r/AFL)
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Killed at least three times..
I enjoyed this longer read, regarding the difficulty of ‘loonshot’ projects and the rules we must keep in mind to stay on track and overcome the massive adversity associated with those projects.
For example, when President John F. Kennedy announced to Congress in 1961 his goal of putting a man on the moon, he was widely applauded. Four decades earlier, though, when Robert Goddard described the principles that might get us to the moon — jet propulsion and rocket flight — he’d been widely ridiculed. The New York Times wrote that Goddard “seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools,” namely that of Newton’s law on action and reaction, which made rocket flight in space impossible. (The day after the successful launch of the Apollo 11 rocket to the moon, 14 years after Goddard’s death, the paper announced that rockets did not in fact violate the laws of physics and that “the Times regrets the error.”)
Kennedy’s speech marked the original moonshot. Goddard’s idea was a classic loonshot. A moonshot is a destination. Nurturing loonshots is how we get there.
(I’m sorry I can’t remember who shared this with me)
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Domestic Bliss..
We are going through a bit of domestic loonshot at this house. There’s a lot of decluttering going on. A lot of systems-thinking to design a life that won’t be overwhelmed by chores and adulting. Please send thoughts and prayers.
Throughout this ordeal I found this simple list of common chores and how often they should be done really helpful. I suspect most readers already have their adulting under control and won’t learn anything new. But.. just in case..
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Privacy Update..
You will recall in B5L #017 and B5L #020 I spoke about privacy concerns within newsletters, and how I wanted to move this newsletter to another platform that allowed me to send emails without automatic tracking open rates and clicks etc.
Well, the short version is, I spoke to a bunch of you about this and no-one cares. And I can’t be bothered. I looked into moving to a few platforms and decided that Hey World would be the best option available but I still don’t really like the way it works there. So I’m just going to do nothing. None of you care. I’ve also stopped caring.
Perhaps just remember that if you open this newsletter I will know. And, by extension, if you don’t open it I will also know. If you click a link I will probably know. Probably good things to remember with all email these days, as most senders will have access to at least the same information I do — many likely even more.
Now at least I can say I’ve told you.
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- Bennett
Cover photo by Rio Buziez on Unsplash