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Once more, harsh reality restored him to his senses
The main problems with people as economic beings are that they have irrationally boundless expectations, zero patience, zero tolerance for embarassment, the conviction that they are smarter than everyone else, and the belief that repeated observation validates anomalies, even when the anomalies are cray.
Basically, the trick to participating in any market is to think “What would Kanye do?” and then do the opposite.
If you’ve ever been interviewed or quoted before, you know that it rarely turns out how you want
My younger brother Ned is currently teaching in Indonesia. He appeared in a local newspaper with the following blurb.
“There is a great community among both teachers and students at SMAN1, especially when compared to schools in the US. The students here demonstrate such togetherness that they are constantly cheating off each other. Hehe.”
This super-annoying version of “Flight of the Bumblebee” is my favorite soundtrack for the completion of unpleasant tasks.
Sorry in advance!
Let’s pause and revisit the rules
Pretty much the definition of a losing game to weigh in this, but: are you joking?
To back up a moment, the outlines of this story are:
-A random anonymous Twitter user posts (intentionally) inaccurate information about Sandy
-Credible news sources take the information and run with it
-The anonymous Twitter user is “outed” and threatened with prosecution
In his Intel post, Adam Martin notes in passing that the error-filled tweets “are the kinds of things that make their way into news reports”. But these things do not “make their way” into anything. Reporters put them there. You don’t snatch information from a rando Twitter account and then blame the rando Twitter account for your choice to disseminate rumors.
(Doy.)
This is embarrassing for everyone involved, but it’s not a story. Twitter is full of terrible people who can be blamed for many things. Reporters doing slipshod work under pressure is not one of those things.
Tai Chi will be postponed until next Sunday
On Monday in lower Manhattan the weather is hovering at the “annoying” level of severity—as in, it is annoying to walk to Duane Reade while getting t-boned by wind tunnels. Police cars are lined up outside the evacuation center near my apartment, which is located inside a high school. A sign taped to the door says TAI CHI WILL BE POSTPONED UNTIL NEXT SUNDAY.
People have reacted differently to the impending Hurricane Sandy. Some are skeptical, citing the false alarm of Irene (the NYCHA buildings I can see from my house seem pretty well occupied). Some are skittish, filling bathtubs with water. Some are wearily apocalyptic. There are many emotional states with which to face a hurricane.
From a native West Coast perspective, this is all very weird. The signature West Coast calamity, after all, is the major earthquake, which everybody reacts to in exactly the same way (shock) because no one sees it coming. There’s zero opportunity for preemptive naysaying or performative readiness or even panic. There’s just the quake itself and then, immediately, the aftermath.
This second kind of disaster is obviously easier to bear. For one thing, dry disasters are less jarring than wet disasters. For another thing, earthquake scenarios are not conducive to finger-pointing in quite the same way that forecasted disasters (like hurricanes) are. You can’t accuse earthquake victims of negligent ill-preparedness or smug underestimating. As far as Man vs. Nature battles go, earthquakes have a pretty high degree of moral clarity about them. (We all know which team we’re on.)
Circumcision and SSRIs With Jemima Kirke
I spent 69 minutes with Jemima Kirke for New York magazine.
Behold my fixed gaze
As I was preparing to leave work I ran into B, wet-haired and in leggings, fresh from the gym. She asked if she could walk me out. When we got downstairs, she asked if she could walk me to the corner. And when we got to the corner, she asked if she could walk me home.
It wasn’t until she left that a banal/momentous thought occurred to me: this is what it means to be loved!
Specifically, it means that a person wants to be around you for no reason.
What an interesting thought. For many people, it is probably an intuitive thought. But for another type of person—the type who spends 80% of her time trying to elude observation, say—it’s a complete novelty, even when love-type feelings are present.
