Exit, Voice, and Loyalty by Albert O Hirschman ISBN:0674276604 (more)

The Book of the Courtier (Italian: Il Cortegiano [il korteˈdʒaːno]) by Baldassare Castiglione is a lengthy philosophical dialogue on the topic of what constitutes an ideal courtier or (in the third chapter) court lady, worthy to befriend and advise a prince or political leader. Inspired by the Spanish court during his time as Ambassador of the Holy See (1524–1529),[1] Castiglione set the narrative of the book in his years as a courtier in the Duchy of Urbino. The book quickly became enormously popular and was assimilated by its readers into the genre of prescriptive courtesy books or books of manners—dealing with issues of etiquette, self-presentation, and morals, particularly at princely, or royal courts—books such as Giovanni Della Casa's Il Galateo (1558) and Stefano Guazzo's The Civil Conversation (1574).[2] The Book of the Courtier was much more than that, however, having the character of a drama, an open-ended philosophical discussion, and an essay. It has also been seen as a veiled political allegory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Courtier (more)

The increased complexity of the operating environment is going to require continuous study and a broader familiarity with world events that can only be accomplished by exposure to current trends and an in depth understanding of issues beyond tactics. https://www.cognitivewarriorproject.com/ (more)

Lucas Gelfond: The Laboratory and the Artist: Review of John Beck's and Ryan Bishop's Technocrats of the Imagination: Art, Technology, and the Military-Industrial Avant-Garde In 1966, ten thousand people attended “9 Evenings: Theater and Engineering,” a now-forgotten collaboration between Bell Labs engineers and New York art world heavyweights. The pairings were colorful and bizarre. Robert Rauschenberg, for example, staged a tennis match with rackets wired to cut the lights in the auditorium each time a ball was hit, amplifying the sound of each volley (more)

sci-fi book by Tinkered Thinking https://tinkeredthinking.com/ (more)

Venkatesh Rao: Of Mangoes and Solar Panels. Over lunch in Singapore yesterday, my friend Sam Chua offered a brilliant definition of punk that I think nails the problem with solarpunk as currently constructed. Sam’s definition is simple and in my opinion correct: punk is technology without technocracy. (more)

Mike Morris on WikiNature. WikiNature is found in linking. The very best wiki is one where pages cannot be created except by linking to the new, nonexistent page from an already-existing page. The newborn page is already linked, already has a relationship with other pages, just as a newborn babe comes into the world with relationships already in place. (more)

Improving Communication During a Global Pandemic: Why Doist broke away from real-time communication. Salihefendic wanted to create a structure where workers don’t feel pressured to respond to every message immediately. (more)

Cate Hall: How to increase your surface area for luck. One distinguishing feature I’ve noticed among people who are unusually successful is that they just try a lot of stuff — socially, intellectually, professionally. It’s the rate of experimentation, the number of shots on goal, that provides the magic, not the percentage of successes, which might be very low at first. (more)

1994 book by Bennett Harrison challenging a widely held belief that small and medium firms or businesses (SMBs) are responsible for the majority of economic innovation, growth and job creation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennett_Harrison (more)

1981 book by Tom Wolfe lambasting modern art and modernist (international style) architecture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Bauhaus_to_Our_House

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (/miːs/ mees; German: [miːs]; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969) was a German-American Architect.[1] He is commonly referred to and was addressed as Mies, his surname. Along with Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Frank Lloyd Wright, he is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of Modernist architecture. (more)

Cyril Edet: The Digital Spectacle and Its Unseen Effects. The internet used to be a place you could go to. It was like a room on your desktop. And this room had different things you could pick up, look at, and put down. You could step out of it whenever you wanted. (more)

Zvi Mowshowitz: A Matter of Taste. In light of other recent discussions, Scott Alexander recently attempted a unified theory of taste, proposing several hypotheses. Is it like physics, a priesthood, a priesthood with fake justifications, a priesthood with good justifications, like increasingly bizarre porn preferences, like fashion (in the sense of trying to stay one step ahead in an endless cycling for signaling purposes), or like grammar? (more)

Maitrī (Pali: mettā) is a Sanskrit term that refers to benevolence,[1] loving-kindness,[2][3] friendliness,[3][4] amity,[4] good will,[5] and active interest in others.[4] The term appears in various ancient and medieval Indian texts, such as the Upanishads, Jain Sutras and Buddhist Suttas.[6] Within Buddhism, it is notably the first of the four sublime states (Brahmaviharas), one of the ten pāramīs of Theravāda Buddhism, and expounded upon in the Metta Sutta. The cultivation of benevolence (mettā bhāvanā) is a popular form of Buddhist meditation.[7]: 318–319  It is a part of the four immeasurables in Brahmavihara (divine abidings) meditation.[7]: 278–279  Metta as "compassion meditation" is often practiced in Asia by broadcast chanting, wherein monks chant for the laity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitr%C4%AB

Lion’s Roar: Metta Meditation: A Complete Guide to Loving-Kindness. Increased compassion for ourselves and others, better relationships, and decreased stress and anxiety are just some of the benefits of metta meditation, or loving-kindness practice. In this step-by-step guide, we lead you through the how and why of compassion practice with written, audio, and video instruction. (more)

VisakanVeerasamy: 'Smart Writing' is about cultivating taste, suspending judgement and chasing your curiosity. I saw someone tweet “I wish smart writing came to me as easily as dumb tweeting (Twitter)” — and so I am here to share my strategy for using the latter to precipitate the former (more)

Anthony Michael Fadell (born March 22, 1969) is an American engineer, designer, entrepreneur, and investor. He was senior vice president of the iPod division at Apple Inc. and founder and former CEO of Nest Labs. Fadell joined Apple Inc. in 2001 and oversaw all iPod hardware, software, and accessories development. He is known as the "father of the iPod". As the co-creator of the iPhone, he also worked on the first three generations of the iPhone and oversaw all iPhone hardware, firmware, and accessories development from March 2006 to November 2008. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Fadell (more)

The Importance of Fun for a Prolific and Innovative Bauhaus. Many imitators of the famous art school’s output have missed the surreal, sensual, irrational, and instinctual spirit that drove its creativity. (more)

Albert Wenger: Attention on Digital Monopolies. I am concerned that regulators are missing the fundamental source of monopoly power in the digital world: network effects arising from the control of data.... The only way to go up against this effect is to shift computational power to the network participants. (more)