Reads, Listens

Reading list of books, magazines, newspaper articles, other physical documents, or online posts
Playlist of posts listened to, or scrobbled
Read 5 Excellent YA Books About Selkies by Abby Hargreaves
If books about mermaids aren’t really your thing and you’re looking for something a bit earthier, you might be interested in selkie lore. For the uninitiated, selkies come from Scottish folklore, stemming particularly from the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland. Selkies, a kind of mythical creature that shapeshifts from a seal to a human form. In many examples of selkie legends, part of the lore typically involves a woman selkie who loses her pelt to a man of the land. When this happens, she is tied to him so long as she is unable to find her pelt, and therefore unable to return to her seal form and her ocean habitat. These six YA books about selkies drop readers into stormy seaside towns, sparkling ocean depths, and treacherous rocky crags.
Apparently this is a “thing”? I’m going to download a sample of one and give it a try.
Read Are you a 2X, 1.5X or 1X audiobook listener? by Danika Ellis (Book Riot)
I’ll be honest: since the pandemic began, my attention span has been on a steady decline. Nowadays I watch movies on Netflix in ten minute chunks, because that’s how long I can hold out before I’m clicking away to something else. Between having the attention span of a gnat and not having my usual commute or routine, I haven’t been reading much. Sitting down with a book makes me feel restless, which is frustrating because I’ve built so much of my identity around being a reader. Lately, it’s more my speed to listen to a mindless podcast while I play Animal Crossing (I seem to need at least two forms of distraction at any one time).
I’m usually 1.25x-1.5x depending on the topic. It’s rare that I slow down to 1.0x unless it’s a highly technical topic.
Read How to find the editor of a book by Erin Mayer (Book Riot)
As readers, we love books. We also recognize that books are about more than the author’s name on the front cover. Books wouldn’t exist without authors, but so much goes into publishing your favorite titles. From publicity to copyediting and book design, the publishing world is vast and varied. Have you ever wondered how to find the editor of a book? It’s actually super easy most of the time.
This didn’t have as much useful advice as I would have hoped.
Read 'Bookmarks' Series from Netflix Spotlights the Black Experience (PublishersWeekly.com)
Streaming entertainment service Netflix has announced the September 1 launch of 'Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices,' a collection of 12 five-minute episodes featuring Black celebrities and artists reading aloud children's books by Black authors.
Read BREAD, not CRUD (paul-m-jones.com)

Several developers have asked me what "BREAD" means in web applications. Most everyone knows that CRUD is "create, read, update, delete," but I think that misses an important aspect of web apps: the listing of records to select from.

I don't recall where I first heard the term BREAD; it stands for "browse, read, edit, add, delete". That covers more of what common web apps do, including the record listings. It even sounds nicer: "crud" is something icky, but "bread" is warm and fulfilling. That's why I tend to use the term BREAD instead of CRUD, especially when it comes to Solar and action-method names in the application logic.

Read - Reading: Behavioral Economics When Psychology and Economics Collide by Scott Huettel (The Great Courses)
Lecture 7: Risk—The Known Unknowns
Tolerance for risk is another fundamental element of decision making. Learn how behavioral economics evaluates “risk aversion” and “risk seeking” in both economic and personal contexts, and grasp the role of perceived benefits and perceived risks in explaining risk-taking behavior and choices. Finally, study two basic principles for managing risk.
Finished lecture 7 on risk and minimizing regret

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Read - Reading: Behavioral Economics When Psychology and Economics Collide by Scott Huettel (The Great Courses)
Lecture 6: Probability Weighting
"Probability weighting” describes how people tend to convert objective information about probability into a subjective sense of what may happen—which can lead to bias and error. Observe how this applies to real-life situations such as buying life or travel insurance, and learn two tools to change how you deal with probabilities.
Finished lecture 6 on probability and availability heuristic/bias

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Read - Reading: Behavioral Economics When Psychology and Economics Collide by Scott Huettel (The Great Courses)
Lecture 5: Range Effects—Changing the Scale
The principle of “range effects” describes how the relative difference between two quantities becomes less meaningful as the absolute values of those quantities get larger. Grasp how this phenomenon explains apparent inconsistencies in human behavior, and how its existence is linked to our biology. Learn specific steps you can take to minimize its unwanted influence on your decisions.
Relistened to lecture 5

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Read The IndieWeb Landscape by Nathan DeGruchyNathan DeGruchy (degruchy.org)

TL;DR: This long, rambling post can be summed up by saying: I love the IndieWeb, but man it can be hard to get into if you’re kind of a control freak, like me.

Also: I don’t have time right now to pepper in links, I’ll get to it later..

Chatting on IRC is something that I’ve often rediscovered in different times in life. Being able to talk with the developers of software or just really smart people, who also like the things you like is really cathartic. In this recent rediscovery of IRC, I joined up with folks from the IndieWeb movement. As above, there are some incredibly talented people, from all walks of life, who all share a passion for the open web and the inter-connectedness that it brings.

For me, though. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

Read Report: California's Oldest State Park, Home To Majestic Coast Redwoods, Is 'Gone' (KCBS 740AM | 106.9 FM)
"We are devastated to report that Big Basin State Park, as we have known it, loved it, and cherished it for generations, is gone," Sempervirens Fund, an organization dedicated to redwoods protection, wrote in a Twitter post Thursday afternoon.
Read The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information (Forte Labs)
Series Navigation: The P.A.R.A. MethodPARA Part 2: Operations Manual >> Imagine for a moment the perfect organizational system. One that supported and enhanced the work you do, telling you exactly where to put a piece of information, and exactly where to find it when you needed it. This system would have to be: universal, encompassing ... Read more
Maybe some interesting ideas hiding in here subtly? Not sure if I agree with the framing entirely. Bringing things to a more concrete and actionable level is the intriguing idea here, particularly between “project” and “area of responsibility”.
Read - Reading: Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies: Orality, Memory, and the Transmission of Culture by Lynne Kelly (Cambridge University Press)
Chapter 5: Animal and plant knowledge in oral tradition
Finished chapter 5: Animal and plant knowledge in oral tradition
Some fascinating research here

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Read How an unknown British actress played a role in the downfall of two Hollywood moguls by Stacy Perman (Los Angeles Times)
Ron Meyer, the former vice chairman of NBCUniversal, was the second mogul embroiled in a sex scandal with Charlotte Kirk to be toppled in less than two years.