Wolmania - Friday, November 19, 2021

Good morning. Did you see the beaver blood moon last night? Me neither, but let's be honest, I'll probably put a photo of it in the newsletter in the next few weeks.

With that throat-clearing out of the way, I don't have much to say by way of introduction this week - but the whole point of this newsletter is I don't have to say anything. I picked some stuff and you can see it immediately below this section. I hope you enjoy it.

Item 1: a link

Willingness to look stupid

"People frequently think that I'm very stupid. I don't find this surprising, since I don't mind if other people think I'm stupid, which means that I don't adjust my behavior to avoid seeming stupid, which results in people thinking that I'm stupid. Although there are some downsides to people thinking that I'm stupid, e.g., failing interviews where the interviewer very clearly thought I was stupid, I think that, overall, the upsides of being willing to look stupid have greatly outweighed the downsides."

I do not endorse everything about this extremely idiosyncratic monograph but I found it a fascinating glimpse into Extreme Developer Brain. Also, I really want to know why he wanted the computer with the smallest box.

Item 2: a list

Performances I Saw at Outside Lands 2021, Ranked:

1. Vampire Weekend
2. Sharon Van Etten
3. Glass Animals
4. Angel Olsen
5. Khruangbin
6. The Strokes
7. Andrew McMahon In the Wilderness
8. Dr. Dog

Bonus: Artists I Meant to See But Missed, Mostly Due to Going Home Early or Skipping an Entire Day of the Festival, Ranked:

1. Kwame Onwuachi and Chali 2na (weird food demo thing)
2. Lizzo
3. Reggie Watts
4. Albert Hammond Jr. & Elizabeth Falkner (weird food demo thing)
5. Lord Huron
6. Tame Impala
7. Brittany Howard
8. Preeti Mistry and Rexx Life Raj (weird food demo thing)
9. J Balvin

Item 3: a media recommendation

Item 4: a photograph

See ya!

Thanks as always for reading. I hope you have a wonderful weekend - please stay away from flamethrowers, firearms, and... uh... I think that's a baseball bat wrapped in duct tape?

See you next time.