7858

@7858.eth

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The Cruel Sea Novel about a group of UK men serving on an escort ship in the Atlantic during WWII. Outstanding book. It’s split about 60/40 between sea related narrative and the lives of the men as men. The horrors of war are presented unflinchingly, but faced with that famous Anglo Saxon stiff upper lip. The pride of service, the sense of duty, and the onboard camaraderie counterbalance the misery of fighting the elements and the enemy. The stories of the men’s lives on shore were particularly good and surprisingly honest given the book’s age. One character falls in love, fathers a child out of wedlock, receives a letter while abroad that the mother intends to abort it, and replies that she should keep it. A few days later he learns that she’d been killed before he even got her letter. Touching stuff and written with deep empathy. I’m surprised this book isn’t talked about more. Recommended generally. Strongly recommended for fans of war stories.

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No I do not. Psychology is not a real science. I wouldn’t have read this if I’d known the whole thing was <insert big name in psychology> fanfic. Strong agree with the implication that many put waaaaay too much stock in Freud, but I don’t think the antidote is more naive reductive astrology posing as repeatable falsifiable scientific truth, even if it sails under a different flag

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Haven’t read it, but that title clearly shouts “I am pop psych self help slop” so tentatively yes

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The Courage to Be Disliked Dialogue lays out the fundamentals of Adlerian psychology as the most effective self help strategy. The title is so good, the book has tons of sales, the reviews were glowing, and the connection to Japanese culture was so tantalizing. But the book turned out to be just one of the many dime-a-dozen self help books that grab onto some specific mode of psychology and tell you to stop worrying because now you have their special insight. If you’re a troubled teenager, go for it. Or for any of its near clones. Otherwise, skip it.

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“Why would these cruel children beat so mercilessly on their sweet and innocent grandparents” contains a premise that might be worth rejecting even if the children are actually cruel

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The bike was a 550 LTD https://basescan.org/tx/0x0507247850f705543ff44a2d26f2bbefd998c645a1b9b5f908008bba6961729a

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No, that part is true 😬

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Darkness at Noon Former Soviet Party superstar languishes in prison while awaiting execution by the Soviets. Not recommended. These people are just the worst. The book is largely an assertion along the lines of “us old Bolsheviks were making good progress toward trying real communism and then these Stalinist thugs came and ruined it.” Which is, of course, stupid on its face. Soviet thinking had all the worst vices of religious thinking and none of its virtues. It’s so exhausting to listen to the performative rhetoric competition. “How far can I distort my worldview? Did you distort your worldview enough to escape the KGB death squads?” There’s pretty much nothing else to this book. Warning: I’m going to block anyone who shows up in the replies defending any flavor of Marxism, Bolshevism, Stalinism, etc.

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This was ambiguous but it’s not the intentional lie. When I left it there it was upright. It tipped at some point and I left it that way for months, though. That part is gospel truth

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Great guess. The motorcycle features in the video over a different set of lyrics, and the lie is pretty much at that level of seriousness. But that’s not it https://youtu.be/UG3VcCAlUgE?si=Asnm2An-gMzaHWhp

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“Warpcast is being rebranded to Farcaster.” Cute little kid goes through awkward adolescence and emerges attractive on the other side.

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Simon Sarris just tweeted about his first motorcycle and it reminded me of mine. It was a black Kawasaki 450 LTD with a homemade sissy bar welded onto the back. I left it on its side for a winter outside an apartment that I didn’t even live in. In the spring I stood it up, Fred Flintstoned down the driveway, popped the clutch, and it fired right up. Those old UJMs were unmatched. It looked enough like the Purple Rain motorcycle that one of my coworkers would sing “Why do we screeeam at each otherrrrr?” every time I got onto or off of it. After a few months of that, he got fatally stabbed in the neck by his common law wife in the course of a disagreement about some crack. There’s exactly one lie in this cast, $10 USDC to whoever guesses it correctly.

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Thank you sir. My north star for this daily review project is to provide useful signal about what is worth reading. I think honesty about my own reactions is critical to that. I hope that even people who disagree with my takes can get some useful signal out of them by adjusting for my biases as revealed throughout the journey. I’m happy to out myself as negative, or as a philistine, or as a snob, or whatever else as part of the bargain, if that’s what emerges. As long as I’m known as an honest grump, honest philistine, honest snob, etc.

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Wow that feels surprisingly achievable from where I stand. Knock em dead 🫡

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What’s your brewing technique? I’ve settled into a routine but I’m not convinced it’s optimal

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Illuminati be like

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@links you’re still the most credible curator of recommendations for me on this app. I know you warned me that it wasn’t as good. I’m not mad and I hope you’re not mad at me for this review 🫂

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The Pearl Steinbeck tells the story of a poor father who finds a valuable natural resource and loses a great deal as a result. This book reminded me of why, after reading The Grapes of Wrath, I wrote Steinbeck off as a hack for a decade. The prose is more florid in this book, with flashes of brilliance, but an intolerable baseline cringe factor. The overt political message is so exhausting that I couldn’t even empathize with the human experience related in it. Exquisite books by Steinbeck: East of Eden Of Mice and Men Great book by Steinbeck: Cannery Row Bad books by Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath The Pearl I haven’t read any of his others and I had such a bad experience with The Pearl that I’ll probably take another decade off.

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Congrats. Staggering traction, given the context. How many TPS makes you ramen profitable?

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