Craters

When I was younger—in my teens and early-20s—I always saw 35 as being the ideal age, because it was young enough not to be socially considered “old,” but old enough that people would take you seriously as a legitimate adult.

This was the perception of a version of me who was almost always the youngest in the room when I was trying to learn things, start up scrappy little projects, and generally be taken seriously by my elders.

Youth was a burden to me in those days, and though I was aware that other age-related biases would eventually replace those familiar ones as I got older, I still suspected that 35 would be the sweet spot in terms of wanting to be able to get things done, being in a position to do them, and not being seen as too old or too young for anything.

I'll be 36 in a couple of days, and—understatement of the century—my 35th year didn’t go exactly as planned.

Most of my ambitions for the year were blown to bits in early 2020, and though I’ve been able to fill some of the gaps with really wonderful and fulfilling experiences, projects, and knowledge, I still feel like I’m laying the foundation for something new right next to the smoldering crater of my previous aspirations.

Which isn’t the end of the world: I’m fortunate to be in a place where I can even think about foundations—many people are still stuck in the crater, and it’ll be years before our collective craters finally extinguish to the point where we can get up close, take a long, critical look, and figure out what to do with all the rubble.

I didn’t get to do as much with 35 as I would have liked, but I learned a lot about myself, and had experiences from which I’ll continue to harvest lessons for the rest of my life.

This past year wasn’t the cakewalk I expected, but I’m in some ways grateful for all the (difficult, painful, tedious) personal lessons, even if I desperately wish—on the macro scale—essentially everything had played out differently.

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Snapped while wandering around Warsaw, Poland a handful of years ago.

Projects

Brain Lenses:Bayes’ Theorem & Binary Bias

Let’s Know Things:Nuclear Weapons

Curiosity Weekly:April 13, 2021

One Sentence News:info about the project & subscribe

Interesting & Useful

Some neat things to click:

• ISO 8601: The Better Date Format(I love dedicated, informed opinions about things I previously knew little about)

• New “Metalens” Shifts Focus Without Tilting or Moving(neat concept that could change the shape of a lot of our devices in the near-future)

• GPT-3 Tries Pickup Lines(“I love you. I don't care if you're a doggo in a trenchcoat”)

• Vault of VHS(nostalgia archive)

• There is a Deadline(Wikipedia entry on the effort to preserve knowledge and how difficult it is to do so)

• The American Obsession with Lawns(I find that this obsession bugs me more and more each year)

• Oscar Ukonu’s Intricate, Hyperreal Ballpoint Pen Drawings(these are just astoundingly good)

I believe this is the inside of the viewing tower of the above-pictured building in Warsaw—it had a lot of character and the view was nice.

Outro

I’ll be on the road between mid-Missouri and Milwaukee for most of my birthday, this year.

The week before such trips are typically a little more packed than usual, as I have to double-up on some of my projects to ensure I have the necessary essays & episodes in the pipeline, queued up and ready to go, so that there isn’t a lag in the publishing schedule.

I can technically do all of my work from anywhere, but some of it requires more gear and is simpler to do in controlled spaces (audio recording in particular); I try to get that sort of work out of the way before leaving so that I don’t have to stress about the sounds of dogs barking and noisy ductwork at my Airbnb when I’d rather be focused on other things.

There are a great many upsides to being a one-person business: you have complete control over your own output, and you can set up your workweek however you please. But somewhat less ideal is knowing that there isn’t anyone else there to pick up the slack if you fail to plan appropriately or space out the labor so that you can get all your work done while also enjoying your desired lifestyle.

What’s the vaccine-deployment outlook in your hometown at the moment? Any lockdown measures in place, or are things opening up?

How’re you and your family & friends faring?

You can reach me at colin@exilelifestyle.com or by responding to this email—I’d love to hear from you :)

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You can also communicate via the typical channels: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or mutant, desert vehicle.

If you’re finding some value in what I’m doing here, consider supporting my work via one of these methods: Become a patron / Buy a book / Buy me a coffee

The Louvre collection is now online!