5 Nights of Bliss in the Big Apple

I will likely be in the woods camping when this run of shows at MSG will be taking place at the end of July. Nevertheless, for me, this would be just about the best week of music I could imagine at one venue. Considering Rush will likely be mixing up their set lists pretty substantially, I shudder to think of all the great moments that the lucky few who attend all these shows are going to witness.

Loving both bands as I do, I am really hopeful that they take in a night of each other’s gigs. I am rooting hard for pics of the Phish guys at Rush (they of course grew up listening to Rush and used to cover them in their early, early days) and for the Rush guys checking out the amazing prog band known as Phish.

I am reminded of the fact that in August 2010 I caught three nights of Phish at the Greek in Berkeley, then saw Rush on night four at Shoreline. The Phish shows were peak, but being on the lawn at Shoreline was a bit of a let down after the intimacy of the Greek.

Man, what a run that’s going to be in the Big Apple!

5 Recommendations

  1. The American Empathy Project Spread the word, we definitely need more of this. It is time to fight back against idiotic ‘Chrstian’ nationalism. More here.

  2. Netflix’s series House of Guinness. Great, historical drama with a strong cast, good writing, and for once, and absence of gratuitous sex. I’m sure they are takng some liberties with the actual history, but I found the first season entertaining. I hope Season Two is out soon!

  3. Billy Strings' recent homage to Bobby Weir. Firey Cassidy in Georgia!

  4. Framing time as cyclical, not linear. I’ve been thinking about this idea as I read Neil Howe’s fascinating book The Fourth Turning is Here. My default is to think of time as linear, but as a teacher my life is very seasonal, and cyclical. This has been an interesting new frame of reference for me.

  5. Dynalist outlining software. I still think linearly, so that means I like to make outlines to capture my thinking. I tried Workflowy, but didn’t like it (becaue the keystroke commands weren’t intuitive). Dynalist fits my brain better. Is free to use online.

Happy Frederick Douglass Day ❤️

I learned today that the great Frederick Douglass, not knowing exactly what day he was born on, decided on February 14 as his official ‘birthdate.’ I learned this fact about the great human rights advocate from this video by Heather Cox Richardson. In honor of Frederick Douglass, here are 5 other interesting facts about him.

  1. He taught himself to read and write in secret. Douglass grew up in Maryland and his master eventually forbade him from learning. He continued to learn in secret, giving food to whites for reading lessons.

  2. He was probably the most photographed American of the 19th century, hence all the different pics you’ll see if you Google him. He figured actual photographs would humanize Black Americans and counteract the widespread racial charicatures that were so prevalent then.

  3. He named himself. A primary cause of his renaming was to make it harder to be recaptured. The last name he picked is based on a character in Sir Walter Scott’s poem The Lady of the Lake.

  4. He was a strong advocate for women’s rights. Indeed, he was the only Black person at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, which was the first women’s rights convention in American history. He supported women’s suffrage, believing that the franchise belonged to all Americans.

  5. He was nominated as Vice President in 1872 by the Equal Rights Party. The head of the ticket was Victoria Woodhull, but Douglass apparently never acknowledged the nomination.

Brian Johnson's Philosopher's Notes Got an Upgrade

I am a longtime admirer of Brian Johnson. I first came across his Philosopher’s Notes, which were multipage summaries of great books. I like them because they were not too short, but also not too long and easily digestible. He eventually started a business called Heroic which aims to have at least 51% of the world flourishing by 2051. The dude is smart, compassionate, and driven to improve both himself and the world. Indeed, I’ve recommended his products before on my blog.

The reason I am revisiting his work is because Heroic just re-did their Philosopher’s Notes web experience and it is very cool if you are are type of person who is interested in great ideas. The site has 718 sets of book notes as of today (they generally add them consistently). The site also has 61 videos of Brian breaking down books.

A new feature that I think is cool is their Quests (see pic below). The Mental Toughness Quest has 9 books selected to work through. When you click on a note, you can access a pdf (which is downloadable) or an audio file, if you’d prefer listen.

The site also has an ‘AI Brian’ tool, where the user can query Brian about anything. I asked what it was trained on and it said: Here’s the rundown:

  • Heroic +1s: Daily audio nuggets (like 1,700+ episodes) on everything from journaling to epic challenges—bite-sized wisdom to level up moment to moment.

  • Areté and Optimize: Deep dives into Brian’s experiments in living at your highest potential, with journaling prompts, challenges, and frameworks like Basic Training.

  • Podcasts and talks: Heroic Wisdom Daily, live workshops, keynotes—hours of riffing on purpose, habits, relationships, energy, and creating a flourishing world.

  • Books and courses: Stuff like A Philosopher’s Notes (distilling 1,000+ ideas into 10 principles), Optimal Living 101 classes, and the Coach program.

I am a lifetime member of Heroic, so I’m not sure what it costs now to access this amazing resource. However, it is high quality and especially if you want to learn without spending all the time reading the entire books, Heroic’s Philosopher’s Notes website is worth exploring.

4 Articles and a Song

I came across these 4 article and 1 song in my recent internet wanderings and wanted to share.

  1. This article is about how the exposure to fire influenced human evolution.

  2. Found this by browsing the always interesting blog of Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution. AI renting humans??

  3. Cato Institute study on immigrants. Turns out, immigration is good for America. Who knew? See summary of study below.

  4. Ever wanted to know the history of the United States and Greenland? Here ya go.

  5. Lettuce playing Breathe. Nice Estimated tease in there!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Daily Reminders from Notebook LM

I am enjoying learning how to utilize Notebook LM, Google’s relatively new app that allows users to create their own knowledge bases that they can query or use for learning. One way I have started using it has to do with the fact that I enjoy and need daily reminders. Not only do frequent reminders help me internalize a concept, but it also acts as motivation. Some people likely scoff at such habits, but I find a lot of benefit in them.

Below are two screenshots of one of these reminders. I put together a ‘notebook’ with documents that cover 1. Stoicicsm 2. Buddhism 3. Toaism and 4. The teachings of the one and only David Goggins. Hey, anyone who wants to get better should have Goggins chirping at them in their head!

I throw the same question in every morning (I do this in the morning while I am having my first cup of joe and going through my morning routine). It give me a theme and three quick detailed notes that I should keep in mind. The footnotes is a nice Notebook LM feature that allows you to find where the answer is coming from within your notebook. If I click on one of those footnotes, I am taken to where that idea originates.

Another example of how I use Notebook LM has to do with my diet. I upload documents (and websites and videos) that describe the type of diet and health goals I am shooting for. I also ask it to give me a score (and I provide the rubric I want it to use). Then I upload my daily food and beverage intake and ask it to score me. Again, this is way too much for a lot of folks. However, for a QS nerd like me who wants data and frequent encouragement, this is solid gold.

Three Cheers for Brandon Stanton's Work

I am a serious fan of Brandon Stanton’s photo books. His first book, Humans of New York, blew up when it was first published. I loved the concept and thought the photos and quotes from the people he photographed were fascinating. I liked his book Humans even more. I am now almost through his latest coffee table book, Dear New York,.

The concept is simple. Each page has a photo and is accompanied by a quote from the person in the picture. I love the books because the people are so unique and often the things they say are entertaining, weird, insightful, revelatory, inspirational, or all of the above wrapped into one monologue. They also provide a similar benefit to traveling, which is to expose oneself to people that are utterly different than oneself.

I can’t recommend these books enough.

A Great Place to Find Your Next Read

I recently came across this great book resource. It advertises itself as a compilation of the top 1,000 books mentioned on Hacker News. While it clearly scews a bit towards ‘tech bro’, a list with a thousand items on it is going to cover a lot of ground. My current ‘to be read’ pile at home is plenty big, but I’ve really enjoyed browsing this digital library.

There are several books on the page that I am not surprised are here that I think are unduly popular and generally overhyped (such as Ayn Rand’s childish novels and Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad).

Three books I saw on the site that I definitely want to read for the first time include:

  1. The Three-Body Problem by Lui Cixin

  2. Debt by David Graeber

  3. Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse

Happy browsing! ✌🏼

5 Recommendations

It has been a while, so here are 5 recommendations for your consideration.

  1. This article by the YouGov folks documenting the sad dearth of reading in our society. To say it explains a lot is a large understatement. This is a deep dive loaded with easy to understand renditions of recent data.

  2. Musical Artist Miles Miller. I few years ago I came across a few of the tunes from his inaugural record and became a fan. I especially love Highway Shoes. Recently, at the Phish show I was lucky to see, his new album was played in it’s entirety pre-show. It also has some great tunes, like Stormy and Get Busy.

  3. Jeff Su’s tech YouTube channel. Su’s humor is self deprecating and his videos are both clear and helpful (assuming you use the software he teaches about). He has a newsletter as well that I subscribe to because I am deep into the Google ecosystem. His AI knowledge has also been helpful to me.

  4. The Achilles Trap by Steve Coll. This book was a Christmas gift and covers the background to the US invastion of Iraq. Probably not for everyone, but for history nerds and news junkies, it’s a great read. He does a fantastic job humanizing some of the big players, like the sadistic weirdo Saddam Hussein. (Did you know he wrote novels?) Considering the hubris we are seeing at the moment in present administration, this is relevant reading.

  5. A cool new blog with similar vibes to this one (but with better writing!). The author is a friend and I know his take on the world will be worth reading. Good luck Androsian!

Where is David Rees When You Need Him?

Back when George W. Bush was the president there was a cartoon published in Rolling Stone called Get Your War On. I absolutely loved it. It was created by a very clever, and funny guy named David Rees. The deeply sardonic cartoon used corny office clip art to sarcastically skewer Bush and his fundamentally stupid policies, including the ‘War on Terror.’ The cartoon ran from October 2001 to the end of Bush’s presidency in early 2009. I thought of it because as I recently finished Ben Burgis' book about Christopher Hitchens, it occurred to me how much we need the wit and wisdom of a guy like Hitch in these times. It then also occurred to me that I wish Mr. Rees was making a Trump era version of Get Your War On. Maybe he could call it Get Your Greed On? Or maybe Get Your Corruption On?

Anyway, here are few of Rees' brilliant cartoons.

Help on the Way

I came across this clip from CBS Sunday Morning on Youtube. It was about Metallica’s charity organization All Within My Hands, which donates money for scholarships for young people wanting to earn ‘blue collar’ certificates. As a life-long Metallica fan, it was satisfying to watch because I am proud that this NorCal metal band that I fell in love with when I was 13 was positively impacting many, many people in America. I was also happy about what I was hearing because as a high school teacher, it is clear to me that the push to pressure all students towards college, while well-meaning, is terribly misguided.

Seeing the video recently coincided with Trey Anastastio’s charity run at the Beacon Theater in New York City. The shows marked the five year anniversary since the legendary and top-shelf gigs he put on during the fall of 2020, during the pandemic. At that time, he played in the Beacon to an empty house, actually facing away from the seats. Phans streamed the shows and the musical magic was palpable. Those shows, and the ones this past week, were vehicles for raising money for Trey’s project, the Divided Sky Residential Recovery Program in rural Vermont. Trey is in recovery so the project is near and dear to him. Phish’s Waterwheel Foundation is also out in the world (and visible at Phish shows) doing good.

Of course, one of my other favorite bands, Widespread Panic, has been raising food for local food banks for years. Their efforts actually started as a fan organized movement called Panic Fans for Food. According to their website, they have raised over $279k and 43,000 pounds of food. Pretty cool!

The Grateful Dead, the OGs, created the Rex Foundation back in 1983. Since then they have written more than $10 million worth of grants.

All these examples make me proud to be a part of these fanbases. It goes to show the power of music and the power of community.

Universal Consciousness as Foundational Field?

I came across this very interesting study that attempts to help explain consciousness and bridge the gap between quantum physics, concsiousness research, and non-dual wisdom traditions. I can’t pretend to understand the math, but I understand the argument as articulated below and find it very interesting and seemingly inline with my understanding of Buddhism.

It also reminds me of Ken Wilber’s thought provoking AQAL ‘theory of everything.’ For instance, the study’s depiction of a “Pre-Big Bang” era aligns remarkably well with Wilber’s concept of Involution, where Spirit “descends” or involves itself to create the manifest world. Just as Wilber describes the formless Ground giving rise to form, the study proposes a mathematical “collapse mechanism” initiated by Universal Thought that transitions ‘undifferentiated potential’ into specific physical states. Crucially, both frameworks agree that space and time are not fundamental containers, but emergent properties that arise only after this initial descent occurs. Consequently, the study offers a potential physics-based model for Wilber’s philosophical claim that the spatial-temporal universe is a secondary creation of a deeper, non-spatial consciousness.

My personal bias has me rooting for studies like this. If core Buddhist concepts can be validated with math, that’s a win. Also, if consciousness is unified, then it is true that our feeling of separateness is indeed an illusion. It also reinforces the Buddhist conclusion that we should have compassion for all living beings, animals included, because we are literally cut from the same cloth. All in all, very interesting. I hope more related inquiries follow.

Using Notebook LM in Class

I have been experimenting as a teacher with Notebook LM. One of the cool things we can do is create our own ‘notebook’ with our own hand selected resources, and then share them with our students. Student can then use the ‘notebook’ to study. For instance, they can have the tool quiz them based on the content in the ‘notebook.’ They can also make a concept web and then click around to review details. Another cool feature, which has been out for a while now, is being able to make a podcast that reviews all the content in the ‘notebook’.

My APUSH students will be taking an exam soon on the period 1800 through 1848. I compiled a ‘notebook’ that included hand-selected YouTube videos, websites, and even my own lecture notes. It took the software about 2 minutes to make a 14 minute podcast conversation reviewing all the content in the ‘notebook.’ Pretty damn cool! The podcast is here if you want to check it out.

My same students are also having a seminar on an essay about Nat Turner’s rebellion in 1831. Because I have a pdf of the essay, I was able to turn that into a podcast, as well. My plan is to share that with the kids after their seminar, as I don’t want to discourage them from doing the reading.

A new feature that hasn’t quite rolled out to schools yet is infographics. All together, this is an amazing new tool for high school students, and for lifelong learners.

Nano Banana Pro Revisited

Yesterday I wrote about my disappointment with the latest version of Google’s image generator, Nano Banana Pro. I decided to ask Gemini what I was missing and lo and behold, it explained to me what I was doing wrong. I also realized that the best way to make infographics, which I’ll want to do for my students, is to use Notebook LM, not Nano Banana.

Here are a couple of pics I created for my next lessons in AP Gov and APUSH. We are looking at the New Deal and Great Society in AP Gov and Nat Turner’s Rebellion in APUSH.

Pretty cool.

Playing Around with Nano Banana Pro

I am interested in the latest tech and decided today to play around with Google’s new Nano Banana Pro, which is the top of the shelf (for now) AI image generator. Since it landed a few days ago, there are a lot of YouTubers showing off the potential use cases.

The first image I worked on was a simple, but custom infographic comparing the New Deal and the Great Society for my AP Gov class. Students are working in pairs to conduct the initial reasearch, but I wanted a visual for our review. I’m pleased with the results, but not blown away.

I then decided to see if I could get a picture of FDR and LBJ in the front of my classroom so I could include it on our next daily agenda. I uploaded a photo of the front of my room. Unfortunately, it couldn’t handle my request. For one, it couldn’t use the photo I uploaded. Instead the image it created used a made up, generic classroom. Secondly, it wouldn’t make images of FDR or LBJ since they are ‘public figures.’ Disappointing, but understandable.

Finally, I asked Nano Banana Pro to make a timeline infographic of 10 major uprisings in American History (we are about to have a Socratic seminar on an essay about Nat Turner). It did an alright job, but included two of the events twice. I asked it again to remake the infographic without the duplications and it duplicated _all _the events. Very disappointing. It makes me wonder how much the YouTube influencers are getting paid by Google to promote a product that isn’t quite as good as advertised. Even if they aren’t paying them, surely they are boosting the algorithm (since they own both YouTube and Nano Banana). Needless to say, I don’t imagine using this tool much in the near future.

Organic Purple Yams FTW

The latest habit I’ve adopted is a bit of a weird one. For the past few weeks, I’ve eaten one organic purple sweet potato just about every day. I heard a doctor mention it on a podcast and it was the one ‘superfood’ I haven’t heard much about. I figured I’d give it a shot. Now, I don’t really cook. I’m not very good at it and I don’t enjoy spending time doing it. However, cooking up a purple yam is pretty simple. Poke some holes in it with a knife or fork, throw ‘em into the toaster oven at 400 (I usually cook 3 or 4 at time) and 40 minutes later you’re ready to eat. I keep it simple and add two tablespoons of organic extra virgin olive oil and a little salt and I’m good to go. I mash it up and chow down. I’ve been extremely satisfied and don’t anticipate stopping this new diet habit. I’m already seeing a bit of a reduction in weight, which I chalk up to the fact that the potato fills me up (I’ve usually just had my daily smoothie) and I don’t eat anything else with it. For someone who wants to eat and doesn’t like cooking, this has been a nice win.

The main health benefits from eating purpple sweet potatoes comes from the anthocyanins, which are what make the potato purple. They are also found in cabbage and blueberries and are powerful antioxidants. Purple sweet potatoes are also apparently loaded with fiber, vitamins (especially A and C), potassium, and manganese. Finally, they’re not that expensive.

#winning

5 Recommendations

Sam Harris is one of my intellectual heroes. He ticks off the right people on both sides of the political spectrum imho. However, his work on getting secular Buddhist wisdom out into the world is why I love him the most. The app is not cheap, but the quality of teachings and tools there are elite.

I wasn’t a Dylan fan growing up, but JGB introduced to me to this song and I wound up seeing them play it many times. Strings is a wunderkind and national treasure and his version is just the right amount of bluegrass.

I first came across Young on Youtube about 10 years ago. He documented many amazing self-learning challenges and I found his videos very interesting. He eventually became a blogger and author, though he still makes interesting videos. I found this list to be filled with useful wisdom and food for thought.

Got to hit ‘em where it hurts. I deleeted Waze from my phone once I perused this site.

Tons of great free lectures, ebooks, music, and other interesting tidbits. And did I mention, free?

The Sky Does Amazing Things

I’ve had the same commute for about 28 years. It takes me across Portland, from the SW part of town to NE 122nd, just off I-84. The best thing about my drive is coming up over the Marquam Bridge. At the apex of the bridge, when you are heading north on I-5, Mt. Hood is off at about 1 o’clock to the east. Depending on the time of year, I get to pass over the top of the bridge with the sun just coming up. The last couple days have provided some wonderful views of Hood silhouetted against a splash of persimmon, peach, and amber stretched along the horizon. Over the course of my career, I’d say I’ve witnessed about a hundred wonderful moments like these. It happens just rarely enough to feel special, but often enough so that I look forward to the next one. When this commute is no more, I’ll have to seek out these moments elsewhere.

Four New Books

The month is coming to an end and I treated myself again to some new books to add to my To Be Read collection. The Jill LePore book is very new and since I teach AP Gov it seemed like a must read. Her book These Truths is one of the best American history books I have ever read and I recommend it highly. On Bullshit always capatured my attention when browsing, but I never read it. This is the 20th anniversary edition so I suppose it is time to give it a go. At present, one’s bullshit detector needs to be a precise mental machine. The Ryan Holiday book is the last in his book series on the Stoic Virtues. Cannot wait to read it. Holiday’s writing is taut, packed with great stories, and full of wisdom. Morgan Housel’s book is also of very recent vintage. He does a great job of explaining the timeless truths about money and human psychology.

Dead Ducks

This Saturday three things I love will collide in Eugene at Autzen Stadium; my chosen home state Oregon, college football, and the Grateful Dead. When the Ducks take the field against the Wisconsin Badgers they will be sporting special uniforms that honor the historic connection between the Eugene area and the good old Grateful Dead. Here is the Ducks video introducing the unis. This video explains the connection.

My first ever trip to Oregon was to see the Dead in August 1993 when I was still in college. It was back when they allowed camping at Dead shows and the shows themselves were epic. I remember the blazing sun, the bleachers on the west side of the stadium bouncing during Help>Slip>Franklin’s and getting tripped over at all hours of the night as people wandered around. I also have seared into my mindstream the second set of the first show. Peak post-Brent Grateful Dead for sure.

I normally root for both Oregon and Oregon State (unless they are playing Stanford), but I will be rooting extra hard for the Ducks this weekend. It is too bad Bill Walton isn’t around to enjoy this collab.