Weekly Finds #37 - January, 19th, 2024
Sharing some of the interesting things I've gathered over the course of the week.
📖 Read
How Is It Possible To Be Loved And Yet To Feel Deeply Alone?
The article delves into the complex and multifaceted nature of loneliness, examining its roots and manifestations beyond conventional understandings. The author shares a personal experience of returning home after a transformative study abroad semester and feeling profoundly lonely despite having a supportive network of friends. Loneliness, as argued by philosopher Kieran Setiya, is identified as the "pain of social disconnection," emphasizing the importance of recognizing and addressing the subjective experience of being lonely. Setiya posits that loneliness results from unmet social needs, specifically the need to be loved and to have one's basic worth recognized. However, the article challenges this perspective, asserting that loneliness can persist even in the presence of loving relationships, particularly when specific individual needs and values are not acknowledged.
The narrative expands to explore instances where loneliness arises due to life transitions or transformations, leading individuals to develop new values, desires, and needs. The article contends that loneliness is not solely tied to the absence of love but is also rooted in the failure of relationships, even loved ones, to address the evolving and specific aspects of an individual's identity. The author emphasizes that loneliness can result from a lack of recognition and affirmation of one's uniqueness, beyond the broad acknowledgment of unconditional human worth. The article concludes by suggesting that recognizing and articulating one's unmet needs can be crucial in addressing loneliness, either by cultivating new relationships that fulfill those needs or by actively communicating with existing friends to bridge the gap.
Key Takeaways:
Loneliness is explored beyond the absence of love, extending to unmet individual needs and evolving identities.
Kieran Setiya's definition of loneliness as the "pain of social disconnection" is scrutinized for its limited scope.
Loneliness can persist even in the presence of loving relationships if specific needs and values are not acknowledged.
Life transitions and transformations can lead to loneliness when newly developed core needs and values go unmet.
Recognizing and articulating unmet needs is crucial in addressing loneliness, either through new relationships or active communication within existing ones.
🙉 Overheard
The imperfect project you actually complete is worth more than the perfect project you never finish.
- James Clear
👯♂️ Friends of Culture Curated
This week, we have a bonus post from Food Jungle, where our friend Gregory Zenin writes about what’s happening in the food industry. Be sure to subscribe and stay up-to-date on this storied industry's good, bad, and ugly news.
Honey… without Bees
Whether due to viruses and fungal pathogens or climate change, the global honey bee population is slowly decreasing. Yet, demand for honey is at an all-time high.
MeliBio - a small company in California - has a solution: plant-based honey. Mixing fructose, glucose, water, and flower extract, the MeliBio team can recreate honey's taste and texture while sparing our fuzzy pollinators' lives.
The company’s CEO, Darko Mandich, predicts that traditionally produced honey will become a luxury in the next decade, stating that “people might be paying $100 per jar at the farmer’s market”.
The majority of people who aren’t willing to splash such cash, according to Mandich, will gravitate towards substitutes like MeliBio.
And with the company rolling out its products to 75,000 stores across Europe this year, his prediction may have something to it. Food Jungle approved ✅
🎧 Listen
A couple of items from this week’s Music Curated issue.
I mix it up here and share various music with my readers, so you’ll see something different each week. You may be into some of what I share, and you may not be into other things, and that’s okay. My goal is to share the things I enjoy and I hope to introduce my audience to something they might not have otherwise heard, and I hope some of it also resonates with you.
Song: Palace - Heaven Up There
Palace emerged onto the music scene in 2012 as a dynamic quartet, featuring the talents of Leo Wyndham, Rupert Turner, Will Dorey, and Matt Hodges. Their debut EP, "Lost in the Night," marked the beginning of a journey that saw the release of the evocative "Chase The Light" in 2015 and their inaugural full-length album, "So Long Forever," in 2016. The band transformed in 2017 with Will Dorey's departure, who ventured into his solo project, Skinshape. In 2019, now a trio, Palace unveiled their second full-length album, "Life After," followed by the highly anticipated "Shoals" on January 21, 2022, showcasing the evolution of their sound. This track from “Life After” is one of my favorites of theirs.
Playlist: Bedroom Beats
All good vibes on this playlist from one of my favorite playlist creators, Current Wavve.
🔗 Random Finds
How I Use ChatGPT (As a Reasonable Person)
The article introduces "Founder’s Friend," a voice-first chatbot for founders, emphasizing the AI tool, ChatGPT's, practical utility in boosting productivity. The author shares tips like emotional engagement and custom instructions for optimizing AI use and highlights ChatGPT's voice mode and image recognition features. "Founder’s Friend" is presented as a problem-solving tool for founders, addressing issues like employee management and burnout. The author, initially skeptical, acknowledges tangible personal and professional improvements through consistent AI tool use, concluding that AI has reached a transformative stage.
The Size of Space
From Neal Agarwal’s Neal.fun collection, this is a fun and interactive way of looking at the size and scale of various things in space.
The Holy Grail of Beach Houses
At $1.7M for a 1 bed/1 bath, this condo is certainly not an affordable slice of coastal utopia on California’s northern coast, but it is a beautiful one nonetheless.
"Coming soon to the market is a world-renowned design by architectural firm MLTW (Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull & Whitaker). With a prime oceanfront location, the home sits within close proximity to the newly reopened Sea Ranch Lodge. Condo #6 has been fully renovated and includes refinished floors, a kitchen with custom Danish cabinets and countertops, as well as new bathroom finishes and fixtures which offer a zen aesthetic. A new landscape design by Terremoto (landscape designers for The Sea Ranch Lodge) has been approved by The Sea Ranch Association and the first phase will begin Summer of 2023. The landscape project isn’t just about planting; it’s a comprehensive restoration of the shared outdoor spaces of Condominium One with many different improvements and upgrades."
🍲 🍹 Eat & Drink
Coconut Chicken Curry with Crispy Shallot Basil Oil
A Thai-inspired masterpiece slow-cooked to perfection. Creamy, spicy, and oh-so-warming – just what you need in chilly January. Serve over rice, drizzle with crispy shallot oil, and you have a delicious and cozy meal for these cold days.
Braggadocio
Spice up your sipping game with this fiery original creation from Wild Child in Kansas. This Tequila Sour is a flavor explosion where their house-made five-chile tequila mingles in the spirit infusion, dancing with the bittersweet notes of Amaro Averna and the richness of maple-tamarind syrup. In the spirit of dry January though, Wild Child is also known for its high-concept low- and no-alcohol cocktails as well, so if you find yourself in Shawnee, Kansas be sure to check them out.
🧒 Kiddos
My kids thought this was fascinating and wanted to share it with you all.
What if every germ hit you at the exact same time? An immunologist explains
Imagine if Batman had to face all his enemies – the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, and more – at the same time. That's like what would happen to your immune system if it had to fight all diseases together. The immune system is like Batman, protecting your body from harmful things. It fights against many enemies, like bacteria and viruses, to keep you healthy.
Your immune system has clever tricks, like using your skin and other defenses to stop germs from getting inside. It can also recognize common features in different germs and attack them. It's like Batman finding a weakness shared by all his enemies. Your immune system can raise an army of defenders to fight off diseases, but if too many germs attack at once, it might get overwhelmed. Thankfully, most of the time, your immune system is like Batman, figuring out the best way to win the battle against diseases.
The James Clear quote reminds me of the "don't let great get in the way of good" saying