Welcome to my collection of Internet thoughts.
I have this seminar I’m running for free for college students and I’m going to show them this picture before we start. It’s a picture of someone graduating from college. You can’t tell, but you can guess that they’re probably $150,000 in debt. Written on the top of their mortarboard with masking tape it says, “Hire me.” The thing about the picture that’s pathetic, beyond the notion that you need to spam the audience at graduation with a note saying you’re looking for a job, is that you went $150,000 in debt and spent four years of your life so someone else could pick you. That’s ridiculous. It really makes me sad to see that.
The opportunity of a lifetime is to pick yourself. Quit waiting to get picked; quit waiting for someone to give you permission; quit waiting for someone to say you are officially qualified and pick yourself. It doesn’t mean you have to be an entrepreneur or a freelancer, but it does mean you stand up and say, “I have something to say. I know how to do something. I’m doing it. If you want me to do it with you, raise your hand.”
(*The truth is, I’m not so into gift guides this year, and I’m not so into generic guides. After a year of working on Wirecutter, its hard to see things as anything but the most utilitarian terms, aiming for the things that have not too much or too little; in other words, my mind is in the exact opposite state ideal for finding presents for people.
I also thought back on gifts I received this year and couldn’t think of much. I did a lot of really stellar borrowing and trading–I borrowed a nice woodblock print from Nicole for my new apartment, and traded a handplane and fins for a nice sheepskin rug with Bilton.
But the best things people did for me were to show me places, teach me how to do things and to give me a couch to sleep on for a few nights.
My friend simon took me spearfishing and on hikes, friends at One World One Ocean took me on shark tagging and undersea research lab expeditions, and other friends took me to secret spots to surf.
Carolyn did buy me some nice short fins to replace a set that broke, and I got some tupperware for a housewarming gift. But mostly, this was the year where I was focused on shedding things and discouraging people from giving me things.
I don’t even want Christmas cards this year. Just give me a call and let me know how you are doing instead.
So, use this list. But let’s acknowledge that gifting is kind of weird, and maybe I am into it but I am more into showing people new things and taking them places than buying them stuff. So if you don’t feel like gifting, that’s cool to me and that’s cool of you.)
— .@blam’s footnote to his @wirecutter gift guide is pure gold.It’s not TV, it’s free HBO.
The Behind the Music of premium video streaming services.
(via johnzanussi)
Some ardent suitor left me a bouquet of grocery store flyers at my apt building. It’s like, dude, keep it in your pants
Election week deserves some choice nails. Forward.
I walked across the Williamsburg Bridge and down Houston tonight. Shit is real, and real dark, down there.
