258/365

I find myself thinking back to the early days of Covid. There were weeks when it was clear that lockdowns were coming, that the world was tilting into crisis, and yet normalcy reigned, and you sounded like a loon telling your family to stock up on toilet paper. There was the difficulty of living in exponential time, the impossible task of speeding policy and social change to match the rate of viral replication. I suspect that some of the political and social damage we still carry from the pandemic reflects that impossible acceleration. There is a natural pace to human deliberation. A lot breaks when we are denied the luxury of time.   

But that is the kind of moment I believe we are in now. We do not have the luxury of moving this slowly in response, at least not if the technology is going to move this fast.    


—Ezra Klein, This Changes Everything 

257/365

I don’t remember where I first heard it but this is one of the most thought-provoking things I’ve come across in recent years, often in a very uncomfortable way.    

“The output of a system is the purpose of that system”

It made me look at the harmful results of systems not as accidents or imperfections to be fixed but as intended or at least tolerated outcomes.     

e.g. An economy that has homeless people is, at least in part, designed to make some people homeless.    

255/365

Dad texted at 2:30am with pictures of the petite syrah harvest. I think I need to have a talk with him about boundaries. 

254/365

Back to the grind. Grinding out that dissertation, even if it kills me. And, I’m pretty sure it is. 🫠

*On a separate note, today marks the 20th anniversary of moving into my house. I understand that the other events that occurred this day in 2001 should never be forgotten. And, I cannot imagine the pain of those that lose their loved ones that day. On a personal level, I remember what unfolded that day and the days following.