Friday Finds, VIII
'I Kissed Dating Goodbye' Author Is Maybe Kind Of Sorry (Slate)
Harris’ conversation with me was part of an ongoing not-quite-apology tour in which he is grappling earnestly with the legacy of I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Last month he gave an interview to NPR in which he said he is re-evaluating the book’s impact, and he has been responding to critics on Twitter and having phone conversations with some of them, too. A few months ago, he started soliciting messages on his website from readers about how the books affected them.
Not only is he kind of sorry about the negative impact of book, he's also getting a divorce with his wife.
I read parts of it, I think. Or maybe I read all of it, and don't remember a single thing from it. It definitely made its rounds throughout my church. It had little impact on me, though. In fact, thinking through all the Christian books I read as a late teen and early young adult, very few had a real impact on how I lived my life. It's like I had some subconscious bullshit protection that blocked out books I know I'd never take seriously anyway.
Books like these need to die. Or maybe just Western Conservative Evangelicalism needs to die. Yeah, let's go with that.
I Tried Emailing Like A CEO And Quite Frankly, It Made My Life Better (Buzzfeed News)
Let’s call this “boss email.” It’s defined by nearly immediate — but short and terse — replies. The classic two-word email. For underlings, it can be inscrutable. Is that an angry “thanks” or a grateful “thanks”? Does “please update me” imply impatience with you? Boss email can be the workplace equivalent of getting a “k” text reply from a Tinder date.
I still have a hard time shaking the concept of email as a replacement for hand-written letters for two reasons:
- If I'm going to treat email like texting/messaging, why not just text/message? Or Slack or whatever.
- I email too many people in my professional life where I don't want to come off as so casual.
But I've already been dropping the salutation (e.g. “Hey Padraig,”) and the closing (e.g. “Thanks,”) in replies. One step at a time, right?
The Texan Who Invented Chili Powder Also Accidentally Created the American Taco (Atlas Obscura)
...[I]t’s a mistake to believe that the iconic hard shell taco is something that clueless white people invented. “Both Americans and Mexicans would love to believe that the hard-shell taco was a travesty of an invention by clueless gabachos. But that’s simply not the case,” says Gustavo Arellano, perhaps America’s foremost scholar on the taco.
Well shit. Then how am I supposed to be arrogantly indignant when I don't see onions, cilantro, and cabeza on top of two corn tortillas, with a grilled pepper, salsa, and a lime slice on the side?
List of cognitive biases (Wikipedia)
Now you'll have the ammunition to accuse friends, family, and coworkers of all the cognitive biases they're displaying!
Your Dad: “Man, that one $10 taco I had was really good.”
You: “Nice display of choice-supportive bias, you asshat. I can get amazing tacos for $1.50.”
The true origins of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory (Yahoo! News)
TL;DR Russia
By the way, has anyone else in Atlanta noticed that someone(s) are spray-painting “Seth Rich” around the city? And then they get painted over by the city two weeks later. I should try getting a picture when I can.