~the-official-medium | Bookmarks (97)

Taylor Swift’s ancestors: an opera singer and a seafaring engineer

medium.com

🎧 Good morning to the Taylor Swift earworm that might be stuck in your head this...
🎧 Good morning to the Taylor Swift earworm that might be stuck in your head this weekToday: Swiftian ancestry, life on O.J. Simpson’s block, and everyday magicBy Harris SockelMany of Taylor Swift’s fans know that “Marjorie” — a haunting ballad on her ninth album, Evermore — is dedicated to the opera singer Marjorie ...
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The weird history of corporate jargon

medium.com

👋 Welcome back to the Daily EditionToday: Taylor Swift breaks her own record, a jargon decoder,...
👋 Welcome back to the Daily EditionToday: Taylor Swift breaks her own record, a jargon decoder, and how to give the best complimentsBy Harris SockelEvery word contains an imprint of its history — even corporate jargon.Case in point: Chris Anderson, the former editor-in-chief of Wired, has been updating this giant li...
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A life hack for slowing down: libraries

medium.com

📚 April 23rd is World Book Day, and also happens to be the date* a number...
📚 April 23rd is World Book Day, and also happens to be the date* a number of literary luminaries — from William Shakespeare to Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) — all diedAlso today: A year in the life of a poet laureate, an electrifying theory about bees, and why you should play video games at workBy Carl...
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The Amazon rainforest’s impending “tipping point”

medium.com

🌎 The Amazon Basin has been warming at an average of 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade...
🌎 The Amazon Basin has been warming at an average of 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade since the 1980s, with some regions warming even fasterAlso today: evolving cities, old dogs, and marriage tipsBy Jon Gluck“What Is The Amazon ‘Tipping Point,’ Exactly?” by Quentin Septer doesn’t pull any punches. “The Amazon Rainfor...
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What We’re Reading: Trying to understand the climate future

medium.com

Photo by Kyle Cleveland on UnsplashHi,If you’re like me, the act of trying to come to...
Photo by Kyle Cleveland on UnsplashHi,If you’re like me, the act of trying to come to grips with the climate crisis does funny things to your brain. Like dealing with other unpleasant but nonetheless true facts of being human in our time (taxes, social media, the pandemic), thinking clearly and deeply about the chan...

climate earth earth day earth-day environment
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The perks of being a capable novice

medium.com

👟 It’s Friday, and today marks the 127th anniversary of the first Boston marathon. Here’s Amby...
👟 It’s Friday, and today marks the 127th anniversary of the first Boston marathon. Here’s Amby Burfoot, former editor of Runner’s World and champion of the 1968 marathon, on how he won.Today: The dual smartphone system, AI fails, and Hofstadter’s lawBy Harris SockelAs we go into the weekend, I want to point you towa...
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The walk sign is on

medium.com

🎂 It’s April 18th, which means happy birthday to Rick Moranis, Conan O’Brien, Kourtney Kardashian, America...
🎂 It’s April 18th, which means happy birthday to Rick Moranis, Conan O’Brien, Kourtney Kardashian, America Ferrara, and many, many other people!Today: A wrenching recollection, and advice on how to make requests that actually get heardBy Scott LambIs there anything more miraculous in its simplicity and potential for...
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How Big Food is co-opting the anti-diet movement

medium.com

👋 Welcome to the Daily EditionAlso today: Julian Assange, an AI music experiment, not your same-old...
👋 Welcome to the Daily EditionAlso today: Julian Assange, an AI music experiment, not your same-old Wordle starter words, and the power of bracing for the worstBy Jon GluckThe anti-diet movement is a welcome and long-overdue effort to combat fat-shaming and promote body positivity, right? Well, yes. But it’s also an...
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The 48-year search for the “God particle”

medium.com

👋 Welcome back to the Daily EditionToday: Slow creativity, the math powering neural networks, and a...
👋 Welcome back to the Daily EditionToday: Slow creativity, the math powering neural networks, and a sleep tipBy Harris SockelPeter Higgs, the British physicist and Nobel laureate who predicted the existence of a “God particle” that gives everything in the universe its shape, died last week.Thankfully, on Medium, I f...
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Is the “anxious generation” really a thing?

medium.com

💰 Today is Tax Day in the U.S. — 66% of our tax dollars fund human...
💰 Today is Tax Day in the U.S. — 66% of our tax dollars fund human services like education, Social Security, and veterans benefits.Today: The so-called anxious generation, tax poetry, and the 50/30/10/10 ruleBy Harris SockelGenerations are an invention. A French philosopher came up with the concept in the late 19th ...
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What We’re Reading: One million members and counting

medium.com

Photo by Felipe Santana on UnsplashHi everyone,We’re celebrating something really special at Medium this week: Passing...
Photo by Felipe Santana on UnsplashHi everyone,We’re celebrating something really special at Medium this week: Passing one million members! As our CEO Tony Stubblebine writes on our blog, it feels great knowing that the words, analysis, and opinions posted by writers and editors here are so valued by our community o...

medium topic page what were reading what-were-reading writing
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The truth about living with autism

medium.com

🧠 In honor of World Autism Month, three neurodivergent people share their stories Also today: A...
🧠 In honor of World Autism Month, three neurodivergent people share their stories Also today: A devastating dual diagnosis, everything you always wanted to know about ticks (but were too creeped out to ask), and the power of living abroad By Jon GluckEvery April, the advocacy group Autism Speaks celebrates World Aut...
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What plane crashes teach us about (mis)communication

medium.com

🍎 Today is the 48th anniversary of the release of the first Apple computer. It was...
🍎 Today is the 48th anniversary of the release of the first Apple computer. It was only a motherboard — customers had to bring their own keyboards and displays.Today: Developing for Apple Vision Pro, childfree weddings, and cold emails. Written by Harris Sockel.I’m flying next week, and even though the odds of a pla...
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The first college admissions season post-affirmative action

medium.com

👋 Welcome back to the Daily Edition.Today: Pranking the BBC, how to cook fish, and your...
👋 Welcome back to the Daily Edition.Today: Pranking the BBC, how to cook fish, and your neologisms. Written by Harris Sockel.Over 1.3 million teens in the U.S. will hear back from colleges this month — and, for the first time since 1961, admissions officers won’t be able to factor race into their decision-making pro...
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Thank you for one million members

medium.com

Yesterday we had 999,268 members. Today we have 1,000,275.We’d debated making a fuss about the million...
Yesterday we had 999,268 members. Today we have 1,000,275.We’d debated making a fuss about the million member milestone, then backed off because it seemed a little artificial. Our real work is making Medium better for all of you. There are piles and piles of that real work.But then as we got closer to a million memb...

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How musicians are fighting AI for fair wages

medium.com

🎶 Did you know it takes a million streams to earn $3,000 on Spotify?Also today: How...
🎶 Did you know it takes a million streams to earn $3,000 on Spotify?Also today: How flying really works, a meditation on why Sears stores are still in operation, and how to be your own friend. Written by Carly Rose Gillis.Last week, nonprofit musician advocacy group Artist Rights Alliance posted an open letter on Me...
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The weirdest things that happen during an eclipse

medium.com

🌚 Unicode doesn’t have an emoji for “total solar eclipse,” but this is the closest one...
🌚 Unicode doesn’t have an emoji for “total solar eclipse,” but this is the closest one we could find.Today: Eclipse poetry, Winston Churchill’s private nurse, and fairies. Written by Harris Sockel.Today at 3:18 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time in Niagara Falls, NY — the closest totality location to me — the moon will full...
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What We’re Reading: Can AI write poetry?

medium.com

poem poetry poetry on medium poetry topic page poetry-on-medium
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You can’t over-engineer success

medium.com

🍾 It’s Friday, y’all! We made it through another industrial-revolution-inspired five-day workweek. Any fun weekend plans?...
🍾 It’s Friday, y’all! We made it through another industrial-revolution-inspired five-day workweek. Any fun weekend plans? Drop a line in the responses.Today: Minimalist icons, creativity wisdom, and fraudulinguistics. Written by Harris SockelMedium employees don’t just work here — sometimes we’re writers, too. At ri...
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Richard Serra and the beauty of making disagreeable art

medium.com

🌙 The moon is in its waning crescent phase tonight — it will keep getting skinnier...
🌙 The moon is in its waning crescent phase tonight — it will keep getting skinnier until it crosses the sun’s path during Monday’s total solar eclipse.Today: Death of a sculptor, Einstein’s doctoral thesis, and why you shouldn’t aim to be happy. Written by Harris Sockel.Richard Serra — the celebrated sculptor whose ...
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Welcome to Medium

medium.com

Hi. I’m Tony, CEO of Medium. Welcome! I’ve been writing on Medium since it launched in...
Hi. I’m Tony, CEO of Medium. Welcome! I’ve been writing on Medium since it launched in 2012, and I became the CEO of Medium ten years later in 2022.The author. Before he started regularly writing on Medium.I can’t promise that if you write on Medium for a decade you’ll become our next CEO, but I can promise you that...

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It’s National Poetry Month; here’s how to find your new favorite poem

medium.com

👋 It’s Wednesday, welcome back to the Daily EditionToday: The First Amendment’s apocryphal origins, Barack Obama’s...
👋 It’s Wednesday, welcome back to the Daily EditionToday: The First Amendment’s apocryphal origins, Barack Obama’s decision-making strategies, and magic spells aka poems. Written by Harris Sockel.Fantasy writer Phillip Pullman once wrote: “Poetry is not a fancy way of giving you information; it’s an incantation. It ...

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How to find meaning in your summer vacation

medium.com

✈️ This year, global air travel is expected to finally surpass its pre-pandemic peak (of 9.2...
✈️ This year, global air travel is expected to finally surpass its pre-pandemic peak (of 9.2 billion annual passengers)Today: The triple-filter test, trans (in)visibility, and a philosophy of travel. Written by Harris SockelIt’s warming up here in the northern hemisphere, and (in my circles, at least) people are beg...
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100% humiliation-free April Fools’ humor

medium.com

🍺 Two Medium publication editors walk into a bar…Also today: Is everyone else really better off...
🍺 Two Medium publication editors walk into a bar…Also today: Is everyone else really better off than you? And how your spouse can help make you rich. Written by Jon GluckThe origins of April Fools’ Day are unclear. Some believe the tradition began in 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregori...
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