Links #139

Ross Barkan on reading. “What reading does do is give you, in the context of our phone-addicted age, a small superpower.” Rings true to me, especially recently as I’ve started reading more classic lit.

Oliver Burkeman on anchoring yourself to reality in times like these. “As far as you can manage it, you should make sure your psychological centre of gravity is in your real and immediate world – the world of your family and friends and neighborhood, your work and your creative projects, as opposed to the world of presidencies and governments, social forces and global emergencies.” Yes, this. Sound advice.

Henry Oliver’s classic lit syllabus. I like this. Looking forward to reading many of these.

Oliver Burkeman on toxic preconditions. I particularly like the idea of modeling changes as tiny experiments. “Imagine the projects you could launch, the hobbies you could explore, the ways you could conduct your social life or parenting, and much else besides, if you needed no reassurance that the new way of doing things was ever going to become a permanent feature of your life! Wouldn’t you suddenly feel much, much freer to act?”

Sophie Koonin’s love letter to the personal website. “If you take just one thing away from this article, I want it to be this: please build your own website. A little home on the independent web.” Hear, hear! Very much agreed.