Some gorgeous fall weather we’ve been having here in NYC.
This Week’s Posts
Monday, September 26th - I Would Like to Gently Suggest that Perhaps Everything Everywhere All at Once is Just a Touch Overrated
Just a bit against the grain about a wildly-celebrated movie.
Tuesday, September 27th - We Can't Constructively Address Online Mental Health Culture Without Acknowledging That Some People Think They Have Disorders They Don't
Online mental health culture gets more and more unhealthy, and the Washington Post isn’t helping.
Thursday, September 29th - But Do I Need It? by Phoebe Malz-Bovy
The latest piece from our guest blogger.
Friday, September 30th - Trapped in Systems (subscriber only)
On forces we can’t control.
We also had the latest subscriber writing post!
From the Archives
Song of the Week
WON’T YOU LET ME RUN WITH YOU
Non-Garbage Online Reading
The Shock and Aftershocks of “The Waste Land,” by Anthony Lane
NFL Picks of the Week
4-0 baby! Detroit lost but covered and kept our winning streak alive. This weekend, I’m looking for the New England Patriots +9.5 against the Green Bay Packers. Yes, Brian Hoyer is playing for New England, and yes, even with Mac Jones the Packers are a significantly better team. But the Packers have 51 points all season; this isn’t some offensive juggernaut. I still believe in a little bit of that Bill Belichick magic and expect the Pats to lose but lose by a TD or less in an ugly grindfest of a game. Expect lots of angry Aaron Rodgers faces.
Season record: 4-0-0
Comment of the Week
I've learned a trick for avoiding excessive impulse purchases online: have a rule that you need to leave something in your online cart for at least 3 days before checking out. Usually at that point you'll have lost interest. - Unsigned Integer
That’s it. Keep it realistic.
(is it weird to reply to the Comment of the Week on the digest post rather than in the post it was originally made? fell behind on reading this week, no one likes reviving dead threads...)
The trouble with leaving stuff in carts is that most places will then take it as liberty to badger you over the following 3 days with "HEY DID YOU FORGET TO BUY THIS THING?" type email reminders, which doesn't help much on the reducing-temptation front...and a few of the more aggressive sellers will one-up that, by <s>throwing in a discount</s> knocking a bit more off the markup price, just Because You Showed Interest. So I actually prefer to weaponize it in the opposite direction: when I __do__ want to buy something, I'll hold it in a cart for a few days, and fish for one of those "discounts". They're surprisingly reliable at some retailers! Slightly delayed gratification for inevitable purchases still pays dividends...
That Anthony Lane piece is really good.