5 Things I Consumed Last Week (the year in listicles #4)
the best of things from 2022 that will linger in 2023
This year has been a mixed bag like any other. More so because by the end of it my mind is a mess. At times I try to remember what I read and I can recall some of it, at others it feels like a pressure cooker. Thoughts muddled, wanting to come out but can’t seem to find their way through. Maybe I didn’t give myself the space to process them well or maybe they are too deep to absorb.
In 2023 I want to breathe more, do less. Probably re-visit some of the things I read this year. This is a list of those things - thoughts that will echo and essays that will linger.
Making House : Notes on Domesticity | Rachel Cusk
This year I read a lot about women and domesticity but this essay stands out because tires to cover every nuance of maintaining a household.
The house a woman creates is a Utopia, wrote Marguerite Duras.
These men never seem quite so trammeled or devoured by domesticity, nor so possessed by its utopian visions: It may be the last laugh of patriarchy that men are better at being women than women are; but perhaps in relinquishing the role of housewife a woman robs it of its sting, and hands over a neutered identity where a basic willingness and competence are all that’s required. She walks around with it in her flesh, that sting, the itchy consciousness of something desisted from, a possibly harmful habit that leaves an emptiness in its place, like giving up smoking and not knowing what to do with your hands.
At the expense of boring you with another essay on domesticity solely because this is where I found out about the first essay, I want to emphasise and not leave out Alicia’s writing.
Food is my thing, my passion—where I feel happiest and most creative, as opposed to when I’m writing, like now, when I feel happy enough and most challenged—as well as my work, and it’s also a necessity, and it also has all these annoying patriarchal connotations. This is no longer pure intellectual pursuit, and I relish that about it while it also makes me uneasy. Who am I if I’m doing domesticity, as work and as an expression of love?
You Are Not Your Anxiety : A Journey Into The Anxious Brain | On More To That by Lawrence Yeo
Running an illustrated blog is not easy and that too leveling it up in every post - Lawrence really kills it every time. This long form essay is a well researched piece on the nuts and bolts of how our brain functions - anxiety explained biologically and in an entertaining way. It is a two part essay and I can assure you, you won’t stop at first if you start reading.
Why Nerds Are Unpopular | Paul Graham
Paul Graham’s blog unlike its minimalist interface is a dense read. I read many of his blogs this year but somehow this blog remains stuck to my mind.
Nerds don't realize this. They don't realize that it takes work to be popular. In general, people outside some very demanding field don't realize the extent to which success depends on constant (though often unconscious) effort. For example, most people seem to consider the ability to draw as some kind of innate quality, like being tall. In fact, most people who "can draw" like drawing, and have spent many hours doing it; that's why they're good at it. Likewise, popular isn't just something you are or you aren't, but something you make yourself.
Raising Your Ceiling | Infinite Play
It’s sad that I did not remind myself more of this essay throughout the year but maybe something to carry forward to 2023. It has all the motivation you need to do hard things.
Modernity hasn’t made us weak, it’s given us the option to be weak. To stop treading water, you need to do hard things, whatever hard means for you.
Not for Instagram, or the medal, or other extrinsic rewards. But for your own sense of self-worth. For pushing up the ceiling. For knowing you’re a competent adult, worthy of respect.
How to know what you really want | Psyche
I got introduced to René Girard’s mimetic theory this year, which in essence tries to explain where your desires come from and also tries to reason out how most of them spring from your surroundings/influences/friends/colleagues etc. hence, they are mimetic. This essay will change a lot of things for you if you sit and think - what are the actions you take only because you saw it somewhere?
Hugging the X-Axis | David Perell
I started reading long form essays from David Perell in January this year. His essays and newsletter are a constant source of inspiration. In this essay he talks about commitment phobia and how commitment can unlock possibilities.
103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known | Kevin Kelly
I have had a two month Kevin Kelly phase where I consumed his long form interview podcasts at a stretch. I never realized how I got introduced to him but this is the first piece I read and it blew my mind. It’s not an essay per se, it is just a fun read. It got so popular that it is a book now. Think of it as an instruction manual to live your life.
Wishing you a year full of reading and getting to know yourself & the world better.
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With gratitude,
The Hummingbird🌺
Wish you a very happy new year!
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