A few notes on @TheProspect article on "The China Hack"

In general, it presents a critique of American political economy as overly dominated by corporations (including non-profits, that is, universities) that sell out US national interests (principally considered in the national security sense) for profit.

Much of the argument is based on US military contractors seeking profits in China and pushing the US government to allow transfers of what should have been obvious dual-use (commercial but also military) technologies.

The tone of the piece is harshly critical of prior engagement, but the policy recommendations are mostly limited interventions pushing for more engagement on better terms.

What the piece did not have as much on but made me think about were counterfactuals, especially in geopolitics.

💞𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐲𝐚'𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐨𝐟 2020💞

I didn’t read as much as I normally do because I was writing my own books in The Mogul Series which you can find here: https://t.co/0sODsY2S21
🥰

There are a ton of books I just did not get a chance to read that are on

my TBR which is why this is a FAVORITE list and not a BEST of list; bc I mainly read for pleasure. I was introduced to some new authors who blew my fcking mind.

Many of these books challenged or comforted me in some way; so I want to thank these incredible authors for putting their heart on the line and sharing their words with us and making this tumultuous year a little bit brighter. 💖

🌟𝐓𝐇𝐄 2020 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓🌟
1. Queen Move — Kennedy Ryan
2. Our Reckless Hope — Love Belvin
3. Villian — LJ Shen
4. Shu — Alexandria House
5. The Duke the Lady and a Baby — Vanessa Riley
6. Daring and the Duke -- Sarah MacLean
7. Charming the Scottish Bastard— Melissa Blue

8. Andre - Jayce Ellis
9. Rock the Curves— Twyla Turner-Author
10. Truly— Carmel Rhodes
11. Jaded by Love — AJ Alexander
12. Cry of Metal and Bone— Leslye Penelope
13. The Jezebel— Dylan Allen
14. Black Out— Lynn Raye Harris
15. In Fury Lies Mischief — Amo Jones

"What would you say if I asked you to run away with me?"

Asahi stills, the tip of his pencil hovering over his notebook, and looks up at Nishinoya seated across the table from him.

Nishinoya is staring out the window, chin propped in his right palm as he idly stirs the soda in

front of him with his left hand.

The question takes Asahi by surprise.

Noya had never asked anything like that before.

"What?"

Noya turns his head away from the water droplets streaking the glass window to fully look at Asahi. "If I said "Hey, Asahi-san, let's run away,"

what would you say?" Noya rephrases.

He's joking.

He's got to be.

After all, they're here right now helping Yuu study for his entrance exams in three months. They'll be in different courses, but Yuu is aiming for the same college as Asahi. Asahi's already been cleaning out

his spare room so Noya can move in with him until he finds a place in Tokyo.

Plans for the future have already been made, so Noya /must/ be joking.

But with the way Noya's watching him, waiting patiently for an answer, it doesn't feel like a joke.

"...I would say... that you

need to stop joking around and focus on your entrance exams." Asahi smiles, but it feels awkward, forced. "If you don't work a little harder on your math, you won't make it into the same college as me."

Noya watches him for another minute, and Asahi swallows, anxiety tying his

What a year 2020 has been...

Earthquakes
Tsunamis
Cyclones
Floods
Volcanic eruptions
Massive forest fires
Unprecedented pandemic
Economic crisis
Social disharmony
Terrorist attacks
Armed conflicts and hostilities

A truly abysmal year, but thankfully, we survived...

We have also been spared much worse eventualities (so far), such as:
Solar storm
Nuclear war
Asteroid impact
Blazar

This has made me realise that our humble existence is an underappreciated facility.

This year seems to be a massive experiment in social engineering.

While coping with a sudden disruption in commercial activity leading to a brief spell of global socialism, we saw hijacked, outsourced and sponsored protests fuelled by social divisions and insecurities.

Personally, I experienced a complete collapse of my reward mechanism throughout this year, resulting in low motivation levels for prolonged periods. I couldn't even find the motivation to post much on social media.

It made me realise the incompetence of reward-oriented work.

Happiness (being home after 5 years) was in stark contrast of sorrow (loss of friends and family), effectively flattening any emotional upheaval.

From the yogic perspective (सुख-दुःखे समे कृत्वा), this was certainly an educational year but was devoid of satisfaction.

I watched #Shazam last night (somehow) for the first time, and of the DC films I've seen, it's my favorite by a mile! To be fair I still haven't seen Aquaman or Birds of Prey, but my guess is that Shazam will still be my favorite when I do. My (probably) luke warm takes, below 1/

I thought I'd like it but I didn't know I'd like it as much as i did. Setting it in Philly endears it to me even more! I adore Philadelphia, so when movies are set there it probably makes me like them a little more than I otherwise would. That's just a thing for me. 2/

I also feel this movie made me believe that regular people in this world love the other DC heroes, specifically Supes and Batman. It just felt like a given in this story when they were brought up. Like "yeah of course heroes exist here!" It was part of the fabric of this world 3/

In my own headcanon, until it's contradicted, this film takes place in an area of the multiverse seperate from the other films. One where things are a little less grim and Supes isnt at all conflicted about being Supes, Batman isn't a murderer, WW is I guess the same, idk. 4/

After I finished it I couldn't help but wonder what a DCEU would look like if this had been the 1st movie in the series. If DC wanted to start their world with the idea that all the big heroes already exist, this would have been a perfect way to introduce that concept! 5/

THREAD: My top music picks for 2020. An ongoing tradition I’ve maintained for years, here are my favorite music projects of the year:

25: Brandy - B7
24: Lady Gaga - Chromatica
23: Niia - La Vita Bella
22: Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind
21: Grimes - Miss Anthropocene

20: Orion Sun - Hold Space For Me
19: Moses Sumney - Grae
18: Disclosure - Energy
17: Purity Ring - WOMB
16: Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia

15: BOSCO - Some Day This Will All Make Sense / Car Therapy
14: Little Dragon - New Me, Same Us
13: Jessie Ware: What’s Your Pleasure?
12: Lido Pimienta - Miss Colombia
11: Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas

10: Durand Bernarr - Dur&
9: Allie X - Cape God
8: Shygirl - Alias
7: Empress Of - I’m Your Empress Of
6: Kllo - Maybe We Could

I'm a nerd re: productivity systems, so here's a thread of some books and things that helped me this year, and might be helpful for some of you making New Year's resolutions:

I like books that use behavioral science and / or neuroscience to guide recommendations. To that end, @bjfogg 's Tiny Habits is really good. Maybe the best productivity book I read all year.

The best one I read last year was @jamesclear's Atomic Habits. It's a quick, easy read and it prompted me to start habit tracking, which has been really useful:

I don't have hyperactivity issues but I have big inattentive issues, so CBT strategies for adult ADHD have been very helpful for me. This one's a little pricey, but had some techniques that I hadn't seen before:

This one is about systematizing research and ideas using a methodology called Zettlekasten that was developed by a German sociologist.

The following puts everything in a nice neat package. Lets do this! 🔥🔥🔥

What I Read In 2020 (A Thread) [ Let me know if you read any of these because I want someone to talk to about these books or if you want my full thoughts on anything ]

So overall I read about 28 books and 11408 pages. I had an initial goal of 24 but lockdown kicked in and I also had some big boy books too. Here's as much as I can get into a single thread:

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris: The first Hannibal Lecter book. I've always been a fan of the Hannibal franchise so I enjoyed this book. I thoroughly enjoyed Francis Dollarhyde as a tragic villain. Very cool crime thriller.

Animal Farm by George Orwell: As much as I shitpost about 1984 and George Orwell, I do enjoy what works of his I have read. Very short endearing book about a bunch of animals that get into some wacky shenanigans.

Dune by Frank Herbert: This is the first Sci-Fi book I read of the year and what sparked that book club I set up early this year. I went on a bit of a Sci-Fi binge. Dune is a very well written book, the world building is really well done and I liked the big worms a lot.

So I finished reading The Velvet Rage today( I think it was Owen Jones who first put it on my radar) and it's been on my wishlist for a while, I had some extra cash thanks to some stocks I'd invested in so I decided to treat myself.
I have some thoughts™ (thread)

First off, the beginning chapters of this book are very good. They describe an experience growing up gay that I as a self identified queer man can vibe with. Even in a supportive household queer kids learn all too quickly what is and isn't acceptable parts of themselves to show

It stresses the book is writing very clearly about the gay male experience and acknowledges that the broad strokes it paints with could apply to lesbians too but are expressed in different ways. No acknowledgement is made however in highlighting the exp of non cis, non white gays

Topping that off, the book feels horribly upper middle class; talk of clients from executive backgrounds being ashamed of who they are. That may not be the experience of every gay. Theres also an assumption that most gays come from a home with a caring mother and distant father

It takes a certain view on non-monogamy and promiscuity, framing it as a symptom of trying to overcompensate for a lack of validation in teen years and while that's certainly probably the case for some, it doesn't frame anything other than monogamy as intrinsically rewarding.

LIVE AMA THREAD 🧡 🧵

High level updates will be posted here 👍🏼

Alex says acceleration in AUM and users is the highest it has ever been 🔥

A special mention for the 24 hour community call setup by @dollarcostcrypt @Crypto_Flippin and @1trillionCEL from Zach. Alex attended and appreciates the effort from you guys!

Alex shows the “Channel of Dreams” created by @Crypto_Flippin 🔥

Pretty sure that name was created when @Crypto_Flippin and I were running together earlier in the year 🙌🏼

Alex confirms that Cardano #ADA will be added to Celsius wallet in Q2 of 2021 👍🏼

happy new year, all. i’ve barely had time to absorb new music or artists in 2020, because mostly i’ve been listening with ash, and all he wants is the Grease soundtrack over and over (and over. and over). but here’s a little list of my top ten. ready?

1. Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters
In Three Words: homespun percussive truth-bangers
For Fans Of: feminism, confessional lyrics
Note: not background listening

2. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher
In Three Words: scream of consciousness
For Fans Of: kimya dawson, courtney barnett
Note: kills you softly

3. Laura Jane Grace - Stay Alive
In Three Words: laura spills survival
For Fans of: against me, punk, confessional songwriting
Note: listen to our podcast dammit

4. Reb Fountain - Reb Fountain
In Three Words: soft dark-soul dive
For Fans of: kathleen edwards, mazzy star
Note: she’s a new kiwi friend. and i just found out red is my COUSIN.

Good night, you wild bells of Maine, you Christs to be of New England.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

THREAD: 1) Hollywood Celebrities and the "Elites" (of DC & the Media) tell you it's an oppressive system because they not only preside over that system of YOUR oppression, they financially benefit from that illusion as they cash the check from their owner.

Music can certainly transform destinies, it has certainly given myself and my family a chance of a better life. I have never forgotten my roots, nor the deep gratitude to all who participated in nurturing me over the years. Here is a true story ⤵️

early 1950’s. My father was. 12 year old boy whose family just arrived to Beijing. They lost everything during the war, and came to the capital to start a new life. It was a big family KF many children, my father was 2nd of three brothers with a few little sisters behind⤵️

They were very poor in those days, the Beijing looked down on their country accents and bad clothes. The older kids used fo to the market and collected thrown away vegetable pieces to bring home. My grandparents were educated, but 1 salary was not enough to support everyone. ⤵️

There was a old neighbor who lived alone, he had a radio, and often listens to music on it. My father would sit under his window to listen, eventually the neighbor invited him in, seeing how he loved music. ⤵️

One day when my father was about 12, the neighbor said he heard of a new school that just opened, where they will teach music. The school is free, and offered full room and board.
My father liked the idea, especially because it would mean one mouth less for his parents to feed.⤵️