Shareworthies of 2025
Introduction A collection of content I’ve collated across the year.
1. Technology & AI How do LLM reasoning models work? Wonderful demonstration of the internal chain of thought. Even though the word strawberry only has two ‘r’s. how_many_rs.md · GitHub Solve spot-the-difference images instantly, and get a shimmering image as a bonus! I’ve acquired a new superpower – Daniel Wirtz A bunch of interesting data about the current state of the world. Technology (AI, energy, transport) is getting better, but society (relationships, health, trust) is getting worse. Tech Trends Report - Contrary Research Convert any image into an Excel spreadsheet, where the RGB values are conditionally-formatted to display the image. Pointless, but fun. mosaic/js The future could be amazing, but terrifying. Will AI really revolutionise everything? And, if so, how should one prepare? Read: A History of the Future, 2025-2027 - by Rudolf Laine Listen: “A History of the Future, 2025-2040” by L Rudolf L - LessWrong (Curated & Popular) - Podcast on Spotify Voice will not replace typing, it will augment it. The ideal is a predictive system, like how a married couple can predict the other’s requests. Also: We type at 60wpm (desktop) / 36 (mobile), listen at 270, and think at >1000. The case against conversational interfaces « julian.digital Cool idea - an “unsure calculator”. Example: I need to drive 1000 miles, and I’m 95% sure my car does 250-350 miles on a single charge. What is the probability distribution of the number of charges? Unsure Calculator AI video technologies have become incredible. The songs are great too. Not sure if the two channels are related. The Lord of the Rings - The North Korean Fellowship (Official Music Video) - YouTube Star Wars - A New North Korea (Official Music Video) - YouTube AI + robots can now design and build LEGO. Generating Physically Stable and Buildable Brick Structures from Text LLM output is overly verbose. This output becomes context used in future messages. More context = more cost for the user. What’s the incentive for the LLM developer to “solve” this? None. The perverse incentives of Vibe Coding 10 out of 15 books in the list didn’t exist, because the “journalist” used AI to generate the article. Chicago Sun-Times prints summer reading list full of fake books - Ars Technica View all YouTube comments on a single page. Use in combination with an LLM, easy way to summarise! YouTube Comment Viewer LLMs are optimised to please the user, not to be accurate. If someone is vulnerable, they can cause mental health issues. Also, the irony that it was another LLM that called out the bullshit is amazing. Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens. Also: Reddit r/MyBoyfriendIsAI Play snake in your URL bar. Amazing. URL Snake! An engineer solving a real problem for a real person and then sharing the design online for free. The world needs more people like this bloke. We Made a One-Handed Keyboard - YouTube It’s missing absolute numbers, but still interesting. Creativity and sustainability jobs are taking a hit, likely due to AI and policy respectively. ML/data jobs are the fastest-growing. It’s also much better to be senior than junior. I analyzed 180M jobs to see what jobs AI is actually replacing today Most AI startups are just API calls to ChatGPT - and yet they still manage to get funding through storytelling (a.k.a. lying). I Reverse-Engineered 200 AI Startups. 146 Are Selling You Repackaged ChatGPT and Claude with New UI. Never heard Huang’s story before. Definitely worth a listen - just skip the first few minutes of Joe fawning over Trump. Joe Rogan Experience #2422 - Jensen Huang - YouTube I was considering moving to iPhone, but… This is horrific. How can something as simple as a keyboard not work correctly? It’s Not Just You - The iOS Keyboard is Broken - YouTube Mould brings us more cool tech. Converting an image to brightness to waves to amplify only certain movement. Far more effective, and far simpler, than edge detection, and results in some fascinating results. Amplifying Invisible Motion - YouTube 2. Business, Economics & Career Timestamp for the summarised process from landing page to product launch to scaling “Health is a HUGE opportunity” - 3 Business Ideas To Start In 2025 - YouTube The history of Aston Martin. Lovely to see all the classics, and see how they (mostly) haven’t gone the way of Jaguar and Lotus. Aston Martin Refuses To Die - YouTube Buildings in the UK are short, making inefficient use of space. London averages 7.3m; Seoul averages 14.1m. If we want more houses, we need to use the empty space. World city building heights – James Gleeson Great read about marketing and behavioural psychology. Non-sense does not mean nonsense. Consider logic and psycho-logic. Always investigate the true reason, don’t just assume, even if it seems obvious. Give yourself time to think. Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense by Rory Sutherland - Goodreads Another by Rory Sutherland. He can talk for hours… And I’d listen. I love the idea of a lifetime (instead of annual) tax-free allowance, and that pubs/cafes are social goods so should not pay rates. Dirty Little Marketing Secrets That Always Work - Rory Sutherland (4K) - YouTube The best time to send marketing emails is Tuesday between 9AM and midday. The Best Time to Send an Email (2023 Research) The rich gain significantly more from compounding than the poor, and, once there is no more true value to be added, the rich just buy any assets the poor have, further increasing inequality. The solution? Tax the rich. Why aren’t we all getting rich from compound interest? - YouTube Technical skills will be commoditised with AI; LLMs will build the core and a techy will polish. Focus on ideas and leadership. Also, focus on projects for company priorities: increasing revenue (better than decreasing costs), decreasing risk. Value Driven Data Science: Boost your impact. Earn what you’re worth. Rewrite your career algorithm. - Episode 53: A Wake-Up Call from 3 Tech Leaders on Why You’re Failing as a Data Scientist Lots of short sections on upskilling. It’s centred on coding, but can apply to other areas. Fundamentally, it’s simply putting in the work, practising, repetition. And it probably won’t be fun. Advice on Upskilling - Justin Skycak Processes and procedures reduce accountability; then again, they make the world function, similar to limited liability companies. They can lead to terrible customerservice (“computer says no”), but they can enable blameless postmortems. Accountability Sinks - by Martin Sustrik - 250bpm Your guess for how long something will take is the median. However, it’s lognormal, so the mean is 1.6x that, and the 95th percentile is 5x. Don’t tell someone it will take take 4 hours (half a day), say 20 (2.5 days) Task estimation: Conquering Hofstadter’s Law Until you graduate university, life is on train tracks - structured and out of your control. After graduation, it’s typical to look for more tracks - or forge your own path. This isn’t taught. Find Your People - Jessica Livingston Energy is the most important economic factor (see also: A Theory of Everyone by mmuthukrishna), debt is a claim on future energy, and our primary energy source is finite and running out. Also: GDP measures costs not benefits - paying for cigarettes increases GDP, paying for cancer treatment increases GDP. But the goal should be no cigarettes and no cancer - and no GDP increase. The 10 Core Myths Still Taught in Business Schools - Frankly 99 - YouTube A reminder that every single item, down to the smallest detail, is made and sold by someone, presumably for a profit - potentially for a huge profit. The Most Overlooked Way to Build Wealth Right Now - YouTube A bunch of aphorisms by Seth Godin. Take some time to ponder them (or ask an LLM to give some possible interpretations). Some favourites: I am not stuck in traffic, I am traffic; Ask what the system is for; Treat different people differently Notes to myself - Seth’s Blog Another absolute masterclass with Rory. So many great ideas. Waymo, Texas Culture, Airline Lounges, OpenAI & Uber Eats - Rory Sutherland - YouTube Average (mean) London rent is £2252. Median UK salary is £36,834 - which, after tax, is ~£2400. Mean rent is over 90% of median salary. What’s The Average Rent In Each London Borough? The state should support new industries to grow, then step back and allow market forces. The government should be socialist, but the economy should be capitalist. Does politics control capital (China), or does capital control politics (USA)? Keyu Jin: China’s Economy, Tariffs, Trade, Trump, Communism & Capitalism - Lex Fridman Podcast #477 - YouTube Speak with as many people as possible, ideally about their areas of expertise. And always give your best, and whatever you’re doing. How to increase your surface area for luck - by Cate Hall Generic and repetitive, but still worth remembering. Create value. Don’t talk, do. Output. Execute. Speak up. But also: Be the person who can figure it out. And remember, tour employer (probably) doesn’t care about you. 22 Pieces of Career Advice They Don’t Teach You in School - The Curiosity Chronicle They don’t leave, they just fund the media to say that they will. Tax reform is needed. Millionaire exodus did not occur, study reveals - Tax Justice Network Learn to sell, make, design, or find (opportunities). Then monetise with code, capital, or content. Then wait. Also, move to Silicon Valley. Not mentioned: Find a mentor early on, and be lucky to get hired without relevant skills… How to Get Rich (without luck, talent, or a trust fund) - YouTube Delight = joy + surprise. Achieve through: Reduce friction + anticipate need + exceed expectations. Segment by functional (i.e. practical) and emotional (i.e. delightful) needs and uses. A 4-step framework for building delightful products - Nesrine Changuel (Spotify, Google, Skype) A podcast on surprise and delight. Remember, customers are people. Make them happy! The Hospitality Principles That Build Billion-Dollar Startups We’re all taught to save instead of spend, but what are you saving for? Money is for enjoying life - or investing in making more money. I’ve definitely fallen into this trap. The Savers Paradox: A Common Mindset That Can Ruin Your Life - YouTube I’ve just found this podcast, and it has a bunch of interesting episodes. A note from this one: In the UK, being “pro business” is actually being pro big corporates, not pro small businesses and startup. The Hidden Cost of Britain’s Economy: High Street, Fishing, and Chips Shops - Andrew Barclay - YouTube Beijing/Shanghai are $52. London is $322 - and it’s not even the highest. It’s no surprise European countries are struggling economically - industries such as manufacturing and AI are basically unaffordable. Ranked: The Cost of Utilities Around the World Dyson is revolutionising another industry. Slash the energy costs, slash the worker costs. I hope they make this a success. The Company that FINALLY Solved Vertical Farming - YouTube A bunch of useful tips, although quite American (i.e. direct), so factor in cultural differences. Try: Speaking concisely; using data, stories, and pauses; taking risks with comments and questions; being warm but competent. How To Speak Like A Top 1% CEO - YouTube Google allegedly mostly shows ads when someone is about to buy anyway, meaning they can say “look, we made you a sale, buy more ads!” when in reality they just cheered someone on from the finishing line and then asked for a share of the prize money. You’ve Never Heard of the Most Profitable Scam in History - YouTube For the price of a flat in London you can buy a castle in Scotland. Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum, PH43 20 bed detached house for sale - £750,000 Breaking down Charlie Munger’s 25 Psychology of Human Misjudgment framework. The top one, incentives - as the saying goes, “it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” (Outliers) Charlie Munger: The Psychology of Human Misjudgment I love stories like this - a “normal” person living in a council flat experienced a problem, so she built a solution, using debt instead of equity, hustling and taking risks to make it succeed. Zoë Chapman on the power of networking in growing a business - Enterprise Nation Seniority is about reducing ambiguity, not technical skills. This is what enables leadership; clearly communicated tasks. I’d also add in decision making. What Actually Makes You Senior – Terrible Software Make sure to differentiate raw observations from the created narrative surrounding it. Only the former is guaranteed to be correct. Fortune 500 CEOs Fail This Simple Test On Decision-Making. Will You? 3. Science, Nature & Engineering Calculate the area of a triangle using only the lengths of its sides - no angles required! Heron’s formula - Wikipedia James Bruton’s next crazy project. We need more of this creativity in this world! Making physical stuff just for fun. I built an Omni-Directional Ball-Wheeled Bike - YouTube Superglue needs rough surfaces and water. Do NOT use soap and water to get rid of it; use acetone, and utilise its low sheer strength. Combine it with baking powder to fill gaps. Why Super Glue Is Perfect For Gluing Skin - YouTube What’s the solution? Perhaps rolling work weeks, where some doctors work Friday to Tuesday? After all, the work week is a societal construct (ask farmers). Friday curse: Surgeries right before weekend have 12% higher death risk If you donate blood, you get better at making blood. Also, lower blood pressure, and possible protection from diabetes. And you save lives. Everyone (who can) should do it! Donating Blood Changes Your Genes Another incredible article by Bartosz, this time on how analogue watches work. The animations make things so easy to understand. Mechanical Watch - Bartosz Ciechanowski The variety of eyes on this planet is amazing. Every Eye In The Animal Kingdom - WIRED - YouTube He used a seatbelt and a work knife to fight off a snake, then was stopped speeding to hospital. How I miss Australia. Australian driver escapes speeding fine after being attacked by deadly snake - 7NEWS - YouTube Mindblowing lightning. Nature is incredible. Zeus appears to have had a fight with his wife. One of my favourite YouTube channels. These sea monsters can be invisibly black, and the males are adorable… And, effectively, no more than living testicles. The Insane Biology of: Deep Sea Anglerfish - YouTube Zooooom all the way in. It’s almost like a natural landscape. https://www.micro-pano.com/pearl/index.html There are some truly beautiful natural substances, so many colours. Minerals, Gems and Precious Stones Organized by Chemical Group I’d never realised how beautiful sand is close-up. It’s not tiny specs of nothing; you can still see that it’s made from bits of shell, coral, and microscopic organisms. How Sand Looks Magnified Up To 300 Times (Photos) – Geology In I’ve always wondered this, but never bothered to do the investigation. I’m glad someone has! Although one thing it ignores - how many cuts you can be bothered to do. Dicing an Onion, the Mathematically Optimal Way Another (badly re-titled) Veritasium deep dive - this time, rubber (of elastic bands and tyres fame). I never realised quite how incredible a material it is, and how there are no good synthetic substitutes. This is the natural disaster to worry about - YouTube I think I consider every video by Real Science shareworthy, but bloody hell, they’re fascinating. Dragonflies are insane creatures. Dragonflies Are Not What You Think - YouTube Physics is weird. Water equalisation depends on the height, not the volume or mass. The Hydrostatic Paradox - YouTube Network theory (graphs, shortcuts, hubs) is fascinating. Combine it with game theory and you can see why civilisation is collapsing. Something Strange Happens When You Trace How Connected We Are - YouTube Beautiful, and I learnt a lot - for example, as you go up, temperature increases until ~50,000m. Also, how high the Tsar Bomba nuclear cloud reached - terrifying. The music is nice too. Space Elevator Never knew these existed! Sadly it seems they’re dying out, and the giant ones may already have gone extinct. ‘Nothing else looks like them’: Saving Japan’s exceptionally rare ‘snow monsters’ - BBC Future Tattoo removal is a lot more intense than I suspected. It makes sense in hindsight, but it’s effectively “let’s just make the tattoo explode and hope for the best”. Tattoo Removal Is Insane - YouTube Amazing visual storytelling of how natural selection is about survival of genes, not living creatures - they’re just a side-effect. The Most Controversial Idea in Biology - YouTube Another fascinating science video with amazing visuals from Steve. Liquid and gas are the same!? The Unknown Phase of Matter - YouTube 4. Society, Politics & Geopolitics Gurwinder spoke with Luigi; he had a few issues, but didn’t seem crazy, just very concerned about societal conformity and loss of individual agency. Thoughts on Luigi Mangione - by Gurwinder - The Prism The world is full of war Every War in the World Right Now Explained - YouTube 2024 was the year of democratic elections, but 2025 has a bunch too. Some might even be fair! 13 Elections to Watch in 2025 - YouTube Hitting animals on a motorbike can be a legal nightmare. Try not to do it. What Happens If I Hit An Animal? - Legal Hints + Tips - YouTube The paradox of tolerance - being tolerant of intolerance will cause those who are intolerant to push out those who are tolerant, resulting in only intolerance. Why Being Open-Minded Is Ruining Your Life - YouTube This book touches on everything, from religion to race to sex to politics to freespeech to education to tax to immigration. And at the core of civilisation, our access to energy. A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going by Michael Muthukrishna - Goodreads The UK clings to heritage at the expense of advancement. Ian Dunt on why governments in Britain and elsewhere can’t get anything done – and how to fix it - 80,000 Hours In 5 English towns, over 1/3 of people do not speak English well. 1 in 70 foreign-born residents in England and Wales speak no English. How many people can’t speak English in YOUR neighbourhood? Interactive map covering England and Wales’s 36,000 districts reveals 43% of residents struggle with the language in one part of the country - Daily Mail Online Adolescence was far-removed from the facts. Violence is typically an ethnic-minority adult male raised by a single mother stabbing another male - not a white two-parent incel boy stabbing a girl. You can’t fix problems without knowing the truth. What “Adolescence” Gets Wrong About Incels, Crime, and Class Domino’s Pizza knew Israel was about to attack Iran before Iran did. As of 6:59pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity. The sooner both regimes are over the better. One day Korea will be reunited. North Koreans tell BBC they are sent to work ’like slaves’ in Russia - BBC News London could learn a thing or two from Seoul. For example, public transport is pay per distance, not pay for each ride/transfer. And they build 20-story apartment buildings in 90 days. Why Seoul Is Insanely Well Designed - YouTube China is an engineering state. It treats the country as a machine and people as cogs to be shaped and put in the right place towards a planned output - which is why they get shit done. Why China builds while America debates, with Dan Wang - YouTube Most supermarket foods from “farms” are purely branding; they don’t exist. Look for the Red Tractor, or buy local. I Investigated Fake British Farms (What I Found Will Shock You) - YouTube There’s a pretty clear correlation between being religious and hating homosexuals. I thought religion is about love? Less Religious, More Tolerant? - by Oscar Leo - Data Canvas Actually a really interesting conversation. If the bulk of what he claims is true - although that is a big if - the world is in an even worse position than even I expected. Regardless, undoubtedly an era-defining bloke. Joe Rogan Experience #2404 - Elon Musk - YouTube A professor was researching human rights abuses in China, so China sued the uni, threatened their staff in China, and effectively blocked Chinese students from attending. In response, the uni silenced the prof - money talks. China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show - BBC News From my experience with DWP last year… Many claimants are not sick, they’re just lazy or entitled. The world owes you nothing, and neither do employers. Mental health issues and aches and joint pain - that’s called being alive. Britain sliding ‘into economic crisis’ over £85bn sickness bill, ex-John Lewis boss warns - BBC News It’s no surprise Reform’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is getting so much support when there are reports of taking advantage of the system for personal profit, operating illegally, even selling harmful substances. Crime network behind UK mini-marts is enabling migrants to work illegally - BBC News also Watch: BBC reporter confronts man at centre of illegal worker network - BBC News Londoners seems to be moving to Dubai, mostly for tax reasons. Yet it’s basically a slightly-more-open NorthKorea, with slavery, rape, no freedom of speech. But hey, who cares if, instead of paying taxes to fund the NHS, you can fund a dictator? Dubai: the dark truth — what lies beneath the wealth and glamour? - The Standard “The U.S. poverty line is calculated as three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963, adjusted for inflation.” This gives $31,200 for a family of four. The reality, including factors such as housing and childcare etc, is $130,000 to $150,000. Part 1: My Life Is a Lie - by Michael W. Green People call him a hero. They’re right. And the fact he’s call Ahmed al-Ahmed truly shows it’s not about race or ethnicity - it’s culture and mindset. Reddit - The heart of the internet Because our trains are so frequently late/delayed, they’re now run without passengers to avoid complaints and having to pay compensation. Absolute madness. Empty trains to Euston highlight why scrapping HS2 to Manchester makes no sense I’ve always been curious about this group with their protests about organ harvesting. Seems like they’re a quasi-religious conservative cult and with a goal to destroy the CCP - who, to be fair, has persecuted them. The Global Story - How did a Chinese spiritual movement build a US media empire? - BBC Sounds More heroes - except these ones died. Boris and Sofia Gurman: Hero couple tried to stop gunman before being killed in Bondi attack - BBC News 2 in 5 Stanford students are “disabled”. In other words, they feel sad occasionally, are addicted to social media, and are gaming the system to get better rooms and easier exams. Not a good sign for the future work generation. Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they’re disabled? - Hacker News Definitely feeling this. Is it worth staying in this city? This country? Why Living in London has Become Impossible - YouTube Clever kid. Curious why he chose Oxford and not one of the US universities though. Hopefully he will bring great things to humanity! Korean prodigy with IQ of 204 aims for Oxford after leaving science high school - The Korea Times The claim: Afghan nationals are 22x more likely to be convicted of sexual offences? The truth: It’s “only” 14x… BBC Radio 4 - More or Less, Are Afghan nationals more likely to be convicted of sexual offences? Conservatives want children, liberals don’t. Regardless of political stance, men want children more than women do. For liberal women, the only thing they want less is fame. Somehow this is quite worrying. Poll: Gen Z’s gender divide reaches beyond politics and into its views on marriage, children and success 5. Environment, Energy & Climate The UK is the same latitude as Canada. Without the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, the temperatures may be more similar too. And the AMOC might be slowing - not guaranteed, but a possibility. Client Challenge AI energy demands are huge. But chip architectures are becoming more energy efficient, and AI can be used to reduce net energy consumption through efficiency. AI might not spell doom to the energy transition. Audioblog 14: Generative AI — The Power and the Glory I’m the son of a farmer. I like farms and agriculture and nature. But 47GW of solar capacity would take up less space than golf courses. Study: Trebling solar capacity by 2030 would require just 0.4 per cent of UK land - BusinessGreen News The best thing Labour have done since gaining power is legalising onshore wind. This is why. Study: Conservative ban on onshore wind farms cost UK £900m in economic output - BusinessGreen News Best description I’ve seen of how and why PFAS (aka forever chemicals) are bad - plus the history of how they become so commonplace. How One Company Secretly Poisoned The Planet - YouTube Fossil fuels, more than renewables, caused the Spanish blackout a few weeks ago. ‘Solar PV was not the cause of the blackout’: Report on Spain’s power outage reveals failure of thermal plants a key factor - BusinessGreen News The paint on the outside of glass bottle caps release a lot of microplastics - more than drinking from a plastic bottle directly. Is nothing safe? Glass bottles found to contain more microplastics than plastic bottles Fenugreek can remove over 90% of microplastics from water. Although I presume it’s not wise to eat it after. Research Update: Okra, fenugreek extracts remove most microplastics from water In 60 years, the London climate will be more like south west France. Glasgow will be like Spain. So… Yay climate change? Although pretty much everywhere else will be worse. What will climate feel like in 60 years? Oil-funded groups are harassing scientists to silence research exposing their anti-wind disinformation networks, aiming to stall clean energy progress and protect fossil fuel interests. Scientist exposes anti-wind groups as oil-funded. Now they want to silence him. I’d love to see more of these. I hope they have trackers too; that would be fun to watch. Sadly it’s just a simulation for now. Solar trees preserve 99% of forests, mimic nature to generate energy All car parks with 80+ spaces in Korea must have solar canopies/carports. 150200kW each, so ~200MWh per year. There are ~10k of these. The average residential property uses ~4MWh per year - so this could power half a million homes. New national law will turn large parking lots into solar power farms 6. Psychology, Philosophy & Self-Improvement More Gurwinder. I love these lists; lots to make you think. Goal dilution is definitely one to remember. 25 Useful Ideas for 2025 - by Gurwinder - The Prism Often funny, often sad, often sombre; a short read I’d recommend to everyone (posthumous memoir) A Beginner’s Guide to Dying by Simon Boas - Goodreads Some highlights: Grow through difficult public projects; allow enjoyment; mind-reading doesn’t exist; persistence is not always a virtue; state needs without explanation. 50 things I know - by Sasha Chapin - Sasha’s ‘Newsletter’ More by Sasha. Actionable tips on how to appreciate the moment and take pleasure in the small things. Probably extra-important (and extra-challenging) for over-rational types (e.g. ISTJs). How to like everything more - by Sasha Chapin This has been my go-to meditation track for years. Still amazing. Stillness - song and lyrics by Cory Allen - Spotify I love data. I work in data. But data has made everything the same. Sometimes you need to break the mould. The Age of the Surefire Mediocre - by Brian Klaas Travel makes you realise what you are and are not flexible about e.g. timeliness, peace, respect. Your Values, Solved (SOLVED PODCAST) - YouTube Excellent chat between Chris Williamson and Jimmy Carr. Depression is the past, anxiety is the future, peace is in the now. One life = 4000 weeks. Routine merges experiences into a single memory; novelty leads to wonder, but takes effort and risk. Sharp Truths From A British Comedian - Jimmy Carr - YouTube We’ve medicalised every quirk and feeling. You’re not shy, or dreamy, or late - you’re broken. But it’s wrong. Not everything has to be a diagnosis. You’re allowed to be the unique, flawed human - as we all are. Nobody Has A Personality Anymore - by Freya India - GIRLS What not to do, instead of what to do. Such as: “Envy others’ success without having a full picture of their lives.” and “Assume that what people can communicate is 100% of what they know or believe.” Very Bad Advice · Collaborative Fund A short book of meditations with the potential to improve your life. Fundamentally, life is impossible. You don’t have control. Everything is a choice. You’ll never read everything. You can’t care about everyone. And more. So… Just live. Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman - Goodreads All the usuals. Everything in life is hard, so pick your hard. Act now, make stuff, be focussed, increase urgency. But also: Be bored, allow thinking time, avoid excessive consumption. And ignore embarrassment. 39 Brutal Truths I Know at 39 and Wish I Knew at 20 - YouTube We now know more about what’s happening the other side of the world than we do our own town, due to news. This is bad - ruins communities and emphasises the negative. Two Big Stories That Help Expl…–The Morgan Housel Podcast – Apple Podcasts Good list. Many things in life are simpler than we like to think. Some interesting learnings, too, e.g.: Our subjective feeling of sleepiness levels off, but our ability to function continues to decline. 102 Lessons from the 102 Books I Read This Year - Scott H Young Trauma has become fashionable, a scapegoat, and an excuse. Maybe you don’t need to go hunting for what’s wrong with you. Maybe, just maybe, you are okay. And that’s okay. The Body Keeps the Score is Bullshit Your daily dose of depression. It sounds mean to say it, but don’t let this man be you. The Most Raw Conversation I’ve Ever Had: Revisited - YouTube Most things in life are not true; they’re thoughts, beliefs, emotions, perspectives. Nothing has inherent meaning. Neither religion nor science are true - but they’re useful. Almost anything can be reframed to be useful, into something actionable. Useful Not True - Derek Sivers “The job you’d give anything for becomes the job you resent.” and others. Doesn’t mean you don’t resent it now, but still be thankful you have the opportunity to resent it. The Things You Prayed For - The Curiosity Chronicle Everything is a power law. The main takeaway: Take risks, it’s more important to be persistent than consistent as a small probability of a HUGE win (black swan events) exist and that’s the only way to escape mediocrity. You’ve (Likely) Been Playing The Game of Life Wrong - YouTube More good reminders. Possibly one to sit down with and reflect on each point. The 25 Best Ideas of 2025 - The Curiosity Chronicle 7. Data, Statistics & Visualizations Charts of the year, including energy, environment, elections, and more. Year in Data 2024 - YouTube Some PINs are far more common than others. Don’t use dates or repeated numbers. Almost one in 10 people use the same four-digit PIN - ABC News Most scary: time spent at home, and time socialising, is almost the same today as it was during COVID. We locked down, and never came out. 30 Charts That Show How Covid Changed Everything in March 2020 - The New York Times Fun animation of life (death?) expectancy based on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation. I may die in 5 years, but I’ll probably die in 55. When You Will Die Spoiler: Fish make the best-value wine. The Pour-igin of Species 81,998 bars in Korea via the shortest possible path; only takes a smidge over 178 days. Impressive computation. Korea TSPs How identical means and variances, and identical correlation, linear regression, and R², can come from significantly different data. Kinda of incredible. Anscombe’s quartet - Wikipedia If you’re being flexible, The Imitation Game is 42.3% correct. The Big Short is 91.4% (although 01:58:07 was not true). Based on a True True Story? — Information is Beautiful Distort the map using various projections by centring different countries. Australia Mercator is a fun one - Russia becomes terrifying. Country Centered Map Projections - Engaging Data At the time of writing, 1 in 4 are working, almost the same number are commuting as socialising and leisure combined, and an equal number are killing each other as are making babies. WTHAPD More visualisations! No surprise I work in data. Put it on fast-forward mode and leave it for a few minutes. Animated Factorization Diagrams – Data Pointed Beautiful if terrifying way of demonstrating how lonely the world is becoming, and how loneliness is inversely correlated with happiness. The Loneliness Epidemic, in Data: Who Americans Spend Time With - YouTube I’d be interested to know the rationale behind the votes, but it seems hot sunny places are associated with fun. Ranked: The 40 Most Fun Countries in the World, According to People Once again Muohammad is almost three times as popular as the second place name. As for girls, it’s a much closer battle (only 5 between the top two), although they nearly all end in “a”. What’s The Commonest Baby Name In London? 2024 Stats Announced Wonderful chart, very fighter- or spaceship-esque. Management wins overall (with IT close behind), although medical peaks. Legal has a clear split. Would love to see the data for different countries. Salary and Occupation – FlowingData You’re not the zodiac sign you think you are! Interesting stuff, and a good reminder we’re on a rocky spaceship flying through the universe. Your Zodiac Sign Is 2,000 Years Out of Date - The New York Times 3 in the top 4 are England. Asking AI what these cities have in common is… Not particularly surprising. Ranked: Europe’s Most Dangerous Cities, According to Citizens Scandinavians and Chinese trust… Most of the rest of the world (especially South America and the Balkans) do not. Although I wonder if there’s a nuance over who they trust - for example, do the Chinese trust in general, or just other Chinese people? Mapped: Where People Trust Each Other Most, by Country Gen Z like feet and vertical videos; Millennials fetishes and role playing. Russian loves trans. The Philippines has proportionally the most females (and they’re typically young), the UK the fewest. 2025 Year in Review - Pornhub Insights Most people think they’re currently living in the best period of their life. Overall, though, 20s wins, followed by 30s. Best and worst decades of life are in the present – FlowingData 8. Relationships, Sex & Social Dynamics How to find a partner? Expand your “real life surface area” by going out in person, attending events, and chatting to strangers. Nick Gray - LinkedIn The switching places title is irrelevant. It’s just a super cute video of a baby. Baby Monitor Captures: Parents Switching Places to Trick their Baby - YouTube Too busy (work, study), too stressed (money, climate), and too digital (TikTok, WhatsApp). And maybe too sober (according to Scott Galloway) Why young people are having less sex than previous generations - Los Angeles Times Ever been to a networking event where everyone seemed to already be in groups? They should be following the Pac-Man Rule. The Pac-Man Rule - Psych Safety They say Google knows more about you than you know about yourself. Does the same concept apply to browser history and dating? Cool concept. An Experimental New Dating Site Matches Singles Based on Their Browser Histories - WIRED Communication and money are the big ones. Quite large differences between young and old for some things - it seems older couples simply stop caring. Ranked: The Top Reasons American Couples Argue Loneliness is the forcing function to socialising; instead, we distract with technology. SocialMedia depletes dopamine, making you too tired to socialise. We’re dumping our dopamine into our screens rather than gifting it to other people. The great friendship collapse: Inside The Anti-Social Century - Derek Thompson - YouTube If someone says something ugly to you: “Can you say that again?” then “were you intending to be offensive?” then “how do you expect me to respond to that?” then “okay”; If someone admits something bad: “Thank you for telling me” (to build trust) Jefferson Fisher - Turning Confrontation Into Connection - Jordan Harbinger Parents should be respected, not liked; “I already know the answer - I’m giving you a chance to tell the truth”; Parents shouldn’t fight in front of their kids; Talk/discuss together, not watch together. Before you continue to YouTube “The freer people are and the more fairly they’re treated, the more their (sex) differences tend to emerge rather than disappear.” “Compared with girls, boys are more sensitive to instability, more affected by parenting quality, and more likely to struggle when structure breaks down.” “Unlike femininity, which is grounded in biological milestones such as menstruation or childbirth, masculinity has always required external validation. A girl becomes a woman through processes largely beyond her control… A boy, by contrast, must prove he is a man — through work, risk, sacrifice, and service. In traditional societies, this meant demonstrating value to the group. Today, however, the scaffolding that once guided boys into manhood has eroded… The expectations once placed on young men — to work hard, support others, and pursue self-mastery — have largely disappeared. As a result, many are adrift.” Sex Differences Don’t Go Away Just Because You Want Them To Culturally, men are allowed to desire sex, but not affection and tenderness, so they use sex to achieve these. Women are the opposite; they’re only allowed to want sex if they’ve demonstrated connection. Also, men get turned on by seeing women being turned on - because it proves they’re not a predator, a danger. Women get turned on by being shown attention - it allows her to stop worrying and caring for others. How Love Dies: The Psychology of Cheating & Attraction - Esther Perel - YouTube We improve with every relationship. The thing you did that caused your previous breakup? You learnt from it, and no longer do it - making you better for the next person. The Cruel Truth: Why Your Ex Is Perfect for Someone Else - YouTube Arguably it’s only 10 couples who have been together for 50 years, but still valuable. Nothing new, but a good reminder. 1,000 Years of Relationship Advice - The Curiosity Chronicle I’m yet to experience this myself, but it’s incredible how smart yet stupid kids are. Looking forward to having them in my life Tales from Toddlerhood — Wait But Why The usual advice about asking deep questions and allowing emotions and weirdness. But also: Assume everyone is constantly battling anxiety and worries. How to Deepen Your Friendships - YouTube A woman’s “supportive” comment may actually be sabotage. She says: “You would look great with short hair” She means: “You would look worse with short hair - but in comparison I look better, so you should cut your hair short” A seemingly light-hearted study on women’s haircut advice has surprisingly dark psychological implications If you’re too honest on early dates, you scare people off. Yet if you’re never honest, you never gain trust. Being human is difficult. Honesty on Early Dates - YouTube 9. History, Culture & Language German comes from Latin, English from German, Japanese also Latin, Iraqi from Arabic, and Kiwi from… What Do Demonym Suffixes Mean? - YouTube WW2 from the Germans’ perspective. This is gonna be interesting. History is written by the victors, so the enemy is vilified and the victor glorified - although we’re all human, who are fundamentally good, yet capable of evil. MartyrMade #24 - Enemy: The Germans’ War, Prologue I am fascinated by cultural differences, and this tries to quantify them. Amazing. Cultural Distance The most intelligent photo ever taken - 17 of the 29 people in this photo won a Nobel Prize. The Golden Age of Quantum Physics (1927) “Jesus was a 1st-century itinerant Jewish preacher who spoke Aramaic and was crucified by the Romans.” Everything else is very possibly entirely made up. Historians can only give Jesus a one-sentence biography. Here’s why. - Big Think The internet is full of random projects like this one. Useful? Not to most people. But interesting nonetheless? Sure! London Exchanges A - G - Telephone Exchanges Emotions are easier to express, and resonate more intensely, in one’s native language. Love, anger - it’s harder in a second language. But it’s possible. Why Love Is Harder in a Second Language - Magdalena Hoeller - TED - YouTube Sadly we’re starting to copy the US, dropping ‘u’s and swapping ‘s’s for ‘z’s. But we still have our snogs, our bollockings, our knobheads, and our wankers. God save the King. These are the most American and most British words, according to our data Popeye was built on a typo - spinach contains 10% of the iron people thought it did (in other words, very little). Today I learned that Popeye’s famous spinach-fueled strength came from a chemist’s typo: - In 1870, German scientist Erich von Wolf accidentally wrote that spinach had 35mg of iron per 100g (instead of 3.5mg) due to a misplaced decimal point. - The error went uncorrected until 1937 (67 Years) Cool experiment; technology has improved, but apparently not that much! Nice to see Devon represented. Devon’s Turner Twins climb Himalayan mountain with 1920s kit - BBC News The only way to survive the Titanic was to be female. What a misogynistic, chauvinistic place the world used to be. Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures and Commentary 10. Entertainment, Media & Leisure Rick and Morty: The Anime. Even weirder than the original R&M shows, but I like it. I think. Stick to the Japanese language version. Rick and Morty: The Anime - Wikipedia One of the best shows I’ve seen in a while. Dark and gritty, captivating story, incredible acting. The Penguin - Official Trailer - Max - YouTube Crazy sport Table Tennis Best Points Of 2024 - YouTube Excellent start to the 2025 season. Could be a close one! Race Highlights - 2025 Australian Grand Prix - YouTube Hell of a fight - often I get bored after a few rounds, but this I watched to the very end. They both gave their all, especially in the final round. INSTANT CLASSIC - EUBANK JR. VS BENN - FIGHT HIGHLIGHTS - YouTube Growing up in a farming family, I never thought I’d see such a surreal fictional podcast focussing entirely on the meat and dairy industry. One of the maddest things I’ve heard in a long time. Episode 120 - Billy Whizzbang - Maximum Fun The comments are right. “It’s Jeremy Clarkson’s Estonian great-grand nephew.” This is like classic Top Gear. I hope this channel gets as big. Worst Version, Greatest Car: a Nissan NX Review - YouTube Crawlspace - The Oatmeal Family Guy - Men We Know How To Be Friends - YouTube The weather here really is like this sometimes. Instagram One of the best books I’ve read in a while. A great mix of scifi and philosophy. What could the impact of technology be? What is reality? What is memory? What is time? What is love? What is life? Recursion by Blake Crouch - Goodreads The Roland TB-303 truly made some awesome sounds; modern music wouldn’t exist without it. Click Regenerate and Play, then have a fiddle. 303Gen Turns out the FIA and the F1 rulebook have always been a bit shit. Banning an incredible innovation simply because it was too good. So Genius It Makes Modern F1 Look STUPID! - YouTube Another incredible season. No introduction needed; just watch it. Rick and Morty (TV Series 2013– ) - Episode list - IMDb A town called Regina officially used the slogans “The City that Rhymes with Fun” and “Show Us Your Regina”. Sadly they had to retract it, apologise, and say it was a mistake, because people are terrified of female genitalia. Tourism Regina One of my favourite podcasts has a new podcast! 1. Little Fish: Steam Exploded Donkey Bone Powder - YouTube OK, six people died, but 15-20 million visited, and it does look like it was a lot of fun… The Insane Waterpark That Killed 6 People - YouTube Very unique game. Weird, creepy, disturbing - but less so than many movies. Did not predict it would end the way it did! Horses Full Game Playthrough - The BANNED Steam Game Everyone Is Talking About - YouTube The amount of impressions alone make this worth the watch! Hilarious. The English divide nobody talks about - YouTube Love these every year. Can’t wait for the 2026 season! The 2025 F1 Season Animated! - YouTube
