Greetings from summer in Connecticut! We’re escaping to the ‘burbs for several weeks this month to see how well we do out of the city. Not sure how I’m going to live without my 8 a.m. jackhammers. Winston is loving it, of course, and spends much of his time like this looking for squirrels:
10 Things I’ve considered / enjoyed / consumed this week:
An article on how good Jannik Sinner’s forehand is. If you’ve been watching the French Open you’ve seen it in action, but it’s crazy to read the stats on just how good it is. Looking forward to the Sinner Alcaraz final on Sunday and hoping, this time, that Sinner wins.
A tiny tennis racket for Luka that is an exact mini replica of a Babolat Wimbledon racket. I swear he’s already a natural.
The tapas at Bar Oliver, a cute spot that is just across the Manhattan Bridge. I’m rarely impressed with tapas outside Spain, but these were delicious!
Mountainhead, a tech bro satire that I found to be very on point but hard to watch (because it’s so on point). “Mountainhead” is the name of the modernist retreat in Utah where the show takes place. It’s a nod to Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, which is an amusing touch. If you’re not familiar with the Randian oeuvre, the novels glorify “the virtue of selfishness” and rational egoism. I read all of them when I was 21 or 22 and am not surprised they are still influential in certain tech bro circles. From The New Yorker:
“We know the broligarchs are selfish, dissatisfied, and sociopathically unconcerned with the rest of humanity, because we’re suffering from their presence here in real life. What we don’t know is what to do about it, given that they remain as unreachable as a cliffside mansion, shaping the globe’s fate from their phones.”
The Reenchanted World, a lovely article in Harper’s about our lives with technology by Karl Ove Knausgaard. It’s quite long and meandering but so worth the read, and in the end it’s hopeful.
Paul Krugman’s Substack, which is a great source of up-to-date political opinion that reads like an unfiltered version of his New York Times column. Also, this article on his departure from the Times. I was surprised but also not surprised to learn that he retired because his writing was effectively being censored.
This profile of Curtis Yarvin in The New Yorker. I am still unsettled after reading this and other information I could find about “the dissident right.” As someone who has spent a lot of time studying political theory, it terrifies me that internet philosophers can twist theories into ideologies and go on to have an outsized influence on American politics. I discuss this in more detail in my next newsletter (coming Sunday).
A Substack post with 29 concrete actions you can take to protect our democracy. This is really helpful advice for those who feel powerless and fatigued. A reminder:
“Shifting the balance of your information consumption away from social media, cable networks, and pundits and toward slower, more in-depth, and — above all else — useful information can be a first step in protecting democracy (and feeling better about the world).”
The Nike Vomero 18’s after several runners told me they’re great. I’ve been wearing Asics GT-2000’s since forever and I’m looking forward to trying out the next gen super shoes. The carbon-plated On Cloudboom Strike are next on my list.
Words of advice in Esquire, mostly on personal style and travel, and found via Jenny Walton one of my favorite fashion influencers. She says: “Even if it’s ultimately simplistic, a layered style is always better. In the same way that my favorite homes have a lived-in mix of photos, paintings, and ornaments, great personal style has an authentic individuality.”
As mentioned above, Letter No. 14 is finally written and will be published on Sunday. Until then, xoJess.