🎭 Went to the theater for the first time in years to watch Babbitt, a well-executed dumbing down of Sinclair Lewis’s novel about middle-aged and middle-class conformity. The play took the lazy approach of taking pot shots at MAGA; a more biting satire would have aimed at the upper middle class conformists in the audience.

Matthew Gasda for the Wisdom of Crowds:

If, in 1450, someone had gone around Florence saying, “No, no, no, we don’t live in a renaissance, culture is in decay,” I think it would have been possible to throw open the doors of the workshops, cathedrals, churches, and wealthy residences, and say, “Well, you know, I think you might be wrong about that. Take a look at this.” But in 2024, what do optimists see when you throw open the doors? Mr. Beast? Addison Rae? BAP? Talk Tuah?

I don’t know what three of those four are, but I’d show Teenage Engineering, Panic Software and this.

Not sure where I first saw the suggestion that one should never use typographic enhancements like bold or italic text to emphasize the written word, but the latest Daring Fireball post and the style guide that led to it are a good reminded for why it is indeed a good idea not to use them.

Busy day today, but there is always time for a few good links:

• Why I Lugged My 27-Pound Toddler to a Rocket Launch
• Iatrogenic Customer Dissatisfaction
• Honesty and Transparency Are Not Enough
• So many note-taking apps in the app graveyard - but not all are zombies

Adam Mastroianni nails it:

When people revile a degree from Harvard’s Extension School and revere a degree from Harvard College, they’re saying that the value of an education doesn’t come from the fact that you got educated. It comes from the fact that you got picked.

Alas, it is a paid post, and the more I encounter those the less I think of Substack and — this is not rational, I know — people who use it to blog. Because that is all Substack is: a blog with an optional, easy to implement paywall. I am not a fan.

I’ve updated my now page. The update includes where I am right now, which is Savannah, Georgia, where I am attending a medical conference. But you can’t escape DC: I was sitting at the bar having lunch when a couple couldn’t help overhearing where I lived as I was chatting with the bartender. “Hey, we’re from DC too”. Small world! Where in DC? “Oh, we live downtown, we’re both lobbyists.”

Of course they were. One for a private healthcare equity firm, the other for medium-sized pharmaceutical. We did not delve deeper.

Facts about The New York Times, from 2016

Historically, the Los Angeles Times, where I worked twice, for instance, was a reporter-driven, bottom-up newspaper. Most editors wanted to know, every day, before the first morning meeting: “What are you hearing? What have you got?”

It was a shock on arriving at the New York Times in 2004, as the paper’s movie editor, to realize that its editorial dynamic was essentially the reverse. By and large, talented reporters scrambled to match stories with what internally was often called “the narrative.” We were occasionally asked to map a narrative for our various beats a year in advance, square the plan with editors, then generate stories that fit the pre-designated line.

No wonder then that NYT crowded out all other newspapers: they brought a narrative gun to a journalistic knife fight. Story wins, reality be damned. (↬Mark Palko)

Sebregondi and Franceschi picked an astutely international selection of names to drop: an Englishman, an American, and a Frenchman encouraged cosmopolitan aspirations. “Made in China,” on the other hand, did not, so they left that bit out.

I don’t remember how I came about this history of the Moleskine notebook but oh what a history. “Chatwin, Hemingway, Matisse”, yeah right.

And I would have absolutely no complaints if it weren’t so ridiculously expensive for what you get. I want the Costco of premium mediocre notebooks, not the Nordstrom.