Finding great stories, so you don't have to

Hey, friend, how are you? Fed up with Wordle yet? Every time I sit down and start writing a newsletter, I worry that I haven't read, watched or heard enough over the previous couple of weeks to fill it. And every time, I remain surprised that I have more than enough to share.

Not all of it is new, of course – it's just new to me (the French do a much better job of making that clear with neuf vs nouveau).

According to Forbes in 2020, the average daily time spent consuming content is a startling 6h 59m: I just hope that this newsletter curates enough interesting stuff that makes those 7 hours worth it for you – well, for a day at least!

What we don't want to know
Even though 'knowledge is power' there are still some things that we'd prefer to remain in the dark about – it's known as 'deliberate ignorance' by those who study the topic. 

"I'm sorry for my delay"
What if we stopped being so available? If there's a new 'practice' you're thinking about starting in 2022, you could do worse than follow the ideas in this article.

BOOK OF THE FORTNIGHT
What is Life? by Paul Nurse
Sir Paul Nurse currently heads up the Francis Crick Insititute in London and won the Nobel Prize in 2001, so he knows his onions. This is a short-ish stroll through five ideas that explain how life actually works. It's not exactly 'Biology for Dummies', but he does make it very accessible, and it's clear just how flipping difficult it is to discover some of this stuff. Fascinating.
Buy links^*: Amazon / Hive / UK Bookshop

'Must I donate a kidney to my awful brother?'
This is the kind of query every agony aunt should have to answer – what do you owe a sibling who wronged you? (NYT Gift article) 

Why Noom isn't reinventing the diet wheel
You'll have done well to have avoided ads for Noom over the past few years – admittedly aimed slightly more at men, it's apparently a revolutionary app that will completely change the way you eat. Except – unsurprisingly – it's not. It just costs more than other options.

Is confidence a cult?
This article focusses mainly on women's media, but the point it's making exists no matter how you identify. The part about 'admitting your failures' being so much easier when you've already achieved a level of success feels particularly apt. Do you agree?

Lots of examples of how to say 'no'
This came from the always-excellent Storythings newsletter and is laugh-out-loud funny. Brilliant people saying 'no' in ways that we'd probably all love to do, at least once in our lives.

THE BBC SECTION
I can't deny that I'm a huge fan of the BBC. Sure, it has its flaws (doesn't every organisation?), but the breadth of what it does is remarkable. In light of the latest political firestorm surrounding its future funding, here are two interesting pieces of content that explain the problems associated with simply scrapping the licence fee.
Polly Toynbee in the New Statesman
Radio 4's The Briefing Room examines BBC Funding

The end blurb...
^*My book recommendation links usually go to one of three places: 
1) Bookshop.org (an online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops – it's an affiliate link, so I earn a tiny amount at no extra cost to you)
2) Hive, which makes a donation to a local independent bookshop of your choosing every time you buy from them.
3) I also include an Amazon affiliate link, though, as I know lots of people still read via Kindle, even though they're taking over the world!

I'm always grateful when people send on recommendations for inclusion in here. If you ever see something you think I'd love to read, please let me know. The internet is a big space and I only search a small part of it...

Finally, if you're reading this for the first time, why not sign up here to get a dose of similar enjoyment every two weeks, or simply email me at rob@robmansfield.net with "Content-ment" in the subject line.

See you in a fortnight!

Rob