Inspired by the Planet Money podcast, I’d like to celebrate Valentine’s Day by giving out some virtual valentines to things I’m especially glad are real things that exist.
Water Bears
Whether or not tardigrades, or “water bears,” can really survive quantum entanglement, they still have a lot going for them: they’re insanely tough and oddly charismatic. So I was absolutely delighted to discover a wholesome puzzle game based on rehydrating tardigrades that are in their dried-out hibernation-like “tun” state. The puzzles themselves are only fine, but Water Bears is totally worth playing just for the tardigrades. They even make cute alien-ish purring sounds. The only thing preventing this game from reaching a perfect 10/10 rating is that I can’t pet the tardigrades.
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
The ambitious title of this cookbook is, surprisingly, very nearly justified. You know how many recipes give long lists of highly specific ingredients, down to telling you what kind of salt to use or, heaven forbid, specifying that you need to use organic cranberries? This book is the antonym of that. Each recipe comes with several possible variations and notes about what you can change or substitute. If most recipe books treat cooking like following Ikea instructions, Bittman’s approach is more like teaching you how to paint or write programs: here’s the basic structure and technique, now go nuts. I’ve now made dozens of recipes from this book, and not only have I gotten a lot of delicious food, but I also think that working from this has made me a better cook. The vegetarian version is also excellent.
Effective Altruism: An Introduction podcast
Last year I discovered the 80,000 Hours podcast, which produces long, intense interviews with people working on how to do as much good as possible. Effective Altruism: An Introduction is a set of 10 episodes picked from the archive to help new listeners get up to speed with the most important ideas from the effective altruism community. I’ve found the quality and depth of the interviews in this series to be impressive, and learned about many fascinating questions and perspectives I’d never considered before. I’m glad that there are smart people thinking seriously about how to maximize the long-term welfare of humanity (and what doing so even means), and that I have the opportunity to learn from their insights.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
This is a collection of short stories about robots and free will. A full year after reading it, I still remember several of the stories in great detail, and think about them regularly. They’re the kind of stories I would have liked to be able to write, if I were an author.
Integrated Chinese textbooks
These textbooks are used by the Mandarin classes I’ve been taking at Berkeley, and the books are a large part of the reason why I’ve stuck with it so long (I’m currently in the fourth semester). When I took French in high school, I was well into my second year before I read an entire paragraph-long story rather than random disjointed sentences. In contrast, the Integrated Chinese books center each lesson around a dialogue or short narrative about a recurring cast of characters. The dialogues come with videos that land squarely in so-bad-it’s-good territory. The reading and listening exercises are frequently humorous, with characters gossiping, complaining, and telling each other off. New vocabulary and grammar is used regularly in subsequent lessons, helping memorization come naturally and creating a feeling of progression and growing empowerment as you gain the ability to understand more complicated topics. The textbooks are aimed at classroom use, but if anyone used similar ideas in an app targeting independent learners, I think it would be incredibly effective. Read the rest