My body is a real dummy, and I’m not much smarter. But do I really trust State Farm to run the show?
First, some fun stuff. Check out this dude’s ridic 40W laser rifle. Also check out this cool engineer’s movie-inspired projects: Thor’s hammer Mjölnir (at Comikaze, too) and a lightsaber that really burns fools. He also has tutorials on his channel for how to make some of this stuff, so checky out.
Zach tells me this Wait But Why 4-part essay series on Elon Musk is a masterpiece. Oooooh.
What will auto insurance companies do when autonomous vehicles render auto insurance obsolete? State Farm plans to manage your life data. (Why not? They’re already angling to get in your head while you drive.) As every technology becomes an information technology, data becomes the only commodity.
Vinay Gupta explains the tension between the legibility and the efficiency of systems—I almost had it right!—along with a boatload of really interesting, borderline-crazy stuff in this great two-part—one and two—interview on the Future Thinkers Podcast.
Sam Harris and David Deutsch throw down, brain-style. Okay, that’s a terrible description of what goes on in this excellent conversation. Sorry to everyone, ever.
You don’t want to give up choice, but choice makes you unhappy. OMG it’s a paradox (according to Barry Schwartz)!
Interested in fasting? Leangains is where to start.
Not to be outdone by Zach’s Ultimate Singularity Bros Podcast Smoothie Recipe, I’ll briefly detail my (AKA Alton Brown’s) baked egg recipe. Put your eggs in a cold oven, right on the rack(s). Turn the oven to 325°. Fill a bowl with ice and water. Take the eggs out at 30 minutes and throw them in the water. Crack and peel when they’re cool enough to handle. I’ve recently experimented with pulling them at 20 minutes. Some of the yolks come out magical, ranging from translucent but firm to straight up molten. It varies with egg size. The downside, unfortunately, is that they are usually much harder to peel than the harder-cooked ones, with a lot of white stubbornly clinging to shell. If your oven heats up too quickly or slowly, try Alton Brown’s latest version of the recipe for more consistent results.
Mindless Eating is a tedious read with humor that falls flat on every page. That said, it contains a lot of interesting psychological and marketing insights about human dietary behavior. The tl;dr summary: put the M&Ms in the cupboard, not on your desk.
