Weeknotes (1743/4175)
Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. Here’s what I’ve been thinking, learning and writing.
🧠 Things I Learnt
I read mostly about Robert Cotton in The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club this week.
He was a Member of Parliament, but he’s mostly remembered for his high-quality manuscript1 collection. Though sadly a lot of his books were lost or damaged in a fire in 1731.
I thought it interesting how genealogy and ancestry determined personal status in Tudor and Stuart England.
So much so, that when the Scottish James I became King of England, many courtiers and scholars adjusted their family narratives to fit James’s Scottish interests.
Cotton was no different. He emphasised and possibly reinterpreted parts of his lineage to show stronger Scottish ancestry – ignoring certain ancestors and highlighting others.
He even inserted “Bruce” as his middle name, associating himself with Robert the Bruce.
💭 Short Thoughts and Notes
- The Qatar ExxonMobil Open: a tennis tournament brought to you by fossil fuels and sportswashing.
- Tom Hardy hasn’t been in a good film for years. When I saw him pop up in a trailer I used to be like “can’t wait to check this out”. Now when I see him I think “this is going to be terrible”.
- Nothing comes close to the anger of biting your tongue. Not yanking on your headphone wire. Not catching your pocket on a door handle. NOTHING.
- Inspired and enlightened by this article, I’ve put Mastodon ‘comments’ onto this blog. Feel free to add your thoughts at the bottom of the page 👇
- Until now I’ve never really thought it about how depressing cafes in museums, art galleries and other such buildings are. In my mind these cafes should be lovely. Cosy, warming and comfortable. A place to discuss the art just seen. Instead they’re nearly always like school cafeterias. The food trays and chairs are made out of the same plain, thin wood. The tables are arranged to get the largest number of people inside. And the lighting is bright and white. And there’s always a queue to order. I think there’s a reason why I avoid them like the plague.
- One day you start blogging and before you know it your blog is ancient. I’m Left Handed, my blog largely about technology is now 15 years old.
🔗 Short Links
- “Broken Legs and Ankles Heal Better If You Walk on Them within Weeks” – Scientific American
- “Advice for a friend who wants to start a blog” – Henrik Karlsson
🍽️ Food
I was amazed to see these strange white strawberries in M&S. Apparently they have a “pineapple aroma and a hint of vanilla.” So I bit into it with anticipation (it’s not every day you try a new fruit). And… it tasted just like a normal strawberry. Disappointing.
They might be called something different where you are, like pineberry. But either way, don’t buy them. They’re not worth the extra money.
🎵 Music
New song of the week is Be Not So Fearful by Bill Fay (via Ran Prieur). I Hear You Calling and The Healing Day is also good.
👨💻 Things I Wrote
Dr Pepper
I have an extremely strong memory of the first time I tried Dr Pepper.
Dawn broke at the scout campsite.
With the smell of smoke still softly rising from last nights fires, me and my best friend Sam took a walk.
The ground was endlessly dew-covered and we were the only humans awake.
Amid the dank trees there was a beacon glowing. A vending machine.
I chose a curiously named drink I’d heard of but never tasted: Dr Pepper.
Looking out over the campsite, I took a sip. It was magic. It tasted unlike anything I’d ever had.
And standing there with Sam, watching mist hover above the grass and curl around the trees, the moment was perfect.
It was a ‘high’ I’ve tried to chase ever since. But every time I camped or had a Dr Pepper it was so… ordinary. It wasn’t the same as that day when I was a boy.
Until yesterday.
I tried the new Dr Pepper ‘Cherry Crush’.
And when I took a sip I was transported back to that morning. This was it. This was what I’d tasted.
I don’t even know if I actually had the cherry flavoured one that fateful morning. But either way, the cherry one of 2025 tastes the same as that Dr Pepper did all those years ago. And I’m going to buy a million of them.
It’s usually foolish trying to chase nostalgia. But just sometimes, it pays off.
You Don’t Need More Content – You Need Better Attention
Reading Henrik Karlsson° got me thinking about the importance of high quality ‘inputs’.
Every day, we wade through dozens of blog posts, when our reading list is full. We browse book reviews, despite having shelves of unread greatness. We scan Rotten Tomatoes, while our watchlist already contains more masterpieces than we could watch in years.
Consuming excellence isn’t a search problem. It’s a focus problem. I know which blogs have a low ‘hit’ rate. I know early on when a book isn’t good. I know I rarely gain anything from visiting a news site.
So don’t be sentimental. Be ruthless. And be aware of how short your day/week/year/life is. How many books will you read in a lifetime? Less than you think. Stop reading that average book your friend recommended and loved. Stop following that blog that isn’t interesting, just because they’re a sweet person. Abandon that dull TV show at episode three, not episode ten.
But cutting out the mediocre isn’t enough. You not only have to consume great content, you have to engage it. Wrestle with the ideas. Connect them to your experience. Talk and write about them. Only then can they be digested and become part of your thinking.
I catch myself failing at this constantly. Loosely reading ten mediocre but easy articles instead of engaging with the exceptional one. Despite knowing that one hour deeply processing a great article yields more value than ten hours of shallow reading.
So let’s not forget: excellence isn’t hidden. The challenge isn’t finding it – it’s choosing to engage with it.
Process more, consume less.
The Wistfulness of Your 30s
Wistfulness [noun]: a feeling of sadness because you are thinking about something that is impossible or in the past.
No one prepares you for the grief you feel in your 30s. Time suddenly feels like it sped up — you’re grieving the life you thought you’d have by now, you’re seeing your parents get older, you and your loved ones are all experiencing loss in some capacity, you’re outgrowing relationships, and you’re constantly thinking of your own mortality; wanting to live life to the fullest, but “the fullest” costs money so you’re stuck working to afford a life you have no time to live.
As a 33-year-old, I fully understand where she’s coming from.
A general melancholy often surrounds me. My life isn’t bad at all, objectively speaking. But I find myself caught between a nostalgic past and a adulthood that feels different from what I imagined.
Looking at childhood photos makes me sad. I’ve fallen into watching endless nostalgia videos on social media showcasing the toys, TV shows, and life of my childhood. It creates an ache in my gut, but I can’t resist. It’s like I’m living vicariously through my past self.
It feels like just a few years ago I turned 22. Now I’m 33.
Despite recognising this fleeting nature of time, I don’t make the effort to live more. I don’t take up new hobbies, travel, or focus on my health. Instead, I continue in the same old patterns. And though I know I’ll regret this when I turn 50 (which will come around sooner than I think), I can’t seem to break the cycle.
I’ve read that many people report their 30s as their happiest decade. I hope that proves true. Despite the melancholic tone of this post, I don’t consider myself badly off. I’m not chronically depressed, financially struggling, or in poor health.
But I just feel off. The sun doesn’t shine as brightly as it once did. Few things truly excite me anymore. Life simply feels plain. I’ve been waiting for years for it to feel like it used to. But it hasn’t. And I don’t think it will.
Heroism in the Age of Dishwashers
I saw a TikTok where a wife said that when her husband claimed he’d do anything for her, he meant fighting off bears and going into battle. Not putting the washing away.
There’s a lesson about life and love in that quip. When we’re young, we imagine life’s defining moments as grand and cinematic – standing firm against formidable foes and making dramatic declarations of love. What we don’t realise is that most of life’s biggest battles will be boring and monotonous. Often that’s precisely why they’re challenging.
It’s not about dramatic gestures or heroic moments. It’s about turning up day-in, day-out, to do something mundane that you don’t particularly enjoy. Loading the dishwasher for the thousandth time. Having the same conversation with your partner about household chores. Plodding through another week at work.
Sometimes the challenge isn’t about fighting at all, but about resisting the urge to fight. It’s holding your tongue when you could lash out. It’s choosing the difficult conversation over the slammed door.2 It’s declining the dessert when your body is screaming for a sweet treat. Life is won or lost in the quiet moments nobody applauds you for. Battles that are often internal.
It’s not whether you’d leap in front of a bus to save your loved one . It’s whether you’ll stand in the rain for ages outside the train station because your girlfriend was delayed due to chatting – without making them feel guilty about it. The real test of love is whether you’ll do that monotonous job without being asked and without expecting a pat on the back.
Glory isn’t on the imagined battlefields, but in the quiet dignity of showing up for the small things, again and again and again.
20 years of playing Age of Empires II (elliot.my)
I’ve been playing a lot of Age of Empires II over the past few weeks.
First released in 1999, I was first introduced to it by watching my Uncle play it probably some time in 2003. And I’ve been playing it on and off ever since. Over 20 years!
As a game it has had remarkable staying power. And it’s a prime example of the benefit of single player games3. Most of the games I play and have played are multiplayer. And even if I wanted to still play them, I can’t because the servers were turned off long ago. But here Age of Empires is, still working, and still being played. I love it.
Read this next: Give me some citations please