#Goodreads has been pestering me about “the best #books of 2021”; first to vote, then to see the results — but I couldn't care less.
I try to read the best there is since writing exists. That often means reading works written half a millennium ago, and sometimes even as far back as the 8th century BCE. How could it be otherwise?
The year 2021 alone represents < 0.04% of time elapsed since humans started writing and reading. Even if we assumed that book production, or even book “quality”, increase over time somehow (questionable), I can't understand the disproportionate interest in novelty most people seem to have.
Nothing is so firmly believed, as what we least know
#MichelDeMontaigne
I just finished reading the first volume of the #Essays by #MichelDeMontaigne, arguably [the most important non-fiction work in all of world #literature](https://thegreatestbooks.org/nonfiction).
Here are all my highlights (in 🇪🇸 #Spanish):
The best reason to follow political trends (maybe the only one) is to prepare yourself for the future.
Do you live where you would like to live if/when this happens?
https://mobile.twitter.com/balajis/status/1467060990751621120
Speaking of #socialmedia… another beautiful #dataviz by #VisualCapitalist
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-social-networks-worldwide-by-users/
Go, #fediverse, go!
Mildly #NSFW
You know how #socialmedia distort our perception of reality and our expectations, and make us feel frustrated and miserable, because many individual users, most algorithms, and everyone who's trying to sell something routinely script, set up, pick, filter, retouch and tweak what they share so that their lives seem amazing…?
Well, something like this might be the epitome of that — at least for guys.
Qualcomm’s new always-on smartphone camera is a #privacy nightmare
https://web.archive.org/web/20211202011309/https://www.theverge.com/22811740/qualcomm-snapdragon-8-gen-1-always-on-camera-privacy-security-concerns
The FBI produced this nice chart comparing what kinds of privacy leaks the various messaging apps have.
This #cartoon by #JohnJonik is the answer to so many things happening on/to the #internet. So often applicable.
https://jonikcartoons.blogspot.com/2011/09/general-cartoons.html