1/8/21 Recommended Issues: Theme of the year, Inflation, Big Datasets

Good day!

Each week we handpick newsletter issues by independent writers you may have missed that provide new or unique perspectives. 

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Here's what's worth reading this week...enjoy!

YOUR PERSONAL THEME FOR THE YEAR

How to Set a One-Word Theme for 2021 in Empty Your Cup by Niklas Goeke on Jan 3

Many people set goals and resolutions for the new year, most of which fall by the wayside after some time. Niklas advocates for a different idea: just simply picking a “theme” for the year for yourself… one word. And as things, options, plans, possibilities, etc, come up throughout the year, just measure them against this one overarching theme to see whether it fits. The issue is short, but offers a unique perspective that’s arguably easier and more accomplishable than the traditional goals/resolutions. (797 words; 3 minutes) Read it…

INFLATION...OR NOT?

Inflation is Killing The American Dream in The Pomp Letter / Off the Chain by Anthony Pompliano on Jan 4

This issue was intriguing (more so if you’re not an economics expert) because Anthony offers a rebuttal to those that suggest we won’t see inflation after the recent government spending increases. In language we can all actually understand, he breaks down why he believes that inflation is real, and explains a bit about how/why the consumer price index (CPI) is challenged as well as how other researchers are measuring inflation differently... and the implications. If nothing else, this issue offers a perspective to be considered and may make you re-ponder any thoughts you had before on the reliability of the CPI and its ties to government spending.  (1265 words; 4.5 minutes) Read it...

AWESOME DATASETS

Data Is Plural by Jeremy Singer-Vine

For those of you that find data fascinating, Data Is Plural is a super unique weekly newsletter that highlights large datasets that are available to the public, many of which have cool, interactive interfaces built on top of them where you can play with the data yourself. Some recent examples include an interactive map that quantifies transportation costs for international trade, broken down by import/export country, type of commodity, and transport method, an interactive time series map of global COVID-related travel and immigration bans, an organized data set of haikus made from 2020 news headlines, and much more… It’s worth a skim each week to get your hands on some captivating data. See past issues… or subscribe.

Some interesting facts for the week:

• There is a word "infohazard" and it means:  "any piece of knowledge that makes you worse-off, from the trivial (you are now conscious of your breathing) to the serious (consider your mortality)." (The Diff, 12/18/20)    
• Adult websites really do have amazingly high traffic. Before covid, Pornhub had ~120million unique visitors per day, while, for comparison, CNN had a record breaking MONTH in January with 148 million unique monthly users). A new adult site OnlyFans was adding 200k users/day last May. Wow. (The Margins, 12/14/20)
• The dust buster was created when NASA and Black & Decker partnered together to invent lightweight, compact, battery-powered tools for space!  (Why is this Interesting 1/6/20)
• There 's a neighborhood in Mexico that was built by 3D printing -- apparently the world's first!!    (Why is this Interesting, 1/6/21)
• The top 43,000 Spotify artists (representing ~1.4% of artists on the platform) earn 90% of the royalties (on average, $22,395 per artist per quarter); the rest of the 3 million artists on the platform (~98.6%)  averaged just $36 per artist per quarter. (Li's Newsletter, 12/17/20)
• In 1972, Bhutan made stamps that were miniature records that could actually be played on a record player. So cool! (Why is this Interesting, 12/30/20)
• A group of scientists calculated that by around the year 2020, humans would have created more material on Earth by weight than the total weight of all the living things on it… Now that's a weighty thing to ponder. (Bad Astronomy, 12/28/20)

I hope your perspectives were broadened!

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Thanks and have a great weekend,
~Jessica