5/15/20: Recommended Issues of the Week

This is narrowSCALE's roundup of some of the most interesting newsletter issues each week that might have flown under your radar. Take a skim through...

• What is Costa Rica's secret? (from Policy for Pandemics, by Andrew Potter, on May 14, 2020). It’s easy to stay mired in the coronavirus media for wherever you live-- and assuming you’re not in Costa Rica, this is a great little read on how Costa Rica's pandemic response is a model for the world. Policy for Pandemics is written and edited by academics from the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, and they get across policy points and global perspectives in a clear and engaging way...none of the drabness and academic mumbo-jumbo one might expect. They also wrote about a short, insightful piece on Pakistan and the pandemic this week. 

• How to be present for a grieving friend (from My Sweet Dumb Brain, by Katie Hawkins-Gaar, on May 12, 2020). While this newsletter issue is stylistically very informal and stems from a personal experience, the advice Katie offers around helping someone to grieve could be quite relevant during this time.  May you hopefully not find yourself in a position where you need her tools now, but it seems inescapable at some point in one’s life… so it most certainly can’t hurt to keep these ideas tucked away in your toolbelt.

• Stop trying to make hard work easy (from Superorganizers, by Dan Shipper, on May 5, 2020). This is a long one, not something you’ll skim in 20 seconds if you hope to get anything out of it. It’s a deep dive with a Stanford professor about how to keep from getting distracted.  Still with me? In the age of everything being distracting or shiny, and with technology making it so incredibly easy to waste time, this issue of Superorganizers offers insights and actions that may help you to be a bit more productive and focused… assuming you can get through the newsletter without getting distracted. 

Hope you enjoy the reads! 

And please subscribe to Policy for Pandemics, My Sweet Dumb Brain, or Superorganizers if you'd like to receive more!