Pandora. This was my music player of choice when it launched in the late 2000s. Like a lot of people, I slowly migrated to Spotify and forgot about it. I’ve been souring on Spotify lately, for a variety of reasons. One is that the algorithm just keeps recycling what I listened to last year (no DJ X, I don’t want to hear my 2024 favorites again) or pushing new releases that are popular on the platform but I have zero interest in. The AI slop proliferating on the app and its slow decline as a podcast player haven’t helped. For some reason, this week I had a hunch that I should log back into Pandora after a decade of non-use. My account was so old it was still tied to my Hotmail address from high school. Pandora is a breath of fresh air. The Music Genome Project is amazing. I’ve already found new artists I like. You actually get a mix that feels random and novel. It never feels stale. My channels: Maná, the Killers (natch), and a jazz and classical channel for work. If it’s been a while since you’ve used Pandora, give it another look. Surf the web like it’s 2008 again.
Keychain Screwdriver Set. You’d be surprised how often you need a screwdriver. This cheap little two-piece set — a flathead and a Phillips, each about the size of a key — clips right onto your keychain. I’ve had the set on my keychain for years now, and it’s come in clutch more times than I expected. It came in especially handy when my kids were little and had toys that had a screwed-in battery compartment. Didn’t have to schlep to the garage to get a screwdriver. Just pulled out my keys. You can’t use these for jobs that need serious torque, but most screwdriving situations in daily life don’t.
A Cinema Humanities Program. Last year, I became a cinephile. Watching good movies on the regular has become one of my favorite adult pastimes. Substacker Ted Gioia (The Honest Broker) started a 52-week self-directed humanities curriculum a couple years back that consists of great reading and music listening. But Gioia acknowledged that a cinema component was lacking. Kyle Worley took that as a challenge and built out a 52-film supplement — one great movie per week — to pair with it. The list is solid. I’ve highlighted several of its entries here on Odds & Ends over the years, including Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai (check out my article about the lessons from that film), and The Searchers. If you’ve been meaning to develop a more well-rounded film education, this is a good place to start. Worth checking out alongside Gioia’s original curriculum.
The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow. I’ve been doing a series over on Dying Breed on the role of luck and chance in our lives, so I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the philosophy of luck and probability theory for the past year. Mlodinow’s book is an approachable introduction to both the history of probability and how it actually works. The central argument is that randomness plays a much bigger role in outcomes than we typically acknowledge, and that our brains aren’t wired to recognize it very well. You’ve really got to squeeze those mind grapes when you think about chance. This book can help you start that squeezing.
On our Dying Breed newsletter, we published Making a Living Online: The Rise and Fall of Banner Ads and Sunday Firesides: It Will Stay With You (Until You Stay With It).
Quote of the Week
Better to be a strong man with a weak point, than to be a weak man without a strong point. A diamond with a flaw is more valuable than a brick without a flaw.
—William J.H. Boetcker
