MNTS # 51

[Week 47 / Year 2024] Bessis, On Preference, Leiter, Demming, FJM, Stainless Whisk, Flux, Nietzsche vs. John, On Good Sense, Camera Roll

Nov 24, 2024

Mainly Notes To Self - A rundown of stuff worth sharing.

Gentlemen. Welcome to the 51st edition of MNTS.

I’ve been distracted and off my regular schedule the last week or so, but for good reason. Thanks to the serendipity engine that is the internet, I’ve connected with David Bessis, the author of Mathematica. We’re scheduled to record what will be the first episode of The Mettleist – Shop Talk podcast (hopefully, the first of many). I’ve been pouring my meager spare time into preparing for it, so once this is in the rearview mirror, I’ll get back to publishing book notes and MNTS on a regular basis.

I hope you all are as excited about the interview as I am! If you have any burning questions you'd like me to ask, feel free to leave a comment.

Without further ado—let’s cook!

We’ve been wrong about Math for 2300 years

David Bessis

is also now on Substack. His first essay is a banger and he essentially distills the main argument of his book Mathematica, in it. I wrote about his book here a couple weeks back and I looking forward to chatting with him.

Along the way, we also failed to articulate the most compelling value proposition of mathematics: math is an imagination technique that makes you smarter.
This is what really struck me as I was writing my book: once you read Descartes, Grothendieck, and Thurston in parallel, you start to notice that they speak almost only of imagination. Each describes the use of imagination in new modalities, discovered by accident and breaking with what they’d been taught. They all view this as the secret to their success. If we don’t communicate this dimension of math, we’re missing an essential piece.

Wait, when did preference become God?

OG friend of the newsletter

Michael

published this biting take on contemporary culture. Great piece. Love to see it!

Religious wisdom? Nah, preference beats that. Philosophy’s greatest hits, debated by history’s greatest minds? Sorry, preference wins. Cultural knowledge built over thousands of years? Preference says no. Biology’s basic drives? Preference doesn’t care. Your entire ancestral line? Preference shrugs.

Saul Leiter - Color

I shared this in my candid photography memo but it warrants repeat viewing. Leiter’s colors are insane.

For Demming nerds

Demonstrates the importance of understanding natural variation and the ill effects of process tampering.

New Father John Misty Album

Really enjoying this new album. Big CAKE vibes from a few of these tracks and I’m not mad about it at all.

Mini Stainless Whisk

This little guy has become an indispensable side kick in the kitchen. A major process improvement tool for dijonaise, vinaigrettes, marinades, heck I even use it to mix in electrolytes and EAAs into my water. Far superior to a shaker ball.

Flux Adapt Runners

I’m on my third pair of these and they made some nice improvements since I last purchased them. The new pair feels lighter and the grip on the bottom is highly improved. It’s also worth noting this updated version runs a half size smaller than the previous shoes. While I don’t consider these barefoot shoes (the stack height is too high to truly be considered barefoot imo), these are super functional and comfortable daily running shoes. They check all the boxes zero drop, wide toe box, low-key color options, durable and reasonably priced.

New tread vs. old tread. Old tread has over 300 running miles + daily walking miles

Nietzsche vs. John

Murphy breaks down Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity in Genealogy of Morals and contrasts it with his interpretation of The Gospel According to John, from the New Testament. It’s quite a compelling take and these ideas have been pin balling around my dome for the better part of two weeks now.

On Good Sense

Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess.
— Rene Descartes