The Most Interesting Things I Learned in 2021

The past year served plenty of surprises, but one thing I’m never surprised by is the sheer amount of quality information available online. We truly live in a golden age of Information. This list contains the twenty-five most interesting things I learned over the past year, and is in no particular order.

I had no idea other languages had academies to ensure quality and proper usage. This explains how it’s possible for a language as old as French to not change meaningfully in centuries.

3. There once was a time people objected to taking down quotes in commonplace books, for fear the freedom to excerpt or quote from a text would shorten attention spans. Also, apparently humans have been concerned about attention spans for centuries!

Source: Commonplace Books: A History of Manuscripts and Printed Books from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century by Earle Havens

4.Overexcitability

“All the best ones [artists] had one thing in common: They felt given stimuli more strongly than regular people. One friend, a painter and fashion designer, was so enthralled by feminine beauty that we had to stop our conversation whenever a beautiful woman walked by. Their good looks captured him to the point of paralysis. Ladies loved him too, and every night, it seemed like he was with a new Instagram model. Though many people would criticize his promiscuous behavior, it was born out of the same impulses that make him such a talented designer.” -from David Perell.

This concept is similar to Elon Musk’s anti-social tendencies and Steve Jobs aggressive, confrontational demeanor. The qualities which make a person a dominate expert in one arena tend to make them unlikeable in another setting. The same quality can be a boon or hindrance, depending on the context — fascinating.

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