A post-polar mindset, smart solutions, and corporate crap

Postcard #9

Fortepan / Surányi Sándor - György József

Hello and welcome back to another edition of THE POSTCARD, Unregistered’s fortnightly roundup of recommendations.

Thoughts, tools, and treat

This week is about how to and not to do things.

• Updating a broken mental model

  David Brooks notes that plenty of people are „exhausted by the crude generalizations“ of the identitarian mindset. While being driven by a noble cause and offering a sense of belonging, it fails to explain the election’s devastating results: „Harris lost because America is racist (even though she did virtually the same as Biden did among white voters). Harris lost because America is sexist (even though she underperformed among women).“ To do better, he concludes, it’s essential to see what makes people unique, „deal with nuts-and-bolts issues,“ and „cooperate in respectful ways on a day-to-day basis.“

• Signing petitions

  Many wars ended because well-informed and caring writers signed petitions for one side (the good) or the other (the good). That’s why Shalom Auslander drafted a petition to sign all petitions: „Not because the issue the petition aims to correct has vexed us for very long, or even that we know much about it, but to put our names on the same list as other writers and thereby make ourselves seem important.“ You may read and sign it here.

• Consequences, not punishment

  Kea Wilson argues that the best way to prevent unwanted actions is not to punish them after the fact but to design the built environment in a way that results in immediate, tangible consequences for everybody who fails to pay attention, e.g., when not speeding down your car in a residential neighborhood ruins a car’s undercarriage. Punishment creates fear of being caught; consequences teach a lesson.

• The value of professionalism

  Henrik Karlsson resigned from his part-time job at an art gallery and wrote down some lessons he had learned. It’s a great read that shows how much achievements rely on knowledge and skills not related to the particular field somebody works in, e.g., a sense of what is appropriate, willingness to learn, making concrete and constructive suggestions, and being reliable.

• Farewell, Knödelexpress

  WRmz815, the Czech railway’s popular dining car, will be replaced by a successor called „Comfort-Jet,“ as the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported. The dining car is legendary because real chefs prepare real food in a real kitchen. This will be replaced by processed food heated in a microwave. The corporate announcement didn’t even mention food; instead, it praises „a multimodal kettle“ and a dishwasher. Corporate crap at its worst. A case study on how to do things the wrong way.

Noteworthy

“Rather than trying to make people ‚normal‘, it is more sensible—and cheaper—to adjust classrooms and workplaces to suit neurodiversity. (...) A culture that tolerates differences and takes an enlightened view of the rules will help people achieve more and get more out of life. That, rather than more medical appointments, is the best way to help the growing numbers lining up for ADHD diagnoses.“

—The Economist, commenting on the fact that a binary view of ADHD „is no longer supported by science.“ Instead, the diagnosed characteristics „span a wide spectrum of severity.“ The article differentiates conditions requiring medication from cases where „the symptoms are mild enough to disappear when their environment plays to their strengths“ and offers several concrete, evidence-based measures that „should be universally available at school and at work.“

A mystery link leading into the unknown

Sometimes, a band is just way ahead of its times.

• A time machine taking you back to 1982

As always,

Dirk

P.S.: Feel free to send me pointers to articles, books, sites, pods, tools, and treats that could be interesting for this roundup. While I cannot promise to link them, I read and appreciate every hint.