Music by Cities

Great maps from the Atlantic showing the geographic distribution of billboards top 100 tracks and pitchfork's top 100 songs from 2012. The biggest surprise is just how many of billboard's songs are "from" Nashville.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/12/where-2012s-top-music/4228/

Doppelgangers / The Cooler Me

A couple of weeks ago I discovered my doppelganger, his name is Guillaume. He's a freelance photographer living in Paris, he rides a Japanese motorcycle and was recently in Prague taking pictures. Needless to say I am quite jealous. So when I saw this article come up in my google reader it got me thinking about Guillaume again.

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/mens-lives/201205/cooler-me-eric-puchner-gq-may-2012-doppelganger

I've never really been one for grand dreams or ambitions. I periodically try to come up with life goals (usually around new years) but I can never come up with something that gets me really fired up. So this year rather than trying to accomplish something I'm going to try to fail at things, at a lot of things, a lot of different things. Here's to 2013, a year of failure, a spectacular failure.

Unlike my grandfather, I'm no mechanical engineer

But this article makes a great point, stop trying to regulate guns, regulate bullets instead.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/12/no-really-regulate-the-bullets/266332/?google_editors_picks=true

How Couples Meet

With the rise of the online dating for the first time there is tons of easily accessible data on how people look for and choose their partners. A few interesting findings in this paper:

• The internet has done a lot for gays and lesbians meet but has mostly displaced other forms of socializing for heterosexuals.
• Relationships formed online tend to last as long as other relationships.
• Despite the internet, the partnership rate for heterosexuals has remained roughly constant.

Good read through (fun with statistics!)

http://asr.sagepub.com/content/77/4/523.full

Worst Case Scenarios

Whenever an article references the Stoics I already know that I'm going to like it.

The author suggests that instead of thinking about the best case scenario we ought to think about the worst case scenario. If the worst case scenario is manageable then we ought to proceed with our action. If we think about the best case scenario then more often then not we're going to be disappointed. Thought provoking read throughout.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324705104578147333270637790.html

On the Pursuit and Misuse of Useless Information

Great article about how we (as humans) overweight minor details and lose sight of the big picture. Highly relevant to my job.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/glue/201212/why-too-much-data-disables-your-decision-making

Life in your 20's

Brilliant article:

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2012/21-ways-you-should-take-advantage-of-your-20s/

Let's see how I've done by their standards.

1. If anything I sometimes take too long to respond to people.

2. My attitude is generally that I'm not owed anything by anyone. So I guess this one is a failure.

3. "Never turn down an open bar" - life's motto here.

4. I struggle with this, I'm always afraid that I'll be changing just for the sake of change. It takes me a long time to identify what specifically is making me unhappy.

5. To the fullest.

6. I have no problem when older more successful people pick up the check.

7. Volleyball.

8. Done.

9. Work in progress.

10. Yup.

11. I keep swearing off 4 am bars yet I keep going back to them :)

12. Paris Club was my "weeping puddle of regret"

13. YES!

14. Viva Barcelona!

15. Meh, probably the worst suggestion on here.

16. Since I know a few people who went last year and it made me lose all desire to go.

17. Done.

18. Uhmmm - probably not applicable, unless I decide to start cross dressing.

19. I like the spirit of the idea but I'm not a fan of road trips.

20. Hahahahahaha, so perfect!

21. Probably the most depressing line of the article. I hope its not true.

Brilliant all around, loved it!