Links: September, 2019

Some good reads and listens I've encountered recently:

Reading

• The ecologist who wants to map everything — more trees and other green stuff!
• Why It’s Hard to Learn from the Learning Sciences — an article by Jay Lynch, a former colleague at Pearson. I find his critique of learning science and consequent admonition towards “abundant skepticism, intellectual modesty, and a commitment to gradual improvement” both sobering and encouraging.
• I Was Wrong About Speed Reading: Here are the Facts — learning expert Scott Young has spent a lot of time studying and practicing the tactics of speed reading. What he reports here resonates entirely with my experience, meagre as it is. But I do spend a lot of my reading energies on things that are either new to me or highly technical, both of which are poor use cases for speed reading.
• Spectral: A New Screen-First Typeface — speaking of visual reading, I loved this Spectral typeface so much I’ve implemented it as my primary serif font on this website.

Listening

• Thom Yorke interview on BBC’s Desert Island Discs.
• Poofed, an episode of the Truth podcast.
• How to use brain science to break bad habits — episode 161 of the You Are Not So Smart podcast.
• James Wood: These Etonians — a reading from the London Review of Books in which Wood reflects on his time at college, where his classmates included David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and Jacob Rees-Mogg.