I've had a lively email chain going with a group of friends about that Ellen Barry article for a couple weeks. The counterintuitive findings they present are interesting and important. Folks have brought up Scott Alexander's "Crazy Like Us" book review, especially its discussion of anorexia in Hong Kong (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/book-review-crazy-like-us), as well as this post about the "loneliness apparatus" (https://www.careculture.is/the-loneliness-apparatus/).
I remember when I used to have lively email chains going with friends before it all became sentence-long updates and memes on group chats and DMs. Sigh.
I found Scott Alexander’s review especially interesting. Here in Oaxaca, I sense a lot of behavior that would be diagnosed and medicalized in the US is, indeed, explained as an “attack of the nerves” or the consequences of a spirit. And most people are probably the better off for it.
Just found your blog. This post resonated with me! Now taking a career break due to health reasons - and am finding the importance of building community where I am residing and finding joy in writing again!
What a mid life gift to get to explore many different career (and life) interests at once without too much pressure. I think my dream "job" is not one job at all, but dabbling in several different part time projects: social impact-ing, writing, baking, maybe some teaching, maybe something in fitness and something in art...
The mental health piece is interesting. I would never have thought that increasing knowledge and communication about mental health would be considered negative. I think the problematic part is the ambiguity of neurodivergent diagnoses which are still highly subjective, so anyone can identify with some symptoms of these diagnoses.
I love that for you, Anna, and I hope it materializes. Yes, I feel blessed and fortunate to be in a position to take this year off. (It also required some small sacrifices, but that doesn't take away from feeling blessed.)
My sister and I were talking about the upsides and downsides to attaching labels to how our minds work. I'm really into personality tests like the Enneagram and DISC ... I feel like they make me a better friend by remembering that not everyone thinks like me. But overly generalizing has its downsides too.
Wow, this post tickled me in all the right places...hmmm, not sure how this thought got down onto the keyboard. But really, I really liked this post for so many reasons some of which are: we posted almost the same time, we both focused on the latter half of something, and I used KCCO and you used COO in s paragraph. This is not a very compelling list of reasons, huh? Okay, redo: I love the career options, I love your goals because I'm such a do-gooder and lots of do goods on there, and I like that biking is good for the environment, your physical and mental health, and is just fun. And Sponge City touches on regenerative farming, which I assume is practice they will ultimately use to absorb rain water. Nothing is worse for capturing water than concrete! We need trees, plants, and soil to absorb water and to fill aquifers. And the consequence is not only more water but beautifying our cities. Okay, now I'm just flexing. I really like this post, that's all.
On regenerative farming, a friend pointed me to this visualization he did about water usage and agriculture in California. Apparently, they're redirecting stormwater to flood the fields with the crops that can best absorb it. Pretty cool. https://stories.theplotline.org/ca-water/
I've had a lively email chain going with a group of friends about that Ellen Barry article for a couple weeks. The counterintuitive findings they present are interesting and important. Folks have brought up Scott Alexander's "Crazy Like Us" book review, especially its discussion of anorexia in Hong Kong (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/book-review-crazy-like-us), as well as this post about the "loneliness apparatus" (https://www.careculture.is/the-loneliness-apparatus/).
I remember when I used to have lively email chains going with friends before it all became sentence-long updates and memes on group chats and DMs. Sigh.
I found Scott Alexander’s review especially interesting. Here in Oaxaca, I sense a lot of behavior that would be diagnosed and medicalized in the US is, indeed, explained as an “attack of the nerves” or the consequences of a spirit. And most people are probably the better off for it.
Just found your blog. This post resonated with me! Now taking a career break due to health reasons - and am finding the importance of building community where I am residing and finding joy in writing again!
What a mid life gift to get to explore many different career (and life) interests at once without too much pressure. I think my dream "job" is not one job at all, but dabbling in several different part time projects: social impact-ing, writing, baking, maybe some teaching, maybe something in fitness and something in art...
The mental health piece is interesting. I would never have thought that increasing knowledge and communication about mental health would be considered negative. I think the problematic part is the ambiguity of neurodivergent diagnoses which are still highly subjective, so anyone can identify with some symptoms of these diagnoses.
I love that for you, Anna, and I hope it materializes. Yes, I feel blessed and fortunate to be in a position to take this year off. (It also required some small sacrifices, but that doesn't take away from feeling blessed.)
My sister and I were talking about the upsides and downsides to attaching labels to how our minds work. I'm really into personality tests like the Enneagram and DISC ... I feel like they make me a better friend by remembering that not everyone thinks like me. But overly generalizing has its downsides too.
Wow, this post tickled me in all the right places...hmmm, not sure how this thought got down onto the keyboard. But really, I really liked this post for so many reasons some of which are: we posted almost the same time, we both focused on the latter half of something, and I used KCCO and you used COO in s paragraph. This is not a very compelling list of reasons, huh? Okay, redo: I love the career options, I love your goals because I'm such a do-gooder and lots of do goods on there, and I like that biking is good for the environment, your physical and mental health, and is just fun. And Sponge City touches on regenerative farming, which I assume is practice they will ultimately use to absorb rain water. Nothing is worse for capturing water than concrete! We need trees, plants, and soil to absorb water and to fill aquifers. And the consequence is not only more water but beautifying our cities. Okay, now I'm just flexing. I really like this post, that's all.
On regenerative farming, a friend pointed me to this visualization he did about water usage and agriculture in California. Apparently, they're redirecting stormwater to flood the fields with the crops that can best absorb it. Pretty cool. https://stories.theplotline.org/ca-water/