Greetings everyone,
I am enjoying a short holiday in Malta, one of my last before I return back to Canada. It is a beautiful country, one full of history and culture and sunshine. But I can’t help but feel a deep weight being here. I think in such places like this, so remote and so small, the world is reduced to the shores of the island. I have the feeling here most people will never leave Malta. Perhaps that is not such a bad thing. But I do think that it is important to recognize the reclusiveness of some parts of the world. Despite social media, the internet, and cheap Ryanair flights, people feel more isolated than ever.
Don’t do things that you know are morally wrong. Not because someone is watching, but because you are. Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself. You’ll always know.
—Naval Ravikant (1974-)
✏️ Some Things Never Change
White Cab Drivers Only.
I read this sign two times. Then a third. Then again to make sure my eyes weren’t lying to me. I had just landed in Malta, and was waiting in the queue for a cab to town. Beside the till, there was a small room for cab drivers to take some rest, with a couple of small chairs and a worn out coffee machine. On the door was a sign that said who could use it.
Racism exists. I have felt it before but usually in subtler ways. To me, it comes more in the form of watchful eyes at a corner store or being consistently treated rudely and condescendingly despite leading with politeness. But never had I seen or experienced such blatant racism. It reminded me of those old pictures of southern America during the civil rights days, where bathrooms were divided by race and not gender.
It’s kind of hard to describe how I felt in that moment. For the first day I was here, it kind of put a damper on everything. I began to look for signs of it everywhere, in my interactions with the hotel staff, in the waiter’s interactions with delivery drivers. I began to look for validation that the people here were all racist. I think this is the danger of racism. I highly doubt that all Maltese are racist - in fact, if that sign had never been there, I would have thought like this. On most trips to most places, I don’t see colour anymore (which I think is credit to the progressiveness of modern society). This reminded me that one can attribute the negative beliefs or behaviour of one person to a whole island. And that doesn’t seem fair. I think we don’t often realize how much our actions speak for more than ourselves — when we act foolishly or ignore someone rudely, that behaviour might be attributed to your entire family, not just you. Very few people are conscious enough to separate the individual from the groups he identifies with. And I think that is the root of a lot of prejudice, division, and hatred in the world.
💡 Food for Thought
Macte virtute sic itur ad astra — excellence is a way to the stars (Aeneid IX, 641)
🔗 Sunday Best
Item Response Theory
[…] is a theory of testing based on the relationship between individuals' performances on a test item and the test takers' levels of performance on an overall measure of the ability that item was designed to measure. it is the preferred method for developing scales in the United States, especially when optimal decisions are demanded, as in so-called high-stakes tests, e.g., the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT)
Why You Should Create Content in 2023
Avoid the authenticity trap by being authentic and following your passions. And make content! Ideas and attention are the new oil.
How To Optimize Your Brain — An Evidence-Based Guide
By Ali Abdaal (& Me! I did the research and wrote the script for this video)
Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Bon dimanche,
AT