Hit up one of the poster vendors that usually visits university campuses to get some wall decoration.

A RGB lighting strip around the roof perimeter can do wonders for setting the mod of the room.

If you have want to have people in your room to hang out, consider getting a futon instead of a bed. Won’t do your back any favors, but will be more functional during the college years.

I’m not sure how I feel about it, but I heard the argument made that AI maybe would be better for killing. People mess up all the time and misidentify threats which causes collateral damage in conflicts often. AI in theory could be much better at this identification process.

It’s kind of the same argument with self driving cars: we freak out whenever they get in an accident, but people causing thousands of accidents a day doesn’t cause an outage.

Not saying I necessarily agree with either argument, but they do make me question how we think about and evaluate technology.

The impact of the death of community in modern society (at least in America) can not be understated. I wish we had comparable institutions to churches that could provide community without the religion.

Traffic enforcement and red light cameras. I used to be very opposed to them, but I’ve since come to appreciate the absurdity of America’s car central culture.

Additionally, traffic stops by police disproportionately effect minorities and lead to escalations and other issues, while taking away enforcement capacity from more important things.

I still don’t think the cameras should necessarily be run by private, for profit entities. Nor would I really want cameras that ticket you if you go 1 mph over. But in general I’m much less opposed to the idea than I used to be.

Thanks for the recommendation. I was wondering what else to try as I sure as hell don’t want to use YouTube and it doesn’t seem like you can have a separate podcast playlist in Spotify.

There are so many things these days which co-opt and diminish our ability to pay attention and focus, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if it’s also affecting memory.

The book Stolen Focus goes into these issues, but diet, air pollution, smart phones, social media, and instant gratification tired to consumerism all diminish our ability to focus.