Howdy amigo (I think we’ve found a winner),
Coming to you live from Austin, Texas.
Here’s your weekly dose of Arman’s Antics — five things I’ve been pondering or exploring that will give you a think, laugh, cry (or a nasty combination of the three).
A warm welcome to the 12 new subscribers receiving this for the first time (553 total). I don’t take your attention lightly.
I hope nobody reads this, but if you do, please keep it to yourself.
Essay I wrote this week
Most of us have a good grasp on how long a human life is in years. It feels long.
But how many specific activities or events do we get over the course of a life? Ah, now that’s interesting.
It can be both more fun and depressing to:
Book I’m reading
The Great Depression: A Diary by Benjamin Roth.
Morgan Housel thinks this is the best economic book ever written. That’s a bold statement. But now I see why.
Most history books are written with the benefit of hindsight. The historian knows how things turned out.
But we get such a better feel for what things were really like when the person simply observed what was happening around them and recorded it in real time. Eliminating hindsight bias.
Here’s the description: “When the stock market crashed in 1929, Benjamin Roth was a young lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio. After he began to grasp the magnitude of what had happened to American economic life, he decided to set down his impressions in his diary.
This collection of those entries reveals another side of the Great Depression, one lived through by ordinary, middle-class Americans, who on a daily basis grappled with a swiftly changing economy coupled with anxiety about the unknown future. Roth's depiction of life in time of widespread foreclosures, a schizophrenic stock market, political unrest and mass unemployment seem to speak directly to readers today.”
(Short) YouTube clip I enjoyed
Comedians are modern day philosophers.
They have an uncanny ability to observe the insanity of life. And are able to describe it in such a concise manner that hits a profound point right on the nose.
You may have strong opinions about Louis CK, but remember to remove the artist from the art.
Enjoy.
A good cry
I almost crashed the other day on my drive home thanks to tears blurring my vision.
I had just dropped mom off at the airport after a wonderful visit. These were happy tears.
Typically whenever I get in my feels I try to distract myself with some music, a podcast, or whatever.
But this drive was different.
I wanted to feel the emotions instead of running from them. So that’s what I did. And it felt damn good.
When’s the last time you allowed yourself to simply sit with your emotions and feel the feels?
Pro tip: pull over on the side of the road if you start crying uncontrollably while driving.
Random thought
I’m not sure how closely you follow the deodorant world but things are getting out of control…
I just saw an ad for 72 hour odor protection.
If you refuse to bathe for three days and think you’re covered by a few extra strokes of your deodorant stick, let’s talk.
That’s it for the 79th edition of Arman’s Antics.
I hope you didn’t make it this far, but if you did, you’re my kind of person.
Try to be a little more curious than you normally are.
Now back to your regularly scheduled nonstop scrolling.
Cheers,
Arman
...have you noticed the growing trend of genital and ass deodorants as well...i just see no way rubbing your bits with a scent stick is a hygenic "practice"...humans can truly sell anything...
Love this: "When’s the last time you allowed yourself to simply sit with your emotions and feel the feels?"
Men don't have good role models for expressing emotions. We need more of them, so thanks for stepping up and being that model, Arman.