Kirsten's Notebook

I set a goal a few years ago to read 24 history books before my 30th birthday. It seems a bit arbitrary now, and I can't remember exactly why I decided to do it, but I've just turned 29 and I've nearly finished. ( Nearly - I've been stuck on my final book Merchants of Grain  for months though!) Honestly, I've read more history than I expected. The reason why I was because I've been trying to set myself up to avoid getting stuck. Ways I avoid getting stuck: I can quit a book at any time. If I quit a book after reading a good chunk of it - maybe 50 or so pages - I think of myself as having "read" that book. (I feel differently about fiction.) I can read a book in any order. I normally read front to back, but not always, especially in books with lots of pictures. I especially seek out books with lots of pictures for this reason and jump around reading the captions and titles before deciding if I should read more of the text. I am wary of aspirational book

When you're young, there are endless possibilities in front of you. Maybe you'll work at a charity or run your own business or become Prime Minister. Maybe you'll run into Emma Watson one day, at the hairdresser's or the park, and the two of you will get to talking and eventually get married. Anything could happen! As we get older, we commit to a particular path, and the possibilities become fewer. Around the time you propose to your girlfriend, you give up your dream of marrying Emma Watson or any other woman, or your dream of any of the cool things you might have done later in your life if you were unattached. And even though you love your girlfriend, giving up on those other possibilities can really hurt. It can be a kind of grief, mourning the deaths of all the people you never got the chance to become. And to avoid that grief, sometimes we avoid making choices. Especially irreversible choices. The choices we make allow us to tell certain stories about ourselves. Fo

A friend of mine recently decided to do a run on behalf of an HIV/AIDS charity. It's a cause that means a lot to him as a member of the LGBTQ community. He mentioned the run to me, but said he knew I probably wouldn't donate, because I am part of the Effective Altruism community. Effective Altruism is about doing as much good as you can, using reason and evidence. For example, here's an article that describes different HIV/AIDS charities. The most cost-effective HIV/AIDS charity can provide an estimated 27 years of healthy life for each $1000 donation; the least cost-effective charity provides less than 1 additional year of healthy life. I find this logic really compelling! I set aside a part of my income each year and I try to make sure that money does as much good as possible. But I still donate to my friends' fundraisers and don't see that as contradictory. The truth is, donating to this fundraiser didn't come from the "charity" part of my budget;

 Sheryl Sandberg's manifesto for white middle-class feminists,  Lean In , is a guilty pleasure of mine. I've read it a few times and honestly find it really useful because, um, I'm a white middle-class feminist. My favourite chapter of the book is titled "Don't leave before you leave". It tells the story of a young woman who approached Sheryl and asked a series of panicked questions about how to balance work and family life. As the conversations progressed, it eventually came out that this young woman wasn't expecting a baby and didn't even have a boyfriend yet, she just wanted to be prepared. And what preparation looked like to this young woman was potentially working at a certain kind of company in a certain kind of role, even though she could still be 5 or 10 years away from having children! Thinking about the future balance of work and children may be the most common reason for opting out of roles, but I'm sure it's not the only one. People

At EA Global last month, I saw a talk between Julia Wise and Alex Gordon-Brown about parenting. He made an off-hand comment that having a satisfying personal life makes it easier to deal when work isn't going well. That seems so relateable to me! I get a huge sense of meaning and purpose and fulfillment from my job and feel pretty down or frustrated when it's not going well. But there are some things in my personal life, like being married to my awesome husband, my involvement in the EA community, and feeling valued and included and needed in my group of friends that also gives me a sense of meaning and connection and which balances out the highs and lows from my job. I can totally believe that parenting has a similar effect. For my own benefit, and for anyone who may be reading, I'm going to brainstorm some other examples of ways people experience meaning and connection and fulfillment that I could potentially add to my life: Doing repairs around your house - experiencing

 Cal Newport's A World Without Email would have been revolutionary three years ago. Now it feels a little out of date. To be fair, this might be a me thing. I skipped the first half because I'm already sold on the problem: checking your email every 5 minutes is clearly bad for getting any actual work done. I'm familiar with Cal's previous work (including Deep Work and So Good They Can't Ignore You ) so I get it! The second half of the book sets out some proposed solutions. This is the section I bought the book for and the section that underwhelmed me. Cal suggests things like use Calendly to schedule meetings. I agree, but it's a lot less radical than I thought he would be, given the whole book is supposed to be about eliminating email altogether! In addition, he doesn't seem aware that Microsoft Outlook (the most mainstream of email clients) has included a scheduling tool for years that lets you view your coworkers calendars and book a meeting at a time w