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Trust The Process
Hello, friends. The 76ers are past the first round of the NBA playoffs, which lets me know Jesus is real and having a 6’10” point guard is The Way and The Truth.
Welcome to the first installment of the Zaleski Minute. The price is right — it’s free! — but if this takes you more than a minute, complain to management.
What I Was Writing:
For Curbed: You’ve probably heard of Bitcoin, the decentralized, unregulated cryptocurrency preferred by international heroin smugglers (probably). Up to now, it’s largely been used as a speculative tool luring starry-eyed investors thinking riches will come quick if they can just get their hands on some digital dough. Well, now it’s pouring into real estate. Go buy a condo for $275,000 or 17 Bitcoins.
For Popular Science: Greg Ortman suffered from post-concussion syndrome after years of football — until he started brain training, a tactic Tom Brady swears by. The concept rests on a scientific term called “far transfer,” summarized like so: Keep track of a rapidly blinking object on a computer screen, and you’ll brake faster next time you’re out driving. But training your brain might just be a self-improvement fantasy. This article was plugged by the Sunday Long Read, so you know it’s good (hopefully).
What I Closed:
Another feature for Popular Science, coming out in the summer 2018 issue. Across the U.S. there are scores of people trying to cheat involuntary death. Yes, that’s right: They do not want to die, and think medical discoveries and technology will make it so in about two decades. (No, I do not want to live forever.)
Words of Wisdom:
“It’s a stereotype that particularly Black and Latina women have to deal with. It also tells me that, a lot of times, women think they’re getting good references and they’re not. Over time, a lot of people get frustrated and just leave the industry. It’s a big loss.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times Magazine reporter and 2017 MacArthur genius grant winner
“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.” — Samuel Johnson, English writer and author of the “Dictionary of the English Language”