The Monday Read

The Best Rainy Season Ever

I am loving the weather this week. Warm, dry, sunny, fun playful kind of wind. Spent the whole week trying to find excuses to get out in the sun and get my vitamin D in. Long may it continue!

Encouragingly, vaccinations in Japan seem to be picking up. They have almost finished vaccinating medical workers, which is good but almost two months behind schedule. Hopefully they will accelerate vaccinating the elderly now.

Still not expecting to get mine this year but progress nonetheless.

Online event

I’ll be doing a live interview with the Online Teaching Japan group on Facebook on June 17th at 20:00. I think you need to be a member to join. Check it out here.

The forum this week

We hit 1,000 members on the forum, which is kind of exciting. Also had some interesting posts:

This week’s books

I read book four in the Cormoran Strike series: Lethal White by Robert Galbraith and started the fifth, Troubled Blood. They are enjoyable reads, nice blend of mystery and romance. I can see why they are planning to make a TV series out of them.

Also went back to Tim Ferriss’ Tools of Titans. It’s an imposing tome full of bite sized success. Very inspiring but not sure how much of it is going to stick!

This week’s links

  1. Really impressive: Building on Tradition — 1,400 Years of a Family Business
  2. This is interesting. I’ve caught glimpses of this but didn’t realise how deep the rabbit hole went: Caught in the Study Web
  3. Language creates reality: Metaphors we live by
  4. To infinity and beyond? The Profound Potential of Elon Musk’s New Rocket
  5. Stunning: Toyoura Bay, Kihoku
  6. Is the US hopelessly overpriced or has the world changed (ie big tech will continue taking over)? We don’t know 😉 S&P 500 CAPE ratio says the US index is in an epic bubble
  7. This was interesting (not a recommendation): NUCLEAR WINTERIZING YOUR INVESTMENTS? – THE COCKROACH PORTFOLIO
  8. This seems very true to me. I’m planning to rent a little office to work in once I run out of paychecks next March: What if Remote Work Didn’t Mean Working from Home?
  9. I didn’t know this, and it begs the question ‘why is convenience being prioritised over security?’: Savvy thieves only need a key’s number to gain access
  10. The long run is just a bunch of short runs in a row: How to do long term
  11. This is good. I needed this today: An Ancient Guide on How To Get and Stay Motivated

Short and sweet(?) this week. Anything good in there? I enjoyed #2, #5, and #11 this time.

6 Responses

  1. #8: Since retiring from work and returning to college, I’ve really learned the importance of having alternate locations to study and write papers. The pandemic and remote learning has made this need doubly apparent. I’ve heard from professors that recent academic results demonstrate the difficulties of studying from home.
    #11: Lack of motivation is another challenge I’ve encountered studying from home during the pandemic.
    #9: When we bought our current place, the agent recommended getting locks from different countries to help minimize this risk.

  2. #10–even just the blurb brought to mind an old blues lyric:

    “Life is a game of days.”

  3. “ Still not expecting to get mine this year but progress nonetheless.”

    While it’s a good idea to temper one’s expectations in life, and I can understand thinking this way perhaps in March, there is zero reason to continue to believe this now with vaccinations already opening up to under-65s in June.

    1. True! A lot has changed since I wrote this -including the university I work at considering vaccinating students and staff 🙂

      However, so far Japan has administered around 14m shots, out of 260m (two shots per person). They are currently doing about 0.5m per day. So it is still going to take 492 days to administer those shots at the current rate.

      I do believe we will continue to accelerate and increase supply, but it is still worth keeping the scale of the problem and the value of announced ‘plans’ from the government in mind.

      1. Fair enough, though that is assuming 100% of the population being vaccinated, which is not possible and also not necessary for herd immunity. There is also little reason to think the rate isn’t going to massively increase with universities and other workplaces being mobilized for the effort. Plenty to be critical of this admin for, but once the system gets going, it’s not going back in the bottle. My objective guess is most people who want a shot will be able to get one by the end of summer, if not much sooner, and then Japan will face the problem that the US and other countries are facing trying to get more of the pop willing to be vaccinated.

  4. On number 9, just moved apartment and it has these numbered keys.
    Went to Mr Mint to get copies was told this was not possible, and that he would need to order from the key manufacturer and would cost 4,400 per copy….