“52 Things I Learned in 2020”

In an effort to share more things I find interesting, and also to stop annoying friends and family with constant links, I’d like to begin using this blog space as a place to share images, links, resources, etc. Sometimes posts will be related to my newest work and lots of other times it will be about weird things like the correlation of negative Yankee Candle Company reviews to COVID symptoms.

With any luck, this site will keep friends and family from muting me and could potentially earn me more internet acquaintances. Who knows :)

———

Tom Whitwell keeps an ongoing list of 52 things that he has learned each year (2018, 2019). This year’s reflection includes fantastic nuggets like:

1. Most cities plant only male trees because it’s expensive to clear up the fruit that falls from female trees. Male trees release pollen, and that’s one of the reasons your hay fever is getting worse. [Jessica Price]

38. 報復性熬夜 is a Chinese term that roughly means ‘Revenge bedtime procrastination’ — when “people who don’t have much control over their daytime life refuse to sleep early in order to regain some sense of freedom during late night hours”. [Lu-Hai Liang]

45. In 2014, the International Energy Authority forecast how the price of solar power would fall over the next half century. After just six years, we’re 40 years ahead of expectations. [Ramez Naam](Fluxx have been helping Legal & General develop new ‘net zero’ products to fund Solar Power developments in the UK)

Thank you, Tom, for this fantastic ongoing effort!