Good Tokens 2026-01-16
Worth your time
The Mundanity of Excellence. Excellence is a product of different kinds of work rather than different levels of effort. Technique (how things are done), discipline (doing things correctly, consistently), and attitude (how things are approached) are the things to focus on. “What we call talent is no more than a projected reification of particular things done: hands placed correctly in the water, turns crisply executed, a head held high rather than low in the water.”
“Those of us who retain grand ambitions and high ideals are perhaps to liable to become Casaubonnish, to become like Lydgate, so preoccupied with the dreams of youth and so stung with the perpetual sense of failure as we became assimilated to our lives, that we forgot to do the good that we can do in the time we have to do it in.” — Henry Oliver on Middlemarch
Georgia is losing its southern drawl. One of my favorite things about attending the University of North Carolina was learning the subtle differences between North Carolina accents, to the point where I could place where you went to high school by how you spoke. They were beautiful and unique.
Musings
“Just slap something on it” — Vincent van Gogh
It should be easier to send gifts to a person having only their phone number.
“If you get mad you will be seen as losing almost-every argument, regardless of what the other person did that led to you getting mad, again excepting really extreme and explicit evidence.” — Uri. I should be forced to reread this once a month.
Things I learned
Just 13% of Gen Z believes that most people can be trusted — Ryan Burge. Surely at some point this has to rebound?
Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” is the best selling single of all time, which I learned at a BP gas station video ad of all places and confirmed via Wikipedia.
The second fastest growing sector in America between 2019 and 2024 was gambling — Matt Stoller
2026-01-16