By Lindsay Bell-Wheeler
Welcome to the 43rd edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss from Michael Schechter (A Better Mess), Howie Goldfarb (Blue Star Strategic Marketing), and yours truly, Lindsay Bell.
For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t subscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.
This week we look at life choices, train culture, and the secret life of cats.
Bill Watterson: A Cartoonist’s Advice
Michael on Life Choices. I know this Zen Pencil’s cartoon based on a Bill Watterson (the cartoonist who created Calvin and Hobbes) graduation speech has been shared just about everywhere on the internet. That said, I’m still posting it here just in case there’s a single one of you that missed this poignant look at what makes for a successful career and a successful life. As Watterson says, “to invent your own life’s meaning is not easy,” yet hopefully this cartoon inspires you to go through the trouble.
Why Don’t Americans Ride Trains
Howie on Trains. I lived in LA and outside NYC. I just can’t see why anyone anywhere would prefer a car/smog/congestion life vs a train/taxi life. Aside from hauling stuff. You can go out and have fun and not worry about parking or driving. But sadly America doesn’t like trains. Maybe we should rethink that view. At least until we all have Google cars that drive themselves.
Lindsay on Pleasure not Pain. When I thought back over the week at articles I’ve read, I sensed a theme. Doom. Not sure if it was the theme of the entire week (it was a rough one!) or just coincidence, but it was dark. Articles on war, suffering, disasters and death. And you know what? I don’t want to share any of those with you this week. As the official part of summer comes to a close, and on this long weekend, I think we’ve had enough of all of the above. So, I am sharing some pleasure, not pain.
Horizon is a fantastic British documentary series. They do some mind blowing stuff. Earlier, I watched a cool episode about cats. In a groundbreaking experiment, 50 cats from a village in Surrey were tagged with GPS collars and kitty cameras, recorded, day and night, as they hunted and hissed, cavorted and caroused. A cat’s eye view of the world was exactly what I needed today. I hope you enjoy it too.
Now it’s your turn. Is there a podcast, video, book, or article you think we need to see?