(This one is from November 2020.)
This has been such a long year that I have to think hard to remember how it started -- with the gradual elimination of my possessions from a flat in the Mission District of SF, where I'd lived for 17 years. There is no other place where I lived much more than half that many years, and it was my last address in the city over a total of 49 years.
In that sense, and that sense only, you could call me a San Francisco 49er.
Most of what we discarded was paper -- files, news clips, books, drawings, documents, maps -- from the previous century.
But other discards were of more recent lineage -- laptops, cellphones, and a tablet. We tend to cycle through these digital devices so fast that our lives end up being catalogued like so many software development iterations.
There's mylife 1.0, mylife 2.0, and so on.
Only the most fastidiously detail-oriented consumer manages to transfer all of his or her documents and photos from one device to the next. There are cost issues, storage issues, timing issues. In the process, it's all too easy to just let the record of a particular stage in your life slip away, byte by byte, into the digital dumping grounds.
Recently, as a gaggle of my grandchildren were exuberantly playing a video game on six separate devices, one of my granddaughters brought an old cellphone over to me and asked for my Apple ID in order to unlock it.
It turns out it was one of my old castoffs. Improbably, I recalled the password and suddenly I was transported back a number of years to a time when everyone was younger than today -- my 20-somethings were teens, my grandkids were toddlers, I was fresh into a new job.
There were photos of events I'd long since forgotten. Old work emails were preserved there too.
Looking through this data, I realized that we really should hold on to those outmoded digital devices or at least their contents. Even if all you preserve is piecemeal, it can become part of a mosaic that reflects aspects of your history that might otherwise be lost.
My main point is to urge you to try and preserve the details of your life, value your past, guard your present, preserve as much of the record as you can for future purposes.
Somebody out there in the future is sure to be grateful. It might even be you.
HEADLINES:
The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone (New Yorker)
Top war-crimes court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas officials (AP)
Senate Democrats seek evidence from FBI sex-trafficking probe of Trump AG pick Matt Gaetz (CNBC)
Lawmakers are concerned about background checks of Trump’s Cabinet picks as red flags surface (AP)
JD Vance is bringing some of Trump’s controversial Cabinet picks to meet with Republicans on the Hill (Politico)
Trans congresswoman Sarah McBride posts defiant response to bathroom ban (Guardian)
How Nancy Mace went from LGBTQ ally to anti-trans culture warrior (MSNBC)
Los Angeles passes 'sanctuary city' ordinance to protect migrants (Reuters)
How Trump’s tariffs could spark a trade war and ‘Europe’s worst economic nightmare’ (WP)
U.S. Pauses Operations at Kyiv Embassy, Warning of ‘Significant Air Attack’ (NYT)
In the first detailed reporting of what Putin would accept in any deal brokered by Trump, Russian officials said the Kremlin could broadly agree to freeze the conflict along the front lines. (Reuters)
Trump Expected to Name Vought to Lead Budget Office, CBS Says (Bloomberg)
Traffic on Bluesky, an X competitor, is up 500% since the election. How will it handle the surge? (NPR)
How little the former Twitter is actually worth now (Daily Kos)
What’s stopping China from leading the world’s climate fight? (Economist)
Neuroscience Has Discovered ‘Behaviorceuticals’ That Improve Brain Health and Mood Like a Natural Antidepressant (Inc.)
Best Rom-Coms and Romantic Movies (Rotten Tomatoes)
Why does Bob Dylan sound different on ‘Nashville Skyline’? (Far Out)
There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI (Atlantic)
A Chinese lab has released a ‘reasoning’ AI model to rival OpenAI’s o1 (TechCrunch)
How Students Can AI-Proof Their Careers (WSJ)
NASA: Potential Link Between Extraterrestrials, Giant Metal Claw Picking Up Earth (The Onion)
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