Five Things #85

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

  1. Pithy wisdom for a new year. Start small, start now.

  2. According to BPI, 68.1 billion songs were streamed in the UK during 2017. That's an increase of 51.5% on 2016 and 1740% (😮) on 2012!

  3. From following much of the media coverage last year, you might have incorrectly assumed only bad things happened in 2017. Quite a few good things happened too: 13 Things That Happened In 2017 That Will Actually Cheer You Up, Ten Silver Linings in 2017.

  4. Who'd have thought watching bubbles freeze would be so satisfying.

  5. Spotify has me starting 2018 in style with its Classical Meets Electronica playlist: "Classical music reworked by contemporary musicians, who made clever deconstructive use of the material to create soothing and graceful electronic/ambient works." SOLD!

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.

ps. Happy New Year! Have a fantastic 2018 😎

five thingsRoss Farley
Five Things #84

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

  1. An interesting article on the increasing use of found sounds and field recordings in music. Inspired by this, I think I'm going to record a lot more of the sounds I hear out in the world around me in future! A project for 2018 perhaps?

  2. Another great observation from Derek Sivers: Obvious to you. Amazing to others.

  3. Word of the week, Apophenia: "... the tendency to attribute meaning to perceived connections or patterns between seemingly unrelated things."

  4. Your estimated lifespan as a grid. I think this pretty cool, but I could see how you might find it a little depressing!

  5. This week's music recommendation is Particles by Ólafur Arnalds (featuring Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir). I can't wait to see Ólafur play the Royal Albert Hall in May next year.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.

ps. As it's Christmas, I'm going to take the next week off — what a treat! This means there'll be no Five Things next Wednesday. But fear not, Five Things will return the following week!

five thingsRoss Farley
Five Things #83

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

  1. Is it better to be a critical thinker or to be intelligent? Good question!

  2. In the past week there's been a lot of chatter about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. If you're curious to learn more, here's a great crash course in both from Rob Reid and Fred Ehrsam on the After On podcast.

  3. A new optical illusion has been discovered and it's a good 'un...

  4. A great twitter thread on the concept of intellectual compounding.

  5. According to Spotify, in 2017: I listened to 34,355 minutes of music, my most listened to genre was Compositional Ambient, my top artist was Ben Lukas Boysen and top song was Silhouette by Julia Holter.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.

five thingsRoss Farley
Five Things #82

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

  1. Listening to a lecture or in a meeting? Put that laptop away!

  2. Food for thought from Marcus Aurelius: "People look for retreats for themselves, in the country, by the coast, or in the hills. There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind …. So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself."

  3. This is a good list: 52 things Tom Whitwell learned in 2017. Number 48 is pretty inspiring "In 1990, more than a third of people on Earth lived on less than $1.90 a day, adjusted for local prices. By 2013, barely 10 percent of people did." 

  4. I thought you'd find this useful: So You Just Bought a $450 Million Leonardo da Vinci Painting. Now What?

  5. I'm really enjoying Four Tet's latest album New Energy.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.

five thingsRoss Farley