What I'm Reading (June 22)

As a writer debunking and explaining contemporary science and health issues, I am always looking for a conversational edge.

“Rather than trying to change how you think of or feel about your counterpart, our work suggests that you should focus on changing your own behavior. Focusing on behavior rather than thoughts and feelings has two benefits: You know when you are doing it right, and so does your counterpart. And one of the easiest behaviors to change is the words that you say.”

This piece from The Conversation got my immediate attention. To have better disagreements, change your words

“They seemed terribly pathetic to me. They weren’t warriors. They were American boys who by mere chance of fate had wound up with guns in their hands, sneaking up a death-laden street in a strange and shattered city in a faraway country in a driving rain. They were afraid, but it was beyond their power to quit. They had no choice. They were good boys. I talked with them all afternoon as we sneaked slowly forward along the mysterious and rubbled street, and I know they were good boys. And even though they weren’t warriors born to the kill, they won their battles. That’s the point.”

These are the words of Ernie Pyle, a somewhat forgotten reporter of World War II. I first ran across his name in another contemporaneous book, Back Home, which contains the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, who drew for Stars and Stripes. Both deserve our attention, but Pyle is the subject of this piece from The Atlantic, The Key to America’s Victory in the Second World War

“Since 2005, it’s been illegal to send food waste to landfills. Local governments have built hundreds of facilities for processing it. Consumers, restaurant owners, truck drivers and others are part of the network that gets it collected and turned into something useful.”

Starting this month, food waste must be placed in separate bins for composting in New York City. With food waste estimated at 30% of our purchases, finding an alternative use seems like a good plan – South Korea already has a working system in place since 2005.

From the NY Times, How South Korea Puts Its Food Scraps to Good Use

What can the Instant Pot tell us about market factors, especially the rise of venture capitalism that often purchases a good product, loads it down with debt, and leaves with profits for themselves and ruination for others. It is a parable that physician practices being purchased by VCs should heed.

“Sure enough, in 2019, when the private-equity firm Cornell Capital bought the gadget’s maker, Instant Brands, and merged it with another kitchenware maker, the combined company was reportedly valued at more than $2 billion. A few years and one pandemic later, the company filed for bankruptcy on Monday, weighed down by more than $500 million in debt after years of supply-chain chaos and limited success expanding the Instant brand into other categories of household gadgetry. Perhaps counterintuitively, that the Instant Pot remains a useful, widely appreciated gadget is not unrelated to the faltering of its parent company. In fact, it’s central to understanding exactly what went wrong.”

From The Atlantic, The Instant Pot Failed Because It Was a Good Product