Issue No. 73 | Feb 2, 2024

(Note: I’m experimenting with connecting a few stories around a single theme for the weekly letter.)

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Inuksuk

The Inuit people in the Arctic region of North America have a tradition of piling stones to form a landmark called an ​Inuksuk​. These markers indicate significant travel routes, fishing places, and camps. Today, the territory of Nunavut in northern Canada still uses an image of Inuksuk as the centerpiece of its ​flag​. In the Inuit language, Inuksuk means "that which acts in the capacity of a human."

Reading about Inuksuk this week made me ponder the paradox of self-interest and altruism. While the first Inuksuk might have been built by someone for his navigation purposes, the mark endured and became helpful for everyone else. Whether intentional or accidental, the first Inuksuk started a movement: It encouraged others to reciprocate and leave behind something that benefits the people to come, or, as the Quaker philosopher ​Elton Trueblood​ once put it, to "plant shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit."

Shades for people we don't know—that's the theme for this week.

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National Parks

One of my favorite things about America is its National Parks. I don't get to visit them often, but whenever I do, I'm in awe of the park's natural beauty and the park rangers who have thoughtfully built, designed, and maintained the facilities. Once, we were hiking in a canyon in Utah. The trail was unmarked, but piles of stones were along the way to guide us. Even though Utah is thousands of miles away from the Arctic region, it was fascinating to see that people across geographies naturally embrace the same spirit of Inuksuk. As a result, all the visitors can explore the trail knowing that they are heading in the right direction.

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Blood Donation

My team once did an icebreaker activity during an in-person offsite to share an interesting personal fact. A colleague of mine said that he was born in the 30th week. As a result of his premature birth, he was in and out of the hospital throughout his first six months as a baby. Throughout those difficult months, his family thought many times he would not make it. Now in his late 30s, my colleague is healthy at six feet tall and has a two-year-old. That experience, he reflected, shaped who he was and taught him to be strong. Since he was a young adult, he has donated blood every month. "I received a lot of help in the first year of my life," he said. "Now it's only fair that I give what I can. That's the least I can do."

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Wikipedia

For nearly 200 years since 1768, Britannica was the most sophisticated encyclopedia on the planet. However, Wikipedia has taken over in every way shortly after its advent in 2001. With tens of millions of articles in hundreds of languages, Wikipedia's coverage is Britannica's dream. While Britannica has hired thousands of paid staff over the last two centuries, Wikipedia's content has been created entirely by unpaid volunteers within the last two decades. Funded by donations and gifts, Wikipedia remains one of the few peaceful places on the Internet without ads, unstoppable pop-ups, and dreaded 30-second countdowns.

The power of Wikipedia lies in its openness: Everyone can add or suggest edits, while the community enforces rules to ensure the facts are as accurate as possible. Even though their efforts remain anonymous to most of the world, tens of thousands of undirected contributors write about topics they care about. Over time, individual entries snowball into a massive treasure of knowledge.

In 2014, an interviewer asked Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, if funding Wikipedia as a for-profit company like a regular Silicon Valley company would give the organization more money to do bigger things. "No, no, because if we were in that situation, we wouldn't care about languages," Wales ​replied​. "If we were supported by advertising, we would care about entries that get another million users in the US but not what might be of interest to another million readers in India." A big part of Wales' Wikipedia vision was for the platform to be "a temple for the mind" on the open Internet. "I'm not anti-commerce, but I don't think it belongs in every aspect of life," he said.

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Little Free Library

If you walk around where I live in Berkeley, you will notice miniature libraries around the residential neighborhood. These tiny structures resemble small sheds (examples ​1​, ​2​, ​3​, ​4​, ​5​). Anyone can take books from these mini libraries or add to them. I have enjoyed New Yorker magazines, children's books, and travel guides that my neighbors no longer find useful. Curiously, the libraries are always at least half full.

In 2009, a man named ​Todd Bol​ from Hudson, Wisconsin, built the first-ever Free Little Library. As a tribute to his mother—a teacher who loved to read—the initial design was a one-room schoolhouse model. Todd filled the wooden box with books and put it on a post in his front yard. Neighbors and friends loved it, so he built a few more for them.

Within 12 years, more than ​150,000​ people worldwide have registered their Little Free Library sharing boxes. What a marvelous movement for people around to read for free.

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Have a great weekend!

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Jimmy

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p.s. photo of the week​

p.p.s. got scallops?​

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