Do your weekend experiences help or hurt you?
I'm listening to the 500 Greatest Albums. SCOTUS news. Plus two book and three pod recommendations.
Dr. Charlotte Fritz and Dr. Sabine Sonnentag wanted to know:
How do weekend experiences contribute to (or detract from) overall well-being, risk of burnout, and overall productivity at work the following week? #
So they ran a study. It’s a small one (87 people), but the findings are pretty interesting.
Three things predict poor general well-being, increased burnout, and lower productivity at work:
Increased nonwork hassles. Makes sense. Having a lot of errands to run or housework to catch up on (that extends beyond your norm), demands from other people, or conflict with a partner or kids won’t allow you to rest and recover from the work week.
Absence of positive work reflection. Taking some time to acknowledge and feel good about the work you did and the experiences of working helps to increase satisfaction, engagement, optimism, and hope. Without positive reflection, negativity bias may skew how we feel about work (and eventually life as a whole).
Lack of social activity. Spending time with people we like and pursuing interests we enjoy also brings the potential for social support and encouragement, which aids recovery and increases resilience.
How would you rate your ability to truly rest and recover over the weekend? If you’re heading into a long holiday weekend, is there anything you can do to prioritize limiting nonwork hassles (maybe the thing that’s least in our control), spend a few minutes reflecting on what went well or who you enjoyed working with this week, or intentionally connect with people you enjoy and do something that’s a shared interest?
The Greatest Albums of All Time
Today is July 1—halfway through 2023 😱
Sometime in January, I started out on a journey to work my way through Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Music is interwoven into my life. I have created around 120 playlists on Spotify, ranging from “Hipster Moderation” to “Best of the 90s” to “FNL and Parenthood” songs I use in coaching sessions.
But I also know there is a seemingly insurmountable pile of music I’ve never listened to, and likely won’t unless I have a reason to explore and get into more of it. Out of the Top 500 Albums, I’ve only listened to 74 of them (in entirety - certainly I’ve heard singles from many more). So, this is truly an opportunity to explore and experience a lot of new music.
One of the greatest threats (hyperbole) of entering your 40s is that you will begin to only listen to music you listened to between the ages of 15 and 30. I won’t let that happen.
As of July 1, I’ve made it through 94 albums in the RS Top 500 list. I have to listen to the full album, no skipping songs (even if it’s 11 minutes of jam band monotony — I’m looking at your Grateful Dead).
That breaks down to:
1176 individual tracks
82:02:17 total listen time
I had never listened to 89 of the 94 albums
A couple of observations so far:
Greatest hits or compilations should not have been eligible. I get the idea that the concept of “albums” maybe didn’t exist far enough back to include some great artists—but if we’re ranking albums here, we should rank actual albums. Not cherry-picked listening experiences. For this reason, I’ve skipped “albums” from Nugget, Phil Spector, Muddy Waters, and Diana Ross & The Supremes for the time being. I may come back to them. But three of those have 50+ songs—not an album.
I’ve genuinely enjoyed albums I didn’t expect or intend to. Admittedly, we all have a certain bias against particular musical genres. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by some albums, like Miranda Lambert (country) and Bad Bunny (trap/reggaeton) for example.
My average rating so far is 2.89 average ranking (on a scale of 1-5). For me, a 3 (which 36 albums got) is truly the middle point—“yeah, that’s not bad” or “okay, I like it.” 38 albums were < 3 and 20 albums were > 3. But it wasn’t a linear journey going through the first 100 albums.
It makes sense that nothing would be at a 4 yet, given that these are ranked 400-500. We gotta have some space to grow into higher ratings.
Absolute worst album: Suicide by Suicide. It’s a 1. Entirely unlistenable.
My Favorite Albums, Between Rankings 500-400
These were the only albums to rate 3.75, the highest I’ve given out so far.
Boyz II Men, II
Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Cosmo’s Factory
Billie Eilish, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
Standout Songs, Between Rankings 500-400
Only selecting from songs I had never heard before this listening adventure.
Harry Styles, “Canyon Moon”
Neil Young with Crazy Horse, “Cinnamon Girl”
Shakira, “Ciego Sordomuda”
SZA, “Anything”
Howlin’ Wolf, “How Many More Years”
Otis Redding, “Love Have Mercy”
Bonnie Rait, “Nobody’s Girl”
Jason Isbell, “Cover Me Up”
Daddy Yankee, “Salud y Vida”
Rufus and Chaka Khan, “At Midnight”
You can see my ratings, favorite songs, and brief notes for each album here. And comment below to share your thoughts on any of these albums/songs!
Podcasts
The Growth Equation, “The internet has gone a little crazy.” — Steve and Brad do a quick rundown on three topics: Lance Armstrong wanting to be the arbiter of fairness in sports, Elon and Zuck apparently prepping for a literal fight, and RFK Jr. potentially being on “the juice” as he campaigns for POTUS
Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Jane Fonda” — Love the setup of this new(ish) podcast and what a great first guest out of the gates.
Radiolab - “The Cataclysm Sentence” — They re-released this episode on Friday and it’s on my list of favorites. It centers on Richard Feynman’s prompt: “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence was passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words?”
To Check Out
The Supreme Court had a big week. And the consequences are massive. They ruled against affirmative action and LGBTQ rights, against allowing student debt to be canceled, and have opened the door to hear a case about whether or not domestic abusers with restraining orders can own and carry guns. VPOTUS Kamala Harris responded to all of the decisions.
Shoeless Joe (book) by W.P. Kinsella — After many, many viewings of Field of Dreams, the movie starring Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones, I finally listened to the audiobook it is based on. This is a case where the movie is better than the book—but the book isn’t bad either. There are a few extra storylines and some spacing/timing in the book that holds it back from being really great—but I still enjoyed it. “If you build it, he will come.”
The Longest Race (book) by Kara Goucher — The subtitle of the book is “Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team.” And Kara lays it out. It is, at times, a hard read because of the bullying, the mental, physical, and sexual abuse. But it’s also a revelation of vulnerability, of courage, and of Kara taking back the narrative of her own journey.
Hank Green begins unpacking big science news in the IG post embedded below. Turns out, spacetime ripples! (I’m not entirely sure what I’m saying.)
This dispatch was written to music, primarily at my local coffee shop, and the song that stood out to me was the 2005 hit from Gorillaz, “Feel Good Inc.”