Rookie Era

Begin 2026 with something new.

A. Last week I heard a child beginner violinist. It’s an example of what the late K. Anders Ericsson focused on in developing his framework of deliberate practice. Malcolm Gladwell popularised / simplified it as his 10,000 Hours rule. No-one is great when you begin violin: it’s your rookie era. Here is Ericsson on how to develop expertise.

B. The Canadian historian Quinn Slobodian has a new book out with coauthor Ben Tarnoff on 24th March 2026 called Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Penguin, 2026) about Elon Musk.

C. Brief sentiment analysis on the X platform of Melbourne yesterday revealed a (pile-on) decline narrative about the Australian city after COVID-19. Key themes included CBD decline; cultural pessimism; inflation and cost of living adverse impacts; business closures; stratified conservativsm; and memory comparisons with the 1990s to early 2000s (when Melbourne had other social problems as well). It’s as if the Weimar era (hauntology) has been transplanted from Germany to Australia, complete with Victorian era revivalists like ‘Vril Seeker’ (a nod to Edward Bulwer-Lytton and his 1871 novel The Coming Race).

D. Books that Jacobin loved in 2025.

E. Boys Don’t Cry by The Cure (1979). A career foundational album - perhaps best known for Boys Don’t Cry and Killing An Arab. There are some very Post-Punk / New Wave touches such as how Grinding Halt ends. The follow-up album Three Imaginary Boys (1979) features a tighter, more rehearsed band playing a number of these songs in what also sounds to be a better studio.

F. How a diagnosis of a medical condition can help.

G. ‘Productivity’ podcasts can be a trap.

H. Today’s MIT OCW free course is on How To Develop “Breakthrough” Products and Services created by Professor Eric von Hippel.

I. What Wall Street was thinking in 1979.

J. The legendary value investor Seth Klarman talks with Goldman Sachs.

K. Steve Jobs on Pixar in 1996.