Lists

The purpose of this page is to collate information about content I find interesting or otherwise worth knowing about. Lists are arranged in no particular order and continually updated as I continue to discover new and interesting stuff!

General

Lists of things that didn’t fit in the other categories!

Life upgrades

The lists in this section contain information on what has helped me live a better life – I hope you find them useful!

Aesthetics

Here you will find lists of aesthetic content that I consider doubleplusgood. For media (music, film, games), my algorithm for deciding what to consume generally involves (1) finding forums with large data sets of critical ratings (e.g., RateYourMusic or Letterboxd) and (2) using custom search functions to display highly regarded content within sub-categories that I am interested in exploring. For art, I try and visit as many galleries as possible when travelling (mostly located in Europe & Australasia), and I also have a dedicated reddit account that follows a bunch of art-related subs (which I check on a monthly basis). As a general rule, if I like an artist’s content then I will explore their catalogue further and look at the works of people who they have collaborated with.

Music

My music preferences tend toward jazz / hip hop / soul, but I have no particular genre aversions and am willing to try anything out (if I have reason to think that its worth listening to). I have a semi-structured approach to appraising music; for example, when I listen to an album for the first time, I tend to do so while performing another low-effort/compute task that does not require constant attentional focus. If something in the album resonates with me then I will listen to it again, and usually at least once in a ‘critical listening’ state of consciousness (e.g., alert & eyes closed in a comfortable environment). Off the top of my head, the distribution of ‘total listens’ for albums mentioned on this page ranges from several to >50, and I listen to new music around 5-7% of the time I listen to any music.1

I advocate for listening to full albums (without shuffle) rather than playlists, except in the context of wanting to create a background vibe (e.g., for a social event). I also have high standards for audio equipment (see my current listening setup), and prefer a neutral frequency response with slightly elevated sub-bass. I have spent countless hours amassing a collection of (in my opinion) the best sounding recordings of my favourite albums (16bit/44.1khz), and I think that the biggest difference in quality between multiple releases of the same album can usually be chalked up to regional differences in the mixing and mastering process (e.g., Japanese releases are often noticeably better than releases in western countries). While I can appreciate the aesthetic of vinyl, it sounds worse and might negatively affect your health, so I recommend sticking to digital (also, for the sake of minimalism).

Film

I am a lover of cinema, however I am less committed to this hobby now than I was during my early adulthood. I don’t hold many genre preferences or aversions. When watching a film, I avoid using my phone or talking to others who share my environment (other than making the occasional comment or joke, vibe-dependent). I have light-sensitive eyes so my display brightness is usually low, and I equally prioritize resolution and sound quality. I have a moderate bias toward international and independent cinema, and am aesthetically opposed to the existence of large-scale media conglomerates and corporations (particularly Disney) which I refuse to financially support.

As of November 2023, I have seen approximately 1400 films. See here for my current watchlist.

Art

I have a large folder full of art scans that I consider worth viewing. Because of the size of the album, I have yet to find a place to upload it, so this section is a WIP.

Recipes

I love to eat! But the yummyist foods tend not to grow on trees, so I am forced to cook out of contingent circumstance. I am a life-vegan, so you will only find plant-based recipes here – not necessarily cruelty-free, but a vegan diet signals the appropriate virtues to encourage rational compassion which is a sufficient reason to endorse it. Each recipe has ratings for the following properties: ‘Serves’ (how many people does it serve?), ‘Taste’ (deliciousness score), ‘Preparation’ (effort score), and ‘Health’ (nutrition score). My general preferences are Health > Preparation > Taste, but since cooking is not a zero-sum game I can usually optimize for all three simultaneously. Also, some of these recipes contain brief notes giving context on their origin. Enjoy!

Savoury

Sweet

Miscellaneous

Here is some cool stuff that I follow – perhaps you should too!

  1. For the past several years (as of late-2023) I have listened to music for an average of 30-90 minutes per day (not including background music). ↩︎
  2. Other cool subreddits I follow include r/: audiophile; beards; bodyweightfitness; ergomechkeyboards; leangains; listeningspaces; longboarding; mealtimevideos; onebag; personalfinancenz; roomporn; truefilm. ↩︎
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