A Collection of Thought-Provoking Videos

A disclaimer: This post is partly a test of my ability to embed Youtube videos. 

A couple of posts back, I listed a few books I thought were worth their salt*. Now I'm moving on to a few videos that are a little more contemplative (it may be arrogant, but one of the refrains that's evolved from this blog is a provocation of thought and direct discussion on disparate topics). 

First up is John Oliver's treatise on retirement plans. I have previously written in detail about the evils of investment advisors. Oliver covers the same basic points with far more humor than I was able to bring to the topic. If you couldn't parse through my post, consider watching this video. 

Next up is a video from Prager University. From the estimable Mike Rose of Dirty Jobs fame, the topic tackled is why you shouldn't pursue your dreams. Those of you who know me would (correctly) assume that I would vehemently reject almost everything the ultraconservative Prager University has ever put out. Thus, it was somewhat surprising when I found myself strongly agreeing with the premise of this video: find something you're good at, then figure out how to make money doing it.

Lastly, I couldn't go ten seconds without a science video. This is an oldie-but-a-goodie - the high def animation of cellular processes are reasonably accurate insofar as I can tell. It's enough to make a jaded old science monkey like me shut up for a few minutes and enjoy the ride. This originally came from the biovisions group at Harvard, if you're interested in attribution (I've linked a sketchy Russian account version here that cheats by telling you what's happening in some of the processes). The score for this pretty amazing as well. 

OK, that's what's in my virtual bag of treats at the moment. 

*If you're interested in another good book, try Boss Life. Nonfiction, written by a guy who spent the last 20+ years running a company that makes custom conference room tables. The book is the day-to-day operations for one calendar year. Sounds boring, right? That's what I assumed, but nothing could be further from the truth. The guy's business nearly collapses three times during the year (once due to a tiny glitch with Google Ads!) and the vacilations between feast and famine are amazing to watch. As a british soccer announcer once said, "it's like living on the edge of a lightning bolt." I'd highly recommend reading this, especially for someone who's one day thinking of starting their own business.