Well Rounded (Issue 5)
Content recommendations on a great story, relationships, society, and a movie to watch.
Welcome to Well Rounded, a series in the newsletter where I curate a catalog of hyperlinks I recently found to be insightful and interesting on a diverse range of topics—from business to self-improvement to popular culture. Subscribe here for free to get future editions delivered straight to your inbox.
One Great Story: The Art of Taking it Slow from The New Yorker
If there’s going to be one article you read this week, it’s this one.
Grant Peterson runs Rivendell, a bicycle business based out of Northern California. In a world where everything seems to be moving so fast & focus is (mis)placed on optimization, Peterson offers a different approach to lead a fulfilling life through cycling. The epitome of a life well-lived, his additional efforts on equity and care for the world around us really are one of a kind (“Rivendell began offering discounts to interested Black customers who came into the shop: an effort at anti-racist action […] He is interested in making cycling more inclusive and accessible, although he is aware that the revolution won’t be riding four-thousand-dollar Rivendells.”)
In tandem with his business, he also writes newsletters—the BOB Gazette in the 80s, Rivendell Reader across the 90s and 2000s, and Grant’s Blahg as of current—cultivating a loyal pool of customers. As New Yorker’s Anna Weiner described in the article after setting off on a bike ride with the Rivendell team, “ I felt, instead, a very adult sense of longing—as if I had just glimpsed, at a deeply inconvenient time, a new and appealing way to live.”
Relationships: Lighthouse Parents Have More Confident Kids from The Atlantic
In between the realms of helicopter parents and free-range parents lies a new breed: Lighthouse Parents.
“A Lighthouse Parent stands as a steady, reliable guide, providing safety and clarity without controlling every aspect of their child’s journey. […] If children never have the opportunity to stand on their own, we risk setting them up for a collapse later on. They must experience struggle, make mistakes, and learn from them in order to grow.”
I think this article provides self-help value for parents & non-parents alike. We’re all under the influence of different parenting styles, and opening our minds up to the variations allow us to reflect on our own parental relationships. In some ways, this article shifted my views on how I face challenges. Instead of finding them defeating, it could be viewed as a small hurdle to get to the finish line. Every challenge won or lost is a stepping stone to becoming more resilient and confident.
Society: Skeletons in the Closet from Air Mail
What do US presidents Taft, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Blackstone (a NYC-based asset management firm), CEO Stephen Schwarzman, & some of the most powerful people in America have in common? A membership in the secretive Skull and Bones society at Yale. Traditionally white & male-only, the club has gone through changes in the past years to expand its diversity efforts. With that also comes pushback.
“With the demographic shifts at Yale, big changes have also taken place in the college’s secret societies. […] The clubs are for Yale seniors—who are “tapped” each year as juniors by the outgoing class of seniors in a variety of mysterious ways—and are owned and operated by nonprofit corporations, with boards comprising alumni trustees who provide much of the annual financial support. That gives the alumni a certain amount of ongoing control, too.”
Watch: Notting Hill on Amazon Prime & Apple TV
A few nights ago, I stayed up past my bedtime consumed by watching Notting Hill for the first time, and it was worth every minute. Released in 1999, the romantic-comedy film starred Julia Robert and Hugh Grant. The storyline goes like this:
“William Thacker is a London bookstore owner whose humdrum existence is thrown into romantic turmoil when famous American actress Anna Scott appears in his shop. A chance encounter over spilled orange juice leads to a kiss that blossoms into a full-blown affair. As the average bloke and glamorous movie star draw closer and closer together, they struggle to reconcile their radically different lifestyles in the name of love.”
As one Letterboxd reviewer puts it: “hugh grant telling julia roberts "my relatively inexperienced heart would, i fear, not recover if i was, once again, cast aside as i would absolutely expect to be" should've won this movie a best original screenplay oscar”
Watch the movie trailer here!
Thank you for reading the fifth issue of the Well Rounded series. Feel free to subscribe to support future editions and get them delivered into your inbox! Have a great day, and I’ll see you next week!
-CS