OF#29 - Deconstructing accents, waves with personality, and questioning meritocracy

What's behind America's diversity of accents? How do you discover the personality of ocean waves? And is it fair to lavish success upon our best and brightest?

Hi there, I’m Thomas Najar. Welcome to issue 29 of Open Frame.

Here in Austin, we’re coming out of the worst winter storm in a generation. The power grid almost collapsed! Life is almost back to normal, so it’s time to think about other things, such as…

Analyzing accents

In a recent issue, I shared one of my favorite comedy videos of Fred Armisen showcasing American accents. Dialect coach Erik Singer breaks down the development of American accents in a highly technical and academic fashion, including African-American variations across different regions.

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The Cult of Smart

Racial and social inequality is as hot a topic as ever. Wealth and opportunity have become highly concentrated. If we could only provide high quality education to everyone, more people would flourish and fewer would struggle.

There’s a glaring problem with this picture that hasn’t been explored much, until now: intelligence correlates with professional success, and you can’t teach intelligence.

Frederik DeBoer has penned a new book that tackles this problem, The Cult of Smart. In his newsletter Astral Codex Ten, Scott Alexander maps out DeBoer’s arguments:

For decades, politicians of both parties have thought of education as "the great leveller" and the key to solving poverty. If people are stuck in boring McJobs, it's because they're not well-educated enough to be surgeons and rocket scientists. Give them the education they need, and they can join the knowledge economy and rise into the upper-middle class. For lack of any better politically-palatable way to solve poverty, this has kind of become a totem: get better schools, and all those unemployed Appalachian coal miners can move to Silicon Valley and start tech companies. But you can't do that. Not everyone is intellectually capable of doing a high-paying knowledge economy job. Schools can change your intellectual potential a limited amount. Ending child hunger, removing lead from the environment, and similar humanitarian programs can do a little more, but only a little. In the end, a lot of people aren't going to make it.

So what can you do? DeBoer doesn't think there's an answer within the existing system. Instead, we need to dismantle meritocracy.

How do you dismantle meritocracy? Flatten results and outcomes through Marxist policies. Of course, this is a vast oversimplification, but DeBoer is bold in pointing out the moral quandary of dishing out rewards based on something as accidental as talent.

(via Chu’s Links)

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The emotional life of waves

Thankfully for us, photographer Matt Burgess is obsessed with waves. Through his work, he captures the mood and personality of the ocean as it dances and plays.

(via My Modern Met)

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Dimensions of depression

I’ve struggled with depression at times during my life. It’s widespread and nothing to be ashamed of. When you’re in it, life feels hopeless. Finding your way out of the labyrinth of dreary hopelessness is no small feat.

Big Think have produced a thoughtful discussion on depression, looking at it from multiple perspectives including social inequality, nutrition, and mindfulness.

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Tweet of the week

During the storm that just ended, I had a lot of free time on my hands. I thought I’d get a lot done, but my life was more like this…

𝕋𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕨𝕚𝕪𝕒𝕙 @ttwiya

Why is this me

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That’s it for this week folks. Have a great week, stay safe, and remember to be awesome!

Thomas