Yeah, it was always a reductive line to begin with⌠I think the whole article does a decent job of breaking that down.
And it sounds like your wife is doing great things! Kudos to her!
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These sorts of things always assume one had choices to begin with, which means usually the author needs to listen to âMaking Plans for Nigelâ on repeat for several hours solid.
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Thanks! (on her behalf)
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Not for those already afraid of flying:
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Fascinating.
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My 16 year old self would have said that we always have a choice, but my mumble mumble year old self recognizes that when all of your so-called options are equally shitty, that choice is kind of meaningless.
Iâm still a firm believer in the idea of selling out, though.
FTA (emphasis mine):
Bonnie Johnson writes: âI believe that the most treacherous success of neoliberal hegemony has been our cognitive privatization.â Sheâs talking about capitalism drafting us into a war of all against all instead of working for a collective good, but Iâd also interpret it to mean turning us all, in our own minds, into products instead of people.
This is the thing that I just canât wrap my head around: that people would willingly invest so much effort in selling themselves rather than their skills or talents or virtues. The idea that you can be famous for being famous, and then somehow monetize that without any connection to your actual contributions, or indeed, often in spite of your actual contributions, seems obscene to me.
How can you ever be who you are, or even figure out who you are, when youâre constantly packaging yourself for consumption?
My personal bugbear is advertising (particularly the ad-supported internet), but I will spare you all (and myself) the rants that usually ensue when I get started on this topic. 
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Itâs the hustle mentality, an extension of the dreams of being a middleman. Middledealer. Big man. Connected. Did I mention male? Dicks are a plus, especially when it comes to the theatrical display of some competitive urge. Like measuring oneâs dick next to the other guyâs dick.
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I had a friend who objected to the idea of saying âIâm an engineerâ instead of âmy work is engineering.â He liked the idea of separating the person from the job. I think itâs worth thinking about.
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My 16 year old self was painfully aware there were only shitty options. I was in full-blown âsalvage what you canâ mode by then.
But I do think selling out is a thing. Itâs when a good option is actually available to you, and you choose to compromise your integrity anyhow.
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âCompromise where you can. Where you canât, plant yourself like a treeâŚâ
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So much this. 
Iâm pretty lucky in that I generally enjoy what I do for work and can also make a decent living at it, but Iâve never confused what I do with who I am. Thatâs just silly (especially for what I do).
But we increasingly seem to glorify (thatâs not quite the right word) the people who canât or wonât make that distinction. If youâre a youtuber, or a thought leader, or a reality-TV star, or an entrepreneur (of a certain sort, admittedly), or a [shudder] influencer, can you legitimately have an authentic self?
When I was growing up, hustle was what you did to get your shit together. It wasnât so much about getting ahead as it was staying in the game. It was sort of a respectable bare minimum. For example, in my (admittedly limited) experience with team sports, âgood hustleâ was a legitimate compliment, even when you were clearly outclassed by your opponent.
Now itâs some sort of magical incantation thatâll make you hit the lifestyle lottery. If you want to be the proverbial winner who takes all, youâve just got work harder (or smarter) than the next guy, youâve just got to hustle. Oh, and by the way, youâre also going to have to be a little shady about it, as in the more colloquial meaning of the term âhustlerâ.
Nowadays, everybody has a side-hustle. One hustle wasnât enough? Do we really have to take this thing (whatever it is) that we enjoy and suck all the life and fun out of it by trying to make a little extra money with it, while indulging in the vague, often secretly harbored, hope that it might someday, somehow, blow up and make us a lot of money?
ETA:
Thatâs awful. I hope I can say that without sounding patronizing, but that really does suck.
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The second official investigation belonged to the Malaysian police, and amounted to background checks of everyone on the airplane as well as some of their friends. It is hard to know the true extent of the police discoveries, because the report that resulted from the investigation stopped short of full disclosure. The report was stamped secret and withheld even from other Malaysian investigators, but after it was leaked by someone on the inside, its inadequacies became clear. In particular, it held back on divulging all that was known about the captain, Zaharie.
Andf hereâs an update.
âMH370âs presumed flight path is in yellow. Zaharieâs simulated suicide flight is in red.â
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Iâm not sure thatâs true; if someone else is conveying you somewhere, and wants to kill you by destroying the vehicle youâre both in, theyâre probably going to be able to do it, whether the vehicle is a train, a plane, a bus, or even a car. Sure, death is more certain on an airplane, but itâs not that much more certain.
I find myself more disturbed by stuff like the 737 Max accidents, where the plane itself was defective.
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I remember being in a plane where the switches for the lights for the passenger and window seat were reversed. Doesnât fill one with confidence.
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If it helps, the interiors are usually put together by subcontractors. That probably doesnât help.
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As long as they donât, say, saw through a strut or something.
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The airplanes that U.S. carriers send to Aeroman undergo whatâs known in the industry as âheavy maintenance,â which often involves a complete teardown of the aircraft. Every plate and panel on the wings, tail, flaps, and rudder are unscrewed, and all the parts withinâcables, brackets, bearings, and boltsâare removed for inspection. The landing gear is disassembled and checked for cracks, hydraulic leaks, and corrosion. The engines are removed and inspected for wear. Inside, the passenger seats, tray tables, overhead bins, carpeting, and side panels are removed until the cabin has been stripped down to bare metal. Then everything is put back exactly where it was, at least in theory.
a US Airways Boeing 737 jet [âŚ] had to make an emergency landing in Denver when a high-pitched whistling sound in the cabin signaled that the seal around the main cabin door had begun to fail. It was later discovered that mechanics [âŚ] had installed a key component of the door backward.
a China Airlines Boeing 737 [âŚ] landed in Okinawa only to catch fire and explode shortly after taxiing to a gate. [âŚ] mechanics had failed to attach a washer to part of the right wing assembly, allowing a bolt to come loose and puncture a fuel tank.
Iâm sure itâs fine though. Statistically speaking, flying is still the safest way to travel. 
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âI donât know how much consideration theyâve given to walking.â
âShelley Berman
âI donât do any walking around my place, out there by the airport, what with all those airport buses whizzing around. I think the airlines have told them to keep the statistics favorable.â
âMichael Flanders
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HmâŚ
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