Substack Reads: Chess-master diaries, creative routines, and secret pantry staples
Hello and welcome to another edition of Substack Reads. This week is all about concealed spaces revealed: from the mind of an ambitious chess master to the daily routines of successful creatives to the hidden winter coat keyword and the secret weapons of pantry staples, we hope there is something here for everyone. Enjoy!
SPORTS
“The pursuit of the impossible”
Twenty-year-old U.S. chess grandmaster Hans Niemann has ambitions to become the world champion. In a new Substack documenting his journey, training routine, and travels, he reveals the secretive world of professional chess, and what it can teach us about life
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After a very tiring month in Wijk aan Zee, I have returned home. While hotels can be quite luxurious, they become claustrophobic very quickly. And the best perk of being home is that I can make smoothies and reliably order Chipotle every day. Such little things boost productivity and mood more than one might expect. As I reflect on a disappointing result, I’ve come to search for the explanation. I slowly began to realize that in the past 3 years, I have spent 5 months at home, the rest in hotels and Airbnbs. Such extensive travel is extremely tiring and will eventually take its toll.
Many of my mistakes and eventual losses were due to extreme fatigue and fatal losses in complex positions that demanded precise calculation. I don’t have a lot of time to rest, as the Chessable Masters begins today. The first day is a qualifier stage, followed by a series of knockouts. I am looking forward to the Champions Chess Tour and hope to prove myself against the best players in the world.
PSYCHOLOGY
Productivity tips for the restless
Psychologist and author Paul Bloom is fascinated by the daily routines of successful creative people. Here he canvasses a wealth of advice through the centuries and offers his own tips for writers and creators
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So much of the advice I’ve seen from other people revolves around the idea of an intense three- to four-hour period of writing. Freud and Oates do theirs late at night; Trollope did his in the early morning—and he cautioned other writers not to work longer than he does:
“All those I think of as literary men will agree with me that three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.”
Cal Newport adds an hour, suggesting that you should stop working at around four hours. More time isn’t worth it, he tells us. The quality will drop too much.
All of these writers are assuming that the problem has to do with stopping. This has never been an issue for me! I’ve always found the difficulty is, first, starting, and then keeping going.
GEOPOLITICS
Davos: high altitude, low impact
The World Economic Forum has become less about finding real solutions and more about being seen to be finding them, writes veteran foreign-affairs correspondent Elise Labott in her new Substack
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Once the harbinger of globalism and a hub for the elite Western “Davos Man” idealized by Samuel Huntington in 2004, Davos now seems more of a caricature of itself in an era of resurgent nationalism. The forum’s transformation from a gathering focusing on economic and political issues has ballooned to over 200 sessions spanning vast topic areas under the nebulous theme of “rebuilding trust.”
Ostensibly the theme was chosen to mend the frayed fabric of global cooperation, but that is a paradox in a world increasingly disillusioned with leaders’ ability to address pressing issues. Though a surprising source of optimism about Davos’s potential to effect change has emerged from Gen Z.
A.I. & ENTERTAINMENT
George Carlin has nothing left to say
In his new Substack, award-winning comedian W. Kamau Bell considers A.I. re-creations of comedy greats, and what our approach says about modern-day humanity
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Years ago, when I was still figuring out my stand-up comedy career, I took a day job at the Punch Line Comedy Club in San Francisco. It was my job to call people and tell them they had “won” free tickets, the fine print being that you could only use your “winning tickets” on a night when the club wasn’t going to already be packed with a paying audience. People were excited until they found out that they would only be able to use them on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday—not popular date nights, to say the least.
One of the hidden benefits of this job was that I got to see behind the scenes of a comedy club. The booker would let me watch the videotapes that comics had submitted to get booked. We would throw them into the combination TV/VCR to get a few laughs. But let me be clear, these usually weren’t the kind of laughs the comics wanted. These were mostly the “laughing at” kind of laughs and not the “laughing with” kind. If a comic had a legit resume or I had heard of them before, I wouldn’t watch them. That was the booker’s job. But if a comic had one of those resumes that read like a cry for help, then I was all over them. Those resumes would start like, “After getting a divorce and being fired from his corporate job, Steve found a new home in the comedy club… No seriously… He lives there. He lost the house in the divorce.”
But one day a submission came in that I actually really wanted to watch.
SHOPPING
The secret keyword to finding the perfect winter coat
Brand consultant and secondhand-discovery guru Harling Ross Anton shares her number one search-engine trick for a great winter coat. Style obsessives, pay attention!
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Last winter I was dead set on finding the perfect long, tailored coat—and naturally, I had a number of important criteria. I wanted it to be sleek, on the longer side, roomy enough for winter layering, made of a warm, non-synthetic material (like wool or cashmere), and priced under $200.
This quest is what led me to one of the most fruitful keywords I’ve ever come across. A keyword that, when dispatched, leads straight to a treasure trove of beautiful, classic, well-priced vintage coats. The “open sesame” of outerwear, if you will. I discovered it by happenstance while browsing through the inventory of an excellent Netherlands-based Etsy seller, Nostradamus Vintage. It was nestled in the keyword-stuffed description of almost every coat I clicked on: 1970s Vintage Blue Coat Loden Wool Greatcoat. 1980s Vintage Beige Cashmere Winter Wool Loden Winter Topcoat. 1970s Vintage Dark Marine Blue Wool Loden Winter Autumn Coat.
CARTOGRAPHY
Tudor London as you’ve never seen it before
Matt Brown brings London’s oldest map to life
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The Copperplate map of the late 1550s is the oldest surviving map of the capital. It shows the streets, the buildings and sometimes the people of that temporally remote city. The detail is delicious. We see long-vanished landmarks, such as Old St Paul’s, the Lud Gate and Cheapside Cross, each engirdled by homes, shops and churches. Buildings are drawn from an elevated position, offering a three-dimensional glimpse of the city (albeit one that is naive of perspective). It is a joy to explore.
The Copperplate is so called because it is engraved onto copper plates, from which multiple copies could be printed. Only three of the probable 15 plates survive, all on the reverse of paintings made in the early 17th century. The other fragments may still be out there somewhere awaiting discovery. Check your attic.
The copperplate method cannot print in colour. All reproductions are in black and white. These are magnificent to behold. Still, I always wondered what they’d look like in colour. Each plate contains a wealth of detail, and it can sometimes be difficult to make out what’s going on (I mean, just look at the picture immediately below). By colouring in the map, I hope I’ve made some of those details more obvious. Meanwhile, the act of meticulously colouring in every roof, strut and gangplank has given me a better appreciation for the map, and for the period it depicts.
FOOD
The importance of a well-stocked pantry
Brooklyn-based cook and recipe developer Pierce Abernathy shares his secret weapons to cut down on prep time and enhance flavor
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It started with sardines. My dad always kept them in the house. King Oscar Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, he never strayed. I was skeptical at first. As an 8- or 9-year-old I couldn’t comprehend eating fish from a can. I didn’t know what to make of it. Not to mention my mom’s fit of rage and disgust every time he’d crack open a tin. But after a few observant afternoons of watching my dad build his little open-face saltine cracker sandwiches with raw onion, I built up enough courage to give it a go. It was a turning point.
PHOTO ESSAY
The garden of winter conifers
Photographer David E. Perry explores the winter spruces in Albers Marcovina Vista Garden in Bremerton, Washington
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Substack Reads is a weekly roundup of writing, ideas, art, and audio from the world of Substack. Posts are recommended by staff and readers, and curated and edited from Substack’s U.K. outpost by Hannah Ray.
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My goodness, what a lovely surprise to see ourselves here. Thank you. Our thing is to offer encouragement to others but even encouragers need encouragement. What a boost.
I love this in Paul Blooms piece from Trollope: “All those I think of as literary men will agree with me that three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.” - absolutely! 🙌🏻✨