7 Stories to read this weekend

Happy 2013 everyone. I am starting off a new year with the promise that I will try and share interesting stories to read every weekend. This week, I am starting with some fun stuff — pickpockets and resolutions.

• A pickpocket’s tale: New Yorker’s Adam Green writes about master pickpocket Apollo Robbins of Las Vegas. It is just a delightful read and it also taught me a lot about a man and his devotion to his art/craft.
• Jerry Seinfeld intends to die standing: Talking about devotion to one’s craft, this profile of Jerry Seinfeld is pretty eye-opening and educational.
• Pre Globalism: Kevin Kelly talks about the ease of global tourism and our shrinking world. I quite enjoyed this post by ex-Wired editor who is also one of my favorite writers/thinkers.
• The most amazing bowling story: Yeah, it is the quest for perfect score and how it almost killed Bill Fong. Great piece.
• How do you explain machine learning and data mining to non computer people?: Good question — and great answers on this Quora thread.
• Five things you can do to succeed in keeping your New Year resolutions: Deb Lee has some good tips that are worth noting.
• Me, myself and I: Olivia Laing writes about the downsides and upsides of loneliness. Being an ex-New Yorker, I know what she means.