Hobbyist Academia #22
Today is the two year anniversary of the very first Hobbyist Academia post! The newsletter has evolved since the days when I wrote about the principles of cultivating a personal learning practice, but I do feel myself leaning back toward incorporating more original content with the curation. Overall I’m really happy with the ongoing, organic growth and development of this project.
Engage and Interact
Alisha Ramos, founder of one of the original email newsletters that first got me interested in the space, has launched Downtime. You may recognize her name from the Girls’ Night In newsletter, which she grew into a media company. Downtime is a return to her writing roots, with more focus on original thought pieces.
Another Girls’ Night In alumn, Olivia Rogine, has a new project as well. In Season is a delightful embrace of living your life in active collaboration with the seasons.
I am also intrigued by a new media/podcast/newsletter studio called Turpentine Productions. They’re aiming to bring audiences expert content in the areas of technology, business, culture, and the future. I especially like this quote on their About page-
“When art critics get together they talk about form and structure and meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.”
— Pablo Picasso
I love a name with a deeper meaning.
Read
A common thread that came up across two different pieces recently is that of optimization and convenience. Instead of trying to fix everything to be frictionless, maybe we should be intentionally slowing down and stop optimizing the texture out of our lives. Read “The Optimization Sinkhole” on Anne Helen Petersen’s Culture Study paired with Tim Wu’s “The Tyranny of Convenience” from the New York Times, via Dense Discovery.
The Marginalian is celebrating 16 years of Maria Popova’s sharing her curiosity with the Internet. This retrospective ponders the origin of her newsletter before Substack and social media, and takes us through her complete list of what she has learned about life from this project.
Watch
The 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival just wrapped last week, and you can explore videos from select sessions here. The festival is the Aspen Institute’s annual invitation for a broader public to participate in their interdisciplinary work and discussions.
From The Collection
I have finally finished adding the full backlog of books from the To Read list to the Hobbyist Academia Bookshop. I’m excited to share the titles I’ve been adding to the list for years across themes of digital sociology, design, business, and personal development. I’ve collected these from countless personal recommendations, articles, email newsletters, book boxes, social media, and my favorite, afternoons browsing bookstores.
Save This for Later
There are so many ways to live a life, which is a theme that comes up in the latest batch of books I’ve added to the To Read list. Rounding out this group as a second theme is a selection of profiles on individual people and their work.
Every Brain Needs Music: The Neuroscience of Making and Listening to Music by Larry S. Sherman
How Art Can Change Your Life by Susie Hodge
Here Is New York by E.B. White
Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier by Kevin Kelly
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative by Austin Kleon
Becoming Wise: An Inquiry Into the Mystery and Art of Living by Krista Tippett
The Art of Stillness in a Noisy World by Magnus Fridh
The French Art of Living Well: Finding Joie de Vivre in the Everyday World by Cathy Yandell
All the Gold Stars: Reimagining Ambition and the Ways We Strive by Rainesford Stauffer
The Art of Living: Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Power of One: How I Found the Strength to Tell the Truth and Why I Blew the Whistle on Facebook by Frances Haugen
Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier by Marisa Meltzer
Alchemy: The Material World of David Adjaye by Spencer Bailey
Figuring by Maria Popova