Hobbyist Academia #24
I’ve been collecting and curating in overdrive since resuming creating this newsletter. I’m living the phenomenon Sari Azout wrote about here a year or so ago- the importance and impact on your worldview of having a project, including a profound shift away from a passive consumption lens toward active engagement and interaction with media. It’s been delightfully energizing.
Read
Perhaps one of the best and most interesting pieces I have read recently: We Need To Rewild The Internet in Noema magazine. It’s a fascinating application of principles of ecology to the infrastructure of the Internet- past, present, and future state.
The AXA 2024 Foresight Report is an unlikely source (an insurance company) of a rich multimedia text making a hopeful and interdisciplinary case for the future.
Ezra Klein’s piece in the New York Times, “Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I’m Sorry I’m Leaving You.” has been making the rounds in my corner of the Internet. I pay extra attention when the same piece of content surfaces organically from multiple sources, particularly those curating outside Big Algorithm. Klein writes about the race to the bottom of our legacy digital tools, the impersonalization and bloat of the seemingly infinite emails and chat messages we store and hoard, and how refreshing it is when new tools use friction to reimagine what we have passively come to accept as the way things work.
Shannon Mullen O’Keefe, who I have encountered in the extended House of Beautiful Business network, and Cyndi Coon wrote about the resilience of skilled trades and working with our hands as we move toward a future mediated by technology as the perceived default.
A VC firm wrote about the types of service businesses that are ripe for disruption with AI. I think the more interesting angle is to read this for understanding the types of service businesses that will retain their value outside of the addition of AI: things that are advisory-focused and not repeatable.
Listen
The House of Beautiful Business has launched a six episode podcast series called the Tangier Memos, offering snippets of thoughts and conversations with some of the speakers from their upcoming gathering, Between the Two of Us. The gathering is a four day program taking place in Tangier, Morocco. I’ve enjoyed the bite sized episodes that have been released thus far.
A recent episode of the podcast Plain English explains the psychology behind why the Internet feels broken. It was a much needed antidote to the cycles of anger and echo chambers I generally find festering in the world of social media.
Browse
Condé Nast Traveler’s recent compilations of The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World and The 9 Best Literary Festivals in the World, From Tucson to Jaipur will inspire your reading and your travels.
Engage and Interact
I stumbled upon Elle Griffin’s The Elysian via Ted Gioia. She is studying utopia and a hopeful outlook for the future through writing, and hosts literary salons and produces print editions of her work as well.
Lauren Ducrey recently left Google to strike out on her own as a poet, speaker, mindfulness facilitator, and AI designer, among other things. I find myself inspired by the way she’s living her multitudes as a career. Scroll to the bottom of her website to sign up for her newsletter- and to find my favorite call to action that I’ve seen for following her on social media: “stop doomscrolling and start delightscrolling”.
So Textual, a tremendously well designed group reading platform and community, is offering a masterclass on May 25th about reading well.
Scott Galloway’s business education platform, Section, has launched an app! Billed as a modern alternative to business school, the addition of an app now facilitates learning on the go.
Save This for Later
A small but eclectic list of books to add to the list:
Start at the End: How to Build Products That Create Change by Matt Wallaert
The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health Is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, and Happier by Kasley Killam
Be Ready When The Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten (available for pre-order, shipping in October)
For more media at the intersection of digital sociology, design, business, and personal development, browse The Collection on my website.