Hobbyist Academia #41
Sometimes I’m intimidated by my own publishing schedule- especially lately, just a couple weeks into my new weekly Connector Field Notes editions. Even these media recommendations editions every two weeks can feel like they come up quick, and maybe I haven’t collected enough good things to share.
But the content always comes, so I’m working on remembering that and trusting that. It comes from having a curation and creation mindset, from having a topic that’s always present in my brain as a lens through which to filter everything I consume.
And sometimes, a subtopic emerges as a thread across what I’m reading, listening to, and watching lately. In the past couple weeks that thread has been the downsides of maximizing efficiency in every area of our lives. Are we sacrificing the very things we purport to be optimizing our time to free it up to do?
Read
Sari Azout wrote this essay about the end of productivity a couple months ago, and I’ve been meaning to read it since then. I finally read it this week and it fits nicely alongside the other pieces I’ve been reading. She explores the difference between creativity and productivity, and why our tools for each must be fundamentally different.
I’ve read two recent articles about technological solutions to loneliness and the consumer social app market/landscape: a first person account of the failure of Push, a hangout app meant to facilitate spontaneous gatherings, and a profile on Belong Center, a serial entrepreneur’s new endeavor to bring people together.
A theme that emerges from all three of these pieces is around optimization, and why efficiency is not the answer to how to build the most full versions of our lives.
“The question soon arises: what are we actually getting out of all this efficiency? As fellow culture writer Alice Fraser once put it, ‘If you optimize every quadrant of your life sufficiently well, you could slide frictionlessly to the grave never having to have any kind of experience.’”
The outgoing U.S. Surgeon General shared a parting prescription: a re-prioritization of community as the foundation of a fulfilling and purposeful life. Not just one community as the solution to all of our problems, but a life intentionally filled with the richness of multiple overlapping and evolving communities.
The cofounders of The Beautiful Truth recently explored how and why to build meaningful connections for their holistic value as opposed to functional output.
Amid growing awareness of the negativity and outrage many social media platforms intentionally foment, Pinterest has emerged as a more joyful and optimistic alternative.
A recent edition of the Techno Sapiens newsletter offers an excellent guide to how to use our phones in healthier ways, ways that actually augment social connection.
Engage and Interact
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin is a collection of tools and resources ready for you to mix, match, and adapt to what works best for you as you build the life you want: one that is happy, healthy, productive, and creative.
Free our Feeds is a new project comprised of open source technology experts working together to build an independent social media ecosystem that will serve as a digital public square for good. Advisors and custodians of the project include esteemed leaders from New_Public and the Mozilla Foundation.
Save This for Later
Adam Grant’s latest seasonal book list came out; I always look forward to his recommendations, as they often have considerable overlap with my areas of interest. A couple of my newest additions to the To Read list are from him.
Ping: The Secrets of Successful Virtual Communication by Andrew Brodsky
Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life by Shigehiro Oishi
Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart by Nicholas Carr
Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life by Radha Agrawal
It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
[I will receive a small commission should you purchase a book using the Bookshop links included in the newsletter or through my Bookshop collection, where you can find almost all the books I’ve included in the newsletter so far. Bookshop is an Amazon-alternative online bookseller that supports independent bookstores in your local community.]