Hobbyist Academia #50

I, like many of you, am drowning in short form, digital content. I’m also feeling a growing pull to lean away from digital feeds and into something deeper and more focused.

This week marked Connector Field Notes #20 and Hobbyist Academia media recommendations edition #50. Producing this amount of content with this frequency requires me to be online in a way that I increasingly find myself wanting not to be. I need to create the space for deeper work and focus.

I am going to be placing Connector Field Notes and Hobbyist Academia media recommendations on a hiatus so that I can read more books, repair my brain’s ever decreasing ability to focus, and go deep on a larger writing project. I still plan to send seasonal (quarterly) thoughts and updates to this subscriber list.

I want to leave you with a theme of forward-looking hope that I have found in many of this edition’s recommendations.

Read

This was quite possibly the most expansive, prescriptive (in a good way) piece I’ve read lately about hyperlocal civic and community engagement as a historically proven salve to our technology-induced isolation and division.

A recent edition of Frontier Magazine offers a thoughtful exploration of the value of art in society, including how we arrived at our present value judgment and where to go from here.

David Mattin wrote about a similar topic, diving into where human creativity’s place is in the world of AI and how creatives can use AI to amplify instead of to outsource.

I really enjoyed the framing in this collaboration between Big Think and author Anne-Laure Le Cunff about the neuroscience of curiosity. She includes specific ways to actively develop curiosity through an observational mindset and experimental approach to life.

Finally, Joe Hovde recently shared a delightfully data-driven guide to the best places to people watch in New York City. He details various metrics by which the quality of people watching can be measured, and shares his methodology and examples from his research into online reviews.

Watch

Yancey Strickler recently spoke at CreativeMornings New York, and the livestream is available for viewing. He founded Kickstarter and more recently Metalabel, and I loved learning about his vision for the future of creative work and collaborative value generation.

Save This for Later

A bit of an eclectic mix for the To Read list this time:

• Selah: A Báyò Akómoláfé Reader by Báyò Akómoláfé

• Becoming You: The Proven Method for Crafting Your Authentic Life and Career by Suzy Welch

• Everyday Wonder by Sophie Howarth

• The Four Conversations: A New Model for Selling Expertise by Blair Enns

• I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally

• We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships by Kat Vellos

[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.]