Good artists copy...
Five Things Worth Sharing (a great idea I’m steeling)
Rather listen than read? Me too…so I read it to you here:
Do you remember the original days of blogs back in the early aughts?
If you were around to read them, or even (gasp) write them, many blogs often followed a simple format. An opening paragraph or two of commentary followed by a list of links. My favorite pop culture blog of the early 2000s, Pink is the New Blog by Trent Venegas, followed this very format and I absolutely ate it up every day.
Thanks to today’s endless scroll fueled by mystery algorithms and the clankers feeding us constant content perfectly tuned to our preferences, the human curated list of cool stuff is getting harder and harder to find. But, Austin Kleon is keeping this tradition alive and he does it surpassingly well.
10 Things Worth Sharing is the only Substack newsletter I eagerly anticipate every week. Apologies to everyone else I subscribe to, you’re wonderful and I’m delighted to see you land in my inbox, but Austin’s is the only one I go looking for. It’s a pretty simple format. Sometimes he has a little intro or context about his life that week, and then he shares ten things he’s encountered that seemed interesting enough to share with other people. He usually provides a little context and commentary on each one, and honestly it’s a delight. I’ve learned so many cool things and engaged with lots of incredible art, writing, film, and just generally neat stuff through this newsletter.
So once again, I find myself stealing someone else’s brilliant idea and doing it with my own perspective. I’m pretty sure Austin would be fine with this since he basically gave us permission to gank it. But because I can’t devote a full day to making this list, I’ve shortened it to five things.
Here are my 5 things worth sharing this week.
When I was a kid I spent the summers with my mom’s family in Amarillo. One summer my cousins, sister, and I broke into an abandoned house across the street from my grandparents. The house felt like one day like someone left, locked the door and just never came back. It was like a life scale time capsule. I felt like an explorer opening drawers and seeing ephemera from a life that had previously occupied that space. The Office of Collecting and Design carries a lot of that same feel. “The space is an elaborate love letter of leftover fragments from our collective memories; meticulously organized and displayed for maximum satisfaction and delight.”
The United States did not invent the dollar — I hate to say this was news to me. I know lots of countries call their currency “dollar” and the US Dollar has been the world’s primary reserve currency since 1944 (but that might be coming to a close soon). Turns out a bunch of Bohemian silver mining grifters invented the dollar (or tolar) over 500 years ago. Decoder Ring has a great episode about this.
I’m pretty tired of hearing about AI. Much like when the internet was first gaining traction, generative AI and the large language models that fuel them, feel life altering, burdensome, and absolutely inescapable. I’ve been struggling to balance how/if I use generative AI in my work and personal life and what its benefit, risk, and moral implications are. Lilly Worthley wrote a great essay on her rules and boundaries on AI and how she’s navigating this tension.
Last summer I participated in a week-long intensive facilitation workshop. Most of the attendees were American, about a third were European, and there were four Chinese attendees who’d been sent by their company. While some of the lessons of the workshop were widely applicable the cultural differences really tested the boundaries of techniques we were working through. I’ve been thinking a lot about the cultural differences in communication styles and how that shows up in my facilitation work. Yuko Gendo, a Japanese facilitator working in international settings, wrote a great piece about the way silence communicates in Japanese business culture and I think it really highlights these challenges in diverse settings.
Have you ever listened to a piece of audio content that just knocks you on your ass? This episode of The Daily on a theatre piece called Every Brilliant Thing left me sobbing in my car as I waited for my groceries at HEB curbside. I think about loneliness, mental health, community, collaboration, and social connection a lot. I love seeing art creating community and connection. Every Brilliant Thing has been around for over a decade, its recent run on Broadway starring former-boy-wizard-turned-most-interesting-actor, Daniel Radcliffe, has really elevated its profile. It’s unlikely I’ll make it to NY to see in person, but if there is any local performance I will be there.
Reading/Watching/Eating this week
As a little bonus, here’s what I’m reading, watching, and eating this week.
Reading: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursela K. LeGuin
Watching: Pursuit of Jade (it’s actually a second watch, it’s sooooo good!)
Eating: This baked dumpling recipe was stalking me on Instagram, I finally gave in and it’s really very good.
Thanks for the shout-out!! I l wasn't reading early blogs ( I was Hooked on Phonics at the time 🙈) but I did absolutely LOVE a Buzzfeed "Listicle."
I'm excited to dive into these other goodies, especially The Office of Collecting and Design