There’s an underrated quality to curation. I think, too often the process is dismissed like those sitcom episodes where they just show you clips from old episodes. But curation, done right, can be a chance for self-examination on the part of the curator.

I tend to use X, and my personal notes, as catch all’s. I don’t judge quality. I just grab things and thrown them in. Rarely, do I take them time to just look back on the week and sift—that is unless I have an excuse. This format is my excuse.

This best of of the bunch.

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Input

“Research as Leisure Activity” by Celine Nguyen: What if research wasn't just a professional activity confined to academia or industry, but something you did for fun in your free time? This essay unpacks the idea of "research as leisure activity" - a form of inquiry motivated by pure curiosity and passion rather than external incentives or validation. Spanning everything from obscure tumblrs to independent research labs, Charlie argues that some of the most vibrant intellectual activity happens when people pursue knowledge for the simple joy of learning. 📚 Read this to expand your conception of what counts as "research."

"AIs are coming for social networks" by Alex Heath: Ready or not, AI-powered characters are about to invade your Instagram and TikTok feeds. A new app called Butterflies offers a glimpse of this strange future, letting you create AI personas that post photos and comments autonomously. Meta and TikTok have similar plans in the works. Will flooding social media with AIs actually bring us closer together or simply make things a lot weirder? 🤖 Only time will tell, but one thing's for sure - the lines between human and machine interactions are about to get very blurry.

"Woolf's Darkness: Embracing the Inexplicable" by Rebecca Solnit: In this essay, Solnit explores the power of uncertainty and the unknown through the lens of Virginia Woolf's work. She argues that Woolf's writing celebrates the liberation that comes from embracing the darkness, the mysteries, and the ever-changing nature of the self. 🌌 Read this to discover why sometimes the most illuminating paths are the ones that wind through the shadows.

"The Art of Scaling Taste" by Evan Armstrong: How do you turn a quirky artistic vision into a thriving business? MSCHF, the internet's favorite meme-making machine, has cracked the code. Read this to learn how they've launched 100+ viral products in 5 years by baking scale into their creative process from day one.

📺 WATCHED 📺 “Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini” on Hulu: It’s hard to tell you why this three-part documentary is worth sharing without in some way altering your experience. If you don’t know the case, then it’s best to send you in blindly—the same way I went into it. There are twists and the filmmakers execute them deftly, allowing your feelings to change as the story progresses. Such patience.

📖 READING 📖 You Are What You Read by Robert DiYanni: This is not a long book but I’ve been working on it for a while. It has some great insights into reading fiction and non-fiction‚ and I’ve really been connecting with the sections on master-crafted essays. BUT, I’m listening as audiobook and the narrator sound like a robot—worse, machines sounds pretty great now. 🤨

Output

“Is That a Monster in Your Pocket?” By Chad Hall: As AI infiltrates every aspect of our lives, it's hard not to feel a bit uneasy. Sure, it promises to augment our intelligence and creativity, but at what cost? 🤔 Read this if you've ever wondered whether the convenience of AI is worth the potential risks to our privacy and humanity.

Tinkering

I find that I often undersell my technical skills, even to myself. It’s peculiar form of imposter syndrome that comes from figuring things out but never having any specific training or education on a particular area.

Given a blank text editor, I couldn’t code my way out of a 1980s Soviet re-education camp. But given something to tinker with, I can figure out a fair amount of CSS. It’s a bit like the difference from drawing something in front of you and drawing that same thing from memory.

I’ve been screwing around with Obsidian this week and I’ve got it looking pretty sexy.

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