Links
A regularly updated collection of things I find worth reading, watching, or listening to. Subscribe via RSS.-
A long summary of Johnny Rodgers' experience building a modern home in the woods. "It covers the 5 years from before we bought the land to after we completed the house and took residency." Inspiring read, reminiscent of the one by Emmanuel.
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A fascinating look behind the scenes of Bookshop.org's unexpected growth. What may come across as an overnight success is (of course) the result of lots of hard, hard work (although, there is an element of 'overnight' hidden in the bookselling-boom of the pandemic).
I'm currently awaiting my Bookshop affiliate profile. I was already linking to them from my newsletter, and will soon be linking to them from my website, as well.
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Eames Institute
№ 24
The Eames Institute enlisted Instrument to "co-create a digital platform to unveil their vast collection to the world". A dream client if there ever was one, the folks at Instrument asked themselves: can a website have a soul? The answer is a resounding yes, and the accompanying case study documents that work beautifully.
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While everyone's scampering back to build and publish personal websites, let's not forget about those who never went away (although, admittedly, Jason did take a brief hiatus, which feels even briefer considering the timespan of Kottke.org).
“25 years is more than half of my life, spanning four decades (the 90s, 00s, 10s, and 20s) and around 40,000 posts — almost cartoonishly long for a medium optimized for impermanence.”
Congratulations, Jason! Please, keep at it!
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Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul reflects on his latest movie—his first not shot in Thailand— the process of shooting it on film, and the role sound design played in its creation. I absolutely loved watching this in the cinema and highly recommend you do so, if you can.
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Fascinating essay on how digital platforms (like iTunes, Spotify and the like) have killed "collecting" as a hobby.
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Letterboxd reflects on their first decade on the platform by interviewing some early members. Having joined the platform in 2013, it's nice to read how other people have used it and what it's brought them.
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Useful Praise
№ 19I got squeezed into the rabbit hole that is Mandy Brown's website, and dug up this work note on praise. The act of praising others, to me, is a muscle you train, and a habit you learn to finesse. Praising others at work is an important thing to do often, and do well. "If you can get really good at noticing when your colleagues are truly killing it—and then sharing what you notice—you will all get even better at those things together, even faster than you think."
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Disambiguation
№ 18“I want to consider that we borrow some lessons from Le Guin and Shevek and look at ambiguity not merely as something to manage or navigate through, but as something to hold. Something to make space for.”
This essay by Mandy Brown about embracing ambiguity has lingered in my mind ever since I read it. In her newsletter, she wrote that the essay is more "tentative" than she's comfortable with, but I think its tentativeness strengthens the piece. As Mandy writes, and I am inclined to agree: "I'm coming around to thinking that ambiguity, like change, is a constant companion. And maybe instead of manipulating or avoiding it, we need to listen to what it has to say."
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Life At The Cabin
№ 17A Dutch man named Martijn purchased two historic cabins on top of a hill in Italy with the goal to renovate them and create a homestead. He's a photographer, so the process of him doing so is incredibly well documented. I've seen folks get put off a bit by the idea of him "being alone in nature, yet followed persistently by a drone", but I've really enjoyed watching these videos.
They're very soothing, and you can watch them actively or have them on in the background. It's fascinating to see him go about everything from shielding himself from the cold, to setting up solar panels, or driving wood up the hill to build a temporary cabin. Lovely stuff. Thanks for sharing, Marius!