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As many of you know, the tech world is an industry for whom hustle culture is a religion. Monetising even the most ludicrous idea and constantly hunting for new sources of income is not just accepted but encouraged. The collective psyche is one that considers working the default mode of existing.
Like many of my industry friends, I spent some of the most formative years of my career immersed in that culture, and thus have internalised the ‘spare time is wasted time’ ethos. Sadly, it’s an attitude that has become a sign of our times: born into a world of generalised precarity and income insecurity, who can blame younger generations for trying to monetise every detail of their lives online?
The result of ‘hustle hard’ is this: real hobbies increasingly feel like a luxury. As Anne Helen Petersen wrote in What a Hobby Feels Like, it’s not just the time required to pursue a hobby that feels increasingly precious, but also being able to dabble in different things with some degree of attention and commitment in order to figure out what sort of activity we may enjoy:
“It’s weird to think of yourself as privileged to know what you like. It’s certainly privileged to be able to know it and have the means – the time, the money, the wherewithal, the health – to pursue it. But one of the saddest predicaments of the current millennial moment is feeling desperate for something that isn’t work, but having no clue how to figure out what else there is.”
The good news is that it’s never too late to change course and start exploring. I go through bouts of wanting more hobbies that aren’t work or exercise related. (I don’t consider running a hobby. To me, running feels more like a part of my daily routine, like showering.)
I recently asked Twitter for some inspiration and found the responses quite helpful. In fact, one of them rekindled a beginner-level interest in chess which I now try to practice and advance almost daily. (See my recommendation in the Apps & Sites section.)
I’d like to extend the hobby conversation to the comments section of this issue. Tell me how you found/reignited your interest in a field and managed to make it a hobby you turn to regularly. What is it and what’s an easy way to get started with it?
– Kai
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Apps & Sites
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Greener video conferencing
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Recognising the high energy requirements of typical video conferencing tools, Crewdle built a peer-to-peer alternative that eliminates the need for central servers and allows streams to travel directly from user to user.
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As a US-centric news aggregator, Ground News collects news stories from a variety of vetted sources across the political spectrum and organises them into categories of political bias, geographic location, and chronology. With these ‘bias ratings’ Ground News aims to provide a more balanced perspective on global and local events. Friends of DD enjoy a 60% discount on a year-long membership.
Become a Friend to access specials like this.
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Chess lessons & community
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This is one of the few occasions where a domain name doesn’t disappoint: perhaps the best place to learn and play chess online. The beginner video lessons are extremely well done, teaching you the absolute basics first, then transitioning into classic openings and strategies to improve your skills. You can play against ‘adaptive’ computer levels or against other people from around the world. I’m almost certain that I’ll turn my free trial account into a paid one. It’s excellent value for money.
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Weather stats & comparison
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Weather Spark allows comparing insightful weather and climate stats of two or more locations. Here’s a comparison of Melbourne (where I live) with the small city of Saarbrücken in Germany (where I grew up), showing not just temperature and precipitation differences, but also comparing the amount of daylight, tourism score, growing season and more.
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Worthy Five: Dan Hill
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Five recommendations by designer, urbanist, writer and educator Dan Hill
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A concept worth understanding:
Donella Meadows wrote that “The behaviour of a system cannot be known just by knowing the elements of which the system is made.” Our overly analytical approach to understanding rarely helps – we need to engage with the world, not simply quantify it. Equally however, as Richard Sennett put it, “You can’t understand how wine is made simply by drinking lots of it.” That engagement takes craft, commitment, and humility.
A video worth watching:
I love Max Tohline’s incredible research piece A Supercut of Supercuts, but here’s a shorter way in – still mesmerising – in which Tohline cuts together examples of Hitchcock’s use of staircases as an architectural device for creating suspense.
A book worth reading:
Everything I know about Life I Learned from Powerpoint by Russell Davies (2021). Smart, funny, useful – and, frankly, the world would be a mostly better place if most people followed most of Russell’s advice.
A podcast worth listening to:
Emergence Magazine is possibly one of the most thoughtful, beautiful and insightful websites and magazines around, and their podcast is equally good. Listen out for interviews with Suzanne Simard, the scientist who discovered the ‘wood-wide web’ or a beautiful discussion with the writer Robert McFarlane about the language of landscapes.
A quote or saying worth repeating:
“Beauty could emerge from the existing fabric ... A not-too-apparent order should be sought from within rather than an easy one imposed from above.” The architect and urbanist Denise Scott Brown’s long career has exemplified how we might work with the complex grain of people and place, rather than against it. It’s a principle that is more timely than ever.
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Books & Accessories
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Learning life lessons through poker
Every time someone recommends this book to me – and it happens quite a lot – it comes with a comment like “I never thought I’d like a book about poker!” I still haven’t read it, but it’s creeping up my reading list. “The tale of how Konnikova followed a story about poker players and wound up becoming a story herself will have you riveted, first as you learn about her big winnings, and then as she conveys the lessons she learned both about human nature and herself.”
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Technology and the search for meaning
To figure out what it means to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence, the author Meghan O’Gieblyn turns to philosophy, theology, computer science, metaphysics and other fields. “An essential warning about the persistent seductions and dangers of technological enchantment in our supposedly disenchanted age.”
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Overheard on Twitter
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Just like with gardening, all digital products should have a pruning season where you selectively remove branches to improve the structure, and direct new, healthy growth.
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Food for Thought
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If you think that modern architecture has little or no character, this piece is for you. Nathan J. Robinson compares architectural marvels of past eras with the brutalist, austere design of the present and questions why today’s architects and experts find them so compelling. “Are we forever doomed to do nothing but invent weird new shapes for the same boring glass buildings? Wow, a skyscraper that’s a big U! Wow, a wiggly one! Wow, one with differently sized rectangles! Wow, a twisty one! Wow, one that doesn’t go up in a straight line! All of these are marvels from a technological perspective, but that’s about it. They are dreary. They are culturally dead. They have no connection to the natural world.”
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Can you fight conspiracy theories with more conspiracy theories? A bunch of Gen Zers have come up with a satirical approach to raising awareness of misinformation: convincing people that birds are secret government spy drones. “‘It basically became an experiment in misinformation’, Mr. McIndoe said. ‘We were able to construct an entirely fictional world that was reported on as fact by local media and questioned by members of the public.’...‘It’s a safe space for people to come together and process the conspiracy takeover of America. It’s a way to laugh at the madness rather than be overcome by it.’” (Possible soft paywall)
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Another story about a very Gen Z phenomenon: an alternative health and spirituality influencer selling the ‘dream lifestyle’ to their gullible Instagram followers – until someone figured out that behind the perfect façade hides a classic multi-level marketing structure that recruits people into a ‘pyramid-shaped sales scheme’. “Amelia Whelan’s influencer sheen would help to bring an old business proposition to a wide, new audience. But that same, new audience was about to bring a lot of trouble in return.” (Possible soft paywall)
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Aesthetically Pleasing
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I’m totally fascinated by these partially ‘pixelated’ wooden sculptures by Taiwanese artist Hsu Tung Han.
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I’m not usually into AI-generated art, but this new music video – created entirely with AI techniques that follow the song’s lyrics – is genuinely captivating. It’s a new project by Aza Raskin in collaboration with his partner and singer Zia Cora. “Juxtaposed with a music video made entirely with AI, it presents an eerie portrait of a near future that will feel increasingly dissociative and surreal.”
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This simple, beautiful extension to an old building not only increases its usable interior space, it also creates a completely new experience of the home without the material waste of a new built. It also shows how much a difference great custom joinery can make!
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Didot Modern blends original drawings from different historical sources to create an elegant hybrid typeface consisting of ten weights, combining upright and italic cuts.
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Did You Know?
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About 10% of US electricity comes from old Russian warheads.
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When the Soviet Union fell apart after the Cold War, the US agreed on a deal with Russia to convert about 500 tons of bomb-grade uranium into nuclear fuel. Russia pocketed around $17b for the deal. The US government created the United States Enrichment Corporation which sold the fuel to US nuclear power plants, turning disarmament into a profitable business. The deal concluded in 2013.
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The Week in a GIF
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Reply or tweet at DD with your favourite GIF and it might get featured here in a future issue.
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