Nothing exists except atoms and empty space. The rest is opinion.

– Democritus

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Featured artist: Augusto Zambonato

Dense Discovery
Dense Discovery
 

Welcome to Issue 226!

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In the next few weeks, my intros will be shorter as my mum is coming for a rare, extended visit to Australia. I’m really excited to spend time with her – it may be her last trip to Melbourne.

Organising her flights reminded me how difficult it is to travel for people who have mobility issues and don’t speak English. Luckily, the airline we chose offers an add-on meet-and-greet service that takes passengers from one gate to another during transit – a huge relief. But even relatively simple things, like going through immigration at the final stop, becomes a pretty gnarly exercise if you don’t understand much English.

I ended up writing a little pocket manual for her that includes a list of common translations for interacting with the flight crew, how to ask someone to enable the airport wifi, and even a short introduction letter for the immigration officer that tells them to call me if they have any questions.

Native English speakers never have to worry about this stuff. They travel around the world blissfully unaware of the anxiety and stress so many other travellers experience as they struggle to decipher in-flight announcements or fill out convoluted immigration forms.

I recently met a friend’s 79-year-old dad who was visiting from Ireland, and he told me that, except the physical toll on the body, the 24 hour journey to Melbourne was “surprisingly pleasant”. Travelling internationally does not seem so daunting if your language comfortably follows you wherever you go. – Kai

 

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Time to Scale? SPONSOR

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Antimatter Marketing →

Don’t hire a marketing team

There’s a smarter way to scale your marketing than staffing up an expensive team. Antimatter gives you full stack marketing, executed by world class experts, at a fraction of the cost. We partner thoughtfully and work exclusively with companies that do good in the world.

 

Apps & Sites

Beams →

Your schedule in the menu bar

Beams lives in your macOS menu bar and shows you upcoming meetings, which you can join in one click. It also allows you to reserve focus time in between meetings by automatically updating your Google Calendar and Slack status. (Seems to be in beta still.)

Writings →

Publishing app

A simple app for distraction-free writing and the ability to publish your text on Twitter, Medium, LinkedIn or your own dedicated blog in a few clicks. Friends of DD enjoy a 15% discount on the annual Pro plan. Become a Friend to access specials like this.

Soundprint →

Find quiet places

Have you ever been looking for a quiet restaurant or cafe to catch up with friends without having to shout across the table? Soundprint is an app and directory allowing users to record and share venues that are quiet.

Map of the Universe →

Explore the known universe

A wonderful little project that explores the many dots (i.e. galaxies) in the observable universe. “This map shows a slice of our Universe. It was created from astronomical data taken night after night over a period of 15 years using a telescope in New Mexico, USA. We are located at the bottom. At the top is the actual edge of the observable Universe. In between, we see about 200,000 galaxies.”

 

Favourite Books: Hollie Arnett

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Ten sci-fi book recommendations by Hollie Arnett, a brand strategist and coach for creatives, and the founder of Maker & Moxie.

1 / The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

If you read anything on this list, make it this one. This book and its sequels are the most unique and outstanding books I’ve ever read. They follow a woman at the end of the world trying to find her kidnapped daughter in the apocalyptic ‘Fifth Season’ where the world is plagued with earthquakes and destruction.

2 / Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Two childhood friends reunite as adults to create video games, escaping the reality of their imperfect world and avoiding the complex dynamics of their friendship as they build the perfect worlds online instead. It’s interesting, introspective, inclusive, and overall a really enjoyable read.

3 / Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

A murder mystery meets space opera in this science fiction epic about a colony ship full of sleeping souls travelling to safety, when its captain discovers that some of the sleepers will never wake up. It’s tense, thrilling, and traverses complex topics like colonisation, politics, AI, and family.

4 / Sourdough by Robin Sloan

This is a magical realism novel about sourdough. It’s a weird and wonderful story about an overworked and undersocialised software engineer discovering a calling and a community as a baker after the only people she interacts with – the brothers who make her nightly takeout – leave her their sourdough starter. It’s lighthearted, funny, and the perfect amount of whimsical.

5 / Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

In this science fiction fantasy, unlike any other, necromancers and their cavaliers are summoned by the Emperor from each of the empire’s nine houses to compete in an epic trial of wits and skill. But not all is as it seems, and nothing seems to go to plan. It’s hilarious, action-packed, and full of the most interesting cast of characters.

6 / Jade City by Fonda Lee

This is the first novel in an amazing trilogy where jade is magic, and two rival clans control the market. This powerful, plot-driven read combines magic, kungfu, gangs, and everything else you could need in a badass book that you won’t want to put down.

7 / A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers

This delightful, thoughtful book tells the story of a robot and a monk who meet in the wilderness and travel the world together trying to answer the question, “What do people need?” It’s reflective, hopeful, inspiring, and emotional.

8 / The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Dragons, politics, feminism, assassins, magic. This epic fantasy book follows multiple points of view within this kingdom: from a queen desperate to conceive a daughter, to her lady-in-waiting secretly hiding her forbidden magic, to a newly-trained dragon rider trying to find her way.

9 / Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

A dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan’s reign of terror. Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters hunt their hunters and attempt to save the world. Rich characters, old-school horror, and dark humor reign. Tip: Listen to the audio book. It makes it even better!

10 / Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

A book that is so much more than it seems on the surface. Mila accepts a new job and home on an isolated part of the Northern California coast. Little does she know, it’s haunted by the past and her own past comes back to haunt her. A mysterious, reflective read about trauma and survival, chosen family and rebirth.

(Did you know? Friends of DD can respond to and engage with guest contributors like Hollie Arnett in one click.)

 

Books & Accessories

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The Myth of Normal →

‘Health care’ in a toxic culture

After sharing my thoughts on a podcast about the dysfunctional aspects of our health care system, a reader recommended this compelling book. An investigation into how little we recognise systemic issues as contributors to general ill health. “Over four decades of clinical experience, Maté has come to recognize the prevailing understanding of ‘normal’ as false, neglecting the roles that trauma and stress, and the pressures of modern-day living, exert on our bodies and our minds at the expense of good health.”

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Shift Happens →

The history of keyboards

It quickly became one of Kickstarter’s most successful publishing projects, and for a good reason: Marcin Wichary has long been fascinated by the keyboard, doing extensive research and writing for several years, which he now publishes in a two-volume, 1200+ pages book project. “The book contains over 1,300 photos, including both historical photographs of keyboards in use, as well as modern, beautiful photos of all kinds of keyboards. I carefully considered the inclusion and appearance of every picture, and more than 1/3 photos appearing in ‘Shift Happens’ were taken exclusively for this book by me and others.”

 

Overheard on Twitter

The more I see AI-based summarization tools for articles / essays / etc, the more powerful physical books feel – having spaces ‘apart’ from the immediate reach of AI seems like they will only grow in value going forward, as everything else is devalued into tl;dr doom.

@craigmod

 

Food for Thought

ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web →

Read

Until now, I happily ignored pretty much every piece of commentary on ChatGTP I’ve come across. This is my first piece of thoughtful analysis and what a wonderful, elegant analogy it provides! If, like me, you have avoided the craze about AI-powered writing because it feels so arduously trendy, make an exception for this one. “Some might say that the output of large-language models doesn’t look all that different from a human writer’s first draft, but, again, I think this is a superficial resemblance. Your first draft isn’t an unoriginal idea expressed clearly; it’s an original idea expressed poorly, and it is accompanied by your amorphous dissatisfaction, your awareness of the distance between what it says and what you want it to say. That’s what directs you during rewriting, and that’s one of the things lacking when you start with text generated by an A.I.”

Johann Hari: Our Attention Spans Are Being Stolen →

Read

Much has been said and written about how our attention – in large parts due to technology – is stretched to its limits these days. Still, this interview with Johann Hari, the author of Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention is insightful, especially from a collective (climate) action perspective. “Dr. Charles Czeisler, who’s the leading expert on sleep in the world, said to me, ‘If we did go back to sleeping as much as we need to, as much as we did a century ago, then that would cause a huge recession as people would consume an hour less every day.’ In other words: If our physical needs were met, it would cause an economic crisis.”

The Earth Is Begging You to Accept Smaller EV Batteries →

Read

As covered in DD before, the car industry loves the popular support of its greenwashing campaigns, i.e. turning every combustion engine car into an EV. However, there are more and more warning signs that we’re heading straight towards another environmental calamity, unless we acknowledge that the future of cars must be fewer and smaller cars. “Most of the benefits come from changes that few mineral demand forecasters consider: reducing the number of miles people drive and the number of cars driven overall. This is tricky because it requires something people typically don’t love – change. To become less car-dependent, people would have to change their habits for getting around, shift their preferences for the kinds of cars they drive, and question how many trips they take and why. At the core of the project is the idea that, contrary to what some carmakers would like you to believe, simply replacing one kind of car with another won’t save the world from its climate change mess. Consumerism got us here; it can’t get us out.”

 

Aesthetically Pleasing

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You probably know by now that I’m a fan of simple plywood interiors. This Australian beach house takes plywood very seriously. I love the colour play between the warm timber surfaces and the vibrant blue of the ocean.

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I still don’t know exactly what to think of generative art. There are several ethical considerations that make me hesitant to embrace/promote it. It’s undeniable, however, that this new technology can lead to quite fantastical outcomes, as exemplified by the work prompted (is that the right word?) by Hassan Ragab.

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Max Mudie is a fungi and myxomycetes photographer showing off the diverse and colourful world of spore-producing organisms through macro photography. (via)

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I love it when blobby shapes make it into type design! “Drawing inspiration from the sensation of floating in space and being pulled by gravitational forces, Void is an original and innovative display typeface.” A lovely use of the variable format, too!

 

Notable Numbers

3.2

A new study found that in California every 20 zero-emissions vehicles per 1,000 people in a given zip code led to a 3.2 percent drop in the rate of emergency room visits due to asthma.

1.2

Due to ‘natural’ disasters, US census figures show that 3.4 million adults were displaced in 2022, or 1.4 percent of the US adult population.

11

In Turkey, three people have been pulled alive from the ruins of buildings 11 days (or 278 hours) after the earthquake struck.

 

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The Week in a GIF

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