“How Much Does ‘Nothing’ Weigh?” — A fantastic, strikingly photographed feature in Scientific American. The experiment aiming to measure the void of empty space will be conducted in an abandoned mine in Sardinia.
In Esquire, “Behind the Scenes of Barack Obama’s Reading Lists”:
The question of how the most powerful man on the planet found time to read Fates and Furies amid major world events like the Arab Spring and the killing of Osama bin Laden is a perfectly valid reason for skepticism—the guy was and is busy!—but Schultz says Obama found time to read because he sees reading as necessary, and he makes it a priority on his schedule. “He considered [reading] part of being a good leader, part of being a good president, part of being a good father, a good husband, and a good man,” Schultz said.
Sometimes Copilot will be right, other times usefully wrong — but it will always put you further ahead.
From Microsoft’s announcement for Copilot, an (impressive-looking) AI assistant for M365. “Usefully wrong.” Such a striking phrase, so confidently delivered.
We Will Not Be Entertained Enough
Sunday, February 26, 2023
From Megan Garber’s astute, unsettling cover essay in the current issue of The Atlantic, “We’re Already in the Metaverse: Reality is blurred. Boredom is intolerabe. And everything is entertainment”: Dwell in this environment long enough, and it becomes difficult to process the facts of the world through anything except entertainment. We’ve become so accustomed to its heightened atmosphere that the plain old real version of things starts to seem dull by comparison.
From “Super-Infinite,” Katherine Rundell’s new book on John Donne that’s got all kinds of verve:
He wanted to wear his wit like a knife in his shoe.
“Pentagram: Living by Design,” the exquisite-looking 50-year history of the iconic design studio, has landed at my house. Published by United Editions. Can’t wait.
Favorite new TV show find of the year: “Slow Horses,” streaming on Apple TV+. Great characters and acting, absorbing plot, good humor. After downing seasons 1 and 2, I’m excited to hear there are more to come.
At Fast Company, a look at what Frank Lloyd Wright’s unbuilt designs would look like today. The Illinois is quite something.
Rick Rubin, talking with Tyler Cowen, gets to the heart of what we lose as streaming music fans:
I’ll say the most difficult thing about it now is that all of it has a disposability that it didn’t have before. In the old days, you would buy a piece of music, you would own it, and you would be invested in that piece of music as yours. Now everything is available, which is fantastic and I love it. As a fan, I love it.
When something comes out by an artist that you love, it doesn’t have the same gravitas that it once had because it’s on this conveyor belt of music that’s always going by. Even the thing you love, you listen to it, but then there’s something new right behind it, coming right behind it, always something new coming right behind it. I don’t know how the music of today can get to the point of the canon of the music of the past based on that short term, the fact that the music goes by so quickly. Even the things we love, the shelf life is very short now.
“After Yang” was a beautiful, sensitive, and contemplative movie. Quiet, unrushed. The characters' world is strikingly, confidently created — of the future, but earthy, calm. Written and directed by Kogonada, whose “Columbus” I also loved. He’s got a singular vision and vibe. I’ll watch whatever he makes for however long he makes it.
At Brand New, a new logo and identity for Catskill Art Space designed by Athletics. Lovely.
ChatGPT: BS FTW?
Sunday, January 8, 2023
Speaking of ChatGPT, the recent “Ezra Klein Show” episode with A.I. expert Gary Marcus was insightful. This seems concerning: Klein: And what unnerved me a bit about ChatGPT was the sense that we are going to drive the cost of bullshit to zero when we have not driven the cost of truthful or accurate or knowledge advancing information lower at all. And I’m curious how you see that concern.
Media keeps falling in love with technology and finding out it’s a really bad boyfriend. Super hot, but it just takes your money.
From “The Death of the Link," the latest episode of “The People vs. Algorithms” podcast. Some good discussion on ChatGPT and how it may impact media. (That quote could have also been about Instant Articles back in 2015.)
“A Tweet Before Dying”: Paul Ford, perceptive and funny and deep yet again, writing in Wired. Here he is on stepping away from his social stream to dive into curious PDFs unearthed from decades past:
But the seeking is important, too; people should explore, not simply feed.
In the NYT, "‘Snow Fall’ at 10." I can clearly remember when this immersive multimedia piece came out — discussing it with my agency colleagues, trying to figure out how we could get clients on board.
Speaking of year-end traditions, I enjoyed this 2022 retrospective episode of the “Conversations with Tyler” podcast. A lot of podcasts have a year-end episode of curated guest segments, but here Cowen and one of his producers have an entertaining chat about surprising or memorable conversational moments, underrated shows, guests they tried in vain to secure, and more. Per tradition, Cowen is also asked to return to the books and movies he heralded a decade ago and weigh in on how he feels those evaluations have fared.
Since 2000, I’ve been publishing a kind of year in review — mainly cultural highlights from the prior 12 months, along with a few personal notes. Here’s my post for 2022.
Julie Blackmon and Convergences
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
In the mid–2000s, I was completely taken by the book “Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences,” written by Lawrence Weschler and beautifully published by McSweeney’s. Weschler surfaced “strange connections” between images and wrote about them intriguingly. I still think of the book when I come across an image — a photograph, a painting, a movie moment — that brings to mind another one. I spent part of this evening with Julie Blackmon’s absorbing book of photographs, “Midwest Materials.
“The Power Broker”
Monday, December 26, 2022
Book-wise, I will remember 2022 as the year I read (and listened to) Robert Caro’s massive and magisterial (and long-lauded) biography of Robert Moses, “The Power Broker,” first published in 1974. It’s not just the scale and depth of the research, but the skill with which Caro builds sentences and paragraphs that build his argument. For example: To compare the works of Robert Moses to the works of man, one has to compare them not to the works of individual men but to the combined total work of an era.
Franklin Foer writing after today’s incredible World Cup final: “The Lionel Messi Guide to Living”. Sharp contrast drawn vs. Ronaldo.