Articles

Sep 15, 2023

Interesting

How ‘interesting’ is not a non-word and how there’s a geometry to things that feel right, those that don’t, and what you do in your life and work.  Keep reading →

Jul 06, 2023

Your own transdisciplinarity

Using some past thinking and ChatGPT, I tried to imagine a way of illustrating the importance of various fields of interest in relation to each other, a metaphor for the landscape of what I pay attention to.  Keep reading →

Jun 15, 2023

Biomimicry & Materials

It’s been too long but, finally, let’s get back to writing some Dispatches! For the last few months in the weekly a couple of central topics have been futures and AI, mixed in with various best reads as I find them. However, I also have a few ongoing ‘dossiers’ in which I keep saving things. The reads are not necessarily fabulous, but they are various signals that help me ‘place’ the topic in the world and see where things are going.  Keep reading →

Feb 05, 2023

Unease, writing, and thinking

On the missed opportunity of digital gardens, a blurry gap in the tools we have online for knowledge sharing, and how having AIs write for us might be another step in the wrong direction.  Keep reading →

Jan 11, 2023

Ambiance & Attention

A lot of tv viewing and radio listening was ambient, now not only are they replaced by a lot more sources vying for our attention, they are replaced by platforms that require focus.  Keep reading →

May 18, 2022

Using Twitter at a distance

I’ve largely stopped using Twitter. I don’t miss it and I don’t miss things I want to find, I’ve just rebalanced my ‘diet’ with feeds and newsletters coming first.  Keep reading →

May 11, 2022

Ceci n’est pas un humble brag

How I’ve rediscovered that everyone learns from everyone and it’s conversations all the way down.  Keep reading →

May 02, 2022

Some scanning principles

A year or so ago, I gave a short talk at Speculative Futures MTL and have been meaning to flesh out the slides to make them readable without the talk. Finally managed to do it. I can’t remember what the exact brief was, but it ended up being something like my philosophy for scanning.  Keep reading →

Apr 21, 2022

Further Thoughts on Web3

It’s been a few months since my Thoughts on Web3. After reading too many posts about DAOs in a Discord (not Sentiers’), here’s a bit of an update on where I am right now.  Keep reading →

Apr 20, 2022

Personal feeds

MRIs, feeds, streams, agents. How we might give algorithms instructions and pick what they search through.  Keep reading →

Jan 25, 2022

Playbook

I’m a big reader and learner, so I’ve done several deep, years-long dives into various topics. I built my whole career(s) by showing I know what I’m talking about and drawing people’s attention to my work. That’s probably the quickest description of my playbook: read, think, learn, share. Here’s how that might look.  Keep reading →

Jan 12, 2022

Here’s what I’m thinking

The four interviews meant for my first issue are already done, and some of the editing has been done. I’d love to get those published, but ideally as part of ‘jumping on a different horse,‘ not just blog posts. So how should I do it? Here’s the format I’m considering.  Keep reading →

Mar 24, 2021

DIY research studio

Over the last couple of months, there have been a few discussions and proposed ideas around fellowships, and indie research labs. For a few years, I’ve had the idea of a “consortium” where a few partners would support a yearlong research effort with some public outputs and some private reports, workshops, and the like.  Keep reading →

Feb 15, 2021

Attention OS

There are a lot of apps and settings in MacOS to manage notifications, timers, snooze, etc. However it would be a pain to setup everything, if even possible, to properly work by blocking-out hours. You can turn off all notifications and go to airplane mode but that’s pretty radical.  Keep reading →

Feb 11, 2021

Four fours

How do you work? I think productivity gets somewhat of a bad rap, some people talk and write about it nonstop, for some it’s a way to optimize their workaholic tendencies, and sometimes it leads to too much focus on details, not enough on what you are actually trying to get done.  Keep reading →

Jan 27, 2021

Twitter X Revue

Revue is joining Twitter. The news has been making waves in the "newsletter world," this being only the most recent acquisition or investment over the last few weeks.  Keep reading →

Jan 07, 2021

Fellowships as a service

My friend and collaborator Peter Bihr wrote that he thinks fellowships are the way forward. Basically, he argues for a lighter / more agile form of research than what academia and big R&D labs can accomplish, and believes that fellowships are an interesting option to achieve understanding in these edgy topics.  Keep reading →

Nov 25, 2020

On projects, newsletters, products, and formats

Last summer I wrote a proposal which included some of the structuring and medium-term thinking and plans for Sentiers. That included the idea of doing four publications a year, on top of the weekly and member Dispatches. The idea would be to produce something zine-ish twice and something report-ish twice.  Keep reading →

Sep 16, 2020

Eudaimonia Machine, co-leases, coworking, & cafes

With the current pandemic, lots is being written about open offices, work from home, flexible conditions, shorter weeks, etc. One of my favourite theories in that "field," the Eudaimonia machine, has been around for a few years and I was surprised I never mentioned it in Sentiers, so here are a few bits around the topic as well as some speculations.  Keep reading →

Jun 25, 2020

The Metaverse so far

Following a member’s Dispatch, further reading on the topic of the Metaverse.  Keep reading →