📑 Why A Good Idea Takes 13 Years To Arrive
So the lesson is: Treasure your long hunches. Gather wool slowly, and patiently. Keep lots of notes about things you’re learning and thinking about, and don’t worry if you feel like you’re being digressive. If you find yourself reading up on something that seems like a weird side-distraction, let yourself go there. It might be your brain working slowly — very slowly — on a hunch that won’t reveal itself for another ten years.
But when it does, it’ll be great.
Clive Thompson reflects upon the importance of slow hunches. He traces his journey from reading Oliver Sack’s discussion of proprioception to the recognition that Twitter is an example of social proprioception. Thompson highlights the importance of collecting ideas and keeping a commonplace book.
So another month passes. For me, someone ran into the back of my car. Sometimes life just happens, I guess. When I initially inquired about getting a loan car, I was told that I would need to travel to the airport to collect it. Unwilling to do this, we managed to get through most of the month with just one car. Although I did end up finding a loan car closer to home, it definitely made me think about our dependence on a vehicle differently.
On other matters, we continued to venture out more and more, step by step. We rejoined the Melbourne Zoo, ventured to a few country markets and ate out a bit more, including in Chinatown in the CBD. (Apparently exploring Chinatown was on Ms 6’s bucket list.) This is definitely not a return to normal, but maybe this is the new normal? Still not sure how I feel about going on a big holiday, but it feels like I am more and more in the minority.
At work, we survived the rush associated with biannual academic reporting, even as some people were on leave. In addition to that, I have continued doing my usual day-to-day stuff, such as testing improvements, responding to support calls and developing various guides. In amongst all of this, somebody thought we needed Office 365, so we have been learning about the benefits of collaborative software, even if we have been using
Personally, I finally found out what I was missing in regards to Hamilton, (although only my wife was lucky enough to see it on stage.) I also joined in the Minefield’s not quite a bookclub reading (or listening to) Jane Austen’s Emma. In regards to music, I enjoyed the thought that TISM are returning.
Here then are some of the dots that have had me thinking:
Education
Does a quiet classroom quietly harm children?
Richard Wells goes beyond the well-meaning quiet classroom and puts out the challenges to consider allocating time for students to practice ‘working with others’.
Teachers the fall guys for a failing system
Jenny Gore and Nicole Mockler suggest that most reporting on education overlooks the systemic challenges of inequity in our communities. They argue that what is needed is investment in teaching and an effort to raise the status across the board.
The Case for Making Classrooms Phone-Free
Tyler Rablin unpacks his decision to make his classroom phone-free.
‘The Waste Land’, a Century On
Barry Spurr celebrates 100 years since the release of TS Eliot’s poem The Waste Land.
Why A Good Idea Takes 13 Years To Arrive
Clive Thompson reflects upon the importance of slow hunches. Wonder how this works in the classroom?
Technology
How the Internet Turned Us Into Content Machines
Kyle Chayka explores the way in which the internet has turned us into content machines.
Is Google Dying? Or Did the Web Grow Up?
Charlie Warzel takes a dive into the current status of Google Search.
The Good Web
Ethan Zuckerman highlights is the need to be open for alternative options when it comes to making the good web..
Online Abortion Pill Provider Hey Jane Used Tracking Tools That Sent Visitor Data to Meta, Google, and Others
Jon Keegan and Dara Kerr use Blacklight privacy inspector to demonstrate the data collected by trackers on abortion sites. Another example of the way in which insight and awareness can be produced from the crumbs we leave.
The Modern QR Code Life
Wouter Groeneveld discusses his experience of the new normal associated with the use of QR codes and smartphones for viewing menus.
General
Persephone’s secret – The Eleusinian Mysteries and the making of the modern economy (Eat This)
Jeremy Cherfas speaks with Scott Reynolds Nelson provide a history from the perspective of wheat.
Ten Ways Billionaires Avoid Taxes on an Epic Scale
Paul Kiel provides a summary of ten ways the ultrawealthy avoid taxes.
Planting trees isn’t enough. Here’s why we need tiny man-made forests
Hannah Lewis explores the use of the Miyawaki method to rewild the world.
Collapse of the modern Liberal Party
Mike Seccombe traces Liberal Party back to John Howard’s remaking of Menzies’ party and how it was transformed again by the voters targeted from a distance who became members.
Patatap
A website/app which provides a combination of sounds, visuals and serendipity.
Read Write Respond #077
So that was June for me, how about you? As always, hope you are safe and well.
Image by Bryan Mathers
Cover image via “DSC_3604” by Joachim S. Müller is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
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Also on:
Ian, I was left thinking about L. M. Sacasas’ argument that life online is lived in the past.
On the one hand, I am left thinking about my breadcrumbs as possibly leading to slow hunches. The thought that ideas for the future are produced from pieces over time.
On the flipside of this, I was also left thinking about the way in which we have become content machines.
Like yourself, this all makes me wonder about why I do what I do? Why make it public? And why publish my newsletter? I think that I actually like the habit and find it a useful exercise in regards to taking stock of things, but maybe I am just fooling myself. I have long given up on taking much notice of the ‘clicks’. In general, I only POSSE now days when I feel there is purpose.
Anyway, I best get back to the past.