Grokkist Newsletter #86

Hey friends,

Something interesting happens when a frontier becomes infrastructure.

At first the question is whether something can be done at all. Later the question becomes how to do it well — responsibly, thoughtfully, with care for the systems it shapes.

That shift is exactly the terrain Alan Raw is exploring in his new Grokkist Press book To Sustainability and Beyond, which looks at what environmental responsibility means now that space is becoming part of the everyday infrastructure of modern civilisation. You can read the announcement about the book's release here.

Satellites quietly underpin agriculture, communications, navigation, climate monitoring, disaster response and more. Once something becomes infrastructure like that, the conversation inevitably changes. The question isn’t “can we do this?” but “how should we do this well?”

I’ve been thinking about that idea a lot lately, because something similar seems to be happening inside Grokkist.

For a long time Grokkist has mostly been a series of experiments — conversations, essays, gatherings, little pockets of inquiry. But gradually something else has been forming: a kind of infrastructure for curiosity.

A place where thoughtful conversations can reliably happen, where people can explore questions that don’t have easy answers, and where new ideas are given a bit of room to breathe.

You can see it emerging in the writing coming from members.

Margarita’s Dance of Lead + Follow series, for example, has been exploring the subtle dance between autonomy and connection in ways that many of you have told me are resonating deeply. Lalith has also just shared a new piece with us on comfort in contradiction.

These kinds of contributions are one of my favourite parts of Grokkist — members thinking carefully in public, and inviting the rest of us into that process.

You can see it in our conversations, too.

Our Red Thread Talks continue to bring grokkist voices into dialogue with the community. We’ve got another one coming up in a few weeks from Leland, and several more in the pipeline. Each one adds another strand to the shared thinking environment we’re building together.

And you can see it in the way members engage with difficult questions like how to handle discussion of politics and current affairs in our spaces.

One of the things that continues to make me proud of this community is the quality of the discussions that unfold here — people bringing nuance, curiosity, and generosity to topics that are often flattened elsewhere into identity politics or hot takes.

Watching those conversations develop is one of the clearest signs that something healthy is taking root.

Another place this infrastructure is quietly growing is through the affinity groups. These spaces create smaller circles within the wider community where people can practise things together — thinking, speaking, exploring ideas in a more hands-on way.

Kendra’s Shoes-On Studio, which meets again this week, is a lovely example. It’s an open space for anyone who wants to get more comfortable speaking in public — whether that means preparing a talk, raising your hand in a room, or simply saying what you mean when it matters. You don’t need to think of yourself as “a speaker” to join — just someone with a voice, or a desire to find yours.

And then there’s the part I’m especially looking forward to over the next few months.

I’ll be spending some time in Europe and the UK, based once again in Copenhagen and travelling around to visit various grokkists along the way. One of the joys of a community like this is the moment when the network becomes physical — when the conversations we’ve been having online turn into coffees, walks, dinners, and long wandering discussions.

If you’re somewhere in that part of the world and would like to meet up while I’m passing through, do get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.

Because in the end, the real work of Grokkist isn’t just producing content or hosting events. It’s slowly building the conditions for thoughtful inquiry to flourish — a shared environment where curiosity and care remain part of how we think about the systems we’re creating together.

Infrastructure, in other words.

The kind that helps us ask better questions.

With curiosity and care,
Danu

Fresh and Featured Pressings

The Dance of Lead+Follow | Letter 3: Autonomy-in-Connection

By Margarita Steinberg (8 minute read)

Skilful following includes the capacity to lead.

Read the article ↗

Comfort in Contradiction

By Lalith Gunaratne (9 min read)

When we pause our efforts to sever the "bad" from the "good", a whole world of beautiful paradoxes can begin to unfold.

Read the article ↗

More from the Press

• Education as Conditioning (Rodney King, 4 min read) – First, we’re taught to comply. Then, to forget that we ever danced to our own rhythm.

Upcoming Events

Featured Gatherings

🟢 "Shoes-On" Studio – a space for finding your voice in public

🗓️ Tue 10 Mar | 3pm–5pm New York time (view in your timezone)
Facilitated by Kendra Fee

Shoes-On Studio is an open space for anyone who wants to get more comfortable speaking in public—whether that means giving a talk, leading a session, joining a panel, raising your hand, or just saying what you mean when it matters.

You don’t need to be “a speaker” to belong here. You just need a voice—or a desire to find yours.

You can come to speak, to support, or to soak it in. Everyone’s voice matters — including the quiet ones.

Event Details and RSVP ↗

Other Upcoming Gatherings

• 17 Mar | 🟣 Members Lab & Lounge [Timezone A]
• 19 Mar | 🟢 PhilosophyGym @ Grokkist
• 30 Mar | 🟢 Seeking Real Good: The first decade

#1 - Iran's ultimate banned book

Iran’s Ultimate Banned Book — The Dial

The Blind Owl remains essential reading for understanding the country.

The DialAmir Ahmadi Arian

"Iran has been trapped in a cycle of self-love and self-hate for centuries, and nothing captures that contradiction like The Blind Owl." Banned both before and after the 1979 revolution, the book follows a troubled painter whose surreal, fragmented narrative moves between obsession, memory, and violence. Amir Ahmadi Arian traces the novel’s unusual afterlife: its dense symbolism, its reputation among readers, and the way generations of Iranian writers and critics have returned to it in search of meaning.

#2 - A requiem for a live oak

This 3-min video follows artist Steve Parker’s Funeral for a Tree, created after a 65-year-old live oak in his yard died of oak wilt. Parker cut the trunk into circular slices and turned them into playable records encoded with birdsong from the species that once roosted in its branches. Around the gallery, modified instruments and breathing devices animate the sounds, forming a slow memorial installation where wood, air, and memory continue the life of the tree in another form.

#3 - Is literacy really declining?

"Your inability to focus isn’t a moral failing. It’s a design problem. You’re trying to think in environments built to prevent thinking"

Humans have been worrying about the decline of literacy for centuries. In 1533, Thomas More warned that Protestant texts would corrupt readers. In the 19th century, critics blamed penny dreadfuls for degrading young minds. In the 20th century, radio dramas and comic books drew similar alarm. This essay traces that long pattern while challenging the familiar narrative that screens and digital media are destroying our ability to read and think deeply.

Carlo Iacono argues that the real issue isn’t technology itself but the environments built around it. Attention fragmentation, he suggests, comes from specific design choices—notifications, infinite scroll, and algorithmic feeds—rather than from screens as a medium. The piece also explores how literacy today increasingly moves across multiple formats: text, audio, video, conversation, and visualisation, each contributing differently to how people understand complex ideas.

#4 - How the internet talks

"I found the whole internet summarised in one single Thread so you can like this post and log off all your apps and go touch grass."

A short Instagram carousel that manages to summarise a remarkable portion of online discourse in a handful of slides. Each slide captures a recognisable genre of online conversation—hot takes, vague-posting, moral declarations, and rhetorical flourishes that circulate endlessly across platforms. The result reads like a miniature field guide to how arguments, memes, and opinions move through social media. IYKYK.

#5 - The Ensh*ttificator

This 4-minute mockumentary has fun with the idea of enshittification: the slow degradation of digital platforms as companies move from delighting users to maximising extraction. Released alongside the Norwegian Consumer Council’s report Breaking Free, the film sketches how this pattern shows up across everyday apps and services—and how it reshapes the online environments people depend on.

Grokkist is a living ecosystem — 🟢 free to enter, powered by members 🟣.

If you’d like to go deeper, you can join as a member, explore Signature Projects, or work with Danu.

Become a Grokkist Member ($99/yr or $27/qtr)

Parting thoughts...

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." – Viktor Frankl

"Worry is a way to pretend that you have knowledge or control over what you don't." – Rebecca Solnit