Grokkist Press
Reading Room
Snackables
Things we found elsewhere and pass on: a film, a tool, an essay, a corner of the old internet. A few lines on why, then off you go. New ones join the shelf as we find them, newest first.
12 Aug 2023
A delightful free app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for identifying birds. Take a picture, record birdsong, or simply answer a few questions, and — based on your location and the date — Merlin taps hundreds of millions of records in the eBird citizen-science database to work out whic
Read the note ↗12 Aug 2023
Two short reflections offered as a pair, exploring similar questions from opposite directions. The first is a neurodiversity-affirming coach on 'pathological demand avoidance' — when you were going to do something of your own accord, but the moment someone asks you to do it you suddenly do
Read the note ↗12 Aug 2023
The 'French Tarzan' Leo Urban grew up in the mountains of Andorra, teaching himself parkour from the age of 12. He practises what he calls 'primal parkour,' inspired by urban climbing but evolved into a practice of self-exploration in mixed and rugged environments — drawing on the elements
Read the note ↗15 Jul 2023
The headline alone is a showstopper. Good advice for anyone, but especially for givers and perfectionists whose own creative gifts take a backseat to living up to impossible self-imposed standards in every social role, for fear of disappointing others. Bottom line: stop trying to get an A+
Read the note ↗15 Jul 2023
Larissa Weinstein started her newsletter as a guide to developing a self-directed practice of lifelong, continuous learning (very grokkist). Interested in designing a beautiful work life at both the individual and company levels, her project has evolved into curated media recommendations a
Read the note ↗15 Jul 2023
I'm a big fan of Mark Brown's channel Game Maker's Toolkit, which explores game design in exquisite, entertaining and thoughtful detail. Here he unpacks the believably autonomous characters in The Sims — how Sims think, and how the AI 'yes-ands' the player's choices without going against t
Read the note ↗15 Jul 2023
Winner of a 'best new skyscraper' award, The Valley in Amsterdam is an intriguing and appealing combination of public and private space. It combines offices, shops, catering, cultural facilities and apartments in one building, while much of it is open to the public — including a footpath t
Read the note ↗25 Jun 2023
'One part of the mind promises the other that the completion of the next task will finally usher in peace.' A five-minute animated video essay from The School of Life arguing that those of us who pursue perfectionism are not driven but, in fact, unwell — hoping to feel acceptable, with wor
Read the note ↗25 Jun 2023
Forty-two mouth-related gestures, excerpted from François Caradec's Dictionary of Gestures. It's fascinating to see descriptions for gestures that are otherwise unthinkingly automatic — such as communicating that food is too spicy — as well as the interplay between the universal and the cu
Read the note ↗25 Jun 2023
Articulating the phenomenon of moral injury — when we suffer a severe disconnect between our conscience and events at our workplace: 'that sense of who you are as a person has been brought into question.' Sometimes mistaken for PTSD or 'burnout,' the authors argue moral injury is its own t
Read the note ↗25 Jun 2023
A look inside the exploding popularity of audiobooks, which now make up as much as half of a book's sales. Much as TikTok is changing songwriting, audiobooks are changing the way fiction is written, so it sounds better in the ear — placing increasing importance on narration, though narrato
Read the note ↗4 Jun 2023
Helga Stentzel is a London-based artist who finds joy in unexpected places. Her feed is full of delightful household surrealism — I squealed with delight at her series of clothesline animals, especially the laundrosaurus, a dinosaur conjured entirely from washing pegged out to dry.
Read the note ↗