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.
29 Jun 2022
#BookTok is driving a resurgence of interest in reading and giving bookstores a new lease of life — everything old is new again. Lots of good examples of how teenagers, of all people, ended up reshaping publishing.
Read the note ↗29 Jun 2022
In the 1970s, disillusioned by the Vietnam War and having lost faith in institutions, Noëlla Marcellino dropped out of college and society and joined a Benedictine monastery. She became a nun, then earned a PhD in microbiology, and grew fascinated by cheesemaking as a metaphor for spiritua
Read the note ↗29 Jun 2022
A joyful tour through medieval European paintings of animals the artist had plainly never laid eyes on — elephants assembled from rumour, whales like scaly buses, a hyena that defies description. Proof that trying to draw something you've only heard described is a very old, very human come
Read the note ↗15 Jun 2022
A couple of years ago I was introduced to James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time and it knocked me flat. Here is Chris Rock reading Baldwin's 'Letter to My Nephew' — a frank, open-hearted introduction to the role of race in America and the world his 14-year-old nephew is being thrown into.
Read the note ↗15 Jun 2022
The delightfully-named Rest of World is a nonprofit newsroom writing about technology, culture and human experience outside the usual frame of reference. This piece looks at how the harrowing journey between Africa and Europe gets packaged for TikTok — offering both valuable information an
Read the note ↗15 Jun 2022
A revealing conversation about the 'class ceiling' facing working-class professionals — masking to fit in among front-row colleagues, and how social class is the dimension most often left out of diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Read the note ↗15 Jun 2022
A no-code solution for visualising data, with stylish presentation and lots of options: upload your data, play until you're happy, then download or embed. There's a free plan — a real one, not a trick one.
Read the note ↗15 Jun 2022
A highly-entertaining Instagram meme account that will liven up your next doomscrolling session with the shared absurdities of modern working life.
Read the note ↗31 May 2022
One of the clearest, most humane things I've ever read about the creative life. Lawrence Yeo maps the emotional and financial arc of anyone trying to make a living from what they make — the false summits, the long middles, the quiet recalibrations. 'There is no easier or harder in any crea
Read the note ↗31 May 2022
People Make Games hang out inside VRChat and it's glorious — a reminder of the early wild-west days of the pre-corporate internet. Watch it and you'll understand far more about the 'metaverse' than you did at the start.
Read the note ↗31 May 2022
Ali Abdaal makes clear, concise, information-dense videos about productivity and navigating life. This one is recommended for anyone who thinks their biggest problem is that they need to get more stuff done. Spoiler: you don't, and you probably can't.
Read the note ↗31 May 2022
Codenames is a word-association party game that's easy to learn and difficult to master — tremendously fun with high replay value. You'll learn a lot about how your friends and family think. Available as a board game or online.
Read the note ↗