This weekend I explored NYC’s first? other? Little Italy in the Bronx on Arthur Ave where I experienced the best cannoli of all time. Madonia Brothers Bakery.
Idea of the Week: Curation
You probably have a friend that you turn to for recommendations for movies, books, music, etc. Now that we’re overloaded with content and increasingly the subject of “recommendations” based on our recent selections, true variety becomes harder and harder to come by. The curation that your friends provide becomes more valuable with the increase in available content.
If the goal of apps like Spotify, Netflix and Instagram is to maximize the time you spend on them, then the algorithms will always be skewed toward pushing more of what you last listened to, watched or liked.
But what about when I want to truly explore and find something new? More importantly, what would be recommended to to me if marketing was out of the picture entirely? What if interests were truly aligned?
This week I stumbled upon a new project from one of my favorite newsletter authors called startupy.world . Aside from being the coolest looking website I’ve seen in a while, the aim seems to be around creating a community of startup founders and investors that can cut through the noise.
“At Startupy, we rely on trusted curators to unearth hidden gems, sparing you the impossible task of monitoring millions of things, and giving you a sane, organized way to stay up to speed on the pulse of startup culture.”
I’ve also recently seen a super interesting startup in the music space aiming to achieve something similar. More on that later…
Listening to:
Kid Cudi’s new album: Man on The Moon III: The Chosen
It feels refreshing to have classic Cudi back. I’ll never forget my sophomore year of college when he released his album “Satellite Flight”. We waited until midnight for the album to appear on Spotify, gathered in a tiny room (@Dillon), turned up the speakers and prepared ourselves accordingly. All of this only to listen to 10 songs of bizarre space noises and no words.
Favorite song so far: Show Out (with Skepta & Pop Smoke)
The White Stripes Greatest Hits
Jack White is one of my favorite musicians alive. What he and his sister created as the White Stripes with only 2 bandmembers is pretty incredible.
Eating:
Coconut-Miso Salmon Curry
It’s actually extremely easy and turned out so good that I made it twice in 2 weeks. Works just as well with shrimp.
Reading:
Finished Exhalations this week. It’s a collection of about 10 short stories, all future of tech related, kind of like Black Mirror.
My favorite was the final one, “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom”. It takes place in a future where these “prisms” exist that can connect to alternate worlds. So you can essentially pay to FaceTime with yourself in a different world where you can control the circumstances i.e. “How would I have turned out if I hadn’t audibly farted the first day at my new school in sixth grade?”
The characters go through “support groups” of people who are addicted to using their prisms. It’s basically all an analogy for the anxiety caused by imagining “What If?”. Try to stay in the moment.
Watching:
Still thinking about the Undoing (kind of spoiler alert).
One of my takeaways was that the directors made a point of how easy it is to fall into confirmation bias. At the end, I was forced to look back and think, “Everything pointed to X the entire time. And I constantly overlooked it because…he/she seemed nice and had a good job?"
Quote:
I would rather have it said that ‘He lived usefully’, than, ‘He died rich.’
-Ben Franklin