Make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be.
Carefully curated recommendations on what to read, watch and listen to. For nerds and changemakers who love when something makes them go «Huh, I never thought of it this way!».Undecided? Learn more | Peek inside
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Hi, I'm David. A journalist, and a curious generalist.
I've been curating the best of the web for my newsletter since 2011. I'd love to be your diligent curator, too.
Recommendations in the Weekly Filet are things I want my friends to see.
Things that tickle and delight a curious mind.
Articles, books, podcasts, graphics, videos, photographs,...The form is never the limit.
I let these questions guide me:
1. Does it help understand a complex, important issue?
2. Does it foster empathy by making you see the world through others' eyes?
3. Does it inspire self-reflection?
If it's timely, that's good. If it's timeless, that's better.
If in doubt, I prefer nerdy, witty, ambiguous. Solutions-oriented and actionable. Candid.
Don't expect news. Expect new insights.
Expect to be surprised.
Immerse yourself in a particular topic, with some of the best links from around the web, handpicked.
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2577 recommended links since 2011
...or shuffle for a surprise
«Like fish in water, we are so immersed in technology and industry, so completely dependent on it every day of our lives, that it recedes into the background, out of our awareness.» An ode to progress and a reminder that we live in an amazing world that we should not take for granted.
Written mere hours after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, this piece still captures the significance of the moment better than everything else that I’ve read and seen since. It does by keeping the focus on the big picture, which is and remains: the United States are on a dangerous path towards authoritarianism. «Fascism feasts on violence.»
Not a direct antithesis, but a good pairing with recommendation 4 above. What we experience as increasingly severe «natural disasters», we might as well call «planned disasters» – a direct consequence of carelessness and inaction.
Not usually a fan of digital detox stories of any flavour, but this one is different. A beautiful, simple idea: Ask locals where you should go next, and have them draw you a map. And that’s all you have as you hike. This resonated strongly: «Even when doing something I love, I often imagine what’s coming next. […] If I don’t know what’s coming, I can’t imagine myself there. Suddenly I’m present and engaged in a way I rarely am.»
It’s a long read, but if those two protagonists can run 314 miles in one go, you can muster the energy to read about their remarkable life story. It’s worth it. (I, for one, will definitely be reminded of the «Bench of Despair» when I encounter one in the future.)
I love watching people who are so passionate about a very particular thing that you can’t help but get excited about it yourself. Point in case: This 25-minute presentation by designer Marcin Wichary about pixel fonts. It’s not just super fascinating – I dare you to find me a presentation with nicer animations.
Don’t we all know the problem: You have been gifted 100 expensive wine bottles by 100 different people. But you learn that one of the bottles has been poisoned, and you have no idea which one. Interesting, slightly nerdy piece on how to extract insights with seemingly limited resources.
What is the most useful thing you could know about your own life? Thus begins this series of audio essays from the BBC. The answer Naomi Alderman suggests: the name of the era you’re living through. And she argues that we should think of our current era as the third great information crisis, brought about by digital communication. A joy to listen to, and inspiring all sorts of reflections.
Thresholds are a good way of making sense of technological change. These moments when a technology makes a leap from barely useable to surprisingly good. AI has, undeniably, passed lots of thresholds in the past year. But here’s the catch: Unlike with other technologies, it is hard to measure when an AI crosses a threshold. Here’s where the idea of the «impossibility list» comes into play…
I had gotten a bit tired of John Oliver’s approach, but this is a good one: on the people and organisations plotting a radical, authoritarian second Trump term. Their «Project 2025» is no secret, quite the opposite: Whoever is willing to pay attention, gets to see what these people are planning. What makes this so scary is that they don’t even need to hide their intentions – because they know there’s ample support for these plans.