Avoiding creativity, robot “love” and game addiction
Three more reads for your evening pleasure.
Three more reads for your evening pleasure.
Three links about worries, the climate and the ultimate ghosting.
Why distraction is the enemy of creativity, wild camping is more attractive than you think, and how a lonely death might not be what it seems.
It’s back! After a three month hiatus, and a move away from the now-defunct newsletter platform Revue, ERT is back in your in-boxes.
The newsletter of interesting things is back — on a new platform.
So, here it is. The very last issue of Engaged Reading Time on Revue. Will it be the last issue completely? To be honest, I haven’t quite decided. This evening I will make the backups I need and store them safely, ready to use if I decided to resurrect
Happy Friday, folks. Five days until Revue dies. But you don’t care about that do you? (If you do, here’s where you should move your Revue-based newsletter to…) But it’s nearly the weekend, so have some good reading and viewing to see you into the happy days.
All I want for New Year is a year that I’m not glad to see the back of. * 2020? Get in the sea (in a socially distanced way) * 2021? Eff orf and keep effing off. * 2022? War, and energy crisis and financial crisis, and… oh, get in the sea.
Revue’s not yet dead, so have another issue! Astonishingly, I’ve even picked up two subscribers since the last issue - welcome aboard to this newsletter-on-a-dying-platform. Burn, baby, burn. Musky Inferno… Artificial grass is evil Your plastic paradise is killing the planet. Ban this shit now. (I feel quite
Greetings from the end of the Revue world. This little newsletter that couldn’t is going away in its current form in less than a month, because the new Overlord of the Blue Bird, Elongated Mustalid, has decreed that it must be so. All the team behind Revue are already
Dear subscribers old and new, Blah blah sorry for no issues blah blah excuse blah blah enjoy the links. Adam Have We Forgotten How to Read Critically? This might be better entitled “The Undeath of the Author”. It’s a function of the context collapse that the internet facilitates, but
Here's some links. Don't read them all at once… The bullwhip effect: A beginner’s guide Want to understand the roots of the supply chain chaos that's having all sorts of unexpected side-effects? You need to understand the bullwhip effect… Apple’s astonishing MacBook
Hello, there, It’s summer holiday time in the northern hemisphere, and for the first time in a couple of years, I've actually been on holiday. We've been camping in a coastal valley with no WiFi and the merest sniff of 3G connection (if you climb
Good Lord, how did it get to be Thursday already? Somebody must have stolen a day somewhere along the line… Tikki, links on! (And if you understand that reference, you're probably also the parent of a primary school age child.) Watching Doctor Who can be embarrassing, and here&
I'm off to the (COVID-secure) dentist in a few moments, but you? You're going to procrastinate over those morning tasks by reading or listening to what's below, aren't you…? 😉 Explaining the difference between net-zero and carbon neutrality "is a challenge"
Hello, there, Another missive from my rather sporadic use of Revue, in part triggered by the news that Twitter may add a single click subscribe option to Revue newsletters in the near future, which I wrote about over on OM&HB. Here's what's caught my
Welcome to my other Twitter account. Given that Revue, which I use to create this newsletter, is now a Twitter property, I suspect that a lot of moribund newsletters (like this one) might suddenly lurch into renewed life. We'll see. It'll also be interesting to see
I doubt anyone noticed - but this is the missing issue of ERT. I genuinely can't remember why this issue ended up being skipped. But hey, let's enjoy those nicely-aged links. A good link is like a good whisky. It gets better with age, and should
Hello, there, Another random newsletter for you long-suffering subscribers. I've just finished running a new newsletter course, and it's rebirthed my enthusiasm for the medium. And so, literally the moment the course finished, I threw open my browser and got to work on this issue. As
Hello. I'm back. The last few months have been hard. Let us never discuss them again. We're still going to stay pretty much COVID-19 free here. Where we do touch on it, it'll be thinking forwards, not about the current moment. We all need
Happy May Day, everyone. Links ahoy! Just a reminder. This is my “interesting reading” newsletter - three stories, none of them about THAT virus. All the journalism/engagement stuff has moved. Remains of Bronze Age chieftain found in Lechlade, Gloucestershire An "unprecedented" discovery of an ancient burial — and
I'm back. Sorry for the silence for a week. It turns out that I was in emotional denial about how much the world has and will change, even if I acknowledged it intellectually. Some bad news about a couple of bits of work triggered a small emotional collapse
Sorry for missing the last few days. Sometimes self-care comes first. Journalists: if you signed up here for journalism content, you’re in the wrong place. Try here instead. This is three great reads a day - and none of them will be about Covid-19. Francis Fukuyama Postpones the End
Week ♾ in the house, and we still need interring things to read. How I learned to love New York City stride by stride This is basically a love letter to walking. It’s not about walking with purpose, but walking to explore and to experience. Walking is great distraction as
Well, that was a weird one. More feedback than on any newsletter I've done, ever. Plus three upvotes, and one downvote. To those I delighted - thank you. To the person I disappointed - I shall try to do better. I'm losing readers slightly faster than
My life has been improved considerably by discovering that my children *love* nature documentaries on Disney+. Small victories. How's life with you? Here's your daily distractions… Advice for women What sort of advice were 19th Century women given about swimming? This entertaining article from the delightful
I survived day 9 of home schooling. One day to go, before the Easter holidays. Wish me luck. Why the Simple Life Is Not Just Beautiful, It’s Necessary Breaking down a very old idea that remains true to this day. I found a lot of solace in this one.
Sorry for missing yesterday, folks. Work and generalised anxiety got the better of me. Back on target… Virtual escapes: Britain's most beautiful spring hills Experience the sights and sounds the UK countryside without leaving your home with our armchair guide. Because we need nature right now. Exercise at
Another week. Another day. Another set of great links to distract and engage you. Allons y! Pablo Escobar's Cocaine Hippos Are Filling Ecosystem Roles in Colombia That Have Been Vacant for Thousands of Years This is a weird tale of how a crime lord’s vanity exotic animals
Well, that was harder than I was expecting. I tried to find good reading that was completely free of references to you-know-what, but struggled. In the end, I gave up yesterday, and have returned to it today. (It trigged some other though processes, which you can read here - but,
All change. Like many people, I've been hit badly by the changes in life through the response to the current crisis. While my family and I all have our health, thankfully, that doesn't mean we have escaped consequences of the lockdown. I've been hit
Welcome back to my (theoretically) weekly digest of interesting reads from around the internet. This week I have finally and formally closed down the paid part of this newsletter. From now on, it's just a free digest of weekly reads, and that's all. It's