Adventures... #52: Through the Jungle
Why we need digital caretakers - not just elite creator commandos. Plus: purchasing power parity, and why bands are disappearing
Hello there. Welcome along to another edition of Adventures…
This monthly email digest is here to offer you new ways to see, learn, and do differently. Each edition collates ideas from the worlds of education, entrepreneurship, entertainment, and beyond. It’s put together by me, Howard.
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The theme for each edition of this newsletter typically emerges at least a month or so in advance. Not this time. Last week I had… well, nothing.
Was it my anxiety at impending fatherhood? Daylight savings time playing tricks?
More likely was an overload of information. Too much stuff to read. Too much to synthesize. Freezing in the face of it all.
On one hand, I’m more eager than ever to learn new things: to absorb everything happening in this brave new world, and grab hold of the tangle of trends sprouting up in front of my eyes. On the other, I really do fancy a mid-afternoon nap on the sofa.
One day last week, I was primed to dive into a bunch of hefty deep-dives on NFTs and the fascinating second and third order effects they may have. Hmm. Seconds later, I was instead bathing in the comfort of watching action movie classic Predator for the 37th time.
In case you’re not familiar, Predator stars Arnold Schwarzenegger leading an elite military unit on a jungle-based rescue mission, during which they encounter a lethal alien with invisibility superpowers and a natty line in laser pointers.
Perhaps the most memorable of the obscenely macho cast is mustachioed commando Blain, played by renowned wrestler/politician Jesse Ventura. After being hit by an enemy bullet during a crucial battle, Blain dismisses concerns for his wellbeing with arguably the most on-brand line in cinematic history:
“I ain’t got time to bleed”
And just like that, the theme for this month’s email strode out from the forest: all while I was lying on the sofa eating cashew nuts.
The jungle came alive and took him
Although I lack the Predator team’s skills in close-combat, impromptu bomb-making, and bicep-based bonding, I can relate to their plight.
I’m trying to make headway, but the jungle has come alive. Possessing incredible guile, power, and speed, it’s algorithmically-charged and able to shape-shift seamlessly. There’s something out there, alright… but it ain’t no man. This digital jungle is all-consuming.
It’s tempting to follow Blain’s lead: just pull out the 6-shooter Gatling gun and mow down the entire noisy landscape of tweets, Slack notifications, newsletters (yeah, including this one), and webinars. Oh, and let’s not forget all those Clubhouse clones.
Sure, some lovely evergreen content may be lost, but hey - collateral damage. I just want to get things done, and stay on the mission:
I ain’t got time to read
Here’s the thing: like Arnie’s team trying to respond to something unknown, our real world is now changing too fast for us to learn and adapt.
How can we keep moving - with all the intel and street smarts we need for the journey - without getting smothered or left behind?
Low Barrier, High Bar
The recent explosion in the creator economy is hugely exciting, but also fuels the unstoppable growth of this crazy digital jungle.
One way of cutting through the thicket is to go to the curators. But earning attention and consideration isn’t just a challenge for the creators: it’s now one for the curators too. There’s just too much. And as the barriers lower, the quality bar gets higher.
Perhaps an answer lies in the third ‘C’, courtesy of this idea from Julian Shapiro that got a little lost in the Twitter undergrowth:
“The web has a lot of creators but very few caretakers.”
We’re undoubtedly going to need more digital caretakers, pixel park rangers, and content groundskeepers. With a careful eye on sustainability, they’ll help the rest of us understand and benefit from the ever-evolving ecosystem of digital forests, gardens and glades.
Small Squads
Technology shifts like NFTs are the kind of jungles that are dense, vast, and seem to come alive from nowhere. They’re so byzantine that wrapping our heads around them is really challenging.
While it’s tempting to suppress the threat with whatever modern weaponry we can lay our hands on, one thing we can take from those commandos in the jungle is the value of small squads with a range of skill sets. And leaning not just on the swashbuckling creators and perceptive curators, but those less-heralded guides and caretakers.
They may just be the ones best placed to help us see through the jungle.
As an old survival guide puts it:
To move easily, you must develop "jungle eye"… do not concentrate on the pattern of bushes and trees to your immediate front… focus on the jungle further out and find natural breaks in the foliage. Look through the jungle, not at it.
Stop and stoop down occasionally to look along the jungle floor. [It] may reveal the game trails you can follow...
Thanks for reading, and as always I’d love to hear what’s got your attention right now (really!). Just hit reply.
Howard
Before the rest...
Your feedback
Thanks to those readers who gave me some of their precious time last month.
With the caretaker approach in mind, I’d love to get your input on how I can improve future editions of this newsletter. Here’s a super-quick survey - just 3 questions.
Opportunity for Adventure?
A couple of people mentioned they were confused by the little ‘Opportunity for Adventure’ bits under some of the links. Fair point.
(They look like this)
These little prompts are where I see opportunities to do something interesting around the topic in question. It could be a project to create, a collaboration to foster, an idea to share. I hope they trigger something - for you or someone you know. Feel to pass them on.
01: Career Fuel
Boston Dynamics ‘Stretch’ robot: You can file this under ‘Career Fuel’ or ‘Career Immolation’ depending on how you look at it. The new Stretch robots don’t look that impressive, but the impact here could be enormous (watch time: 2mins)
Purchasing Power Parity: Several independent creators are using variable pricing depending on your country’s purchasing power. Not to be confused with the ‘Big Mac Index’, this guide gives a good background on PPP best practices and how to implement it into a project. (read time: 4 mins)
Opportunity for Adventure: Finding ways for this to work for physical goods as well as digital. I'm curious which companies could be best-placed to take on the PPP model for their products...
If you want to make it as a writer, for God’s sake, be weird: I’ve fulfilled the latter part, at least (read time: 10 mins)
02: Learning <> Doing
Music, Makers, and Machines: This is a lovely little project from Google and over 50 partners, diving deep into the history of electronic music (exploration time: as long as you like)
Opportunity for Adventure: Curators + Caretakers showcase the Creators across every discipline - from ocean conservation to opera. Use the collage/guidebook style to make it accessible and bitesize, with a range of mediums from Figma boards, to podcasts, or Kaggle challenges
8 shifts in education & learning: A quick bit from me on moving from hostage videos to Hollywood production, and why tenured professors could be a thing of the past (read time: 2 mins)
Note: If you want more on the future of learning, join the Wavetable email list for regular resources, tools and how-to guides
03: Culture
Why bands are disappearing: This is a great piece by Dorian Lynskey. Once you get past the Maroon 5 lead-in, there’s some very interesting food for thought around socialisation, access, and the constructs of certain industries - particularly for young people. The 1500+ comments are also worth a browse too (read time: 5 mins)
VOID - One Year of Silence: The team at RA have outdone themselves here. An AV exploration of a year of quiet in live underground music. (watch time: 14mins)
The Therapy-App Fantasy: Meditation and therapy have done very well from the pandemic. There’s obviously some tension here… especially when VCs get involved (read time: 10 mins)
Start your own newspaper: Related to this month’s theme - how about turning digital newsletters into physical newspapers?
Opportunity for Adventure: A growth in demand for ‘zines - not just glossy branded ones from startup darlings like Away and Airbnb, but a whole range of niche pursuits and interests.
04: Jukebox
Front: Sasha - LuzOscura radio
Straight from Ibiza’s OpenLab radio (oh, Ibiza how I miss you), here’s a new radio show and album project from electronic don Sasha.
As well as being packed with great music, there are a few smart things about this: it evokes memories of his classic sound while staying focused on the new; fits lockdown life but is sustainable well beyond it; and started life as a simple Spotify playlist (low-cost product validation).
Middle: Depeche Mode live in Berlin
Having world-acclaimed director Anton Corbijn doing your tour production isn’t a bad idea, but you’ve still got to be able to deliver when it matters. Here’s Depeche Mode live in Berlin doing exactly that. Incredible sound, visuals, and performance.
Back: One in the Jungle
I can’t title a newsletter like this without some jungle in the mix. Here are Goldie and MC GQ with the very first edition of BBC Radio 1’s ‘One in the Jungle’ show (the first time jungle was broadcast on legal radio). Turn it up.
05: Footnotes
Other things I’ve been up to this month:
Nearly finishing a 5000-word article on the future of learning. It’s only taken 6 months (urgh). The last 10% is always the hardest.
Watching two very different but equally impactful shows: Irish coming of age drama Normal People; and the future of global market economics in China’s New Silk Road
Having several conversations around the topics of pricing, focus, and being strategic. ‘tis the season.
Assessing baby furniture. I can report most of it is not built for people over 6 feet tall.