📚 Meaning of Colours, Job of a Critic, Books, Show - Don’t Tell, The Neighborhoods

Art of Noticing + a lot more for the curious YOU

Hi, this is post #156.

A warm welcome to new folks who joined last week. Thank you Himani for your help in reaching out to this curious bunch. 

I am in the middle of vacation planning and that has taken up a lot of this last week. I considered Singapore and Kashmir, but it looks like it’s going to be Kashmir this time. I’m not proud about my vacation planning skills. I keep getting nervous and distracted while figuring out the details. But I know that it is the best part of the planning stage, so I will keep at it till I get the most critical things sorted out.

If you have any suggestions for trip planning or Kashmir (the usual places Srinagar, Gulmarg, Sonmarg, Pahalgam etc), do comment or reply to my mail.

I find today’s lineup a little different from the usual ones. Let me know if you figure out the change. Here’s a sneak preview:

And now, onto today's finds…

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🎨 Meaning of Colours

Bas Wallet’s “How the meaning of colour varies per culture” is a great opening act for today. He posits: Colours are not only about hue and saturation but also about meaning. Each colour can have a different essence across the globe. 

If that does not excite you enough to explore further, check out these examples about how colours get their meanings and affect our choices. 

Across languages … warm colours are communicated more efficiently than cool colours. This cross-linguistic pattern reflects the colour statistics of the world: Objects (what we talk about) are typically warm-coloured, and backgrounds are cool-coloured.

In the West, red is often used as an alert. You are caught red-handed, you see red, your bank balance is in the red, and you are limited by red tape. A job candidate shows red flags and uses red herrings.

Contrarily, red can also convey sensuality and romance. Hearts are red, and the sex industry and nightclubs use red, too. We (or at least some) walk on red carpets.

In Asia, red is associated with good luck, prosperity, and happiness. It is often used in traditional celebrations and festivals, such as Chinese New Year and weddings.

Purple paint was historically expensive to produce. This gave it its meaning of high value.

In China, yellow is also an exclusive colour due to its scarcity. The colour of the Emperor of China’s robe was saffron yellow.

Those who live in climates with a lot of sunlight prefer warm bright colours; while those from climates with less sunlight prefer cooler, less saturated colours. — Eskimos use 17 words for white as applied to different snow conditions.

A fun read that’s surely going to connect some dots for you.

(via Sidebar)

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📝 Job of a Critic

Trung Phan’s “Roger Ebert, MKBHD and the Job of a Critic” can be summed up in one sentence - The best critics (or reviewers) educate, entertain and help us spend our time better.

It’s a timely commentary around all the buzz that MKBHD generated with his super scathing review of Humane AI Pin.

You may not know who Roger Ebert or MKBHD are (I did not know Ebert), and that’s fine. Trung’s storytelling plugs all the gaps.

Here’s a snippet that is worth noting:

I believe a good critic is a teacher. He doesn't have the answers, but he can be an example of the process of finding your own answers. He can notice things, explain them, place them in any number of contexts, ponder why some "work" and others never could. He can urge you toward older movies to expand your context for newer ones.

MKBHD’s episode and his response after the review can show a lot of this in action.

Whenever we talk of critics, I have to revisit these famous words by one of my favourite critic on the cinema screen:

Anton Ego: In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the *new*. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new: an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook." But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more.

During my school & college years, I used to follow daily columns of film critic Jai Prakash Chouksey. He expanded my world view & understanding of movies beyond the obvious. Alas, I lost touch post I moved to Bangalore & did not read the Hindi daily where he published his work.

Anybody you look up to as a critic? What do you like about their work?

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📚 On Books & Book Publishing

Ted Gioioa recently shared Elle Griffin’s post titled “No one buys books.” 

Books and Ted Gioioa’s reco - I was intrigued. And I must say, it was quite a fascinating read. 

Elle subtitled it - “Everything we learned about the publishing industry from Penguin vs. DOJ.” So we can safely treat it as a quick overview of the publishing industry. 

A couple of interesting bits that I learnt:

In 2020, only 268 titles sold more than 100,000 copies, and 96 percent of books sold less than 1,000 copies.

Every year, in thousands of ideas and dreams, only a few make it to the top. So I call it the Silicon Valley of media. We are angel investors of our authors and their dreams, their stories. That’s how I call my editors and publishers: angels… It’s rather this idea of Silicon Valley, you see 35 percent are profitable; 50 on a contribution basis. So every book has that same likelihood of succeeding.

The backlist includes all of the books that have ever come out. Brian Murray, CEO of HarperCollins, points out that their backlist includes bibles (an $80 million business), coloring books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, magic trick books, calendars, puzzles, and SAT study guides. It also includes perennial bestsellers like Don Quijote, Steven King’s Carrie, and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings—these books continue to sell year after year.

Popular children’s books are cash cows selling huge amounts of copies year after year and generation after generation.

Around 20 to 25 percent of the readers, the heavy readers, account for 80 percent of the revenue pool of the industry of what consumers spend on books.

So the publishing industry is looking at tough times, the old business model is under stress. But are there new ideas that can bring some change? 

Self Publishing combined with social media led marketing can be one solution. Authors are investing in creating their personal brand and building the audience on social networks. This way reduces the control the gatekeepers hold today. However, quality control in self-published books has been a major challenge. Amazon is filled with garbage ebooks. Vox did a great piece on how they get made. 

Finally, if you’re up for some book trivia, The Paperclip did a super fun thread around Indian Pulp Fiction. 

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🎭 Show, Don’t Tell

Sari Azout’s “What does Sublime actually do?” is a good example of the “Show, don’t tell” approach of product marketing.

She is the founder of Sublime and described her challenge in explaining what Sublime does in the following way:

I wanted to say something about the lost promises of today’s internet and how my work is reimagining the web.

Instead, I said I am building an app that helps you save and remember all the things you learn about and love and don't want to forget. 

It turns out that sometimes, Sublime being “Just An App” instead of “A more human Internet,” is freeing. 

A lot of people tell me they love the vibe of everything we’re doing at Sublime but they have no idea what Sublime actually does. 

And so

In this piece, I am gonna do a deep-dive on the concrete ways Sublime makes my life better. And how I think it could make yours better too.

Now, you may not use this app, but you will always relate to this problem that Ezra Klein wrote (and Sari used as an inspiration).

I have thousands of photos of my children but few that I’ve set aside to revisit. I have records of virtually every text I’ve sent since I was in college but no idea how to find the ones that meant something. I spent years blasting my thoughts to millions of people on X and Facebook even as I fell behind on correspondence with dear friends. I have stored everything and saved nothing.

What follows is Sari’s attempt to explain the user problems, solution approach and the feature in action. I loved the way she has done it, made it easy to understand and fairly relatable. 

Well done Sari. I wish I am able to write a post like this someday!

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🏡 The Neighborhoods

Rob Stephenson describes his “The Neighborhoods” newsletter in the following manner - It is a not-so-deep dive into every neighborhood in NYC in an effort to create some sort of photographic document of modern-day New York, or at least a record of what I find interesting* on any particular day.

Here’re links to two recent posts: Glendale - Queens, Roosevelt Island - Manhattan

It’s a great format - one locality, some history, some conversation with folks living there and a lot of photos. This is nonfiction taking fiction like form. You may not know these neighbourhoods, and yet you can teleport there. 

I hope there are more such folks documenting localities like this. 

Do you know of any?  

I found Rob’s newsletter through Anne Kadet’s Café Anne newsletter. This particular post about Meadowmere (New York's smallest neighborhood) that she describes as the 'hood that thinks it's a rice paddy that thinks it's a yard sale!!’ is a fun read as well.

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👁️ The Art of Noticing

Rob Walker has been dishing out some great fun & energising reads in his The Art of Noticing newsletter. Here’re two of my recent favourites:

1. Squirrel census,

2. Geocaching 

Stories like these are happening all around us. We fail to notice them. It takes folks like Rob & his newsletter to remind us to ‘notice.’

Rob’s curation of ideas on the same theme are a fantastic set of inspiration as well. I end up checking most of the links every time. 

Finally, if you’ve been a regular, you will recall Rob’s ‘icebreaker’ collection that appeared in post #147

📚 Invitation to a banquet, Icebreakers, Metaphorical Aquariums, Design Ah!

If you’ve not seen it yet, do visit that post and check out Rob’s document. I bet you will bookmark it for future references.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to check the other headliners - “Invitation to a banquet”, “Metaphorical Aquariums” and “Design Ah!”. This is one of my most favorite posts of “Stay Curious” for all these gems.

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✨ Everything else

1. The Flipbook Experiment from The Pudding 

2. Boston Dynamics bids Farewell to HD Atlas (via Video Yes Please)

3. 1 minute long informative tour of Rembrandt’s most famous painting  (via Video Yes Please)

That's all for this week, folks! 

A lot of you missed the last week’s post, so here’s a quick link in case need.

📚 Interview Techniques, Excellent Advices, Anatomy of Narrative Change, Repair Manual

I hope I've earned the privilege of your time.

If you liked this post, please hit the ❤️ below to help spread the word!  Leave a comment or send a message with your feedback. It’s highly helpful & encouraging. 

Pritesh