This line is living rent-free in my head right now. Itâs a powerful idea; and a slightly scary one. Because it shows, with brutal clarity, how your priorities and actions actually line up.
This week, I did a quick audit of my Instagram time. Itâs way more than it should be. And for what?
When I looked at the kinds of posts and reels I was watchingâand could even remember a few minutes laterâit was mostly random, in-the-moment stuff. A lot of it felt like Instagramâs god-mode algorithm doing its thing.
Windchime ads. That red-hot-ball guy cleaning old coins on loop. Dashcam feeds. Insane stuff. Weirdly satisfying. Super addictive.
To feel better, Iâve tried shifting some of that scrolling time to the Substack app. It helpsâfor now. But I know this will need another reset soon.
Also, over the weekend, I re-discovered Pink Floyd. David Gilmourâs YouTube channel is a treasure chest. So much magic. So much soul.
Enough chit-chat. Letâs jump into this weekâs wonders, oddities, and stories that made me pause and think.
And now on to the main contentâŚ
đ Stratechery on Content & Community
I first came across Stratechery by Ben Thompson almost a decade ago, thanks to Mukesh nudging us to expand our information diet. I tried reading it back then, but found it dense and overwhelming. Honestly, not much has changed. But now, I know thatâs on me.
Stratechery has its own tasteâcarefully curated, deeply layered. Iâm just not there yet. Still, I try every week. And once in a while, something clicks.
The latest post, Content and Community , did just that. Hereâs the premise in Benâs words:
I have long thought that what happened to content was a harbinger for what would happen to industries of all types. Content was trivially digitized, which means the forces of digital â particularly zero marginal cost reproduction and distribution â manifested in content industries first, but were by no means limited to them. That meant that if you could understand how the Internet impacted publishing â newspapers, books, magazines, music, movies, etc. â you might have a template for what would happen to other industries as they themselves digitized.
The piece lives up to its reputation. It spans the history of communication, dips into copyright law, walks through three phases of the publishing industry, and even detours into the meaning of the word totem pole.
Itâs a fine read with a solid perspective; especially on how to think about content and community in the age of AI.
Worth a read.
And for a bite, hereâs the bit about totem polesâŚ
đŚ PictureTime with Tigerfeathers
Rahul Sanghi and the team at Tigerfeathers have become one of my go-to sources for discovering great, not-so-cool businesses coming out of India.
They have an eye for stories that deserve to be toldâand a style that makes you want to sit with them, even if it takes an hour or two.
Their latest piece on PictureTime tells the story of how Sushil Chaudhary used inflatable cinema theatres to build a backroad to Bollywoodâbringing the magic of movies to the heart of India.
This is PictureTime(image source: Tigerfeathers post)
This story has everything:
A primer on Indian cinema
Almost insider look into how this complex pseudo industry works
A problem weâve all felt around Indian cinema.
A solution that sounds almost too scrappy to be real (most would call it jugaad), only to find itâs powered by serious innovation.
The dreaded Covid times
Losing its path and its soul in turn
And a founder who has stayed at it, pouring his heart into it just for his deep love for cinema.
All the right ingredients for a Bollywood filmâand a fitting debut on every PictureTime screen and the nearest multiplex.
That is quite a mix, and you might think the answer is obvious: part talent, part luck. The usual comfort-food explanation for success.
But the study says otherwise.
Luck, talent, and persistence were necessary, but not enough. The real clue to success showed up elsewhere. In fact, there were two very visible patterns:
The first real clue emerged when the researchers compared the first attempt to the second-to-last attempt (for winners, this was the attempt prior to their breakthrough and for nonwinners, it was the one prior to them throwing in the towel).
And
An interesting pattern emerged in the timing between attempts: for winners, the time interval kept shrinking over time.
The time they spent on each failed attempt was getting shorter and shorter, an effect so powerful it was obvious even between their first and second try.
So what does this tell us?
Winners are incremental accumulators of quality.
They methodically build from strength to strength, until they eventually produce hit after hit.
When you begin a new attempt, break down your previous one into what worked and what didnât. Take the time to consider what high-quality components you can carry forward into your next round and reflect upon those that need to be improved.
It may well be the difference between victory and defeat.
So Garima Mamgain sent me this piece with a quick note: âYou might like it.â
And she was right. I did.
Thatâs the beauty of curating your worldâpeople start noticing what you notice. Sort of like âPaying attention to what youâre paying attention to.â
Anyway, back to the piece.
Here, Catriona Drummond, the original series art director, walks us through how the world of Bluey was builtâfrom its dollhouse proportions and doggy details to its distinctly Brisbanite vibe.
Itâs fascinating to see how deep the design process goes. So much care and craft in creating a world that feels playful, warm, and real. Like this example below:
If you love the show, youâll enjoy this.
I love Bluey (no shame there). Itâs one of the most fun and thoughtful shows Iâve watched with my kids.
đĄ Illustrated History of Picnic Table
From campground to crab shack to suburban backyard, the picnic table is so ubiquitous that it is nearly invisible as a designed object. Yet this ingenious form â a structurally bolted frame that unites bench seats and table into a sturdy package â has remained largely unchanged since the 1930s.
[...]
On the website of The Home Depot, buyers can choose from among 102 models, priced between $109 and $2,260. 2 That seems an impossible variety, and we should be grateful that we typically donât make the purchasing decisions. For most of the past hundred years, we have occupied picnic tables chosen by others, by the operators of car washes and rest stops and fairgrounds, and it is never uncomfortable.
The table may be the star, but the piece really traces the journey of a ritual that feels familiar and joyful to many of us, even outside the United States, where the essay is focused.
You probably didnât open todayâs post expecting something about picnics. But now that itâs here, why not enjoy it fully?
By the way, when was the last time you went on a picnic? What was it like?
There are over 1,100 hotels around the world with Paris in their name.
Vienna is not far behind, but it holds a unique distinction: China has got a monopoly of sorts when it comes to naming hotels with Vienna in their name.
And of course, in Italy, just about every town has a Hotel Rome (or something that sounds just like it).
What was she looking for, and why? That is the story. A smart bit of data analysis, served as a surprisingly fun read.
Her discoveries about Vienna and Bristol (yes, even Bristol is everywhere, often far from the original, and for a surprisingly good reason) are especially worth a look.
đď¸ Mapping New York Chinatown: Interactive Experience
And since weâre on the topic of storytelling, hereâs a format that hints at how physical and digital storytelling can come together. This is the kind of experience that VR and even the metaverse once promised.
It maps how buildings have changed since the 1860s and layers in community stories tied to each space.
As a restorative history project, it builds an architectural archive that honors both the structures and the people who shaped them.
Each conversation, each visual, each emotion is powerful. I wonât try to paraphrase or summarize. Just go experience it for yourself.
And while weâre on storytelling, hereâs a format that shows possibly how we can integrate physical and digital storytelling. This is sort of what VR and (even) metaverse promised.
How the Fall of Dinosaurs Planted the Seeds for Fruit. When the dinosaurs disappeared, Earthâs forests transformedâopening the door for fruit to flourish and new creatures to thrive. This video explores how one mass extinction reshaped life on the planet, turning ancient chaos into the fruit-filled world we know today. Itâs a story of unexpected connections and how loss can spark new beginnings.
That summer, my grandfather taught me about the ongoing process of learning. Though some critics may read failure in his attempt to safely clone dinosaur embryos, his experience helped me to realize that no matter the age, learning never stops. My grandfatherâs learning experience with terrible lizards mirrors my personal experience in my position as Senior Class Co-Treasurer, which required me to learn how to share leadership and how to manage a budget.
ICYMIâŚ
Maalvikaâs post was a clear crowd favorite last week.
You really canât go wrong with a piece that includes gems like this:
âGood work should do at least one of these things: fund the life you actually want to live, align with values you can defend at dinner parties, surround you with people who challenge you to grow, or teach you skills that compound like interest over decades. Great work does several of these at once.â
Flounder Mode is one of my all-time favorites.
Lessons from a Pillow-Fight Arena is a short read that will surprise you in more ways than one.
And these are just three of nearly a dozen exciting pieces from the last post.
If this piece sparked something for you, Iâd love to hear what stood outâleave a comment and letâs keep the conversation alive. And if you know someone whoâs always asking "why?" or "how come?", pass this along to them. The world gets more interesting every time a curious mind shares what theyâve found.
Loved the curation this week.
I have been leaning on reading more Substack and less LinkedIn/Instagram, too. What we consume is who we are.
The piece about inflatable theatres took me back to the time of "tent cinemas" ...