Productive Procrastination #42
Welcome back.
My name is Johannes Kleske, and you’re still subscribed to my personal newsletter. I suddenly found myself with a lot of time on my hands and have decided to revive this newsletter with the popular five things format.
1.
Like many of you, I read quite a lot in several digital formats – from newsletters to books and articles. I’ve always been a fan of eInk displays and have had Kindles for at least 15 to 20 years. But it always remained a challenge for anything outside the Amazon ecosystem. A post by Craig Mod recently pointed me toward a new device: the BOOX Palma (EU store). It’s essentially an Android smartphone with an eInk display (minus the phone capabilities), allowing access to the Google Play Store and any Android app available. So, this device, with the size of an iPhone Pro Max and an eInk display, enables me to use all the typical apps I rely on for reading: Kindle, Libby, Substack, and especially Readwise Reader.
It is the perfect reading device, boasting tremendous battery life and a customizable quality and speed for the eInk display. You can use the volume buttons for page turns or to scroll in reading apps. I’ve kept it free from social media, now reaching for it during commutes, waiting times, or before bed. At 300 €, it’s not inexpensive. However, for someone whose work is based on extensive reading, it has already proven its worth in the few weeks I’ve had it.
2.
I’ve started another newsletter, The Futures Lens, focused on various future-oriented topics. I’ve already published a couple of issues and recently discussed my approach to critical futures on the German podcast Tech & Trara. I distilled the main points from that conversation into the latest issue of the newsletter, which is available in English.
3.
For my German-speaking readers: In the last issue, I mentioned launching a website about critical futures studies with my friend Jonas and planning to organize an event. This endeavor has since evolved into a community with two events already held and a third scheduled for early April. It’s been an absolute joy to see this community come together, including a core team organizing each event. We’ve struck a chord with a more reflexive approach to futures, resonating across academia, corporate foresight, and other future-intersecting areas. The community also enjoys a podcast (also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere else) that explores relevant papers on the subject and features conversations with insightful thinkers and practitioners.
4.
I turned 45 in January, prompting me to decide how to manifest my midlife crisis. As a Western white male in the 2020s, the options seemed to be buying an oven for sourdough pizza or starting trail running. I chose the latter. Jokes aside, over the last year, I genuinely fell in love with running, especially long distances in nature, inspired by Billy Yang’s videos and Courtney Dauwalter’s vibe. I’ve signed up for my first marathon, the Schorfheide Lauf, a community-focused race in nature about an hour north of Berlin.
On that note: The Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon trail race known for its extreme difficulty and unconventional setup. It consists of five loops, each believed to be around 26 miles long, with a total elevation gain comparable to climbing Mount Everest twice. The course is unmarked, and runners navigate only with a map and compass. The challenge is so great that only 17 individuals had completed it by 2023, with no woman having finished all five loops—until yesterday. Jasmin Paris became the first woman ever to finish the Barkley Marathons: #1, #2, #3.
5.
“Curious minds are not only comfortable in the in-betweens, they actively seek out those transitional moments of personal growth. Rather than racing through the uncomfortable phase of not-knowing, they enjoy exploring the gap between what they know and what they don’t know. They can fall in love with problems and revel in what poet Mary Oliver calls “the pleasure of mystery.”
– Anne-Laure Le Cunff in The Curiosity Matrix: 9 Habits of Curious Minds
Have a good one,
Johannes