※ Tame Twitter, "a spiraling process", and 2 podcasts 1 robot
Hi there,
Welcome to the relaunch of my newsletter! It’s been a long time since I’ve written—and, consequently, this letter is a bit longer than usual—but I felt like it was time to break the seal.
First up is the thing I’m most proud of making since I last wrote, and it isn’t even a piece of professional journalism or filmmaking. It’s just something I “toyed” into existence with some simple pre-existing components—much like a kindergartener would do with unit blocks. It’s called Tame Twitter, and it makes twitter.com look like this:
I call it “tame” because it changes the site from a social network into a harmless linkblog. Or to put it another way: instead of a slavering, psyche-devouring horrorbeast breathing hot dread across your cheeks, Twitter becomes more like a chocolate lab dozing peacefully on your rug.
To use it yourself, first install the Stylus browser extension (Chrome/Firefox), and then go here to install Tame Twitter.
It only takes a few clicks, but it made a significant difference in my quality of life online, which is why I wanted to share it with you. What's more, “taming” my Twitter experience made me notice how much more I appreciate slower, more direct forms of “social media”—e.g., writing this newsletter. There are about fifty of you on the other end of this, compared to roughly 100x that on Twitter. But you’re all here very intentionally, asking for this to show up in your crowded inbox, which is pretty inspiring. (Thanks again, by the way. )
But Tame Twitter itself is only part of what I wanted to share with you. The other part is more about the spirit in which I made it. I didn't really know how to concisely describe or capture this spirit until I stumbled upon the phrase lifelong kindergarten.
Here’s how Mitchel Resnick, the MIT Media Lab professor who coined the phrase, puts it:
We are inspired by the way kindergarten students learn through a spiraling process in which they imagine what they want to do, create a project based on their ideas, play with their creations, share their ideas and creations with others, and reflect on their experiences – all of which leads them to imagine new ideas and new projects.
This “spiraling process” is exactly how I found myself dorking around with CSS and popping the hood on Twitter’s source code even though I have no programming or web design skills. And that’s what tried to document in this longer post I wrote, called “CRISPR for Twitter.” (CRISPR is a science thing; the nerdy metaphor will make more sense if you read the post.)
Superficially, it's just a behind-the-scenes process blog. But I think the deeper motive I had for writing it was about trying to create a sense of Montessori-esque possibility around something that you may have been "trained" to regard as intimidating, opaque, or impossible. Like dumping a bunch of wooden unit blocks on a rug and being like, OK! Have at it!
Because it doesn't really matter that much how (or if) you use Twitter. But the sense that it is just as kindergartenable as that pile of blocks—that, for some reason, is something I can't help but care about, and care that you know about. I suppose this is the same motive I had for writing about impossible math problems or directing a music video about the scientific method. I mean, you don't have to toy around with these particular blocks. But now you know they're there, and that you could.
What else out there could be amenable to this "spiraling process", and what does it look like when people take that question seriously? Here are some examples:
- The Explorist, a podcast "about the outdoors" in the same way that Radiolab is "about science." The latest episode, "To Eat a Mouse," demystifies so-called "survival skills" in a very unit-blocks-y way.
- R , "the world's first emotional 6-axis life form." Created by the (gloriously, perfectly, sublimely named) studio Teenage Engineering, this is what "a sense of Montessori-esque possibility" × A.I. looks like. (👈That's a video, cued up to the best part. Trust me.)
- The Director's Cut, a podcast by the Director's Guild of America. How do mere mortals reconcile a "spiraling process" with the realities of a complicated professional craft? That's what these director-on-director interviews are really about, not just the nuts and bolts of filmmaking (although that's in there, too). I almost think of it as a kind of self-help series in disguise: "lifelong kindergartening for grown-ups." (Best starter eps: Greta Gerwig talking to Spike Jonze about being a first timer; or Michael Mann interviewing Ridley Scott, which is like a physicist interviewing a chef.)
Whew! That’s all for now. Seal, broken. 🤓Thanks for reading,
J