What are you talking about?
Thank you all for joining me on this random experiment - I'm glad you're here!
If you're still weirded out by what it is, I'm going to steal a phrase from a friend who very succinctly described it as 'open journaling'. If you get a bit uncomfortable, bored, or "why is he telling me this?" then I've probably done my job.
The newsletter is called "Potentially Interesting"...
Anyway, to the post!
I don't set many goals in my life, but one thing I want to be really good at is explaining things.
Since I was little (in size and age), precocious and really seeking validation from my peers, I found that being a. somewhat good at school and b. able to explain things made me more valuable and less likely to be made fun of...at least in the classroom.
As I've grown up, I've found that adding c. patience into that mix helps to amplify the explanations - you get to try different ways of inserting an idea into someone's brain...
What if I explained it like a sports game (which I know very little about)? What if I drew pictures for them (which I'm really bad at)? What's the best way to guide them to where my brain is at!?
This stems from the fact that I'm endlessly fascinated by how other people think and understand things. How incredible is it that you'll never really know how another mind works?!
When I examine and look back on my life, I can see that I've enjoyed and gravitated towards activities that require me to explain things:
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I've tutored VCE students since I finished school (nearly 10 years, yikes!), and I'd like to say I'm getting good at it!
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I love playing and teaching boardgames...there's something about understanding a set of rules and distilling it down to a short explanation that people don't lose interest in that brings me a whole lot of satisfaction
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Pitches in hackathons are one of my favourite things to do - having a really short amount of time to come up with a really interesting, punchy way of explaining your idea is super fun!
I love consuming articles, blogs and videos that educate - like:
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SmarterEveryDay (a great science YouTube channel)
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WaitButWhy (long-form explanations of big ideas and concepts)
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3Blue1Brown (math videos that are satisfyingly animated)
It can be highly frustrating, and take a whole lot of time and effort to simply explain a concept, but it's incredibly satisfying when I hit exactly the right metaphor or explanation to communicate the idea.
The joy of seeing another person get it is just fantastic.
So...some questions for you, my lovely readers - is there anything you'd like to know more about? What content do you enjoy that explains things well?
Reply to this email to let me know (or any other feedback you have!) and I'll pop it into the backlog of posts that I'm building up!
Chat soon :)
Real Life Recommendations
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The Three-Body Problem - by Liu Cixin, this series of novels (including Dark Forest and Death's End) are a fascinating exploration of a number of interesting ideas and technologies, written from a new point of view (i.e. the Chinese one). I shan't spoil too much more, except to say that the second book, Dark Forest, is probably one of my favourite sci-fi novels of all time.
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Wingspan - a beautiful new board game that is all about building up your own aviary of birds! The production value of this game is off the charts - just laying it out is a joy in itself. It's not too difficult to pick up, and is super easy to learn. Can be a bit pricey ($70-80ish) but incredibly worth it...I've had it for a few weeks now and it's lovely.
PS. If you're looking for the best prices for boardgames go here or here for great comparison sites!
Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Bookstores - How to Read more Books - I can't remember how I found this video...it's about 40mins long (which you can watch it sped up ;)) but it's a ridiculously great video about discovering the best bookstores around Europe, as well as techniques to read more books!
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Kurt Vonnegut - Shapes of Stories - I've always been fascinated by stories...how to write them, how they work, and what makes them interesting (which may also be the topic of a future post). Vonnegut here lays out some clear frameworks that help to classify stories...and then unveils a broader truth.
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Millenial Farmers - In other musings...should I become a farmer? Tech x Agriculture sounds pretty cool, right?