I’m increasingly convinced that a much more relaxed approach to knowledge consumption – one that involves putting way less pressure on yourself to retain what you read, listen to, or watch – isn’t only more enjoyable, but better for your creative output, too. The first reason for this is that forgetting is a filter.

Oliver Burkeman from his newsletter The Imperfectionist: How to forget what you read

• I’m giving week notes a try to start the year. I like the idea of having a weekly way of sharing things I’ve learned, liked or some bits of life in general. Also, the rhythm of weeks or Veckas just kind of speaks to how my brain works. We’ll see where this goes.
• I just finished up Villager by Tom Cox. A psychedelic collection of stories about a small town on the moors and the people who live there. Neat concept, but if you read it make sure you do it at a consistent clip. I feel like some of the characters references between shorts may have been lost on me. Reading a book around the holidays can be a little choppy. Also, I want to take this opportunity to suggest Tom Cox’s other short story collection, Help the Witch. Just a really great collection of ghost stories and other oddities.
• I’ve also been diving back into Designing Connected Content. I need to brush up on my content and domain modeling for a complex project helping an academic medical center get their arms around a huge ecosystem of digital properties. The book is great! A super nerdy (I mean this in a good way) approach to researching and designing content.
• The melibe viridis is such an alien creature. I literally said whoa when I watched this little clip of it eating!
• I enjoyed reading Starting Off the New Year Without a Smartphone. As a Light Phone user myself, I’m glad they are getting more press so people know there are other options.
• This episode of Hidden Brain was very interesting. “Psychologist Ken Sheldon studies the science of figuring out what you want. He says there are things we can do to make sure our choices align with our deepest values.”