This week has been all about the sun - mostly too much of it, and then for a magical few minutes, hardly any of it. I managed to borrow a pair of eclipse glasses from a friend and walked down to Hove Lagoon to watch the eclipse. It was lovely to see so many people out to experience it, and I ended up lending my glasses to about 30 other people so they could see it for themselves. It was a small moment of informal community joy, and I loved it.

It made me think about ways I could create similar moments of joy for other people every day, so I’m going to resolve to do that from now on. What’s the loveliest moment of joy you’ve experienced or helped create recently? I’d love to know!

I’d love it if you could fill in and share this survey about creative friction with your communities. The data we’re getting from it is SUPER interesting, and we’re looking forward to sharing it in autumn.

💻 DATA POINT: Talking of data, Press Gazette have released a fascinating report about what UK national news brands are most popular amongst under 35 year olds. The really surprising stat for me is how big Yahoo! still is. They get 1.8bn minutes of attention in the UK per month, and 157.4m of that is from under 35s. Which is more than Channel 4, who get 124.3m minutes. Maybe Yahoo! should buy Channel 4?

Press Gazette report on biggest news brands for under 35s (6-min read)

Joe Lycett’s Big BMAG Exhibition (5-min read)

The Maths Explaining Why Everything Looks The Same (12-min read, but REALLY worth it!)

Widthipedia (lovely internet toy)

What Was The Internet? (5 long reads)

Tom Scott’s Advice For Creators (24-min watch)

The One Time Zuck’s Prediction Was Right (8-min read)

The Surprising Truth Behind Viral 80s VHS Dating Videos (10-min read)

Incredible Site Letting You Virtually ‘Stowaway’ on Flights (interactive site)

📣 How To Reduce Online Addiction (7-min read) 📣

Press Gazette report on biggest news brands for under 35s (6-min read)
There’s a lot of really interesting data in here, and it counters our assumptions that all young people do is watch TikTok and Instagram videos. For example -which newspaper do you think has the highest proportion of U35s in their audience? Click the link above - the answer might surprise you!

Joe Lycett’s Big BMAG Exhibition (5-min read)
Talking of little bits of joy - I love Joe Lycett’s comedy, and his paintings have a very David Shrigley-esque appeal. I like the beginning of this interview on It’s Nice That where the journalist has to slightly apologise for an article the same week in which INT slagged off celebrities trying to be artists. Lycett is the real deal though.

The Maths Explaining Why Everything Looks The Same (12-min read, but REALLY worth it!)
We’ve posted Lauren Leek’s data investigations before, but this one is truly awesome. She dives deep into the maths that explain why algorithms end up serving us all the same stuff, and comes up with one simple fix we could do (although regulation will make that easier). As ever, the reason why companies don’t do this themselves is simple - its about money.

Widthipedia (lovely internet toy)
I love VOLE.WTF - along with Neal.fun its one of the places that keeps the spirit of the playful web alive. This is a simple but excellent idea - it serves different Wikipedia pages based on the height and width of your web browser. So best viewed on a desktop, where you can resize the browser, than a mobile phone.

What Was The Internet? (5 long reads)
I’ll admit I’ve not read these five pieces from Boston Review yet, but with writers including Joanna Walsh and Cory Doctorow, I’ll be making the time to read them this weekend.

Tom Scott’s Advice For Creators (24-min watch)
We had the great pleasure of working with Tom Scott ages ago on one of his Youtube Series, and this is a brilliant interview with lots of really practical advice about how to build your audience on Youtube. His framework for thinking about traffic sources - hub/hero/help - is simple but really effective.

The One Time Zuck’s Prediction Was Right (8-min read)
There’s been lots of good takedowns of Mark Zuckerberg’s 6,000 word essay on the future of AI, which falls into the same trap as his previous pieces about the future of the metaverse. It’s simple! Let him run everything and get rid of regulation and the world will be a better place! But there was one time, back in 2007, when Mark did accurately predict how his inventions would shape our lives. Perhaps a bit too accurately - the video of his talk has been almost erased from the web, despite it being just a few months after Steve Job’s famous iPhone launch. This is an article I wrote a few years ago about those two presentations, and how they have shaped the world we now live in.

The Surprising Truth Behind Viral 80s VHS Dating Videos (10-min read)
I had really mixed emotions reading this. The craft of the team making these videos is awesome, and the results are sweet, touching and funny. I would have liked to hear more from the people who genuinely believed they were real, though. Every prank, even the most creative and elegant prank, has a victim.

Incredible Site Letting You Virtually ‘Stowaway’ on Flights (interactive site)
I’ve put this link (via friend of Storythings Steve Bryant) towards the end because you’ll probably lose any productivity for the rest of the day. Type in your location, and it will show you planes and satellites that are currently overhead. Click on a plane, and you can then see live 3D Google Earth views from the plane, and ‘stowaway’ while it is flying along. It’s truly incredible- I recommend finding a plane that’s coming in to land somewhere!

📣 How To Reduce Online Addiction (7-min read) 📣
To counter the rabbit hole that was the last link, here’s a great piece from our Futures In Draft project from fashion campaigner Venetia La Manna about how to spend less time looking at your screen. It’s nearly the weekend! Close your laptop! Put down your phone! Go sit in the sun! Apply sunscreen! Get an ice cream!

Friend of Storythings Noah Brier is the founder of Alephic and Brxnd.ai, and the smartest person we know about AI and marketing. I love the way he focuses on what he’s learnt by doing, not just think pieces. He’s recently updated his list of 33 things he’s learnt about AI, and it’s full of really great and practical insights.

READ NOAH’S POST HERE>

Drop us a line if you have anything you’d like us to share in a future edition of this newsletter, or of course if you have any comments or suggestions for us!

Have a great weekend!

Matt, Anjali, Hugh, and the team