I’m back in Brighton this week after a short trip to give a keynote at Book 2.0 in Lisbon last week. It was a brilliant event, with very high calibre speakers (and me). The talk I gave was called ‘5 Reasons To Be Optimistic About The Future Of Digital Attention’, and it seemed to go down really well - I’ll share the video when it goes live. If you need someone to talk at your event, especially if you want some practical optimism in these weird times, hit reply and we can talk!

Also - George Walkley (who we worked with when he was leading digital at Hachette) has just published a new book giving you a practical framework for strategy in an age of AI. George is one of the smartest people I know, so I strongly recommend you order this now!

💻 DATA POINT: Our friend Ash Mann has published a beautiful report detailing the hidden labour done by digital teams in cultural orgs Over 38% of respondents said they did 4-6 hours a week of hidden labour, and 16% said they did 7-10 hours. That’s a whole extra day!

The Hidden Cost (interactive report)

John Wilson on his New Film ‘The History of Concrete’ (8-min read)

Canyon Groove (musical toy)

Turning a Book into a Brains Trust (AI notebook resources)

How I Found My Wife on Blackberry Messenger (5-min read)

The Encyclopaedia of Movie Cats (Coffee Table Book)

Dream Machines (4 episode podcast)

The Great Disintermediation (7-min read)

The Seinfeld Chronicles (scrollytelling data viz)

📣 What We Can Learn About Creative Friction From SNL (5-min read) 📣

The Hidden Cost (interactive report)
This is the full report I linked to above. It’s well worth reading, even if you’re not in the cultural sector, as some of the ‘hidden work’ that Ash Mann details is common across all digital teams. It’s also really beautifully designed!

John Wilson on his New Film ‘The History of Concrete’ (8-min read)
John Wilson’s documentaries weave together a collage of snapshots from New York City to reveal surprisingly emotional truths about how we live together in cities. I absolutely love his films, and this interview in It’s Nice That is a great insight into his craft. We call what we do ‘story finding’ not ‘story telling’ at Storythings, and John Wilson is one of the best ‘story finders’ out there.

Canyon Groove (musical toy)
After sharing an interactive explanation of how vinyl records work a few weeks ago, I had to include this fun musical web toy, that takes the profile of a number of US canyons, and imagines what they would sound like if they were vinyl grooves.

Turning a Book into a Brains Trust (AI notebook resources)
Steven Johnson has been working with Gemini Notebook for a while now, taking his extraordinary book research process and turning it into a custom AI resource that you can question and build on. He’s extended that product idea further, including important books from writers like Annie Duke, Michael Pollan and Steven Pinker. I still have lots of reservations about the way AI is starting to emerge as different products (like Meta’s Muse tamagotchi), but this is something I can actually imagine using.

How I Found My Wife on Blackberry Messenger (5-min read)
Second-hand tech company BackMarket has started a new brand publication about ‘slow tech’. One of the first articles is from Storythings’ very own Chris Mitchell, recalling how he met his first wife over Blackberry Messenger. I love his insights into how BBM was a more human form of digital connection than today’s dating apps.

The Encyclopaedia of Movie Cats (Coffee Table Book)
A24’s physical product store is full of things I wish I could buy if I had more money/room to store things. I’m not a cat person per se, but I love the absolute dedication to the bit in this book. It’s not ‘AN Encyclopaedia of Movie Cats’, it’s ‘THE Encyclopaedia of Movie Cats’. I love the double page spread of anonymous cats all just called ‘kitty'.

Dream Machines (4 episode podcast)
This is a new podcast series from the brilliant, curious brains of Alexis Madrigal and Robin Sloan, exploring AI with “a healthy dose of skepticism, and true independence from industry hype.” This will be smart, creative, optimistic and practical. Sign up and listen!

The Great Disintermediation (7-min read)
Another great post from Brxnd.ai, reporting on the recent Rebooting conference in NYC. Worth reading for their account of how Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, is using three scenarios to imagine the future of his publication in an AI world.

The Seinfeld Chronicles (scrollytelling data viz)
Storythings’ alumni (and awesome data viz storyteller) Duncan Geere has been helping Andy Kirk turn his limited run book project The Seinfeld Chronicles into an interactive scrollytelling experience. It’s extremely geeky, funny and totally unnecessary, which means I love it.

📣 What We Can Learn About Creative Friction From SNL (5-min read) 📣
In the latest edition of my Attention Matters series about creative friction in content workflows, I wanted to talk about one of the hardest environments I’ve ever worked in - live broadcast television. It turns out that this is a great way of exploring my themes of good, bad and hidden friction. I’m just glad I don’t have to do that kind of thing anymore!

Friend of Storythings John V Willshire posted this excellent short supercut of Factory Records supremo Tony Wilson talking about the importance of Praxis. In other words - doing the work, and finding out what it means afterwards. We 100% agree!

WATCH JOHN’S VIDEO 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