This week's best things

Last night we cycled to a lake (Norra Barnsjön), had a swim, made a fire, and camped. It was wonderful.

How did we end up with our current feeds?

The Hmm is a Dutch project which is "focused on a better understanding of internet and digital culture".

They produce 'dossiers' of essays, research, and events around particular topics. This collection from April this year looks at how we have ended up with the social feeds we have right now, potential alternatives, and the impact of the current status quo.

"why can’t we have more direct control over what pops up in our feed? Followed up by questions like: what would we actually want our feed to be? What kind of content do we want to see, and how do we want to navigate that content? How do our current feeds actually work and how did we end up with them? We decided to embark on the impossible quest to find the Perfect Feed."

Introduction - The Hmm

How did we end up with our current feeds?… Read More

The Hmmsjef van beers

An immersive search engine for public domain content

Public Work is "an archive of 100,000+ public domain works (scans, prints, images) from The MET, NY Public Library, and other sources."

It's quite fun to play with.

Public Work by Cosmos

Public Work is a visual search engine for public domain content. Explore 100,000+ copyright-free images from The MET, New York Public Library, and other sources

Hybrid Work: How Leaders Build In-Person Moments That Matter

An interesting piece in MIT Sloan Management Review about the elements of effective hybrid working environments.

Lots of workplaces are now - at least in part - far more distributed, remote and/or hybrid than ever before.

But despite this shift being - in lots of cases - almost 5 years old, there is still lots of figuring out that needs to happen around how we can make this new dynamic work as well as possible for the people involved.

Like every aspect of hybrid/remote working, specific intent and clear expectations seem to be (very) important.

"ad hoc models result in people showing up to quiet offices, retreating to conference rooms to be on Zoom all day, and commuting home with a bubbling resentment about having traveled in for no clear reason"

Hybrid Work: How Leaders Build In-Person Moments That Matter | Brian Elliott

Companies find greater success with hybrid work schedules when they make in-person time count.

MIT Sloan Management ReviewBrian Elliott

Dystopian nonsense

In this week's "no, actually this isn't a joke, nor the synopsis of a Black Mirror episode" news from Silicon Valley a new (apparently 'AI-backed) product called "Friend" has launched.

Basically it's a pendant with a microphone in it that you can speak to and then get text responses to your phone from your 'friend' in response.

It sounds awful.

People selling mirrors

Does what it says on the tin, as it says in the account bio "Sometimes when people sell mirrors online, they can't figure out how to get out of the way."