This week's best things

New things from the Rijksmuseum, a heuristic framework for content, more on the limitations of genAI, a Japanese farmer creating techno bangers, a call for leaders to explore different ways of thinking and working, a look at the impact of 2024's tech trends, and an interesting Radiohead cover.

This week's best things
Photo by Abhay Rautela / Unsplash

Rijksmuseum Collectie Online

Last week the Rijsmuseum launched their new online collections platform which replaces the much-admired Rijksstudio.

It has been interesting to see the various Rijksmuseum folks, and their supplier partners posting about the project over the last few days. What is very clear is that an enormous amount of time (someone mentioned they'd been working on this for over 4 years), effort, and - undoubtedly - money, has gone into this work.

The Rijksmuseum is one of the leading museums in the world when it comes to digital initiatives and tends to end up seting or at least informing what the sector understands in terms of 'what good looks like'. So it will be interesting to see the ripple effect across the sector of them taking the approach they have.

Rijksmuseum

A heuristic framework for content (AKA rules of thumb for impactful content)

Not sure how I missed this when it was published in July but this is a great piece from the brilliant Lauren Pope.

Lauren is a smart thinker (and doer) on content design and this guide is super super useful.

"‘Heuristic’ is a clever-sounding word for something simple and helpful: a shortcut, a rule of thumb, a guideline to help you evaluate and solve problems.

A heuristic framework gives you a quick, agile, low-cost way to assess something. The framework is made up of individual heuristics that each help you look for specific qualities or standards in the thing you’re reviewing. By following the framework, you can find issues and recommend improvements in a structured, consistent way."

A heuristic framework for content (AKA rules of thumb for impactful content)
Learn how to assess and improve your content with a heuristic framework, a set of 10 simple rules of thumb for impactful content.

Generative AI might not be the efficiency booster you hope it will be

A salient reminder of the limitations and challenges of using AI via Richard Shotton writing for Marketing Week, "There's a study from Dell'Acqua at Harvard Business School that suggests cutting edge AI tools can backfire as they often lead to users blindly accepting the results. Or in his words people are guilty of "Falling Asleep at the Wheel""

Richard Shotton on LinkedIn: There's a new study from Dell'Acqua at Harvard Business Scholl that…
There's a new study from Dell'Acqua at Harvard Business Scholl that suggests cutting edge AI tools can backfire as they often lead to users blindly accepting…

The ChatGPT secret: is that text message from your friend, your lover – or a robot?

More on genAI, this time an article in the Guardian on the surprising ways in which people are using tools like ChatGPT to work through relationship issues, as therapists and in a host of other potentially useful but mostly worrying scenarios.

"Tim started telling the platform about himself, his wife, Jill, and their recurring conflicts. They have been married for nearly 20 years, but still struggle to communicate; during arguments, Tim wants to talk things through, while Jill seeks space. ChatGPT has helped him to understand their differences and manage his own emotional responses, Tim says. He likens it to a friend “who can help translate from ‘husband’ to ‘wife’ and back, and tell me if I’m being reasonable”"

The ChatGPT secret: is that text message from your friend, your lover – or a robot?
People are turning to chatbots to solve all their life problems, and they like its answers. But are they on a very slippery slope?

77-year old Japanese farmer creates techno bangers

"Bunji Kasai, a 77-year-old from rural Japan, has become an unlikely sensation in the world of electronic music. After decades of farming, he discovered his passion for techno by experimenting with his grandson’s synthesizer, creating innovative sounds that earned him admiration and dreams of collaborating with renowned artists like Squarepusher, Derrick May or Aphex Twin."

Voltage Labs on Instagram: “Bunji Kasai, a 77-year-old from rural Japan, has become an unlikely sensation in the world of electronic music. After decades of farming, he discovered his passion for techno by experimenting with his grandson’s synthesizer, creating innovative sounds that earned him admiration and dreams of collaborating with renowned artists like Squarepusher, Derrick May or Aphex Twin. His story has inspired many, proving that creativity and reinvention have no age limit. Though Kasai is sadly a fictional character from the mockumentary R65 The Silver Generation, his journey remains a poignant and motivational tale of possibility and vitality in later life.”
616K likes, 2,651 comments - voltage.labs on November 30, 2024: “Bunji Kasai, a 77-year-old from rural Japan, has become an unlikely sensation in the world of electronic music. After decades of farming, he discovered his passion for techno by experimenting with his grandson’s synthesizer, creating innovative sounds that earned him admiration and dreams of collaborating with renowned artists like Squarepusher, Derrick May or Aphex Twin. His story has inspired many, proving that creativity and reinvention have no age limit. Though Kasai is sadly a fictional character from the mockumentary R65 The Silver Generation, his journey remains a poignant and motivational tale of possibility and vitality in later life.”.

These Times Ask More of Us

I enjoyed this essay from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Cassie Robinson and Sophia Parker on how the permacrisis that is engulfing...everything, could be an opportunity for leaders to think differently.

I see so many cultural leaders struggling to try and sustain 'business as usual' against a back of uncertainty and instablity, when perhaps the more rewarding and successful work could be in trying to explore and pursue alternative futures. I realise that is difficult for a whole number of very good reasons, but this is a worthwhile read nonetheless.

"Rebecca Solnit has written about how crises can become powerful calls to action, offering moments of opportunity and fresh perspective. The therapist and author Prentis Hemphill has spoken about how chaos doesn’t only destabilize norms but also holds possibility. [...] In every moment, glimmers of alternative futures appear. The present is made up not only of the knowable and measurable, but also of what is latent or hidden: the stuff of our hopes, imaginations, and spiritual existence. What might happen if we treated those as real, too? How might they shape different choices and priorities?"

These Times Ask More of Us (SSIR)
Practices that will help social sector leaders prepare to usher in a new world.

Bluesky Mosaic

Warning this may include very NSFW content.

Spotted via the Web Curios newsletter this website - built on top of the Bluesky API - "pulls a selection of images from the Bluesky firehose as they are posted and displays them on a webpage, with the pictures swapping out every second or so. This is…this is DIZZYING and slightly mad"

It includes a lot animals photos but also a lot of adult/not safe for work content. But it is also an interesting example of the sort of little experiments people are building with the Bluesky API which is open and usable in a way the Twitter API ceased to be a long time ago.

Bluesky Mosaic
Real-time mosaic of all images posted to Bluesky

Last week I shared some trend prediction for 2025. Here is a look back at how the tech trends of 2024 have impacted lives around the world. It's an interesting look at the actual day-to-day changes that these tech trends have helped to make happen.

How 2024’s tech trends changed our lives
From AI-powered classrooms in Mali to EV taxis in Vietnam, people worldwide are seeing opportunities from this year’s biggest tech shifts.

Avie Sheck and his mum covering Creep

A really quite great acoustic/classical Indian cover of Radiohead's Creep.

"What if Creep by Radiohead had classical Indian Raags in it? Well... here's what it would sound like!! :) We used Raag Bilawal for anyone interested in a deeper dive. My mom was visiting me last week and we decided to jam a little bit and heres what turned out."

This week's consumption

I'm sitting in a hotel in Copenhagen having just watched Sigur Rós perform with a 41-piece orchestra, which was very very wonderful. They are touring this show through 2025 around east Asia, Australia, and Europe.

We watched what must be a strong contender for the worst film on Netflix, A Paris Christmas Waltz. Genuinely, jaw-droppingly awful. And not in a funny or enjoyable way, just bad.

And the reason we watched that? Because we needed a palette cleanser after watching the very harrowing and depressing Civil War from Alex Garland. Not especially enjoyable either.

I listened to a lot of East India Youth, Heaven, How Long is still a banger.

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