tracydurnell-com-8nhp1w.txt (42736B)
1 [1]Skip to the content 2 Search 3 [3]Tracy Durnell's Mind Garden 4 Thinking and Learning In Public 5 Menu 6 7 • [5]Blog 8 □ [6]All posts 9 □ [7]Featured Posts 10 □ [8]Articles 11 □ [9]Post Index 12 □ [10]Microblog (external) 13 □ [11]Links to blog about 14 • [12]Big Q’s 15 □ [13]Future of the Internet 16 □ [14]Information Diet 17 □ [15]Making Culture 18 □ [16]Transforming Capitalism 19 □ [17]Resisting Fascism 20 □ [18]Women’s Equality 21 □ [19]Thinking Better 22 □ [20]Creative Processes 23 □ [21]Writing Fiction 24 • [22]About 25 □ [23]About Tracy 26 □ [24]Start Here 27 □ [25]Now 28 □ [26]Weeknotes 29 □ [27]All Pages 30 • [28]Books 31 □ [29]Read in 2025 32 □ [30]Past Reading 33 □ [31]Book Reviews 34 • [32]Tunes 35 □ [33]Listened in 2025 36 □ [34]Birthday Playlists 37 □ [35]Best of Year Playlists 38 □ [36]Favorite Albums 39 • [37]Eats 40 □ [38]Recipes I’ve Made 41 □ [39]Recipes to Try 42 • [40]Links 43 □ [41]Blogroll 44 □ [42]Interesting People 45 □ [43]Cool Artists 46 □ [44]Neat Websites 47 □ [45]Small Businesses 48 □ [46]Graphic Design Resources 49 50 Menu 51 Search 52 Search for: [49][ ] [50][Search] 53 Close search 54 Close Menu 55 56 • [53]BlogShow sub menu 57 □ [55]All posts 58 □ [56]Featured Posts 59 □ [57]Articles 60 □ [58]Post Index 61 □ [59]Microblog (external) 62 □ [60]Links to blog about 63 • [61]Big Q’sShow sub menu 64 □ [63]Future of the Internet 65 □ [64]Information Diet 66 □ [65]Making Culture 67 □ [66]Transforming Capitalism 68 □ [67]Resisting Fascism 69 □ [68]Women’s Equality 70 □ [69]Thinking Better 71 □ [70]Creative Processes 72 □ [71]Writing Fiction 73 • [72]AboutShow sub menu 74 □ [74]About Tracy 75 □ [75]Start Here 76 □ [76]Now 77 □ [77]Weeknotes 78 □ [78]All Pages 79 • [79]BooksShow sub menu 80 □ [81]Read in 2025 81 □ [82]Past Reading 82 □ [83]Book Reviews 83 • [84]TunesShow sub menu 84 □ [86]Listened in 2025 85 □ [87]Birthday Playlists 86 □ [88]Best of Year Playlists 87 □ [89]Favorite Albums 88 • [90]EatsShow sub menu 89 □ [92]Recipes I’ve Made 90 □ [93]Recipes to Try 91 • [94]LinksShow sub menu 92 □ [96]Blogroll 93 □ [97]Interesting People 94 □ [98]Cool Artists 95 □ [99]Neat Websites 96 □ [100]Small Businesses 97 □ [101]Graphic Design Resources 98 99 • [102]BlogShow sub menu 100 □ [104]All posts 101 □ [105]Featured Posts 102 □ [106]Articles 103 □ [107]Post Index 104 □ [108]Microblog (external) 105 □ [109]Links to blog about 106 • [110]Big Q’sShow sub menu 107 □ [112]Future of the Internet 108 □ [113]Information Diet 109 □ [114]Making Culture 110 □ [115]Transforming Capitalism 111 □ [116]Resisting Fascism 112 □ [117]Women’s Equality 113 □ [118]Thinking Better 114 □ [119]Creative Processes 115 □ [120]Writing Fiction 116 • [121]AboutShow sub menu 117 □ [123]About Tracy 118 □ [124]Start Here 119 □ [125]Now 120 □ [126]Weeknotes 121 □ [127]All Pages 122 • [128]BooksShow sub menu 123 □ [130]Read in 2025 124 □ [131]Past Reading 125 □ [132]Book Reviews 126 • [133]TunesShow sub menu 127 □ [135]Listened in 2025 128 □ [136]Birthday Playlists 129 □ [137]Best of Year Playlists 130 □ [138]Favorite Albums 131 • [139]EatsShow sub menu 132 □ [141]Recipes I’ve Made 133 □ [142]Recipes to Try 134 • [143]LinksShow sub menu 135 □ [145]Blogroll 136 □ [146]Interesting People 137 □ [147]Cool Artists 138 □ [148]Neat Websites 139 □ [149]Small Businesses 140 □ [150]Graphic Design Resources 141 142 Categories 143 [151]Featured [152]Learning [153]Meta [154]Writing 144 145 What to read? Big questions as filter and frame (Part 7) 146 147 • Post author By [155]Tracy Durnell 148 • Post date [156]August 16, 2025 149 • [157]4 Comments on What to read? Big questions as filter and frame (Part 7) 150 • ❤️ 151 152 This is part seven of a series on tackling wants, managing my media diet, and 153 finding enough. Each post stands alone. See the introduction on “[158]the 154 mindset of more” for links to all posts in the series. 155 156 Social media and streaming subscriptions encourage us to [159]gorge on the glut 157 of information (Harjas Sandhu describes [160]“hoarding type scrolling” that 158 sounds veeeery familiar), promising that the algorithm will feed us the best. 159 Instead of helping us practice discernment, corporate platforms offer us an 160 all-you-can-eat buffet of candy. Yet as Olga Koutseridi [161]writes, 161 “low-quality info is designed to leave us craving more instead of leaving us 162 feeling satisfied.” We keep eating and eating, but there’s nothing of substance 163 to sustain us. 164 165 I think curiosity is innately good, and that there’s value in learning about 166 many aspects of the world for no more reason than that it is interesting. At 167 the same time, I have limited time and capacity for thinking — I need [162]some 168 sort of filter for what to read, especially as I make efforts [163]to slow my 169 pace. The morass of information online is what brought us algorithmic curation 170 and now pushes genAI — but [164]corporate algorithms encourage rage and 171 polarization and create [165]“curiosity ruts”, so I [166]avoid them. 172 173 How can I create my own mental algorithm for choosing what to read? 174 175 For me, reading and blogging are interconnected; [167]what I read influences 176 what I write about. I’m working on flipping that around, with the goal that 177 [168]what I want to write about determines what I read. But how to decide what 178 to write about, if not by what I read? 179 180 What I’m trying is using [169]my Big Questions as a structure for curiosity, a 181 way to practice more intentionality in what I spend my time thinking about. 182 I’ve been working on this for a few years, but I feel like I’m getting a better 183 handle on it now. 184 185 tl;dr I’m basically doing [170]research projects for fun 😉 186 187 Since I started this experiment, I’ve noticed I’m less driven to read random 188 stuff online because I’m so excited about this playful approach to reading. The 189 carrot method — giving myself exciting things to think about — has worked way 190 better than the stick method of deleting my feed reader from my phone so that 191 the only thing I had to read was my Read Later app, which instead drove me to 192 read the Bluesky and mastodon.social Discover feeds (do not recommend) in a 193 desperate quest for novelty and news. Glad I dodged that becoming a habit 🙌 194 195 (I personally dislike video and podcasts, so I’m talking about reading in this 196 piece, but I think the same approach applies to any media type.) 197 198 The Big Questions framing 199 200 I got the framing of [171]Big Questions at an [172]Oliver Burkeman workshop. I 201 recall it as a tangential mention but it immediately sent me spinning. As 202 simple an idea as it is to identify some key overarching questions in your 203 life, sometimes we need to put a name to something to really get it. 204 205 Anne-Laure Le Cunff recounts advice Richard Feynman gave “to keep a dozen of 206 your favorite problems constantly present in your mind,” and describes [173] 207 favorite problems as “a curiosity engine”: 208 209 Your favorite problems form a prism that separates incoming information 210 into a spectrum of ideas — a frame that allows you to deliberately filter 211 distractions, direct your attention, and nurture your curiosity. 212 213 Last year, I [174]wanted to do more self-directed writing, but it was 214 challenging not to be reactive. This year, I’m discovering that self-guided 215 reading is the other half of the equation. 216 217 Big questions give me a reason to seek rather than simply receive, and are 218 broad enough to provide direction without constraint. 219 220 Turning directed curiosity into big questions 221 222 Reading towards questions gives purpose to my curiosity. Curiosity comes in two 223 styles: receptive and directed. Receptive curiosity is openness to learning; 224 directed curiosity is more active, and [175]invites you deeper. Allen Pike 225 [176]observes that the internet primarily serves our receptive curiosity: 226 227 By occasionally picking things to go deep on, you balance out the otherwise 228 broad information diet we all get by default by being on the internet, 229 consuming media, and just kind of being a modern human. 230 231 My big questions coalesced out of my receptive curiosity reading; I identified 232 my first big questions in 2023 by reflecting on what I’d been thinking and 233 writing about and looking for overarching themes. I first listed off a bunch of 234 smaller questions within that theme, then worked backwards to find a bigger 235 question uniting them all. Defining these questions made me enunciate for 236 myself exactly what it was I was wondering, a process I found helpful in 237 itself. 238 239 Last fall, I realized that my big questions didn’t align with my main interests 240 anymore, so I created a few new ones and retired a couple. Updating my [177]big 241 question pages a couple-three times a year also nudges me to notice which 242 questions I’ve been neglecting and might like to put some attention towards, or 243 retire. 244 245 Big questions are a self-created tool that serves my thinking, not the other 246 way around. I don’t treat them as a boundary to my curiosity, but can expand or 247 add to my questions when I need. The questions are big enough to keep exploring 248 within for a year or more, still offering plenty of the novelty I crave. I 249 think of the Big Questions as high level themes, and blog posts as a way to 250 explore sub-questions within them. 251 252 How this changes my reading 253 254 The feed reader and beyond 255 256 I subscribe to a ton of feeds, ever-changing, which showers me in riches of 257 information that satisfy my broad curiosity, some directly from topical blogs 258 and some shared by [178]cool people. Earlier this year, I reoriented the way I 259 think of the topic-specific blogs and newsletters I follow, and moved them from 260 my blogroll page onto my big question pages. It’s now easier for me to unfollow 261 and refollow topical feeds as my focus shifts between questions. 262 263 I’ve also been more proactive in seeking out online articles related to my 264 questions — I’ve been using [179]Search My Site, [180]Marginalia Search, and 265 appending Reddit to DDG searches to seek out opinions and recommendations. 266 These smaller, weirder information pools yield some intriguing results. (There 267 are so many personal websites out there guys!) 268 269 Choosing not to read *good* online content 270 271 Marco Giancotti points out that [181]weeding out the bad stuff isn’t the hard 272 part of deciding what to read (emphasis mine): 273 274 Filtering out spam and slop is relatively easy with the right tools and a 275 little thought, at least at an emotional level. 276 277 The much tougher job, I think, is giving up on things that would be good, 278 meaningful, fulfilling, and useful in order to do things that are even more 279 so—or, to be precise, to do things that are better aligned with what I 280 really care about right now. The hard part is dealing with the fact that, 281 whatever I may try, I will never get to do the vast majority of those 282 amazing activities. 283 284 I’m of two minds here: I don’t want to ignore everything that isn’t immediately 285 useful, but recognize that I read a lot of things that leave me with nothing 286 more than “cool🤷♀️” (or [182]political stuff that ties me in a knot of nerves 287 and anger). I don’t want to fall prey to utilitarianism, [183]reading only what 288 has a tangible, immediate takeaway, but also find I do get more satisfaction 289 from going deep. 290 291 Oliver Burkeman writes about accepting our finitude in Four Thousand Weeks, 292 commenting (emphasis mine): 293 294 “Social media is a giant machine for getting you to spend your time caring 295 about the wrong things, but for the same reason, it’s also a machine for 296 getting you to care about too many things, even if they’re each 297 indisputably worthwhile.” 298 299 I cannot care about everything, and trying to prevents me from going deep on 300 the things I care most about. Wendell Berry puts it: “To know some things well 301 is to know other things not so well, or not at all. Knowledge is always 302 surrounded by ignorance.” 303 304 Accepting my own interests 305 306 I [184]use my Read Later app as [185]the filter point between my shoulds and my 307 interests; everything I encounter online and want to read gets saved there. I 308 tag articles with key topics and themes (including “mindset of more” for 309 articles related to this series) to let me see only articles related to my 310 questions. When a bit of time has passed from saving the article and I am less 311 emotionally invested, I can more easily let go of the things that I imagine 312 “someone like me” ought to read. Looking into these “should” articles often 313 exposes tender spots of (typically unwarranted) inadequacy, or what-if’s around 314 choices long since made. 315 316 What this ultimately requires is self-knowledge and self-acceptance — to 317 release our imagined selves and [186]“navigate by aliveness.” We must not judge 318 our own curiosities as unworthy, or torment ourselves that we ought to be 319 different people than we are. Whatever we are interested in, however 320 idiosyncratic, holds meaning for us, and that’s what counts. 321 322 (It is possible to gently shift your own interests towards self-actualization, 323 especially if resistance is your barrier — Tara McMullin [187]names this 324 “discrepancy reduction.”) 325 326 Curating reading lists 327 328 After reading around a question for a while online, I start to get a better 329 feel for where I should dig in to books. The internet primarily produces 330 breadth, but books offer depth. 331 332 In the past, I would pick a single book as representative of a topic I was 333 broadly curious about and call it good. Now, I’m going more [188]research-style 334 , collecting a stack of books on the same topic, knowing full well that I won’t 335 read them all*. 336 337 *(My library system allows us to keep books for up to three months if there are 338 no active holds so my eyes are always bigger than my reading time 😅) 339 340 I start off by [189]browse-searching the library catalog for books related to a 341 question that’s been niggling at me — this spring one has been: in the age of 342 generative AI, what’s the value in craftsmanship? — and collecting potential 343 titles into [190]a list. Of course, I have my own answer to this question, but 344 the meaning of making can be a tricky thing to describe, so I wanted to see how 345 others have done so, and explore some different angles: 346 347 • What’s the value of art and craftsmanship to the creator, to the receiving 348 audience, to society? 349 • How have we dealt with similar challenges to craftsmanship in the past, and 350 how is generative AI different? 351 • What do artists, writers, academics, craftspeople think? 352 • What is craft, and how do we learn it? How is what generative AI does 353 different than what human creators are doing? 354 355 I try to keep the lists generously open-ended — since these are library books I 356 don’t have to pay for, I have nothing to lose from trying something a bit out 357 there besides a bit of time. (I had been keeping a single list with all my 358 questions crammed together but have finally taken the time to separate them out 359 😉) Art books, poetry, memoirs, all fair game. Celine Nguyen [191]observes, 360 “Research as a leisure activity isn’t constrained by these disciplinary 361 fiefdoms and schisms. Any discipline can offer interesting ideas, tools, 362 techniques.” I’m trying to turn my “ooh?” energy towards intriguing books than 363 enticing online articles. 364 365 (I’ve also been buying more books that the library doesn’t have, so three 366 months ago I set a goal to read one physical non-fiction book I own each month, 367 partly to clear up shelf space and partly to give myself some impetus to 368 actually read books I own — we’ll see if I can keep it up!) 369 370 When I’m requesting books from the library (we get free holds — 25 on ebooks 371 and I’ve never hit the limit on physical), I skim through the library list and 372 try to think about which would be most helpful to read next based on where my 373 thinking is now. (This is also influenced by what has a wait list.) Although I 374 like reading fiction as an ebook, I prefer to read non-fiction in hard copy. I 375 benefit from having a non-fiction book in sight — it’s easy for non-fiction 376 ebooks to get pushed below the digital fold so I forget I have them borrowed — 377 and a due date so I actually get around to reading it 😉 378 379 (And let’s be honest, I’m often thinking towards multiple questions at once — 380 once I’m excited about something, I want the book now! Maybe I’ll get better 381 about this, but I’ve read multiple books for as long as I’ve been reading, so I 382 don’t see that stopping 🤷♀️ Self-acceptance 😜) 383 384 Although I’m reading the book or article [192]towards a particular theme, I’ll 385 still write down unrelated connections — if I can’t use it for the post at top 386 of mind, it might apply to a future question or post. Despite starting off with 387 a vague idea of the question I’m getting at, I find that my original question 388 often shifts and becomes more compelling, and I develop new questions. I’ll 389 write more than one blog post, and explore more than one question, based on 390 what I’ve been reading this spring and summer. 391 392 How I’ve been choosing books to read 393 394 Here’s a demonstration of my selections across four library runs (you’ll see 395 I’m still grabbing books for entertainment, other interests, and broad 396 curiosity, but also focusing on a particular topic): 397 398 stack of 8 library books, two on writing craft, three on the arts and crafts 399 movement[193]In April, I decided to dig into the Arts and Crafts movement as a 400 historic example of valuing handiwork. I started with [194]In Harmony with 401 Nature, an art-style book about Arts & Crafts gardens that offered an 402 introduction, then read [195]The Arts and Crafts Movement, which gave me just 403 what I was looking for: quotes from the founders of the movement about what 404 craftsmanship meant to them. [196]Dangerous Fictions offered a slightly 405 different angle on interrogating the function of art in culture, especially 406 difficult art. I drew on the Arts & Crafts background for my blog post about 407 the [197]Business Borg. stack of library books that includes six books related 408 to the mindset of more seriesMy [198]early May library haul had four books 409 loosely related to AI / craftsmanship (American Book Design and William Morris, 410 Deep Dream, More Than Words, and Changing the Subject) and two related more 411 broadly to the “mindset of more” theme (Possessed and The Plenitude of 412 Distraction). I dipped into American Book Design, decided it was more technical 413 than I wanted, and fully read [199]More Than Words, which directly compared 414 writing with generative AI text, and [200]Plenitude for an exploration of 415 leisurely thinking and “unproductive” behavior. flatlay of 7 library books 416 related to cultural elites and the creative classMy [201]late May library haul 417 focused on cultural elites and impacts on the creative class. I read [202] 418 Pretentiousness, which advocated for the value of pushing artistic boundaries, 419 and [203]The Crisis of Culture, which connected better to a different question 420 I was thinking about 😉 I rejected The Meaning in the Making and read a review 421 of Elite Capture that made me think their definition of elite wasn’t what I was 422 looking for. After skimming the table of contents for Culture Crash, I decided 423 it wasn’t getting at the interesting part of the question for me, so my reading 424 time would be better spent elsewhere. stack of 9 library books, including 6 425 related to blog postsFor my [204]early June library haul, I wanted to follow a 426 thread of interest on identity politics, so I grabbed The Class Matrix and The 427 Case Against the Professional Managerial Class. I also borrowed four more 428 related to the AI / craftsmanship question: What We See When We Read, The Art 429 of Slow Writing, The AI Mirror, and Unmasking AI. I read all of [205]What We 430 See, digging into what’s actually happening while we are reading. The 431 introduction to The Class Matrix made me realize it was more advanced theory 432 than I was prepared to read. Based on time limitations, I decided the AI books 433 weren’t a priority. 434 435 When writing is the point of your notes — when informing your writing is the 436 goal behind reading — Richard Griffiths [206]proposes that it’s most useful to 437 “develop a concept of your intended output before you start reading a book. 438 That way, your interests will fruitfully guide your reading and note-making.” I 439 do this by periodically ducking into my collecting grounds (draft blog post) 440 for a particular question and developing a starter outline of declarative 441 statements. I organize the material I’ve already collected (initially from 442 online readings) into those headings, then continue to read more based on the 443 parts of my argument I’m not sold on yet, or where I don’t feel comfortable 444 making a declarative / interesting statement. 445 446 Reading with purpose 447 448 Sometimes I like to read for the sake of reading, and sometimes I enjoy more 449 purposeful reading. Knowing that I’m planning to write about a question changes 450 how I read by defining my idea space. Instead of reading according to receptive 451 curiosity, I’m using directed curiosity to seek what of the text relates to my 452 question. It makes me pay closer attention to language that I might quote in a 453 blog post. 454 455 When I read non-fiction, two levels of interpretation are happening in my mind 456 at the same time: first, I am directly intaking the language and interpreting 457 the author’s intention; at another level, I am processing it analytically and 458 relationally, trying to understand what it means to me. Johan Hari [207] 459 describes it: “If you weren’t letting your mind wander a little bit right now, 460 you wouldn’t really be reading this book in a way that would make sense to you. 461 Having enough mental space to roam is essential for you to be able to 462 understand a book.” This is an [208]unfocused, connective mode of thinking that 463 uses my brain’s [209]default mode network. I use reading non-fiction as a 464 commitment to spend time thinking about a subject; the book itself is a tool 465 towards that. 466 467 When I read towards a question, I concentrate my connection-making within that 468 question space, but it remains loose. [210]I am reading for ideas, not 469 information per se, so [211]the dialogue between me and the book is what 470 matters. Roland Barthes [212]writes, “[The text] produces, in me, the best 471 pleasure if it manages to make itself heard indirectly; if, reading it, I am 472 led to look up often, to listen to something else.” Just as [213]writing 473 doesn’t only look like typing, reading doesn’t only look like rapt attention to 474 the page. A big question offers a frame for my reading, like the viewfinder of 475 a camera; framing is a way of sense-making. 476 477 478 479 Further reading: 480 481 [214]How Small-Town Public Libraries Enrich the Generative Research Process by 482 Nick Fuller Googins (LitHub) 483 484 [215]More search, less feed by Austin Kleon 485 486 487 488 See also: 489 490 [216]Choosing between ideas for blog posts 491 492 [217]How I approach crafting a blog post 493 494 495 496 Shout-out to [218]James for asking about my Big Questions last December and 497 (eventually) prompting this! 498 499 This is the (current) last article in a [219]series on the mindset of more. 500 501 • 502 • Previous: [220]Slow craft: writing with a noncapitalist mentality (Part 6) 503 504 • Tags [221]agency, [222]blogging, [223]curiosity, [224]decision making, 505 [225]novelty, [226]Oliver Burkeman, [227]play, [228]process, [229]reading, 506 [230]research 507 508 [70c71f48c24aa2fcf7] 509 510 By Tracy Durnell 511 512 Writer and designer in the Seattle area. Reach me at [email protected] or 513 @[email protected]. She/her. 514 515 [231] View Archive → 516 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 517 [232] ← Weeknotes: Aug. 9-15, 2025 [233] → Read The Last Battle at the End of 518 the World 519 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 520 521 4 replies on “What to read? Big questions as filter and frame (Part 7)” 522 523 [] [234]Jay says: @ [235]thejaymo.net 524 [236]August 17, 2025 at 12:06 pm 525 526 The summer is waning, you can feel it in the mornings, the dog days are over, 527 and it’s getting noticeably darker earlier in the evenings 528 529 [237]Reply 530 [IMG_9150-100x] [238]Joe Crawford says: @ [239]artlung.com 531 [240]August 17, 2025 at 7:12 pm 532 533 What to read? Big questions as filter and frame (Part 7) 534 535 [241]Reply 536 [] [242]Ruben Verweij says: @ [243]kedara.eu 537 [244]August 29, 2025 at 7:20 am 538 539 What to read? Big questions as filter and frame (Part 7) 540 – Tracy Durnell 541 542 I love Tracy’s idea of defining personal Big Questions. She uses these 543 questions as a basis, to decide what she’ll read and write about (and 544 crucially, what not). I’ll definitely think about what my Big Questions are. 545 546 [245]Reply 547 [70c71f48c24aa] [246]Tracy Durnell says: @ [247]tracydurnell.com 548 [248]September 6, 2025 at 12:52 pm 549 550 I saw someone post a (kind) reminder to go back and read your saved for later 551 articles. I’m here to tell you you don’t have… 552 553 [249]Reply 554 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 555 556 Leave a Reply [250]Cancel reply 557 558 Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * 559 560 [ ] 561 [ ] 562 [ ] 563 [ ] 564 [ ] 565 [ ] 566 [ ] 567 Comment * [ ] 568 569 Name * [252][ ] 570 571 Email * [253][ ] 572 573 Website [254][ ] 574 575 [255][ ] Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I 576 comment. 577 578 [256][Post Comment] 579 580 [ ] 581 [ ] 582 [ ] 583 [ ] 584 [ ] 585 [ ] 586 [ ] 587 Δ[ ] 588 589 To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should 590 contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear 591 (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your 592 response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. ([262] 593 Find out more about Webmentions.) 594 595 URL/Permalink of your article [263][ ] 596 597 [264][Ping me!] 598 599 Explore 600 601 [267]All Posts | [268]Featured | [269]Categories | [270]Random 602 603 Recent Posts 604 605 • [271]It’s ok to not read your read later backlog September 6, 2025 606 • [272]Weeknotes: Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 2025 September 5, 2025 607 • [273]Read The Eye of the Heron September 5, 2025 608 • [274]Listened to Ambulette – I’ve Got More September 4, 2025 609 • [275]Read Virtue Hoarders September 3, 2025 610 611 About Tracy 612 613 [276][70c71f48c24aa2] 614 615 Tracy Durnell 616 617 • [277]microblog 618 • [278]mastodon 619 620 Writer and designer in the Seattle area. Reach me at [email protected] or 621 @[email protected]. She/her. 622 623 Search for: [279][ ] [280][Search] 624 • [281]Digital Garden RSS Feed 625 • [282]Book Review RSS Feed 626 • [283]Comments RSS Feed 627 • [284]Privacy Policy 628 629 No soliciting 630 631 Please and thank you! I do not accept guest blog posts. 632 633 © 2025 [285]Tracy Durnell's Mind Garden 634 635 [286]Privacy Policy 636 637 [287] Powered by WordPress 638 639 [288] To the top ↑ Up ↑ 640 641 References: 642 643 [1] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/16/what-to-read-big-questions/#site-content 644 [3] https://tracydurnell.com/ 645 [5] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/ 646 [6] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/ 647 [7] https://tracydurnell.com/category/featured/ 648 [8] https://tracydurnell.com/kind/article/ 649 [9] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/index/ 650 [10] https://notes.tracydurnell.com/ 651 [11] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/links-to-blog-about/ 652 [12] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/ 653 [13] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/future-of-the-internet/ 654 [14] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/information-diet/ 655 [15] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/culture/ 656 [16] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/transforming-capitalism/ 657 [17] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/resisting-fascism/ 658 [18] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/feminism/ 659 [19] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/thinking-better/ 660 [20] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/effective-creative-processes/ 661 [21] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/writing-fiction/ 662 [22] https://tracydurnell.com/about/ 663 [23] https://tracydurnell.com/about/ 664 [24] https://tracydurnell.com/start-here/ 665 [25] https://tracydurnell.com/now/ 666 [26] https://tracydurnell.com/category/weeknotes/ 667 [27] https://tracydurnell.com/pages/ 668 [28] https://tracydurnell.com/reading/ 669 [29] https://tracydurnell.com/reading/read-in-2025/ 670 [30] https://tracydurnell.com/reading/ 671 [31] https://tracydurnell.com/kind/read/ 672 [32] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/ 673 [33] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/listened-in-2025/ 674 [34] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/birthday-playlists/ 675 [35] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/best-of-year-playlists/ 676 [36] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/favorite-albums/ 677 [37] https://tracydurnell.com/recipes/ 678 [38] https://tracydurnell.com/recipes/ 679 [39] https://tracydurnell.com/recipes/recipes-to-try/ 680 [40] https://tracydurnell.com/resources/roundups/ 681 [41] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/ 682 [42] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/interesting-people/ 683 [43] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/cool-artists/ 684 [44] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/neat-websites/ 685 [45] https://tracydurnell.com/resources/shopping/ 686 [46] https://tracydurnell.com/resources/graphic-design-resources/ 687 [53] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/ 688 [55] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/ 689 [56] https://tracydurnell.com/category/featured/ 690 [57] https://tracydurnell.com/kind/article/ 691 [58] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/index/ 692 [59] https://notes.tracydurnell.com/ 693 [60] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/links-to-blog-about/ 694 [61] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/ 695 [63] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/future-of-the-internet/ 696 [64] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/information-diet/ 697 [65] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/culture/ 698 [66] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/transforming-capitalism/ 699 [67] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/resisting-fascism/ 700 [68] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/feminism/ 701 [69] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/thinking-better/ 702 [70] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/effective-creative-processes/ 703 [71] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/writing-fiction/ 704 [72] https://tracydurnell.com/about/ 705 [74] https://tracydurnell.com/about/ 706 [75] https://tracydurnell.com/start-here/ 707 [76] https://tracydurnell.com/now/ 708 [77] https://tracydurnell.com/category/weeknotes/ 709 [78] https://tracydurnell.com/pages/ 710 [79] https://tracydurnell.com/reading/ 711 [81] https://tracydurnell.com/reading/read-in-2025/ 712 [82] https://tracydurnell.com/reading/ 713 [83] https://tracydurnell.com/kind/read/ 714 [84] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/ 715 [86] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/listened-in-2025/ 716 [87] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/birthday-playlists/ 717 [88] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/best-of-year-playlists/ 718 [89] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/favorite-albums/ 719 [90] https://tracydurnell.com/recipes/ 720 [92] https://tracydurnell.com/recipes/ 721 [93] https://tracydurnell.com/recipes/recipes-to-try/ 722 [94] https://tracydurnell.com/resources/roundups/ 723 [96] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/ 724 [97] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/interesting-people/ 725 [98] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/cool-artists/ 726 [99] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/neat-websites/ 727 [100] https://tracydurnell.com/resources/shopping/ 728 [101] https://tracydurnell.com/resources/graphic-design-resources/ 729 [102] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/ 730 [104] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/ 731 [105] https://tracydurnell.com/category/featured/ 732 [106] https://tracydurnell.com/kind/article/ 733 [107] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/index/ 734 [108] https://notes.tracydurnell.com/ 735 [109] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/links-to-blog-about/ 736 [110] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/ 737 [112] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/future-of-the-internet/ 738 [113] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/information-diet/ 739 [114] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/culture/ 740 [115] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/transforming-capitalism/ 741 [116] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/resisting-fascism/ 742 [117] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/feminism/ 743 [118] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/thinking-better/ 744 [119] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/effective-creative-processes/ 745 [120] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/writing-fiction/ 746 [121] https://tracydurnell.com/about/ 747 [123] https://tracydurnell.com/about/ 748 [124] https://tracydurnell.com/start-here/ 749 [125] https://tracydurnell.com/now/ 750 [126] https://tracydurnell.com/category/weeknotes/ 751 [127] https://tracydurnell.com/pages/ 752 [128] https://tracydurnell.com/reading/ 753 [130] https://tracydurnell.com/reading/read-in-2025/ 754 [131] https://tracydurnell.com/reading/ 755 [132] https://tracydurnell.com/kind/read/ 756 [133] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/ 757 [135] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/listened-in-2025/ 758 [136] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/birthday-playlists/ 759 [137] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/best-of-year-playlists/ 760 [138] https://tracydurnell.com/listening/favorite-albums/ 761 [139] https://tracydurnell.com/recipes/ 762 [141] https://tracydurnell.com/recipes/ 763 [142] https://tracydurnell.com/recipes/recipes-to-try/ 764 [143] https://tracydurnell.com/resources/roundups/ 765 [145] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/ 766 [146] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/interesting-people/ 767 [147] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/cool-artists/ 768 [148] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/neat-websites/ 769 [149] https://tracydurnell.com/resources/shopping/ 770 [150] https://tracydurnell.com/resources/graphic-design-resources/ 771 [151] https://tracydurnell.com/category/featured/ 772 [152] https://tracydurnell.com/category/learning/ 773 [153] https://tracydurnell.com/category/meta/ 774 [154] https://tracydurnell.com/category/writing/ 775 [155] https://tracydurnell.com/author/tracyadmin/ 776 [156] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/16/what-to-read-big-questions/ 777 [157] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/16/what-to-read-big-questions/#comments 778 [158] https://tracydurnell.com/2024/12/30/mindset-of-more/ 779 [159] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/02/23/choosing-my-pace-by-shaping-my-thinking-spaces/ 780 [160] https://hardlyworking1.substack.com/p/hoarding-type-scrolling 781 [161] https://www.localbreadbaker.com/p/research-as-a-way-of-life 782 [162] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/01/04/disrupting-my-reading-habits/ 783 [163] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/02/23/choosing-my-pace-by-shaping-my-thinking-spaces/ 784 [164] https://tracydurnell.com/2023/11/07/in-algorithm-we-trust/ 785 [165] https://tracydurnell.com/2022/12/17/algorithmic-recommendations-create-curiosity-ruts/ 786 [166] https://tracydurnell.com/2021/11/11/breaking-out-of-what-the-algorithm-feeds-you/ 787 [167] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/01/04/disrupting-my-reading-habits/ 788 [168] https://tracydurnell.com/2023/03/10/reclaiming-intentionality-in-browsing-and-blogging/ 789 [169] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/ 790 [170] https://www.personalcanon.com/p/research-as-leisure-activity 791 [171] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/ 792 [172] https://tracydurnell.com/2023/03/11/designing-your-system-for-creativity-inputs/ 793 [173] https://nesslabs.com/favorite-problems 794 [174] https://tracydurnell.com/2024/01/02/challenging-myself-playfully/ 795 [175] https://tracydurnell.com/2022/03/16/shapes-of-reading/ 796 [176] https://allenpike.com/2023/have-a-research-question 797 [177] https://tracydurnell.com/questions/ 798 [178] https://tracydurnell.com/blogroll/ 799 [179] https://searchmysite.net/ 800 [180] https://marginalia-search.com/ 801 [181] https://aethermug.com/posts/the-luxurious-pain-of-using-my-time 802 [182] https://tracydurnell.com/2022/05/13/article-pairing-stop-reading-the-news/ 803 [183] https://tracydurnell.com/2023/05/04/discerning-the-value-of-note-taking/ 804 [184] https://tracydurnell.com/2021/03/19/tbr-stream/ 805 [185] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/01/04/disrupting-my-reading-habits/ 806 [186] https://ckarchive.com/b/zlughnhk8772ma7qrr9qehwzgng00f6 807 [187] https://tracydurnell.com/2023/03/08/read-what-works/ 808 [188] https://lithub.com/how-small-town-public-libraries-enrich-the-generative-research-process/ 809 [189] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/04/28/browsing-as-thinking/ 810 [190] https://kcls.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/display/222055327/2828776997 811 [191] https://www.personalcanon.com/p/research-as-leisure-activity 812 [192] https://tracydurnell.com/2023/05/19/foraging-for-insights/ 813 [193] https://notes.tracydurnell.com/2025/04/03/library-haul-peacock-and-vine.html 814 [194] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/04/05/read-in-harmony-with-nature/ 815 [195] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/06/24/read-the-arts-and-crafts-movement/ 816 [196] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/07/11/read-dangerous-fictions/ 817 [197] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/06/02/generative-ai-and-the-business-borg-aesthetic/ 818 [198] https://notes.tracydurnell.com/2025/05/06/library-haul-the-plenitude-of.html 819 [199] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/05/28/read-more-than-words/ 820 [200] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/05/17/read-the-plenitude-of-distraction/ 821 [201] https://notes.tracydurnell.com/2025/05/23/library-roundup-on-culture-and.html 822 [202] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/05/29/read-pretentiousness/ 823 [203] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/15/read-the-crisis-of-culture/ 824 [204] https://notes.tracydurnell.com/2025/06/17/library-haul-planning-a-blog.html 825 [205] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/07/17/read-what-we-see-when-we-read/ 826 [206] https://writingslowly.com/2025/03/10/roland-barthes-on-the-purpose.html 827 [207] https://tracydurnell.com/2023/07/31/read-stolen-focus/ 828 [208] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/05/17/read-the-plenitude-of-distraction/ 829 [209] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network 830 [210] https://tracydurnell.com/2024/12/17/in-praise-of-the-hundred-page-idea/ 831 [211] https://zettelkasten.de/posts/dont-rely-on-source-have-faith-in-yourself/ 832 [212] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/05/02/read-the-pleasure-of-the-text/ 833 [213] https://tracydurnell.com/2021/12/08/writing-metrics-and-capitalism/ 834 [214] https://lithub.com/how-small-town-public-libraries-enrich-the-generative-research-process/ 835 [215] https://austinkleon.com/2019/04/04/more-search-less-feed/ 836 [216] https://tracydurnell.com/2023/12/18/choosing-between-ideas-for-blog-posts/ 837 [217] https://tracydurnell.com/2023/09/27/how-i-approach-crafting-a-blog-post/ 838 [218] https://jamesg.blog/ 839 [219] https://tracydurnell.com/2024/12/30/mindset-of-more/ 840 [220] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/03/23/slow-craft-writing-noncapitalist-mentality/ 841 [221] https://tracydurnell.com/tag/agency/ 842 [222] https://tracydurnell.com/tag/blogging/ 843 [223] https://tracydurnell.com/tag/curiosity/ 844 [224] https://tracydurnell.com/tag/decision-making/ 845 [225] https://tracydurnell.com/tag/novelty/ 846 [226] https://tracydurnell.com/tag/oliver-burkeman/ 847 [227] https://tracydurnell.com/tag/play/ 848 [228] https://tracydurnell.com/tag/process/ 849 [229] https://tracydurnell.com/tag/reading/ 850 [230] https://tracydurnell.com/tag/research/ 851 [231] https://tracydurnell.com/author/tracyadmin/ 852 [232] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/15/weeknotes-aug-9-15-2025/ 853 [233] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/18/read-the-last-battle-at-the-end-of-the-world/ 854 [234] https://thejaymo.net/2025/08/17/403-summer-is-waning/ 855 [235] https://thejaymo.net/2025/08/17/403-summer-is-waning/ 856 [236] https://thejaymo.net/2025/08/17/403-summer-is-waning/ 857 [237] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/16/what-to-read-big-questions/?replytocom=14439#respond 858 [238] https://artlung.com/likes/0d0bf55b70f54fd45c3f4fb8fc8a73f4 859 [239] https://artlung.com/likes/0d0bf55b70f54fd45c3f4fb8fc8a73f4 860 [240] https://artlung.com/likes/0d0bf55b70f54fd45c3f4fb8fc8a73f4 861 [241] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/16/what-to-read-big-questions/?replytocom=14442#respond 862 [242] https://kedara.eu/bookmarks/blaugust2025#bm-12 863 [243] https://kedara.eu/bookmarks/blaugust2025/ 864 [244] https://kedara.eu/bookmarks/blaugust2025/ 865 [245] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/16/what-to-read-big-questions/?replytocom=14484#respond 866 [246] https://tracydurnell.com/ 867 [247] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/09/06/its-ok-to-not-read-your-read-later-backlog/ 868 [248] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/09/06/its-ok-to-not-read-your-read-later-backlog/ 869 [249] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/16/what-to-read-big-questions/?replytocom=14560#respond 870 [250] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/16/what-to-read-big-questions/#respond 871 [262] https://indieweb.org/webmention 872 [267] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/ 873 [268] https://tracydurnell.com/category/featured/ 874 [269] https://tracydurnell.com/mind-garden/index#categories 875 [270] https://tracydurnell.com/random 876 [271] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/09/06/its-ok-to-not-read-your-read-later-backlog/ 877 [272] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/09/05/weeknotes-aug-30-sept-5-2025/ 878 [273] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/09/05/read-the-eye-of-the-heron/ 879 [274] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/09/04/listened-to-ambulette-ive-got-more/ 880 [275] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/09/03/read-virtue-hoarders/ 881 [276] https://tracydurnell.com/ 882 [277] https://micro.blog/tracydurnell 883 [278] https://micro.blog/tracydurnell?remote_follow=1 884 [281] https://tracydurnell.com/feed/ 885 [282] https://tracydurnell.com/kind/read/feed 886 [283] https://tracydurnell.com/comments/feed/ 887 [284] https://tracydurnell.com/privacy-policy/ 888 [285] https://tracydurnell.com/ 889 [286] https://tracydurnell.com/privacy-policy/ 890 [287] https://wordpress.org/ 891 [288] https://tracydurnell.com/2025/08/16/what-to-read-big-questions/#site-header