CT No.235: Placing bets
I started writing several newsletters in the past month and finished zero. I wanted to write about all the worst-case scenarios we described in communications graduate school and how those situations are all pretty much happening now. I tried to write about AGI or whatever, but then other people said it much better. I thought about writing about structured content and all the new names for SEO, but then I remembered that I have already written about those topics for years, and they are the archives of this newsletter.
Call it analysis paralysis or information overload: I have so many things to say, but gobbledegook comes out. For this week, and probably the next few after that, the most put-together version of my brain goes to my clients. Today you're getting announcements, book recommendations, and a few links.
For the thoughts in between, I'm still posting on LinkedIn.
Event: The Future of Search on Thursday, March 27 at 5:00PM
Presented by MIMA and MNSearch
Next week! I'll be hosting a chat about the future of search and measurement with the cool cats at MIMA and MNSearch. More details and ticket info here.
The event will be at MSPC in St. Paul, right off the Westgate Green Line station, and we'll be having some formal and informal chats about what's next in brand, search, and all the AI tools in between.
I haven't been this excited about the future of search in about a decade! There is an actual market shift happening! So yeah, let's chat about what we're tracking and the stories we're telling.
Spring reading recommendations
I've been reading and referencing critical theory like Elon Musk is threatening to show up at my house and torch my library with a flamethrower. Granted, there is a part of me who is excited to participate in the new rogue intelligentsia, but I don't want to think about spending the last half of my life in a country that is intentionally imploding its higher education system.
Anyway, if you purchase a book from these links, I may get a commission, which I will use to purchase more books.
- Building Sim City by Chaim Ginggold is the best writing about software I've ever read, capturing an entire game into technical, cultural, and historical context. It's a bit academic, but the writing is so engaging you'll forget half the book is footnotes.
- Index, a History of the by Dennis Duncan will likely appeal to all the structured content and discovery nerds.
- Designing Content Authoring Experiences by Greg Dunlap is for those seeking to improve the structure behind the structure, or anyone who wants to better understand the logic behind the always-hateable content management system (CMS). Greg is a friend of The Content Technologist and knows his CMS stuff.
- I have also been referencing Good Charts by Scott Berinato a fair amount recently.
The full Content Technologist recommended reading list is available on Bookshop.org.
Up next in the reading list:
Content tech links of the moment
- I adore the design of Works in Progress and am slowly making my way through the latest issue.
- The shuttering of 18F, the U.S. Federal digital agency, is devastating for U.S. digital culture, information accuracy, and transparency. A bright spot: Matt Henry, a designer at 18F, shared a lovely story of his favorite project from his tenure at the agency, which is about the nicest possible response to an infuriating situation.
- At NiemanLab, Joshua Benton goes long on his disdain for the fiction of the U.S. "two sided" political spectrum, as represented by the L.A. Times' new opinion bot.
The Content Technologist is a newsletter and consultancy based in Minneapolis, working with clients and collaborators around the world. The entire newsletter is written and edited by Deborah Carver, independent content strategy consultant, speaker, and educator.
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Cultural recommendations / personal social: Spotify | Instagram | Letterboxd | PI.FYI
Did you read? is the assorted content at the very bottom of the email. Cultural recommendations, off-kilter thoughts, and quotes from foundational works of media theory we first read in college—all fair game for this section.
What I'll be singing for the next two weeks: