No. 47 — 🧭 Year in Review 2022

My name is Linda. I write a bi-weekly newsletter about computer science, childhood, and culture - and 9 665 of you are listening. If you enjoy this issue, please share it with anyone who may find it helpful.

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer."

―Zora Neale Hurston

A year split in two. Bosh. This half of the year and this half.

Thinking about John Berger and his neighbor's strawberry jelly and baklava. "They are commas of care," he says.

On my work-in-progresses:

Discovered I like structures and balancing things on them. After much flailing around, I tried writing for grownups. It was beautiful as it gave a framework for everything I read. The playground project moves ahead. It's an infrastructure imagination engine that allows me to think new thoughts.

I didn't make my 100 books goal. I barely ran.

This is the ninth time writing this. Here are 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014.

And here is 2022:

January

• Paris was gorgeous with its winter haze from an impressionist painting, sunrise at 8:24, and a new ramen place to test for every lunch. Congolese Rumba from the Classic Period played every morning as we woke up in our freezing cold apartment. Still, all in all, a bleak and sad January. I had a lot of trouble finding my place in Paris and was tired of living in two-week intervals.

• Emptied my old office with mixed feelings. Had a lot of best (wo)man meetings throughout January. A lovely night at OMA's with L and coffee with K. I went to yoga for the first time since the pandemic started. Ran a lot. One of the more memorable runs was to Pere-Lachaise with B. to see Proust's grave and later visited the Proust exhibition at Musee Carnavalet. Channeling Jane Birkin: "My mother was right: When you've got nothing left, all you can do is get into silk underwear and start reading Proust."

• Read John Berger's Portraits, savoring every essay and the beautiful writing. A month of museums: I loved the Julie Manet exhibition at Marmottan-Monet and visited Rodin and Jacquemart Andre, where I would return many times throughout the year. Luckily no one asked my opinion on Web3. Mushroom color atlas. 

• Work gave me a lot of joy: the playground project moved on steadily, and I started working on my next book. Wrote about Klara von Neumann (No. 34 — Next up: Klári 🔎 The Case of the Slow Websites 🥐 Activités en français) and dreamed of starting a bookclub (No. 35 — Archaeological algorithms 🏺 Book club 🍄 Mushroom atlas), which however went immediately on a hiatus.

Read

• The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink

• Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive by Carl Zimmer

• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

• A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney by Martin Gayford and David Hockney. One of my favorites of the year.

• Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

• The Pattern on the Stone: The Simple Ideas that Make Computers Work by William Daniel Hillis

• To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara. Listened to this while running up and down Seine.

• Jaakobin portaat by Joel Haahtela (FI). I wish Haahtela gets translated, his books are truly gifts.

• Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature by Angus Fletcher

• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

February

• Hopeful news to start the month. H. and S. helped us move to a new home with a lovely view over the rooftops of 17th. Bought mimosas and went for a birthday dinner at Arpege. Looked for signs of spring and explored Bois de Boulogne almost every day. Made my own mozzarella and enjoyed the fingerspitzengefühl. L and R came for a weekend visit. Had lovely brunches and a warm extended family encounter in Antony.

• While the news from Ukraine arrived, I was on my way to London. It felt like something in the Europe I had known shattered. For the rest of the spring, I read books by Eeva Kilpi, recounting her childhood wartime experiences growing up in Finland in the 30s. The Helsinki defense shelters took on a new light. Many of my peers rediscovered a generational, geographic fear.

• In London with H. and B. - I saw Beatrix Potter at V&A and Francis Bacon, but mostly just enjoyed the city, home cooking with H. and T., and exploring Queens Park. Still spoke with M. every week, which helped with all the fears.

• Did a small podcast appearance with Hello World. Research on institutions focusing on the long term: museums, libraries, and archives. Kept thinking about Pure Consciousness by Kawara, a traveling installation of seven gray paintings that have been traveling the world since 1998, exhibited in kindergarten classrooms across the globe and which adults are not allowed to explain. Bach Box was suitably weird. 

Read

• Red Milk by Sjon.

• When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut

• Smile: The Story of a Face by Sarah Ruhl. Fell in love with Ruhl’s writing.

• Portraits: John Berger on Artists by John Berger. Maybe my favorite book of the year.

• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

• Vi for upp med mor by Karin Smirnoff (SWE)

• Valtakausi by Jenni Toivoniemi (FI)

• Uncomputable: Play and Politics in the Long Digital Age by Alexander Galloway

• The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

• Rajattomuuden aika: kertomus lapsuudesta by Eeva Kilpi (FI).

March

• Worked on an audio version of the collected Hello Ruby books. It was challenging and rewarding. Probably four people have listened to it. Still worth it.

• My godson and his family came to Paris. We did several Michelin restaurants, wandered around the city, and felt the spring approaching. Ballerina weather! Proud Finnish moments as Gallen-Kallela was exhibited at Jacquemart Andre and Edelfelt at Petit Palais. Got really good at visiting a boulangerie and fruit vendors on Saturdays. I was nervous the entire month.

• Went to Abu Dhabi to the WED Movement opening and was very impressed with the energy and attendees. Got to visit Dubai Expo at the very last moment with R. and snuck in some family time too. Thought about spaces and science funding. One evening the Sahara sand turned Paris dusty yellow.

• COVID was starting to wane, and larger gatherings were happening. Visited Finland and did professional development for teachers in Kuopio (tried sorting algorithms with licorice!) and workshops for kids on the playground. Both made me want to go back to working directly with children. Meanwhile, Today in kindergarten helps.

• Had a memorable night with B., K. & P., which almost cost one pair of eyebrows.

• Bachelorette party for V. I Welcomed two new friends to my life, V. and T. Still felt tiny, but at least a little bit useful.

Read

• The Life of the Mind by Christine Smallwood

• The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

• Aurinkokissan vuosi by Merete Mazzarella (FI)

• Mahdottomia oletuksia by Juuli Niemi (FI)

• Talvisodan aika: lapsuusmuistelma by Eeva Kilpi (FI)

• Välirauha, ikävöinnin aika by Eeva Kilpi (FI)

April

• First snow in Paris on the first of April.

• Worked furiously on a book proposal and outline. Felt good about seeing how much progress I had made. Fell in love with 50 Watts Books. 

• S. visited us on a cold April evening. Showing A. and J. around Paris. Philharmonics and St. Matthew Passion. Went back to Les Arcs for an easter celebration with both B.’s and my family. It was unseasonably warm, and we felt light and joyous sharing news. Went to Barcelona for a bachelor party I’ll never forget. Celebrated at Savoy with dear friends. Walk with E. on La Coulée Verte. Met with Moira, the dog. The resilience of decades-old computing software (1, 2, 3) kept me entertained.

• The Helsinki city Urban Environment Committee visited Paris, and I got to talk about the playground project. Put also together thoughts on how Paris has managed child-friendly city design. Found non-scandivanian city dwellers.

• Judged the children’s book category for Storytel and felt good about how diverse my work nowadays is. Broke my writing hiatus with No. 36 — Play/Pause ⏯️ My phone stuck its tongue out 😝 Wingspan

Read

• Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World by Adam Tooze

• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

• Jatkosodan aika by Eeva Kilpi (FI)

• The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

May

• Spent the first two weeks of the month on the road: from Dusseldorf to Copenhagen to Aarhus to Odense to Oulu. Managed to say hi to M., and to folks at Monstrum, to visit ARoS, the Olafur Eliasson skywalk, and the newly opened Hans Christian Andersen House. A quick stop to Galicia for work. Promised myself to one day return for the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route. Everywhere there was energy in people getting together.

• Celebrated dear friends getting married in Italy for a few fairytale days. Then went back to Finland and had a moving lunch with my godmother I hadn’t seen since the pandemic started. These paper ships make me think of Wes Anderson.

• Suddenly it was tomato season, cherry season, and apricot season. And football season - saw Parc de Princes, PSG’s final match, and Mbappé’s hat trick. Rewatched Moving Castle and was reminded how much I like it. Lifespan of concepts could be a curriculum.

• Visited New York and did all the usuals: ate at Vanessa’s Dumplings and sneaked into my old courtyard, saw Little Island, Whitney Biennal, saw Life of a Neuron, and hung out with J. Then took a train to Winchester (Penn Station had upgraded it’s look!) for a few life-affirming teaching days. Algae-powered computing. 

• Wrote a bit about the process for turning a picture book into audio (No. 37 — Writing for ears👂 Listening before reading 🦷 Bluetooth and vikings)

Read

• Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand by John Markoff

• Väylä by Rosa Liksom (FI)

• The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick

• Kuninkaan Anna by Ulla-Lena Lundberg (FI)

• Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales by Oliver Sacks

• Cover Story by Susan Rigetti

June

• Got good news at the beginning of the month from doctors. Took a train to Giverny. H. visited us and we got to show our city. Fun dinner with R., M., and friends - finally! I took a non-fiction writing class where everyone was 10+ years younger than me.

• I was stressed about the French bureaucracy and my inability to move ahead. The canicule, the first of the many heatwaves, was exhausting, and Paris felt suffocating. Waited for a summer vacation in Finland, which started with significant health problems in the family, changing the tone of the summer completely. Midsummers at V & M’s, the house was full of kids.

• I wrote about my experience in Winchester (No. 38 — All the Light 🕸️ Trees are Family 🌳 Educators, hi). Fell in love with James Bridle’s Server Farm. Reading one RFC a day. 

• This was the first year in forever that June wasn’t packed with deadlines. It felt weirdly light, knowing I wouldn’t return to the same rhythm after the summer.

Read

• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

• Ways of Being: Beyond Human Intelligence by James Bridle

• Grown Ups by Marie Aubert

• Pure Colour by Sheila Heti

• The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen

• Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber

• Radalla by Iida Sofia Hirvonen (FI)

• How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

• Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia: Exploring the Role and Potential of Ateliers in Early Childhood Education by Vea Vecchi

• The Magician by Colm Tóibín. Lovely!

• Linea Nigra by Jazmina Barrera

July

• Had a summer vacation straight from childhood. A perfect blend of packed days of adventures and leisurely time in our country house, doing very little. Roadtrip to Savonlinna to see Aida and friends at a magical medieval castle, stopping to see E at her new cabin, a night in a treetop house in Fiskars.

• I watched Irma Vep capering over Paris rooftops while I felt heavier than ever. Great reading month. Tried to do Anne Truebek’s excellent book publishing course, but the summer days got the better of me. But wrote still a little - and completed two letters: No. 39 — Summer books 🔖 Read your way through 🏫 Library.json and No. 40 — Making AI visible 👀 Struggles with the strange 🏘️ Fictional livability index

• Met two new humans (+ their moms) and had a lovely summer day at Rendahl’s petting zoo. Emptied and cleaned my Helsinki home. In Paris, the mirabelles were returning. Dreamed of making my own imaginary newspaper.

Read

• Livets tunna väggar by Nina Burton (SWE)

• Thread Ripper by Amalie Smith.

• Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters by David Hockney

• Reap3r by Eliot Peper.

• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

• Matara (FI) by Matias Riikonen. Maybe my favorite of the year. Unfortunately only in Finnish for now.

• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

• A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age by Alec Wilkinson

• Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing

• Essayism: On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction by Brian Dillon

• Allt vi inte sa (SWE) by Sara Osman

• Paris France by Gertrude Stein

• Hildur (FI) by Satu Rämö

August

• Helsinki in August is opposite Paris, buzzing and full of energy and life. Finally saw Tree of Code by Wayne McGregor, Olafur Eliasson, and Jamie xx. Hung out with many friends, visited parties, and said hi, hi, hi. Weekend trip to Lille to see Kim Simonsson’s beautiful pieces.

• Talked a little bit about the playground project and the research around it for journalists and built a lifesize Pinterest for the purpose. My favorite YouTube talk of the year was Indistinguishable from magic: manufacturing modern computer chips, which led me to visit a semiconductor fab and a rabbit hole of learning about semiconductors and material sciences I entirely haven’t emerged from. Kept thinking about the structure and ideas around What should a student of Urban Technology be capable of?

• Paris was still so hot. I wandered one day into the Museum of Science and Technology, partly built inside an old church, which I found strangely beautiful, an interconnected, unknowable world. Walks in Parc Monceau over and over again. Restless and worried.

Read

• The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

• The Suitcase Clone by Robin Sloan

• Fantasma (FI) by Tanja Tiekso

• The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

• Vuodet (FI) by Kjell Westö and Mårten Westö

• An Immense World by Ed Yong

September

• La Rentree!

• Visited Beaune for a memorable weekend of great Burgundy wine, bicycling, and food with B, L & R. Lots of friends in Paris: H. and M. visited us for a weekend that made us feel like we were visiting another Paris. N. & I. were here for a memorable two days.

• Printed out the entire manuscript for the book to work on, but/and would next open it in late November. Spoke about the playground project in public and wrote about two books I liked (No. 41 — Umwelt 👀 Robot readable world 🍄 Sonic Symbolism). Dropped a lot of balls at work, but somehow afterward, everything turned out for the better. Combinatory logic, but with birds. (I later realized I’m a bird.)

• Played Bach almost every day, but unlike in 2018, this year was out of joy. Peter Gregson’s recomposition of Bach’s cello suites was a highlight of the year. I also spent so much time obsessing over Björk’s new album (“Mahler via Public Enemy,” “Mushroom album,” “Biological techno”).

• “The Italians have a word for the store of poems you have in your head: a gazofilacio […] in its original language, it actually means a treasure chamber of the mind. The poems I remember are the milestones marking the journey of my life. And unlike paintings, sculptures or passages of great music, they do not outstrip the scope of memory, but are the actual thing, incarnate.” — Clive James.

• Two weeks I’ll never forget. “So this is it,” I kept thinking. Slow, rainy days. Long, fractured nights.

Read

• Lumo (FI) by Riikka Pulkkinen

• The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs. Loved this.

October

• Wrote about Paris (No. 42 — A year in Paris 🇫🇷). While watching The Rings of Power thought a lot about eucatastrophe, coined by Tolkien, or the good catastrophe, the good destruction. While waiting for the new Zelda, I enjoyed this essay by David Zilber. 

• Anicka Yi’s work kept popping up in my mind. Found a lot of philosophical joy in Lego manuals (1, 2, 3). What popular music in the last few decades, if any, has glorified science or engineering?

• Mode for the month. Time felt not the same as all other time, but somehow impermanent and malleable.

• Lovely day in Parc Luxembourg with friends. My brother’s wedding we celebrated from afar. Stressing about apartments and Paris rentals, again. We had family visiting for most of the month and made tiny trips.

• Cooked a lot. La Belle Vie has a lovely selection of vegetables and home deliveries. Fig season and realizing the corner store carries 12 varieties of seasonal, local apples. Added Small seasons to my calendar, which delights me endlessly.

Read

• En minä vielä pääty. Päiväkirja vuosilta 2008-2010 (FI) by Aila Meriluoto

• The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music and Culture by Andrew Mellor. Loved this!

• Neiti Steinin keittäjätär (FI) by Leena Parkkinen

• Real Estate by Deborah Levy

November

• Lucky to have family stay in town for the entire month. Did a lot of everyday things: walked, slept, read, traveled to Étretat, visited some lovely restaurants (Maison de Sota! Brutos! Le Servan!), and worked a little. Celebrated Beaujolais Nouveau and visitors from London. The weather kept warm until the very end of November. Moved apartments for the third time in a year. This one feels like a long-term place.

• Started work on the advisory board for the new Museum of Architecture and Design. It felt great to try out thinking with new concepts. Wrote two letters: No. 43 — Planetary fiction 🗺️ Robin Wall Kimmerer + Björk 🍄 Unix Pipe Cards and No. 44 — Prompt Engineering 🪄 Art Pedagogy 🎨 Evolution of Pokemon.

• Kept thinking about how The Chinese have two different concepts of a copy concerning the AI art flooding my feeds: “Fangzhipin (仿製品) are imitations where the difference from the original is obvious. The second concept for a copy is fuzhipin (複製品). They are exact reproductions of the original, which, for the Chinese, are of equal value to the original.”

• The new Ghibli Theme park pictures made me miss Japan. LV Fondation with Joan Mitchell and Monet. Ugo Rondinone’s flying humansky at Petit Palais.

Read

• The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

• Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller

• The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography by Deborah Levy

December

• A weekend with A. in Paris, wandering the holiday streets, admiring the lights. M. & V. did a quick visit too. At the Finnish Embassy Independence Day reception in a very different mood from last year. Two concerts: first Mahler by Mäkelä at Paris Philharmonics, then Dvorak by Stutzmann at Helsinki Philharmonics. Bought myself a Christmas present. 

• Switched roles at Hive. Tried to sneak in writing moments, but with little luck. Wrote two letters: No. 45 - 15 *old* ideas for CS ED Week 🕹️ AMA 🙋 Blueprints of Intelligence and No. 46 — Vocations 🚸 Visiting Paris with kids 🌀 Escher Circuits. Pastel renderings were the first images ever transmitted to earth from another planet. The Annoying PPP.

• Start of the Big Snow according to Small Seasons. Escaped to winter Helsinki. Watching the snow fall outside of my old apartment felt like a sacrament. So many friends, relatives, and moments. N. and gazillion babies. Watching Ponyo with M. and the boys. J’s Christmas party. Joyful cinnamon buns at Success. Sniffles and flu season. Visited Kim Simonsson’s atelier!

• C’s first Christmas in three different locations, with big family gatherings. The last days of the year were spent doing nothing at the countryside.

Read

• Sen for jag hem (SWE) by Karin Smirnoff

• The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem by Julie Phillips

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Loved this!

• 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater by Sarah Ruhl

• Miesten syvimmät salaisuudet (FI) by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr. Loved this!