My name is Linda. I write a bi-weekly newsletter about computer science, childhood and culture - and there are 9 717 of you listening. If you enjoy this issue, please share it with anyone you think may find it useful.
Reeds sprout by rivers, rice seedlings grow. 穀雨.
Half a hundred editions later, there is something special about this newsletter. Throughout these almost three years, the subscriber count hasn’t grown - it shrinks. After each message I send, I see a drop in the subscriber number. Then it climbs up again, only to drop off once more. The first edition had 9910 subscribers; now, there are 9717.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.
Coming from technology, I used to have a stubborn idea about scale. It’s a vector, growth, a verb. Scaling up or scaling down. Blitzscaling. Scalability as a positive attribute of growth.
But scale can be something else.
Working with architects, I learned that they think about scale entirely differently. In medieval cathedrals, the entryways were always small and cramped, so entering the towering church hall created a sense of awe and reverence.
In the Baroque, beauty was perceived on all scales - from door handles to moldings to entire buildings, which makes for very ornate buildings.
(I can’t help thinking about what a sense of scale would mean regarding curriculum. Planetary-scale impact, logarithmic scale change, and non-scalable knowledge are among a few topics a future K-12 curriculum might cover. )
When I think about this newsletter, the shrinking size creates a density with its own extraordinary scale. And I haven’t really even started to experiment with what that means with regard to some of the work dreams I have.
Linked List
In computer science, a linked list is a linear collection of data elements whose order is not given by their physical placement in memory. But here it is a selection of things I’ve been reading lately.
Numbers for understanding cities. I think these types of mental stacks are so useful - I don’t need to know all the numbers, but I need to understand a few well.
Fermentation, yeasts, time-scales of non-human things. So much to digest at Synthetic Ecologies Compendium.
Olafur Eliasson’s Our Glacial Perspectives is a timeline of the planet.
Essays the size of cathedrals. This superb essay by Henrik Karlsson tracks some of the best writing done for the web and future directions. “When I release an essay there will usually in the first hours be a few hundred people passing through; larger Substacks will have thousands of people reading synchronously. What if you could see each other? What if there were break-out rooms where you could discuss the text?” is pure multiplayer mode!
Classroom
Yanilka Lindeborg’s class in Netherlands did the memory game activity. Almost 10 years, but still relevant!
A few years ago I did a number of activities to help kids develop their numbers sense with estimation and decomposition skills. I’m itching to do something similar with the ideas around scale.
I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into your news letter, and love your thoughts on scale and density. There seems to be so much pressure to be the biggest which definitely does not equate to the best. Thank you again.
Your newsletter is my absolute favorite among all the newsletters on the internet. As a professional Software Engineer, currently working as an Engineering Manager at a large company in the U.S., I greatly value the perspective you offer on technology. Your approach of showcasing small but meaningful examples of human knowledge and art, reminds me of the internet's original purpose of disseminating positive information. Your newsletter keeps the flame of hope and inspiration alive, and I am extremely grateful for it.