Upon writing down what I liked so much during the month of May that I wanted to recommend to everybody, I thought this month there was not really that much to write about. However, after starting to look in my YouTube and Google history I discovered I have actually read and watched some pretty interesting things. Despite having a tracking list of all the books I have read so far, I thought I had no other way to hold myself accountable for all the other sources of knowledge I use. Turns out, my promise to myself to write these recurring Recommendation articles is the best way to keep me on the track of learning something new and different every month. After this small epiphany I decided to ask you as well what do you do to keep yourself accountable for the knowledge you earn? Goodreads? Folders of read articles in a special app? Handwritten lists? I would love to hear it all!
ARTICLES & LEARNING
The Bewitching Time Warp of Transylvania, Romania
This superb piece from Conde Nast Traveler about Transylvania reminded me so much about my childhood. It also triggered in me the wish to spending some weeks there this summer to experience again the art of slow living.
P.S. The images accompanying the article are absolutely stunning and remind me of the work that Mihail Onaca or Lavinia Cernău created in the same region across various seasons.
This free course about AI is offered by the University of Helsinki (kudos to you, folks!) and so far has proven a great introduction to a topic I had been curious for a long time. If you are also doing the course, let me know, so we can chat about it!
VIDEOS
The complex geometry of Islamic design
I promise this older TED Ed video about Islamic art and geometry will be a delight for your eyes and the best short incursion into the magic world of architecture, design and symmetry.
How To Create Flying Food Photos
Personally, I always wondered how the flying food images where created where one could see clearly all layers of the food. Thanks to this video that is less than 6 minutes, my questions about this were finally answered!
Loved this episode on the Italian shoe designer Manolo Blahnik! If you are interested in fashion or design, you might like to hear his story as well, while also admiring the creativity he honed in his work.
The Next Web Conference 2018: all talks!
During 24-25 May, Amsterdam hosted the 13th edition of The Next Web Conference which was an absolutely blast and a great time to learn more about things that I don’t normally come across daily, such as cryptocurrencies and blockchain, AI, coding or space programs. I definitely recommend watching the talks of Kevin Kelly (WIRED) and Jason Silva (Shots of Awe) for a taste of how future might be like, Rich Pierson (Headspace) so you can see how anxiety can transform into mindfulness, and the talks of Henry Davis (Glossier), Ron Faris (Nike) and Jack Constantine (LUSH) if you want to see where ecommerce is heading next. All other talks are super inspiring as well, so I highly recommend you check out all the playlists from their conference tracks!
PLACES
Museum Het Grachtenhuis/ Museum of the Canals
As I was narrowing down the list of Amsterdam museums I have not yet visited, Museum Het Grachtenhuis popped up and I decided to make things right. Turns out, I was close to missing out on a great experience and perhaps one of the most interactive and innovative museums in the city, only slightly comparable to Amsterdam Museum. The use of multimedia experiences is done extremely well and the museum is definitely worth a visit if you love this pretty city.
PODCASTS
I recently discovered this podcast via LinkedIn and I started downloading episodes like crazy because all of them feature incredibly talented and influential people that I admire. One episode I particularly enjoyed was the one with Melinda Gates, who talked a lot about education, girls in STEM fields and discrimination at the workplace, which reminded me a lot of the ELLE interview that I had with Măriuca Talpeș, co-founder of Bitdefender and CEO of Intuitex. Will try my best to translate the article soon and will keep you posted about it!
EXTRA
How can we build “warm” technology? – TEDx Vienna
I swear I tried not crying while listening to this talk gave by Karen Dolva, co-founder of No Isolation. Moving away from my family and especially from my grandparents is one of the things that probably hurt me and them the most in the past two years. No Isolation wants to solve the issues of social integration for the elderly and for disabled/ill children and this initiative gives me hope that technology can have a much greater positive impact that we thought and that maybe soon I will be able to have much frequent digital contact with my older relatives!
Hope you enjoyed this month’s recommendations and I wish you to have a great start of the summer!
Laura
1 Comment
Hi, Laura!
Nice tips and tricks, I just watched the flying food photo project :). AI course is next on the list.
Unfortunately I do not track down what I read, I relay on my memory (which is not great, but I have to settle with this). When I read something worth to be noted I just share that with my friends or on a forum where I write on and off. Or I discuss it with my significant other :), if is something of common interests.