My favourite business book is Rework (2010). The cofounders of 37signals, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, had me at hey, we value experience over theory and, actually, do we really need these tedious “traditional notions” about business to get the work done? (Spoiler: no, we do not).

The book epitomizes its own “sell your by-products” principle: its authors produced it as a result of creating a unique company culture. “When you make something, you always make something else,” and that, they observe, represents opportunity. Don’t leave money on the table—or the workshop floor, either.

The by-product of curiosity is knowledge—but also, at least in my own case, a lot of notes. I want to test an assumption here, that sharing a selection of such notes each week, from a content habit high in variety and volume, with some light commentary and context, has value.

People share a lot on social media but looking to learn there is like trying to study at a beer hall. The message gets thrown out with the medium. I hope the reconsideration of social media that began late last year leads to a more deliberate effort to elevate reflectiveness over reflexiveness. For my own part, I have always preferred seeking a voice out on its own terms than trying to pick it out of a crowd.

My experiment begins below and continues weekly. It loosely emulates the Spectator’s Notes column, which can range from a single topic to a handful of otherwise unrelated items. Ideally, sharing the fruits of my own curiosity each week provokes your own.

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Say what you will about the Lincoln Project (everyone else certainly has) but their eponymous podcast may as well be a regular strategy workshop taught by the permanent and visiting faculty of the defence against the dark arts department. Last week’s episode (“January 6, 2021: Two Years Later”) included the astute observation that “extremists escalate to negotiate” from guest (and senior advisor) Trygve Olson. You should add that to your analytical vocabulary for the road ahead.

I have been reading Lydia Millet’s novels since a review led me to the curiously under-appreciated Oh Pure and Radiant Heart (2005) the year it was published. I saved the first few days of the year for her latest novel, Dinosaurs (2022), which could very well be her best. Millet describes feeling with an economy that is so efficient you forget it’s one of the most challenging things to do—both in writing and life in general.

Speaking of novels and by-products, here’s a line from Haruki Murakami’s latest book, Novelist as a Vocation (2022), that reminded me of an abyss-gazing philosopher: “What I want to say is that in a certain sense, while the novelist is creating a novel, he is simultaneously being created by the novel as well.”