Things Worth Getting Curious About

WHAT ARE YOU READING THIS SUMMER?

When you think of Summertime you probably think of days by the lake, sprinklers in the front yard, and the classic 2pm Friday office escape. For me, Summer is also a time to get curious, to dig into topics that I may not otherwise spend time on, and listen to experts in areas that I may not otherwise pay attention to.

I also happen to believe that curiosity is the superpower that allows us all to navigate a quickly changing marketplace (I wrote a whole article on the topic back in 2020: The Case For Curiosity).

To help fuel your sense of curiosity and fill your Summer reading list, the team and I put together a set of recommendations for you that offers a few quick reads, some new ideas, and more than a few rabbit holes that you may find yourself travelling down.

Wherever you happen to be reading this, we hope you're able to give yourself a minute to relax and recharge sometime soon.

LET'S START WITH SOME QUICK CONTENT

• How MasterClass used SEO to build a $2.7B education empire — Twitter thread by @alexgarcia_atx
• A simple data visualization tool that will make you look like a pro — TikTok by @startupgrowthtips
• Web Browser adoption over the past 28 years — Visualization in an IG video by @jamescceagle

THINGS TO GET CURIOUS ABOUT

• Facebook is adding Ethereum and Polygon-based NFTs to profiles — Article in Decrypt
  • Thought starter: Will people actually use them, and if so, how will brands get creative with the space?
• Instagram is opening up API access to Reels content — Article in Social Media Today
  • Thought starter: Of course this will make it possible to schedule Reels, but what else will creative developers do with access to a fire-hose of Reels content?
• The American FCC is calling on Google & Apple to ban TikTok — Article in The Washington Post
  • Thought starter: Should regulators be asking private companies to make these calls, and is it too late to curb the growth of TikTok?

STORIES WORTH DIGGING INTO

• Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature — Book by Janine Benyus that shows how nature has solved all of its hardest problems, and how we can look to nature to solve our own. I can honestly say that this is one of those books that made me rethink everything.
• Bitcoin has crashed, but what does that mean for the future of crypto? — Podcast by Sway
  • Prices are down, but the volume of smart people developing on the blockchain continues to rise. The ever-skeptical Kara Swisher and thoughtfully optimistic Chris Dixon pair up to answer all of the questions you've been too afraid to ask.
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things — Book by Ben Horowitz
  • This is the only business book that I've ever read that tells the story of what it's actually like to be a founder, and offers legitimately helpful advice for the hardest parts. With an uncertain economy ahead that's filled with untold challenges, I think constantly about Horowitz's distinction between "Peacetime CEO" and "Wartime CEO."
• How to get people to stick around — Podcast by Masters of Scale
  • Melanie Perkins, CEO of Canva, shares how her focus on onboarding people in every part of the business has been their superpower.

What would you add to the list?

We'll be sharing all of these recommendations and more on our social channels, so we'd love to hear what you're getting curious about.

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting