Hey @blendahtom, of course. Nico and I have been sharing and then discussing the things we read with each other for a few years. We noticed that even though we have very similar tastes, we were finding and consuming radically different things. On this basis, we decided to create a newsletter together. Snail Mail's angle (only sharing pieces we've consumed 3 or more months ago) only came later, when we noticed a trend in the way people in our network - and often ourselves - shared things online.
Nico expressed frustrations with the fact that the "viral" filter wasn't allowing a lot of great things to surface and stay relevant. Something became super popular, everybody talked about it for a bit, and then it went away, all of us onto the next thing. When we observed our own behaviour, too, we realised that we were becoming obsessed with knowing and sharing everything (a great piece on this: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/2...), so consuming content online became a sort of job, which sucked the enjoyment we used to get from it. At least in my case, it was rare that I sat and actually thought about the information I was acquiring. And reading, in particular, became more of a task to be fulfilled which I did quickly rather than a pleasure which I took my time with. The way I quickly skimmed articles online started to creep into the way I read offline. As a keen reader, I disliked the impact of this.
There's actually a bit of research on this here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lo...
Both Nico and I have noticed changes in the way we consume as a result of the newsletter. We read, watch and listen to things with more attention, noticing details and seeing the lessons imbued within the content. I for one sit on articles and books for weeks if not months, and then I write my thoughts about them. The newsletter has certainly made my own experience of engaging with culture much richer and more meaningful.
If you want to read more about our philosophy, here's a link to our manifesto: https://medium.com/@kmp/we-read-...
We have close to 500 subscribers now, and have received numerous e-mails in response to the newsletter, with both recommendations on what to post or how a certain piece we shared impacted them. We're now talking about "Snail Mail Plus," which will involve a monthly book club based on what we share, and potentially an actual physical subscription service.
Thanks so much for engaging with us. We'd love to hear your thoughts!
All the best
Kyra + Nico
Psyched to see this on PH! I have been getting snail mail for a while now and love it! I send nearly all of them to my kindle - make for great long weekend reads. Thanks @halbluchs for taking the time to put this together @thisiskyramaya!
My other favorited curated and summed up newsletters are @kale hacker news, and @blancpain's input-output. Combined i'm getting so much great content and learning a lot. Only downside is I am dedicating more and more time to reading great articles but less great books.
@BlendahTom yep, I have a "Classics" section where I pull articles older than a year... which usually has one or two of the top clicked links for any given issue, so definitely an interesting newsletter from @thisiskyramaya and @halbluchs.
It is kind of hibernating now, but I had a newsletter centered around this and it looked back at the best articles of Hacker News from 1, 2, 3 4, and 5 years ago: http://www.waybackletter.com/.
The Misfit Economy
Reflection
Community Canvas
The Misfit Economy
/ syndicate
/ syndicate