Why subscribe to Frontal Lobe?
I redirected my Frontal Lobe into a dedicated Slow Read Book Club because I wanted my good friend, with ADD, to read along with me and finish a non-fiction work together.
One to two books a year, that’s it. No pressure.
I’ve had enough of speed-reading 100 books a year (without even remembering any of them).
This is not a race.
This is all about depth and asking questions like:
Why are things the way it is right now?
Are there other ways of living? What can we learn from the past that we can bring to our present and future as individuals and as groups?
Since I restarted my slow reading journey six months ago, I have transformed as a reader, and writer with one book successfully crossed off. Unknowingly, that book has transformed the way I thought about the past and the present.
One book. That’s all it takes.
Together, I hope we find hope, insights, and (book) closure - one chapter at a time.
For now, subscribers receive one chapter a week via the newsletter.
Slow Read Book Club - my choices for now lean towards anthropology-inspired works by David Graeber
Addendum - supplemental information from journal articles and other sources that adds depth and perspective to difficult chapters
I have occasionally published a TechStack book post, Addendum posts, and I am even thinking of Museum reviews. Let’s see how that unfolds in 2024.
I have formally began:
My Life in Things - a newsletter recording the overwhelming implications of my stuff (material culture) and my reflection on cleaning, keeping, losing, and owning possessions
Where do I start?
If you need to try it out, here’s where to begin.
In 2023, I read David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything. Click on the link for the entire book chapter list. Below is the first chapter.
In 2024, I searched in vain for another similar ‘world culture survey’ book and ended up with David Graeber’s Debt, The First 5,000 Years. I’m approaching this as a starting point before reading Thomas Piketty’s Capital. (OMG, maybe).
Come read with us this year.
My Past Writing Projects
Before Substack, I was active on Medium writing as a qualitative researcher and documenting my journey into UX in 2018. It used to be a culture blog but it has morphed into a professional page as more and more professionals moved in (but also moved out). This explains my piece:
Substack then was very different and happily is now where the writers have roosted (most left Medium). I am ecstatic and surprised to see thoughtful writing and reading communities here.
I have also published a user research culture book as part of learning about how to build a research culture in companies:
Better Research, Better Design by Erin B. Taylor and Melanie T. Uy (free to download)
But in part, the process taught me how to write accessible long-form essays, and work with another published researcher, and team behind it. Needless to say, producing a published work (even if it is an open-access work) requires several individuals and resources that were given without full compensation.
About Me
I’m an anthropologist based in the Netherlands. I accidentally ended up in the Netherlands from Australia because my graduate supervisor moved here and brought all of us here. And I am thankful for it.
I studied mortuary rituals in the uplands of the Philippines and continued this line of inquiry at the London School of Economics. This led me to focus on questions of kinship, order, and disorder.
It turned out that what I loved about graduate school was the reading. Now that I am outside of academia, I want to try to recreate this creative space here today.
Outside of this identity, I’ve worked as a qualitative researcher and research strategist for companies. I tinker with Obsidian for knowledge management and am stubborn about my Saturday coffee routine at my secret cafe. I remain a crime thriller enthusiast.
To learn more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
