Games are the real thing

This is David, semi-retired video game aficionado and your human guide to everything that's still great online. You're reading the Weekly Filet, as every Friday, I'm here to help you make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be. It's great to have you.

1. Hidden Levels

Wonderfully nerdy and insightful podcast series on how video games left the arcade and started reshaping the real world. My favourite episodes so far: The first one about an iconic early basketball game that changed the role of voice acting for games, and how TV commentators talk (boomshakalaka!). And episode 4 where we learn about a man who staged Hamlet inside Grand Theft Auto, and his wife who produced a documentary about it – also filmed entirely inside the game.

Hidden Levels - 99% Invisible

99% Invisible and WBUR’s Endless Thread team up for Hidden Levels, a six-part series about how video games left the arcade and started reshaping the real world. These stories go beyond high scores and consoles, tracing how a joystick became the bridge between people and machines, how a Chicago basketball game turned into a cultural

99% Invisible

2. My Hard-Won, Useless Knowledge

Short musings on what it means when you're really good at something that just isn't useful any longer. And why we shouldn't give up on learning skills that appear obsolete. «But, at the same time, acquiring these bodies of knowledge is part of what makes life great. Learning a new language is brain-melting, soul-enlarging.»

The Last Word On Nothing | My Hard-Won, Useless Knowledge

My Hard-Won, Useless KnowledgeHelen Fields

3. The Great Friendship Flattening

First, our friendships moved into the digital realm, at least some of the communication part. To ICQ, Facebook, Instagram, group chats. For a while time, that didn't seem like a bad thing – more instant communication, easier to low-key stay in touch with people. But we've arrived in a world where these friendships have to compete for attention on that small black mirror in our hands with everything else that's happening there. Social relationships and parasocial connections blend more and more.

The Great Friendship Flattening

Relationships are getting lost in the sauce of everything else on your phone.

The AtlanticJulie Beck

4. It's not just you. Uncertainty is through the roof.

One of my favourite journalists has started a newsletter. Amanda Shendruk has done a lot of interesting, relevant work at the intersection of climate and data, so there's a lot to look forward to. This first piece is mostly an announcement of what's to come (love this: «Don't have many answers, but I do have data.»), but it also contains interesting charts about spiking uncertainty, and a flowchart of how solving the climate crisis is interconnected with other crises.

It’s not just you. Uncertainty is through the roof.

The world is a lot right now.

Not-ShipAmanda Shendruk

5. 52 Weeks of Obsessions

Exactly my type of project. Rabbit holes, curiously and meticulously followed down and then documented beautifully for others to enjoy.

52 Weeks of Obsessions

This is my tiny corner of the internet to reclaim creativity & curiosity. New one every week.

What else?

Instant-gratification links that make you go wow! or aha! the moment you click.

• Short film: The Black Hole.
• 50 Cent, the rapper, adjusted for inflation.
• Helpful chart to understand what it means that climate change makes extreme weather events more likely.
• Kilian Jornet climbed 72 peaks in a month, 123 000 metres of elevation gain, and because almost anyone can do that, with a Tour de France's worth of cycling distance in between.
• A job for a different life: water sommelier.
• ‘Humans of New York’ transforms Grand Central into a monumental photo show.

Books for curious minds

Some new ones as I read them, some older ones that continue to inform how I look at the world and myself.

Irritating and disturbing in all the best ways. A blend of fiction and non-fiction on the connections between science and the horrors of war. Buy it here.

A gem from the archive

Mechanical Watch

Mechanical watches are little wonders of technology. Do you know how exactly they work? This fantastic interactive explainer takes you into the inner workings of a watch, one step at a time.

Weekly FiletDavid Bauer

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. I wish you a nice weekend and hope to see you again next Friday!

— David

More ways to learn and take inspiration from

Check my 📚 digital bookshelf, with sections of 🌡️ books that help you make sense of the climate crisis, ⛵ books that make you a better product manager, 🪄 books that help you make sense of AI, and 🧒 books that help you as a parent. And from collecting the best links on the web for close to 15 years, my thematic collections: The Art of Thinking (Differently), The Stuff Our Modern World Runs On, Bingeworthy Podcasts, and more.

Little useful apps from me, for you

📊 Dataguessr, a playful way to update your knowledge of the world. 🌍 You Don't Know Africa, a simple game that has already humbled millions of people. 💯 Choose Impact, an online tool to compare job opportunities. 🧭 Priority Compass, a tool for individuals, teams and organisations to focus your energy on what really matters. 🪄 How I Use AI, a collection of use cases, ready to use and adapt. 💬 Climate Questions, a playful conversation starter. And ⏱️ One Minute Challenge, a little meaningful distraction to refocus.