Curation

The internet has flattened information access so thoroughly that hoarding knowledge is no longer impressive. What matters now is what you do with it. How you filter it. How you recognize signal in the noise.

Curation is the new IQ test.

It’s how you build with the same pieces that everyone else has; this is what makes you unique.

But why has the concept of curation risen to such prominence beyond the museum, and why now? For Steven Rosenbaum, curation “addresses two parallel trends: the explosive growth in data, and our need to be able to find information in coherent, reasonably contextual groupings” (Rosenbaum, 2011, 5). This latter need, to be able to find information,... See more

The richest insights are found in overlooked sources and connections that are beyond the reach of the internet and the incentives of its curatorial algorithms. My inspiration comes from unexpected places: the yellowed pages of out-of-print software books, modern science fiction essays, the writings of early religious leaders, and unique items in... See more

Curation is an act of illuminating [something that is not us].

In an era of information abundance, the ability to filter effectively has become a premium skill. Good taste is cultural literacy: knowing the right references, understanding history, and recognising what matters beneath the surface noise.

One must seek Knowledge, but be a little wary of finding it. Perhaps excessive, but one could say the idea of possessing knowledge represents a kind of complacency. This is what Socrates meant: Once you think you know, you stop looking. You cease your wonder.

In 1997, Malcolm Gladwell published his piece The Coolhunt, investigating the process of looking for new fashion trends at street level.

According to Gladwell, the coolhunter plays a major social role in spreading trends. Coolhunters were “the first to realize... that social status didn’t lay where Madison Avenue had said it lay in the 1950s and... See more