Curation
The art of creating value by providing context and meaning to apparently disconnected information bits
Robin Good and
Curation
"Expert curation occurs when an actual human being who is, theoretically, an expert in a given topic, weighs the quality of the information presented in making her source selections.
Expert curation can also include an editorial element, in which the expert not only judges content for quality but also provides a point of view."
Source:
... See moreUnlike influencers, curators do not lead with self-exposure, but with interpretation. A curator’s authority comes not from personal relatability, but from perspective, context, discernment, and intellectual labour that has since been lacking in recent social media years.
the influencer won't last 2026. here's why.
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.
Issue 007: The Curation Renaissance
Curation gives even mundane objects value by connecting them with a point of view, heritage, a subculture or purpose that makes them stand out in the vortex of speed, superficiality, and newness.
andjelicaaa.substack.com • Move Over Influencers, Here Come Curators
helping readers discover work they’ll actually subscribe to.
I Just Learned How Substack’s Notes Algorithm Really Works (And Now Everything Makes Sense)
Read that again.
The Substack Notes algorithm is optimized for one thing: helping readers discover work they’ll actually subscribe to.
Not time spent. Not endless scrolling. Not ad clicks.
Subscriptions. Paid conversions. Real connections between readers and writers.
The shift isn’t just about the aesthetic, it’s structural. As loneliness become endemic and public life becomes performative, people seek spaces with intention, coherence, and shared values. Curators, whether they’re running book clubs, shaping playlists, hosting salons, or steering micro-communities, they are steeping into a vacuum left by... See more
the influencer won't last 2026. here's why.
Curation has historically emerged at moments when institutions failed to provide coherence. Salons rose when the Church and monarchy lost epistemic control; DJs rose when record labels could no longer define taste; curators rise today because algorithms are riddled with decision fatigue, influencers are intrinsic to their own needs, and the... See more
the influencer won't last 2026. here's why.
If search giants aren't interested in, well, search, I suppose it's time to look elsewhere for answers online. Share sources you trust, curate sources of information on what's important to you and dive back into specific URLs over general queries.
Search is dead — long live curation
Somewhere between the late 2000’s aggregator sites and the contemporary For You Page, we lost our ability to curate the web. Worse still, we’ve outsourced our discovery to corporate algorithms. Most of us did it in exchange for an endless content feed.