Robin Good

Curation as a Service (or CaaS) - I believe, as the amount of content on the web increases, there will inevitably be a need for more human curators. People who are domain experts (or have an obsession with a topic) that can sift through the garbage and collect the gems.

The ingredients of ‘good’ curation

I think great curation comes down to five key elements that span the processes of searching, selection and contextualizing:

1. Preservation: Caring for, reviving or resurfacing things that might otherwise be lost or forgotten in archives or streams.


2. Connection: Inspiring moments of surprise –, “I didn’t think of that

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While it’s probably one of the corniest things I’ll ever write in this column, I’ve come to believe that developing taste is not so unlike going to therapy; it’s an inefficient, time-consuming process that mostly entails looking inward and identifying whatever already moves you. It’s the product of devouring ideas, images and pieces of culture not ... See more

Give users of all platforms the right to customize or opt out of algorithms—choosing chronological or geographical or genre-based filtering or even human curation.

Then there’s curation theater.

Posting endless ‘favorite reads’ lists composed entirely of current bestsellers. Ticks the boxes, but doesn’t quite reveal taste. Reposting LinkedIn hot takes, adding cute hashtags but not really contributing much commentary

Curiosity creates the inquiry.

Knowledge populates the options.

Curation filters the right ones through.

Judgment makes the final call.

When knowledge becomes abundant, value migrates to the functions that exist upstream and downstream from it: framing the inquiry and acting on the output.

In this new architecture, curiosity, curation, and judgment ... See more

Sommeliers emerged as luxury goods in a world where the product (wine) was getting commoditized, and curation was the new differentiator. That’s exactly where jobs are headed.

The phone is not the enemy. The enemy is fear—fear of stillness, fear of silence, fear of being alone with one's own thoughts.

So let this be the final word: use it, but do not be used by it. Hold it, but do not be held by it.

And above all, remember: the truest moments of life happen in the spaces where there is no screen.