Unfolding a new chapter

human curation, the birth of the detective and the ugly truth behind dating apps

A little update: I am switching this newsletter to every 2 months instead of every month to keep a regular schedule.

✨ Highlights of the last 2 months

• I went back home, spending time with family, an important priority for me 🙏

• I spent a great weekend in Nantes, enjoying a cool comedy club and walking in the city

• I spent several weekends in Rennes, djing, seeing friends, and enjoying the city which I like more and more

• I played for the 3rd time at the Warehouse last month, hosting a party in Room 2, with a friends’ collective, Versnelling. I played a fantastic B2B set with a friend!

• I visited Honfleur, Etretat, Deauville, and Trouville for a few days which was really nice and relaxing. (I especially liked Etretat)

• I ran, preparing for a half-marathon using Kiprun Pacer which I highly recommend!

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📚 What I liked consuming the last 2 months

Let’s dive now into what I consumed the last 2 months and especially liked

Articles

You Don’t Need to Document Everything

“So put the camera down. Don’t document everything. Stop selling your life off so cheaply to strangers. Keep some things sacred. Let some memories fade and look back at them through fuzzy nostalgia instead of the cheap glare of an iPhone camera roll. Enjoy the fireworks.”

The Mystery Monk Making Billions With 5-Hour Energy

Manoj Bhargava, the founder of Living Essentials and a monk, has made billions with his product, 5-Hour Energy, an elixir that helps keep individuals alert without crashing.

My Toddler Still Loves Planes, So I Upgraded Her Radar

How a dad built a flight radar app for his toddler, explaining technically how he built it.

"Fake Chinese income" mortgages fuel Toronto Real Estate Bubble: HSBC Bank Leaks

How a Canadian business school graduate uncovered a significant mortgage fraud scheme, revealing borrowers with inflated income from China.

Aux Abonnés Absents

“Ainsi, alors que nous cherchons à naviguer entre l’hyperconnexion et la déconnexion, peut-être devrions-nous aspirer non seulement à un retour au réel, mais à une réconciliation avec notre capacité à rêver au-delà de nos écrans. Car, en fin de compte, ce n'est pas dans la pierre ou dans le pixel, mais dans le cœur humain et dans nos actions, que réside la véritable immortalité.” Julien Rousset

I miss human curation by Cassidy Williams

“In the earlier internet days, you went to a fun website or read the latest thing because you decided to go do it. Now, all of this content is pushed in your face, designed to be as addicting as possible, so you keep coming back. You can curate it to a point, but companies design these systems this way on purpose. “ Cassidy Williams

I have been looking at a lot of personal websites last month and came across the movement of IndieWeb. I am curious about it and plan to experiment with it on my future new personal website. I will probably share more in the next issue.

Fred again.., producteur timide devenu star des Grammys

Dans ce monde capitaliste tellement marqué par l’atomisation des goûts, je suis heureux de voir un nouveau mouvement qui dit : ‘Non, à présent on va réutiliser les choses. On va les reprendre et leur trouver un nouveau sens.’ » Brian Eno

I spend £8,500 a year to live on a train – I’ve travelled 310,000 miles so far

How this 17-old guy decided to live in a train, legally, and travel across Germany while working.

Eugène-François Vidocq and the Birth of the Detective

The story of Vidocq is so interesting, and I highly recommend it, to learn more about the Sureté and the birth of detective agencies. He went from being a criminal to creating a secret service to put in jail criminals using ex-convicts, which inspired for example Scotland Yard.

Inside the Pain Cave

She started to fall in love with problem-solving; that curious, meticulous part of her wouldn’t let this challenge go. She realized ultrarunning was as much about the brain as it was the body, and that she would need to build mental toughness. Pushing through physical pain, she was learning, had as much to do with positive thinking as it did with being in peak physical shape.

That’s when she realized what ultra is truly about: community. A bunch of strangers on an adventure, all trying their hardest.

Learn more about Courtney Dauwalter, the world’s greatest ultrarunner, and how she achieves 100-mile and 200-mile ultra races like it’s a Sunday walk.

How to fix the internet

“The existential problem is that both the best and worst parts of the internet exist for the same set of reasons, were developed with many of the same resources, and often grew in conjunction with each other.”

“Humans were never meant to exist in a society that contains 2 billion individuals,” says Yoel Roth, a technology policy fellow at UC Berkeley and former head of trust and safety for Twitter.”

Anil Dash has been repeating the same thing over and over for years now: that people should buy their own domains, start their own blogs, own their own stuff.

The last quote resonates with me as I learn more about the IndieWeb that I shared in this issue earlier.

Curiosity Attractors: The Diffuse Obsessions that Shape our Lives

“Start by paying attention to what naturally draws your attention during everyday life. A great way to do that is to practice self-anthropology and capture field notes for 24 hours. Are you always attracted to certain topics when reading articles, talking to friends, or listening to podcasts? Everytime you notice one of these, jot it down. Over time, patterns will emerge that will help you identify your curiosity attractors.” Anne-Laure Le Cunff

« On pourrait très bien vivre dans un monde sans moteurs de recommandation »

“Je pense qu’en tant qu’utilisateurs, on pourrait se passer d’algorithmes de recommandation, en suivant les contenus de personnes qu’on a croisées et qui nous intéressent. Pour les créateurs de contenus, en revanche, c’est très différent. Ils ont besoin des algorithmes de recommandation pour faire leur métier, afin d’attirer des personnes qui ne seraient pas venues nécessairement vers eux.” Bérengère Mathieu

First-Gen Social Media Users Have Nowhere to Go

“If the early promise of social media was to bring society closer to a virtual ideal, the most recent shift in how platforms are used has lost the plot.” Jason Parham

Opal 2023 Screentime Report

“If you’re looking at a phone more than someone’s eyes, you’re doing the wrong thing” Tim Cook

Books

Lisa Gardner - Crash & Burn

I have been reading a lot of Lisa Gardner books and Crash & Burn is the latest one. If you like thriller books, you shouldn’t miss her writing.

La Disparition de Stephanie Mailer - Joël Dicker

After reading the excellent La Vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert a while back, I forgot to check out what else did he wrote, what a mistake.

L’Énigme de la chambre 622 - Joël Dicker

This one is the second book I read from him and both are fantastic books that you should not miss!

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Videos

Le Mental (ft. Mike Horn)

The ugly truth behind dating apps

I started watching the excellent Squeezie documentary last month, after watching this recent video he made on his channel.

As someone investing in the techno music scene and playing in Nantes, the documentary was so interesting to watch, seeing Nantes techno actors, from a collective to a club, prepare the famous Techno Parade in Paris.

This video is so well made that it made me want to watch even more of Christopher Nolan’s movies.

As someone who started using more trains, it was interesting to learn why it’s expensive.

Not your usual tech review. Casey Neistat does it his own way.

An inspiring story about running a marathon after being told that you would not run again.

After leaving Notion a while back, I have been learning again about Personal Knowledge Management systems and have been studying Obsidian, an app with a great “file over app” philosophy that allows managing your notes in plain-text files, for long-term use. This guide is a really good one that doesn’t overcomplex the app to allow you to find your use case.

Felkin explains the backstory behind drum & bass

Un Bon Moment avec Marina Rollman and Payanotis Pascot

An interesting episode talking a lot about depression.

Roman Frayssinet a grandi : “Je construis ma paix d’esprit”

One of my favorite humorists in an interview about how he changed since his previous show.

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Movies

Sauver ou périr

Wonka

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Music

Olivia Dean (Thanks Leo for sharing her Boiler Room)

Pegassi | Boiler Room: Ghent

I have been listening to a lot of trance this year, and Pegassi is a great artist of the genre.

The track he played from Odymel has been on repeat since its release.

Chill House set in a cafe by crab.culture

The Blaze - SHE (Directed by Fedor Prunkov)

I love The Blaze and this clip is a great tribute to this track

Cera Khin Boiler Room x Glitch Festival 2023

Marianne Beaulieu singing Gracie Abrams

Kasbo @ The High Steel Bridge in Shelton, Washington

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👀 What I’m up to the next 2 months

• I am going to move from Nantes to Rennes in the coming months so I am going to start thinking about my move.

• For personal reasons, I have decided not to attend the Barcelona Half-Marathon I was planning to run in February. I have updated my training plan to prepare for another half-marathon in April instead, and am continuing my training for the next months.

• I am currently on a DJing break since my Warehouse set, and I will DJ again in April. Looking forward to this because we have some really cool events coming up (I am playing for the first time at a festival in May 🤯)

• I am focusing on myself and my close ones.

And that’s it for this March 2024 issue of Full-Time Curious 😁 If you enjoyed reading this bimonthly issue, you can like this newsletter by clicking the ❤️ below, subscribe or respond to this email so we can chat.

Thanks for reading and see you in 2 months!

Alexandre

Full-Time Curious

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