This is Kinda Genius
You see what I did there?
Origin Story
I have never consistently kept a journal. I am a bad returner of phone calls and an even worse writer of letters. I wrote a reading blog for a while, but then that was abandoned to make way for Book Riot. I even struggle to text people back reliably.
I am quick, though, to save something I find interesting, a digital raccoon who bookmarks a shiny bauble. Sometimes I share them via text or personal anecdote over dinner. For a long time, I didn’t think the anecdotes, facts, definitions, and stories that caught my attention had any unifying theme or overarching concern. I thought, and even said over many years, that I can get interested in almost anything. It has even become a (non) joke: there is no subject so boring that I won’t at least consider it as a subject of leisurely inquiry.
Over the last couple of years, though, I realized this is mostly untrue. Not the collecting part, but the taxonomic shruggie-shoulders part. Because I have favorites. These are not the undifferentiated background flotsam in Ariel’s cave, but rather kept on a special shelf in my mind.
Broadly speaking, these are stories of people having a great idea and then doing something with it. Of seeing a problem and solving it. Of asking a question, and then answering it. Of being told “not so fast,” and responding “hold my beer.”
To me, human ingenuity is the most interesting thing in the world—and worth celebrating.
I don’t remember figuring this out, but I do know the date I did something with it: Dec 21st, 2022. I know this because on that date I created a new Google doc and immediately dumped 79 items (I am still struggling to find the right noun for these things) into it just off the top of my head. Bookmarks and saved links provided another few dozen. And over the last two years, new entries have trickled in, both remembered items and new discoveries.
In each case, I find myself eager both to file a new finding away and to tell someone about it. And I do, usually in the form of a dinner time did-you-know to my family or workplace today-I-learned Slack message.
So What is Kinda Genius?
The idea for this newsletter is simple: share these stories with more people, more consistently. I considered an Instagram account or other social media presence, but I am by nature a writer and reader, and so text will always be my media franca. And everyone has email, but no one owns it.
My very loose plan is to send something at least once a week. Possibly Sunday mornings. Length will vary: sometimes they will be longer, involving more explanation and research. Sometimes these might only be a few sentences long; I am not interested in belaboring a wonderful anecdote that can speak for itself. So expect a range, both in length and in levels of seriousness.
I am not trying to develop a grand unified theory of creativity that I can trademark. I am not trying to sell anyone on the 7 Ways To Be More Creative. I find these stories inspiring, entertaining, and instructive on their own, without the need for some framework to explain them.
So What Kinds of Things Would I Be Getting?
Glancing over my idea sheet, I have entries for architecture and archeology. Business and ballet. Chess and cosmology. I won’t do all twenty-six letters, but you get the idea. I am an expert in precisely none of these fields, so my selections will be necessarily limited by my ability to understand them.
As of this writing, I have my first three dispatches planned:
On the Ending of Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory
Selling The West Wing
A Magic Trick That Took 27 Years
I reserve the right, though, to do none of these should other topics elbow their way to the front of the line.
Here is the bit where you can subscribe
If that sounds like the kind of thing you might be interested in, this is where you can sign-up. I am turning on paid subscriptions, as I have learned that putting out your hat when you are playing guitar, even just for fun, doesn’t hurt anybody. (If there are enough coins in my cap, I hope to commission other people to contribute.)
If I do this like I hope, Kinda Genius will be something you look forward to and pass along. Thanks for considering it.