CURATED LETTER N° 22
April & May 2023 Edition
a monthly edit of ideas, style, and substance
—because confidence is a decision-making currency
My Dear Friends,
Between headlines, algorithms, and social noise, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by information overload. This Capsule Letter helps to clear the clutter. There is no noise—just edited must-know.
Confidence is not only elegant and sophisticated but also a decision-making currency. Until next time.
– yours, Harper–
Bookology
Selected books I keep on a side table—not to impress, but to return to. Why? Because they are quietly brilliant, excitingly clever, and far more interesting than small talk.
Think Again
The Power of Knowing what you don`t Know
Author: Adam Grant
Published: Viking Books; 2021
Think Again is a book about the benefit of the doubt and about how we can get better at embracing the unknown and the joy of being wrong. Evidence has shown that creative geniuses are not attached to one identity but are constantly willing to rethink their stances. Leaders who admit they don’t know something and seek critical feedback lead more productive and innovative teams.
Weird
The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World
Author: Olga Khazan
Published: Hachette Go; 2020
Most of us have, at some point in our lives, felt like an outsider, sometimes considering ourselves “too weird” to fit in. Weird looks at why some people are perceived as different and explores how they experience life as outsiders. Through scientific studies and dozens of interviews, author Olga Khazan shows that while weirdness can be incredibly destabilizing, it is also a wonderful asset.
Podtails
Some voices are worth letting into your head, and my handpicked selection delivers more than background noise and borrowed opinions.
Happier with Gretchen Rubin
Personal Development
Gretchen Rubin´s goal is to help listeners find happiness in everything that they do and to help them pursue their dream lives. Rubin and Craft break complex ideas into smaller details that the general audience can understand.
Subscribe where ever you get Your podcasts
Oprah´s Super Soul Conversation
Self-help; Personal Development
This podcast is an excellent option if you want to learn how to live a mindful and soulful life. Her topics include how to reach your highest potential and become the best version of yourself. She also helps you reconnect with the world and rekindle your relationship with other people.
Subscribe where ever you get Your podcasts
Afford Anything
Finance, Personal Development
Host Paula Pant interviews a diverse group of people, including entrepreneurs, early retirees, millionaires, and investors. To explore the tough work of living a balanced life. She coaches listeners on how to make wise daily decisions about how to spend money, time, energy, focus, and attention.
Subscribe where ever you get Your podcasts
Backup
From headline-worthy to gloriously unnecessary—this is what’s making it into conversation, never with noise, but always by those who matter.”
Natural Beauty
Natural beauty and its subsequent iterations (clean-girl makeup and no-makeup makeup) imply that there’s something frivolous about chasing beauty, even though it’s one of the only ways women have historically obtained social and economic power. Now science-backed skincare and makeup repackage appearance labour as an intellectual exercise.
A Scandalous Piece of Art
The principal of a charter school in Florida was recently forced to resign after parents alleged that their children had been exposed to pornography when shown photos of the Renaissance master Michelangelo’s sculpture of the biblical figure David.
Places to Be
140 years ago, a town with a Casino and some special water, preferably warm/hot, would quickly become a fashionable place. Frequented by the Nouveau Riche, the not-so-rich aristocracy and assorted exiles, SPAS were places for dignified ageing, marriage markets, luxury goods exchanges and diplomacy. They were clearly places to see and to be seen. Today we seek hidden places for solitude.
Vermeer goes Online
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is currently the place to be. Never before can we see so many of Johannes Vermeer’s paintings in one exhibition. However, the blockbuster Vermeer exhibition is sold out. This is how trendy the exhibition is! But there is hope for those who like to at least contribute to a conversation. Vermeer is online.
Worth Considering
How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable
Seth Godin, Us entrepreneur, author