What I'm up to - August 2023

I'm Philip, and this is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.

✨ What I was up to in July

Booklet is a product I've been building to help communities communicate in a more structured and readable way. This month I finally had some people besides me start to use it. It's been fun to get the product into the wild, and now I'm iterating rapidly based on their feedback ahead of a more public release.

I finally got to reading the Noma Guide to Fermentation after visiting there last summer, and I've been doing a lot of experiments with lacto-fermentation. (See some photos below). It's been fun to go to the farmer's market every week and to cook with what's local and seasonal.

I recently celebrated one full year of working full-time on Contraption Company. Building new ways to help people work online has been a fun, rewarding, and creatively fulfilling journey. I'm proud of our commitment to keeping the business intentionally small and independent, and I'm excited about what the next year holds.

🤔 Things to share

• Articles : The Carlota Perez Framework for thinking about technology cycles. How to Do Great Work.
• Books : Designing Coffee looks at interior design of cafes around the world. A Work in Progress: A Journaldocuments a fascinating creative process. Algebra of Happiness has some good advice.
• Podcast : Robin Sloan on Social Media After Twitter.
• Apps : Collective automates and optimizes the back office for one-person LLCs.
• Trend: Location sharing between friends - with granularity of either "City" or "Exact."
• Coffees I'm drinking: Prolog Aquiares Anaerobic Natural was yummy. Prodigal Finca La Soledad Geisha was clean. Process Nestor Lasso Ombligon was funky.

📫 What I'm up to in August

• Traveling back to Mexico City, where I'm excited to try some new restaurants and cafes.
• Welcoming more Booklet users.
• Launching a couple of my own communities with Booklet.

**📍 Where I'll be **

• Aug 3-7: Mexico City 🇲🇽

(Let me know if we overlap)

📸 Photos

A fermentation in three photos . . .

Beginning - a haul from the farmer's market

Middle - setting up the fermentation, which for berries takes about a week

End - fermented cherry gastrique with roasted chicken and purple potatoes

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Thanks for reading! If we haven't chatted in a while, I'd love to hear from you. Send an email to say hi, share your thoughts, or just catch up.