Hello! I occasionally send these weekend editions when there are too many good things to share, and it won’t all fit into the regular Tuesday edition. So here are five things to read, watch, or listen to this weekend.

1. The sound of the dialup, pictured. This is old, but I only came across it today. An absolutely wonderful graphical representation (and detailed explanation) of what those modem sounds from the 2000s actually did to get you online.
   
   “What you're hearing is often called a handshake, the start of a telephone conversation between two modems. The modems are trying to find a common language and determine the weaknesses of the telephone channel originally meant for human speech.”

2. Edifice Complex: Restoring the term “burnout” to its roots in landlord arson. This is a fascinating weekend longread on the origins of the term “burnout”. Get ready for a wild journey through inequality and urban design:
   
   “When Freudenberger searched for an evocative term to describe his experience of intense exhaustion, he landed on ‘burnout,’ a word he borrowed from his patients. In these early days of the free clinic movement, which began in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neigh­borhood in 1967, treat­ment centers were es­tablished primarily to help people in the throes of a bad trip. LSD users who came to the St. Mark’s clinic, and later users of heroin and barbiturates, introduced Freudenberger to the term, slang for the effects of chronic drug use.”
   
   → Bonus urban design read: How Brasília’s urban design affects citizen behavior during political violence.

3. The Power of Indulging Your Weird, Offbeat Obsessions. I love the latest article from from Clive Thompson in which he talks about how being curious and obsessed can lead to interesting places.
   
   “It’s enormously valuable to simply follow your curiosity—and follow it for a really long time, even if it doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere in particular.”
   
   Reminds me of when I wrote about obsession and the joy of iterative projects.

4. The Strangely Beautiful Experience of Google Reviews. Another perfect weekend read. Speaking of “weird, offbeat obsessions”, I love stories like these where an author goes really deep down some rabbit hole. In this case: Google Reviews that don’t seem to make any sense.
   
   “Most of the time, reviews alternate between angry, comically banal, and downright bizarre. One star for Laurie’s Gentle Pet Grooming in Terrebonne, Oregon: ‘She butchered my pomeranian I would not recommend.’ One star for a Walmart in Columbia, Kentucky: ‘I don’t go in Walmart stores, my husband went in. I hate Walmart.’ Two stars for the New Hope Baptist Church in Five Points, Alabama: “Can’t really say …. car broke down and had to replace a radiator hose in the parking lot.” 

5. It’s been slow pickings for new release music over the past few weeks, but this week one of my favorite—and extremely underrated—Blues artists JD Simo released Songs from the House of Grease. If you like your guitar sound almost impossibly filthy, this one is for you.

That’s it for now! See you on Tuesday for Part 4 of that Product Strategy series. It’s done and scheduled, so I guess it’s time to think about what comes after that…

Have a good weekend!
Rian