The Magnificent Seven is run via Buttondown. Subscribe by going here.
The Magnificent Seven is the grandiose name of my weekly newsletter. It began on the 19th July 2020, right after I finished my debut novel and short story collection and a few months before I swapped factory life for a startup. More on that here: msweet.net.
It goes out every Sunday at 0700 GMT/BST and contains seven things that elicited a “Whoa!”, a “Wow!”, a “Huh?” or a “Hmmm” from me—mostly text-intensive items like books, articles, blog posts or essays; sometimes projects, graphics, ideas, excerpts, videos, songs, tools, artists, art, creators, software, hardware.
To prevent my attention—and thus, your consumption—from converging on a single theme every edition generally includes one item from each of the following categories:
- Ecology/systems
- Philosophy
- Technology
- Movement and health
- Politics
- Other – light
- Other – heavy
The above is a guideline and there’s often crossover. That can’t be helped.
It’s worth noting that the content of the newsletter is chunky. Like me, you probably have an abundance of links already. I try to provide some substance without requiring a click-through or a visit to an external resource outside your inbox.
I also reserve the right to include links to any blog posts I publish, or a short sentence concerning active or upcoming projects. This won’t happen too often but when it does it’ll be towards the top of the given edition and easy to ignore.
Finally, a note on sources. They’re varied: Twitter, Farcaster, various Discords and Slacks, dialogues with friends and correspondents, whimsical searches and trail following. These serve as a foundation for further exploration, as well as direct sources. Unfortunately I don’t include “hat-tips” in editions of the Magnificent Seven; the admin associated with that practice would make consistently publishing Mag7 implausible.
Final final note. I implemented the seven categories above to ensure the breadth of my attention is always sufficiently stretched. For that reason, I also occasionally include things I don’t agree with. And I avoid anything that deserves to be starved of all attention. Thus: inclusion in Mag7 is not to be confused with an endorsement.
The Magnificent Seven is run via Buttondown. Subscribe by going here.
Swell & Cut 