The Magnificent Seven was the grandiose name of my weekly digest. The first issue went out on 19th July 2020. The last issue was sent on 20th October 2024. Only a single week was missed during that period, and the end result was 222 issues and 1500+ links to different things.
Mag7 was released every Sunday at 0700 GMT/BST and contained 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 etc..
The content of the newsletter was links+. Like me, you probably have an abundance of links already. I tried to provide some substance without requiring a click-through or a visit to an external resource outside an inbox. I also included links to any blog posts I published, or a short sentence concerning active or upcoming projects. This didn’t happen too often but when it did it was towards the top of the given edition and easy to ignore.
To prevent my attention—and thus, the audience’s consumption—from converging on a single theme, every edition generally included one item from each of the following categories: ecology/systems, philosophy, technology, movement and health, politics, and other (1x lighter, 1x heavier). The above was a guideline and there was often crossover. That couldn’t be helped.
I implemented these categories to ensure the breadth of my attention was always sufficiently stretched. For that reason, I also occasionally included things I didn’t agree with. I tried to avoid anything that deserves to be starved of all attention. Thus: inclusion in Mag7 was not to be confused with an endorsement.
The sources themselves were varied: Twitter, Farcaster, various Discords and Slacks, dialogues with friends and correspondents, whimsical searches and trail following. These served as a foundation for further exploration, as well as direct sources. Unfortunately I didn’t include “hat-tips” in editions of the Magnificent Seven; the admin associated with that practice would’ve made consistently publishing it implausible.
Mag7 braced my attention, catalysed interactions and relationships, and led, in a major way, to the genesis of Subset. In the course of writing about Subset (and prior to officially ending Mag7) I enumerated the benefits of doing an email digest. Below is a compressed list of the upsides of email digests, sourced from that post. It’s about as a good a retro as I think I’m capable of.
- Concerning value that accrues to the producer
- Email digests compound into a moated resource
- They shape and improve the producer’s ability to pay attention
- They make staying in touch and top-of-mind almost effortless
- They impart a halo effect
- They cause accumulation of accidental integrity
- They’re vehicle for soft power and subtle influence
- Concerning email digest consumption and the value derived by recipients
- It’s a high signal output
- It’s designed for easy consumption
- Concerning email digest production and sustainability over time
- Email is a strong, sovereign channel and a proven asset
- There’s minimal marginal cost for creation
- They’re flexible in scope
- They’re amenable to automation and absence
- They’re producible in dead time
- They’re easy to scale
- Concerning the less tangible forms of value that emerge
- It’s an engine for serendipity
- The info accumulated can be used to augment emerging technologies
- They’re a sanctuary amidst a stormy sea
- They provide an archaeological record of development
Ultimately, I enjoyed producing The Magnificent Seven over the years. It’s something I’d heartily recommend others experiment with in some form, too.
Swell & Cut 