Manufacturing Serendipity

It's Decorative Gourd Season...

Plus: Only 50% of Vinyl Collectors Own a Record Player; Ant Geopolitics; How Cat Memes Went Viral 100 Years Ago; & more...

Oct 25, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

September 2024

Fun with fake words

Thoughts on writing; The Glass Door of Wikipedia’s Notable People; The Secret Inside One Million Check Boxes; Lauren Redniss' graphic biography…

Sep 6, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

August 2024

PR Pitch Writing: Autumn Course Dates Plus a Free Zoom Workshop

Learn how to write PR pitches that generate top-tier media coverage. Four live sessions delivered over Zoom, beginning October 10th.

Aug 20, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

The Problem with "Resulting"

A Better Way to Evaluate the Decisions you Make; Life on the Likert Scale; The Love Letter Generator that Foretold ChatGPT; Digital Collage by Beto Val…

Aug 2, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

July 2024

Welcome to PizzaNet!

What the internet looked like in 1994; The telltale words that could identify generative AI text; What Game of Thrones did to the media; Nick Gentry’s…

Jul 12, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

June 2024

Forget the noun, & do the verb

Hello there :) Welcome to issue eighty four of Manufacturing Serendipity, a loosely connected, somewhat rambling collection of the unexpected things…

Jun 28, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

Welcome to your dystopian future, friends!

Thoughts on Ikea's new "dream job" campaign; a potted history of the pocket t-shirt; the shape of space; a relief map of Manhattan; & more...

Jun 14, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

May 2024

The value of “close reading”

Plus: The Most Commonly Used 4-Digit PIN Codes; Shape-Shifting Vines; The Rediscovery of a "Lost" Typeface; & more...

May 31, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

The Eel-luminati

A lot of facts about eels (yes, really); WTAF chairs; Third Places; Grammatical Nerdery; Collage by Chantel Walkes; & more...

May 17, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

Stealing frameworks from game design...

Plus: When do we stop finding new music?; The Fictional Brands Archive; Reclaiming Slowness; Micro knits from Althea Crome; & more...

May 3, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

April 2024

Which way is up?

Getting Lost; 20 Years of PostSecret; 2 Kinds of Attention; Artist's Block; Han Cao's Embroidered Photographs; & more...

Apr 19, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith

Moving slowly and considering things

Some thoughts on making decisions.

Apr 5, 2024 • 

Hannah Smith