Curating and Interpreting
You’ve probably heard of Malcom Gladwell.
And if you’re into Malcom Gladwell, you’ve probably also heard of Daniel Pink, Cal Newport, or Chip and Dan Heath.
These guys all write books that curate and interpret other people’s studies. They take other people’s research and present simple ideas by explaining it in a way people can understand. Researchers spend months or years trying to earn tenure at their universities by doing all the legwork. Then, Daniel Pink rolls up, reads a few scholarly articles at a cafe, cranks out a 170-page knowledge bomb from a Chromebook, and sells a million copies.
My point is not to make this work sound easy, or to make fun of it. To curate and interpret well you have to be sharp, write exceptionally, and find similarities where others might miss them.
My point is to say that the world needs more smart people just like you to curate and interpret, and to find common threads between concepts.
People do this all the time. They connect dots between Marvel movies, they test recipes, compile links to rare shoes, and they place jazz piano tunes in just the right order. What could you do it with?
