The New Yorker Magazine Conference Example

I recently had an opportunity to attend the New Yorker conference. Basically the idea was to throw designers, chefs, architects, politicians, entrepreneurs & other creative types into a blender and see what they all thought the world would look like in 2012.

The reason I attended was that it seemed like an amazingly condensed MyHippocampus-style knowledge event. What could be better than an event designed to make huge cross-genre connections between Will Wright & his video games & Zaha Hadid's architecture or between Malcolm Gladwell's thoughts on geniuses & Cory Booker's inspirational work in Newark.

Now that I've had a chance to write up some of my thoughts, I think it has definitely been a success. MyHippocampus now includes islands of Forgetting, Happiness, Journalists & Doctors and you should see the size of the Morality island. It's growing almost uncontrollably. I just don't seem to be able to help the fact that Jonathan Haidt's talk about the 5 pillars of morality and moral relativism in general seems to color almost everything I'm thinking about. Just fantastic.

My Cory Booker topic prompted me to go out and rent Street Fight, which was definitely worth seeing, even if did get distracted from the point because I couldn't get over the fascinating flown-in-for-the-event press secretary for Sharpe James. Who was that guy?! I'd watch another documentary just on him. I wonder who he's selling his services to for this election.

My other background influence these days is "By Night in Chile," although, more than anything else this may be a good example for why I don't think that MyHippocampus should be a transparent & 'full speed ahead social I-can-see-all-your-thoughts' kind of website. I've been enjoying the book & I've been writing down my thoughts about it, but if you think I'm confident enough to share my 'analysis of the text' with the rest of the world you're crazy.

Overall a one day conference is a tough thing to evaluate. With a roster of stars such as it had, it was tough not to hope for something hugely magical. Instead we're left (as we always are) with some interesting thoughts to ponder, a few neat experiences, and a desire for more hors d'oeuvres in our daily lifes. I think that MyHippocampus will be a good way to encourage the insights gained not to fade away too quickly.