Steph Smith: Untranslatable Word, A Digit, A Tweet, Dictionary Upgrade, A Deck
Our curator this week is Steph Smith (@stephsmithio). Steph currently leads growth at Groq and previously hosted the a16z podcast. She led Trends at The Hustle before its acquisition by HubSpot, wrote Doing Content Right, and created Internet Pipes, a toolkit for surfacing insights from the web. She's worked remotely across more than 50 countries since 2016.
Please enjoy these words that have mattered to Steph.
Steph's Picks
I love the Internet. Hopefully if you're reading this, you do too.
And since this newsletter is called, "words that matter", I wanted to share the many different levels of information that the Internet allows us to read, hear, ogle over, dispute, share, and more – starting with 1 word all the way up to nearly a billion – and maybe even the unsolvable?
1 word: an untranslatable word
Without the Internet, most of us would have no idea what unique ideas lie in the soundbites of other languages. Lucky for us, words like ikigai, schadenfreude, and ubuntu now have a ring of familiarity. One of my favorite untranslatables? Ichi-go ichi-e, meaning "one time, one meeting". Applying to this very moment, whether or not this is the first time you are reading this term on digital paper, you will never experience it quite like this again; at this exact time, in this exact place, with the exact psychology you have now.
10 words: a digit
Sometimes a single statistic means so much more than meets the eye. And despite our human brains not being well equipped to digest exponentials, some people spot these trends earlier than others, like Arthur C Clarke predicting remote work on the shores of Bali way back in... 1964! Some of my favorite newsletters for catching these exponentials are Chartr, Numlock, and Exponential View.
100 words: a tweet
This one, and its definition of magic, continues to live rent-free in my brain. And I feel like this challenge of pushing yourself to be as much a magician in your own right – pushing past the obvious creativity on the surface – is all the more relevant in the era of AI. Step 1 to getting there? Surround yourself with other "magicians", like Nicholas Britell, who composed the impeccable Succession theme song and treated us to this incredible interview breaking down its magic.
690 words: a dictionary upgrade
We often think of dictionaries as static corpuses, but just like the rest of society, our shared vocabulary is constantly shifting. In September, for example, Merriam Webster added 690 words to the dictionary, including "rizz", "bussin'", and "goated".
1,000 words: a deck
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words and this deck by Kevin Kwok on Figma might be my favorite deck on the internet. It's well-crafted on a thematic and aesthetic level, but the content is also excellent, outlining the playbook behind Figma's strategic design.
10,000 words: a moving infographic
One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that anyone can share their creations with the world. This animated infographic showing the changes in world population from 10,000 BCE to now is a perfect example of the type of content that would never exist if not for the internet.
100,000 words: a book
There are many great books, but Dataclysm by Christian Rudder is one that I keep coming back to. It's a fascinating look at what data from dating sites like OkCupid can tell us about human behavior.
1,000,000+ words: a subreddit
The r/MapPorn subreddit is a treasure trove of fascinating maps and data visualizations. It's one of my favorite corners of the internet for discovering new perspectives on the world.
860,341,500 words: a lifetime
Buster Benson's "Life in Weeks" is a powerful visualization of a human lifespan. It puts into perspective just how much time we have – and how much we've already spent.
Infinity words: humanity's unsolved problems
And finally, at the far end of the spectrum, there are the unsolved problems of humanity. These lists on Wikipedia span mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and more – reminding us that for all the knowledge the internet contains, there's still so much we don't know.
Spotlight on Steph's Work
Steph has built an impressive portfolio of products and content. Check out Doing Content Right for her course on building an audience, or Internet Pipes for her database of online tools and resources.