The hottest Curation Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Literature Topics

Magnum Square Print Sale Announcement

In the Flash • 679 implied HN points • 24 Oct 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Curation
  1. There's a special photo print sale happening called the Magnum Square Print Sale, featuring work from famous photographers. Prints start at $100 and there's a deadline coming up soon.
  2. One of the highlights is a photo of people enjoying time in NYC that captures the city's vibes after the pandemic. The photo reflects beauty and stillness amidst the busy city life.
  3. The sale's theme is 'Eden,' showcasing the beauty of our planet and the need to protect it. Diverse photography styles are represented, but the focus is mainly on documentary and portrait work.

Closing Out 2025

Animation Obsessive • 17222 implied HN points • 19 Dec 25
🎨 Art & Illustration Curation
  1. Focusing on human-made craft in animation offers a meaningful alternative to generic, AI-driven content and keeps attention on artistic skill.
  2. Highlighting artists who work with materials like oil, sand, paper, wool, or metal pins shows how creative techniques and perseverance matter even when industry and politics make things harder.
  3. Celebrating concrete wins, growing an audience, and sharing work freely during hard times helps sustain the creative community, while planned breaks and continued effort keep the project viable for the future.

I'm Recommending 14 New YouTube Videos

The Honest Broker • 5917 implied HN points • 24 Nov 25
🎭️ Culture Curation
  1. You can train the YouTube algorithm to favor higher-quality videos so it starts delivering content you actually enjoy.
  2. Simple street interviews can prompt strangers to share deep, intimate stories, showing the power of genuine conversation.
  3. Great musical discoveries still exist — from lively contemporary pop bands with electric chemistry to brilliant, underrated film composers who never got major awards.

Announcing the NonZero Network

Nonzero Newsletter • 384 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26
📰 News Curation
  1. The NonZero Network is a new effort to amplify a small group of independent, intellectually honest newsletters and podcasts so readers can more easily separate signal from noise.
  2. Paid NonZero subscribers get a 50% discount on any member newsletter for a one-year subscription, and those discount purchases are reciprocal with proceeds split evenly between NonZero and the partner newsletter.
  3. All NonZero subscribers will get a weekly curated summary of highlights from network members and a few outside picks (with an opt-out option), and founding members were chosen for their independence and underrepresented perspectives.

The Coolhunt Never Ended

Fish Food for Thought • 13 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26
🎭️ Culture Curation
  1. When information overwhelms us, curation is what turns noise into meaning by filtering, framing, and prioritizing what deserves attention.
  2. In business and media, concept curators—analysts, writers, and leaders—add value not by creating more content but by synthesizing ideas and making judgment calls that raw data and algorithms miss.
  3. As AI and cheap content increase abundance, curation becomes essential infrastructure and a leadership responsibility; it’s about respecting attention and deciding what to ignore.
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Uncurated: The Case for a New Term of Art

Lit Mag News Roundup • 2201 implied HN points • 16 Mar 23
📚 Literature Curation
  1. Literary publication is changing in the digital age, making the term 'previously published' obsolete.
  2. Editors and publishers should focus on curation rather than traditional publication in the modern era.
  3. A new term 'uncurated' is proposed to replace 'unpublished' to better reflect the current literary landscape.

⬜ The importance of curation

One Thing • 1186 implied HN points • 22 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Curation
  1. Curation has a long history dating back to ancient Rome, starting as a way to manage aspects of city life and evolving into a responsibility of caretaking, on both a spiritual and physical level.
  2. The concept of curation has shifted over time, from being associated with museum stewards to being seen as a glamorous act online, where individuals are faced with curating their digital presence to navigate vast content.
  3. There's a call for more support for curation, emphasizing the importance of sustaining those who find and organize valuable content, moving beyond just paying creators for their work.

2025 Recap

Novum Newsletter • 154 implied HN points • 31 Dec 25
📚 Literature Curation
  1. 2025 was clarifying but difficult and saw less output. The plan for 2026 is to write a lot more and make changes to enable that.
  2. The newsletter grew to over 3,200 subscribers, and long-form essays about cultural and media anxieties attracted notable attention.
  3. Planned work for 2026 includes publishing magazine essays, starting a nonfiction novel based on a real-life story, and launching a curated archival blog, with paid subscriptions invited to help support these projects.

A Brief Theory of the Modern Gift Guide

Culture Study • 3013 implied HN points • 04 Dec 24
🎭️ Culture Curation
  1. Gift guides are super helpful because they show shoppers what's available. They help people find gifts without feeling lost in endless options.
  2. Many gift guides now rely on affiliate links for income. This helps publications stay afloat while still recommending products they think are great.
  3. People enjoy the personal touch of tailored gift suggestions. It's nice to feel like someone understands your tastes and can help you pick the perfect gift.

Poppi slapped with lawsuit

Snaxshot • 259 implied HN points • 31 May 24
💼 Business Curation
  1. Curation as salvation: It's important to curate content in a world filled with overwhelming choices.
  2. Discovery is strength: Curating content can help brands connect with desired audiences and opportunities.
  3. Excess is death: Avoiding information overload through curated, ephemeral content can be beneficial.

What’s Missing from Today’s Pop Music and Museum Galleries? Call It Boogie

Dada Drummer Almanach • 86 implied HN points • 13 Dec 25
🎭️ Culture Curation
  1. Good groove or “boogie” comes from small dynamic gestures and subtle timing, not identical, clipped hits; flattening sounds loses the swing that makes music feel alive.
  2. Museums often present sound badly — low-fidelity playback, loud excerpts, and spillover make listeners hear only the biggest bits and miss the works' nuance and intent.
  3. Sound in art should be treated with as much care as visuals, so galleries need to redesign how they present audio and the public should support cultural work that values those listening details.

Music algorithms failed us

The Rectangle • 84 implied HN points • 12 Dec 25
🎶 Music Curation
  1. Streaming made the whole world of music easy to access, but recommendation systems focus on keeping you listening rather than showing truly new or surprising music.
  2. Algorithms reduce taste to data and similarity, so they mostly suggest songs that sound like what you already listen to and create echo chambers instead of serendipitous discoveries.
  3. Human curation and chance encounters used to surface more meaningful, unexpected music, and moving discovery away from people to machines has made finding real gems harder and more effortful.

"The Manic American Humanist Show" at PWA

Do Not Research • 219 implied HN points • 11 Mar 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Curation
  1. The exhibition "The Manic American Humanist Show" at Public Works Administration honors work from core contributors to Do Not Research and reflects on a decade of online political experiments.
  2. The featured artists explore themes of political ideologies, personal frustrations, and cultural reflections through their artwork.
  3. The project space, Public Works Administration, serves as a platform for digital artists to showcase their work, collaborate with online communities, and foster connections within the art world.

Book-Objects

coldhealing • 569 implied HN points • 02 Mar 23
📚 Literature Curation
  1. When discussing a book, the physical object itself is the book-object, not just the text.
  2. Book-objects are unique because they are portable and self-contained, allowing for powerful expression of identity.
  3. People use book-objects in photos and bookshelves to curate identity and express themselves, creating 'reading scenes' and bookshelves as reflections of who they are.

Five Platform Competition Trends to Watch in 2022

Platform Papers • 59 implied HN points • 24 Jan 22
🕹 Technology Curation
  1. The platform economy is dominated by big players like Amazon and Apple, but they face increasing scrutiny for their dominance from antitrust agencies. Self-regulation could be an alternative to government intervention.
  2. Platforms are not just marketplaces; they play a significant role in curating products. They promote certain products strategically to shape their ecosystems and drive revenue.
  3. Complementors, who rely on platforms like Apple App developers, are starting to push back against platform dominance. Strategies like disintermediation and building competing platforms are being employed to reduce dependence on major platforms.

Sometimes Music Is Just Better Than Words

The Reclamation Era • 0 implied HN points • 13 Oct 23
🎶 Music Curation
  1. Music often expresses feelings that words cannot. Sometimes, when we struggle to find the right words, a song can say everything we need to convey.
  2. Letting go can be tough, whether it's memories, beautiful moments, or the seasons changing. It's important to appreciate what we have rather than hold on too tightly.
  3. Creating playlists for different moods can help us connect with our emotions. Curating music is a way to remember and feel, making tough times a little easier.