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Hey everyone! Happy March! A bit of a quiet month this time around; here's a rundown of what I've put out this month:

An article on ClassCentral.com.
A blog post.
And of course, my top book of the month.

Let's get to it!

From Class Central:
Digital Education as a Third Place

For my March article on Class Central, I wrote about the possible role digital education can play as a third place for the modern era.

But I think the real key is that right now, we're missing the mark too often, especially with free or low-cost MOOCs. We frame digital education too often as a place for flexible upskilling for job requirements, and not often enough as a place to learn because... well, because learning is fun. And learning together is even more fun.

Hopping into an online course at the end of a long day shouldn't feel like a chore to make sure you still have that job tomorrow. It should feel like finally getting to sit down and watch your favorite show, except you get to learn something and earn something that matters to you in the process.

And while that's especially true in the low-cost MOOC world, it can be true in the for-credit space as well. The expectations and rigor may be harder, but you should still feel like you're learning something that matters to you with a community of your friends.

Taking MOOCs should be like playing Animal Crossing. Earning an online degree on your own time might be like playing Dark Souls. But either way, it's something to do first and foremost because you enjoy it—and especially because you get to enjoy doing it with others along the way.

Read at ClassCentral.com

On the Future Four-Day Workweek

In my blog this month, I mused a bit about the possible future of a four-day workweek. A lot has been made about this, with different countries and companies experimenting with it in different ways.

But I'm generally of the opinion that change like that doesn't happen by mandate; the mandate that comes eventually is because everyone is aware of the way things have been going, and something is necessary to finally codify that trend. But the trend arises independently. And based on the radical shifts I've seen in my morning commute over the past 20 years, I think we're seeing them already take place.

Read at DavidJoyner.net

Book of the Month:
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier

Full disclosure: I didn't particularly enjoy most of my March books. Most were fine. A couple were particularly boring. One was downright bad. One I can barely call a March book because I started it last September and it just took me this long to finish it.

But my favorite* for the month was pretty great: Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier. It tells the story of how different video games are made, ranging from the indie darling Stardew Valley—a game whose creation story is as heartwarming as the stories that happen within it—to big-budget hits and cancellations like Diablo and Star Wars 1313. The look behind the curtains was fascinating into the multitude of ways that business, design, and development intersect. Learning that Halo Wars wasn't originally a Halo game, for instance, felt like learning about how The Mortal Instruments was originally a Harry Potter fanfiction.

I put an asterisk on favorite because my actual favorite book(s) this month were Titanborn and Titan's Son by Rhett C. Bruno. But they're the first two in a five-book series, and I tend to treat series as monoliths when rating them like this, so I'm saving that for next month. But I'll go ahead and mention it: they're fantastic, one of my favorite science fiction series of all time. And while I'm mentioning Bruno, I'll give another plug for one of my favorite books of all time, Vicarious, also by him.

Among the other books I enjoyed this month were The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, an alternate-history science fiction novel set in the 1950s after a meteor devastates earth sparking a much earlier race for space colonization; The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher, a collection of diary entries and poems written by Fisher while filming Star Wars; At the Edge of Time by Dan Hooper, a look at the current status of research into the moments after the Big Bang; and the latest three books in the Saga series—7, 8, and 9—which deserves its reputation as the best ongoing graphic novel series.

Full Disclosure: As with on my blog, I use Amazon referral links in this section. That's mostly just a lightweight way to track and see if anyone's even clicking through. If you buy something through one of these links, I may get a bit of money back and achieve my dream of one day being able to buy the nicer set of kitchen scissors that Amazon sells instead of the bargain variety.

That's all for this month! As always, you can find more on my web site, including links to previous books, papers, courses, and my AI bot, DAI-vid. You can also find me on LinkedIn and on GoodReads. And if you want to leave me any feedback (about this newsletter or absolutely anything else), feel free to use my anonymous feedback form.

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