#106 - Notes on Boardgames, Criticism and Festivals
Education Coffee is a Newsletter on People, Ideas and Culture.
In each edition of this newsletter, I will share inspiring web resources that I have curated after hours of research to ensure that you have the best education coffee in your inbox. In upcoming editions, I will focus on sharing insights, notes and realizations that I gather from people, ideas, books, films and podcasts.
1. Learning from People
Jerry Saltz is an art critic. Since 2006, he has been senior art critic and columnist for New York magazine. Formerly the senior art critic for The Village Voice, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2018 and was nominated for the award in 2001 and 2006. I loved listening to his story in the talk linked below. At one point he gave up his job art world and became a truck driver for 10 years. He then came back to criticism and became one of the most prolific art critics in the world.
I loved listening to him talk about the #artworld in this talk. Here are some lessons from this one hour lecture:
1) Art tells you stories of how humans have lived and related to each other over time.
2) The cave paintings we have are just 1% of the ones that have survived. We lost a lot of stories along the way.
3) Try to look at artists from different times and backgrounds rather than the top 1% of the art world.
4) Art criticism is not dead. It just needs new mediums. We can explore text, audio, video and more. Art is meant to be discussed and consumed by people from all backgrounds of society.
5) Galleries, Schools and Museums play an important role in deciding what art is important based on what they curate and share in their collections
2. Learning from Ideas and Questions
On Episode 49 of #LearningStories, we chat with Yajur Lath about how to teach entrepreneurship in India.
Yajur is an entrepreneur, lawyer and board game designer. He is the founder of EntrePi, a startup making games to teach entrepreneurship in a fun and engaging way. He is focused on impact in three fields of education, entrepreneurship and gamification. He created #StartUpHigh, a light strategy board game based on the startup life. Here is a play through video for this game.
He is a lawyer by profession with a BBA LLB from the National Law University, Jodhpur. He stays in Gurugram and loves playing sports in his free time. Watch the full interview at the links below. He hopes to continue creating games and experiences that help people explore entrepreneurship in a low stakes environment.
3. Learning from Books, Websites and Blogs
The Jaipur Literature Festival, or JLF, is an annual literary festival which takes place in the Indian city of Jaipur each year in the month of January. It was founded in 2006. They have uploaded over 3500+ videos on their Youtube Channel. This includes full replays of sessions from recent editions of the festival. I attended this festival regularly from 2014 to 2018 and highly recommend the videos on their channel if you love books and literature. Here is a glimpse of the festival in a short video from the channel. You can find out more about the 2025 edition of the festival on their website.
4. Learning from Films, Videos and Shows
Perfect Days by Wim Wenders was my favourite film of 2024. It is a love letter to the simple joys of life like watching the sun set, eating a delicious meal or reading a nice book at the end of your busy day. Here is a synopsis of the film and a link to the trailer
Hirayama feels content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, reads books and takes photos. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world.
5. Learning from Podcasts and Music
Host Zane Lowe hosts my favourite Music Podcast on Apple Music. On this show, he interviews musicians and discusses the stories behind their songs and albums. He is very knowledgeable about the music industry but is also really passionate about music as a Disc Jockey himself. In these interviews you learn about the musician’s mind but also about how they create and discover new music. They have uploaded 300+ interviews from this show on this Youtube playlist. In this interview he chats with Dua Lipa about Radical Optimism, Songwriting & Headlining Glastonbury.
Thank you for reading this edition of #EducationCoffee. I hope to continue to share resources that will add value to your life. You can review the archive of Education Coffee for free at this link (105 past newsletters). You can subscribe to this newsletter for more such recommendations on people, ideas and culture.
You can send me your thoughts on any edition of this newsletter through email at abhishekashokshetty@gmail.com. You can also reach out to me on Twitter or Linkedin. I love taking these discussions forward on those platforms. I look forward to hearing from you.
Abhishek Shetty