Five Things: December 5, 2024
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_ONE
Fodor’s No List 2025 | Fodor’s Editors
Every year, the Fodor’s No List aims to shine a light on destinations suffering from untenable popularity. These locations are popular for good reason—they are stunning, intriguing, and culturally significant. However, some of these highly coveted tourist spots are collapsing under the burden of their own prominence.
I became aware of the term “overtourism” during a brief stint in the meetings space when a competitor coined it to bring attention to the growing problem, and it’s been a factor ever since when planning a vacation somewhere we can’t claim as a spiritual home via family roots or close connections.
Spain is on the list for good reasons; although not specifically areas we like the most or have family in, it will definitely influence our future plans. Oaxaca was disappointing to see because it’s been on our wish list for years, but Mexico has plenty of less problematic destinations we still haven’t seen. Puerto Rico isn’t on their No List, thankfully, but I’m moderately comfortable claiming it as a spiritual home that it wouldn’t be a factor. (Local politics, on the other hand…)
When we travel, we prefer to “live like locals” as much as possible, but that increasingly means staying in neighborhoods and housing that are actively being used to price actual locals out, gentrifying them into tourist-friendly destinations that eventually lose their original appeal. On our last trip to NOLA — which I’ve considered a spiritual home for many years, albeit via tenuous roots — we stayed in a hotel instead of using VRBO and it was fine for a short visit. I wonder if longer stays just aren’t an option anymore, or can I rationalize it being different for me thanks to those tenuous roots?
I suspect an actual local would justifiably call bullshit on that hypocrisy.
__TWO
The Unfettered Selfishness of Digital Nomads | James Greig
While some digital nomads are struggling creatives, eking out a modest living having fled their expensive home cities, 45 percent now earn over $75 thousand a year and many are the perpetrators, rather than the victims, of the global housing crisis—or at least they’re aspiring to be.
Back in 2016, the idea of being a digital nomad was appealing but unrealistic, mainly because most of the publishing industry wasn’t playing the remote game yet, and I wasn’t ready to go the full-time consulting route. A few years later, a bankruptcy and the pandemic changed everything, and I’ve been happily working remotely for more than 5 years now, and coincidentally, the idea of being a digital nomad is becoming relevant again.
Unfortunately, the only thing worse than overtourism might be digital nomadism, and the last thing I want to be is an ignorant “expat” gaming one system to escape another one. That said, we do regularly visit the Hudson Valley looking for a potential compromise, especially since New Jersey isn’t quite as blue as some people think.
___THREE
Microsoft launches imprint that aims to be faster than traditional book publishing | Ella Creamer
It said it will experiment with technology to “accelerate and democratise” book publishing, and is building a “rigorous” editorial process which will involve spotting “meritorious” ideas and arguments quickly, assisting with manuscript development, inviting internal and external reviews and meeting “style and substance standards”.
The “AI and publishing” hype cycle continues unfettered by reality or scruples, so 8080 Books can almost seem like a relatively reasonable angle — if you don’t dig too deep. Unfortunately, once you connect the dots between it, LinkedIn’s aggressive prompting and scraping of posts sharing “professional expertise” (which preferably don’t link to outside sources), and Microsoft’s narrowly focused deal with HarperCollins to license select nonfiction titles, you can see a clear picture emerge that will excite some, and disgust others.
LinkedIn “gurus” were bad enough when they were just chasing clout and speaking engagements, but formally legitimizing that nonsense with a legitimate-ish publishing program is going to make that platform even more insufferable than it usually is.
On the relatively bright side, it’s at least better than the ridiculously stupid Spines.
____FOUR
Dolly Parton Gives $4.5M to Nashville Library | Michael Schaub
The country music legend is giving the money—the largest gift ever to the library foundation—through her nonprofit Dollywood Foundation, which also runs Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a program that mails free books to children in five countries. The gift will be used to launch Begin Bright, an initiative that will provide “training and literacy resources for parents, childcare providers and more,” the library foundation announced in a news release.
Nashville Public Library is one of the most innovative libraries in the country, and Parton’s Imagination Library is great, although I was very disappointed when I learned ALL of the books are published by Penguin Random House. Fortunately, NPL plans to add other titles to their Little Library initiative as part of the Begin Bright program.
I will always have a fondness for NPL after doing a feature on them for PW just a few weeks before the pandemic first shut everything down in 2020; it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written, and one of my favorites.
_____FIVE
Vintage digicams aren’t just a fad. They’re an artistic statement. | Brendan Nystedt
For those seeking to experiment with their photography, there’s an appeal to using a cheap, old digital model they can shoot with until it stops working. The results are often imperfect, but since the camera is digital, a photographer can mess around and get instant gratification. And for everyone in the vintage digital movement, the fact that the images from these old digicams are worse than those from a smartphone is a feature, not a bug.
I’ve officially hit an age where things from my 20s and early 30s are reaching VINTAGE status, and I DO NOT LIKE IT! It was cute when Polaroid made a little hipster comeback, but if I start seeing 20-year-old point-and-shoots in vintage stores next to actual antique film cameras, it might be more than my knees can handle.
Coincidentally, I’m planning to get a new CD player soon, because as much as I love my small vinyl collection and streaming’s convenience, I have dozens of CDs sitting in a drawer that I haven’t been able to listen to in years, and most of them were not originally released on vinyl nor will I pay $30+ for a special edition.
I don’t know if a widespread return to physical media is coming, but I’m prioritizing curated ownership over wide access from now on, and realizing I have a hard drive full of pictures I should probably start organizing and printing my favorites sooner rather than later.
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I think the only thing in the business world that might irritate me more than sitting in a meeting filled with business speak would be a company naming a spin off or division after some “cutesy” throwback thing. Naming a book company after a 50 year old microprocessor? WTF? And they’re going to accelerate and democratize book publishing?
Uh huh. Sure Jan.
If there’s an upside to LinkedIn and their gurus, it’s that I don’t pay for it. I don’t think I’ll pay for this either.
In Microsoft’s limited defense, the main difference between 8080 and traditional publishers’ similarly opportunistic imprints is easier access to the data that will drive their list. Unlike Amazon, MS doesn’t have a seamless DTC connection, so they’ll still be as reliant on their authors’ platforms to drive sales. If LinkedIn opens a storefront, though, then we’ll know MS is as serious about publishing as they are seeding interest in AI.