flâneur

'How to be a Human' Starter Pack - by Lydia Nottingham

lydianottingham.substack.com · 571 words · saved by 6 readers

For a couple of years, these were things that I really appreciated others doing. I enjoyed going to others’ events, talking to knowledgeable people, and reading their blogs. But that’s all these were—‘things other people do’. Somehow, the activities didn’t quite make the shift to ‘things Lydia can do’. Enter NEEThood earlier this year. Out of college and work, I started doing all the above—what else was I going to do with my time? I got huge returns—made friends outside my bubble & traversed the ML landscape at 90/30 Club; articulated murky topics, understood myself & the world better on this blog; absorbed math quicker than ever with LLM-generated Anki cards. Before long, I found work—and carried the habits with me. I moved city and ran two events on my first week in Cambridge, MA. When I saw new people jump straight into hosting, I used to think each must be a qualitatively different type of person to me—something in their childhood-upbringing, perhaps, or a ‘Big 5’ quirk of personal

Edit (3rd Feb 2026): I think the actual trifecta is ‘hosting, writing, programming’. The premise: Unilaterally running events Writing a blog Spaced repetition For a couple of years, these were things that I really appreciated others doing. I enjoyed going to others’ events, talking to knowledgeable people, and reading their blogs. But that’s all these were—‘things other people do’. Somehow, the activities didn’t quite make the shift to ‘things Lydia can do’. Enter NEEThood earlier this year. Out of college and work, I started doing all the above—what else was I going to do with my…

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