SPOS #1000 – Patrick Tanguay On Paths To Better Thinking

29 snips

Sep 7, 2025

In this conversation, Patrick Tanguay, a generalist and creator of the newsletter Sentiers, dives into the art of curating global change signals. He shares insights on building personal observatories to enhance our understanding of the future, emphasizing the importance of generalist skills. The discussion navigates through effective content consumption strategies and the role of technology in managing information. Tanguay reflects on his diverse career, showcasing how thoughtful design and community engagement lead to innovative thinking and creativity.

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INSIGHT

RSS Keeps The Web’s Diverse Rhythm

Early Web platforms (Flickr, Pinboard) enabled diverse independent publishing before dominant social networks.
RSS preserves that multiplicity and rhythm of voices that algorithms tend to collapse.

ADVICE

Triage Newsletters Into A Folder

Triage newsletters into a separate email folder to avoid inbox overwhelm.
Use address-plus tags to route subscriptions and review them in dedicated reading time.

INSIGHT

Practice Attracts Clients

Running a newsletter both markets your work and creates a pipeline for client engagements.
The newsletter is the practice and the practice attracts paid collaborations.

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Welcome to episode #1000 of Six Pixels of Separation - The ThinkersOne Podcast.

Patrick Tanguay is a self-described generalist, synthesist and curator whose lifelong curiosity and love of reading have led him across multiple careers, and now shape one of the most thoughtful newsletters in the futures-thinking space. As the creator of Sentiers, a weekly "futures thinking observatory" (and one of my most favorite reads), Patrick spotlights signals of change across technology, society, and culture. He helps readers trace emergent paths instead of prescribing them. Alongside his writing, he designed and launched Station C, one of the first co-working spaces, co-founded the print magazine, The Alpine Review, and seeded communities like Creative Mornings and some of the earlier community get-togethers for the digital enthusiasts. For episode #1000, Patrick guides us through how he curates global currents of change, explores how platform design, sense-making systems and personal knowledge management influence our capacity to understand the future, and why the skills of generalists matter now more than ever. He walks us through why Sentiers became such a respected newsletter and how its architecture reinforces and expands his handwritten trail of ideas. Across the show we consider how to build a personal "observatory," not just follow feed algorithms, how to connect seemingly disparate signals from AI to city futures, and why being able to notice what's happening before everyone else is becoming more crucial... and more rare. This is an episode for curious minds, digital gardeners and anyone searching for clarity amid chaos. I hope that you will also take a couple of moments to listen to my opening monologue about my reflections on the past 1000 episodes (nearly 20 years), and what the future will hold for this show starting next week. Enjoy the conversation…

Running time: 1:28:08.
Hello from beautiful Montreal.
Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts.
Listen and subscribe over at Spotify.
Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Six Pixels of Separation.
Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook.
Check out ThinkersOne.
or you can connect on LinkedIn.
...or on X.
Here is my conversation with Patrick Tanguay.
Sentiers.
The Alpine Review.
Follow Patrick on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

(00:00) - The Evolution of Six Pixels of Separation. (04:14) - Introducing Patrick Tanguay. (05:31) - The Art of Thinking and Curating. (20:56) - Foresight and Future Thinking. (29:54) - Navigating the World of AI. (41:41) - The Role of Reading in Deep Thinking. (01:00:08) - The Future of Knowledge Work. (01:10:04) - The Intersection of AI and Human Purpose.