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Cultural planning has shape-shifted throughout its history, encompassing beautification initiatives, placemaking (and placekeeping) projects, and preservation work. But in the past decade, the field has accelerated significantly, according to Rana Amirtahmasebi and Jason Schupbach, the editors of The Routledge Handbook of Urban Cultural Planning, a new manual that compiles the most innovative programs, policies, and approaches to the discipline that have recently emerged. A throughline? That creative wellness is essential to cities, and that everything from the climate crisis to displacement, tourism, public space, and infrastructure can benefit by centering culture and the people responsible for it. Its a provocative angle, considering how efficiency and technocracythe opposite of the difficult to quantify nature of culturestill dominate urban planning. As Amirtahmasebi and Schupbach write in the books introduction, cultural planning should be seen as a critical tool in the toolbox of building equitable communities and no longer as a siloed topic on the fringes of city policy. The new manual, which clocks in at over 500 pages, features case studies from around the world on how arts and culture are entering urban planning in new ways. While the usual suspects of public art, museums, and cultural districts appear in the book, theyre joined by less expected approaches. For example, an essay describes how the Los Angeles Department of Transportations first resident artist helped pedestrian safety come across more urgently by centering real people and their stories instead of statistics in Vision Zero presentations. Meanwhile, a chapter on land trusts explores how new ownership models are combatting real estate speculation in Oakland, California. [Cover Image: Routledge International] We spoke with Amirtahmasebi, an urban planner and cultural strategist, and Schupbach, Dean of the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University, about their new book and what it means for the future of cities. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Congratulations on the book! What sparked it? Rana Amirtahmasebi: The field of cultural planning and policy has come a long way, but there was really no book about its intersection with other sectors and challenges like housing, gentrification, environment, economic development, public health, and disaster risk management. Jason Schupbach: We’re way beyond the just put a mural on a wall type of beautification projectalthough there’s an excellent article on murals in the book. Ideas are much more advanced today, but there hadn’t been a survey in almost 10 years, and there has been a massive explosion of thinking and networks and people in urban cultural planning. We thought, let’s get together all the people who are sophisticated about bringing cultural planning in conversation with other fields so that the handbook can be of actual use to people. Tell us about some of those new ways of thinking. I was drawn to a quote in the book from Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, the former head of the National Endowment for the Arts, who argued that creative wellness is part of how we understand a good quality of life and that planners should take note. Amirtahmasebi: What we missed as urban planners and policymakers is that we looked at the city as a bunch of sectors, like housing and transportation and we really didnt really think about how to bring all of them together. But the city is also a cultural construct. How do you make this into a place where people can live, thrive, and be happy? In one essay, Dr. David O. Fakunle and his coauthors write about the creative process of storytelling and how it’s a powerful tool to address disinvested communities, loneliness, and public mental health. So arts and culture can cultivate opportunities for human-centered approaches to individual and collective healing, growth, and empowerment. What are some of the new policies that represent a more integrated approach to cultural planning and cities? Schupbach: Cultural land trusts are a big one. Were so challenged by land prices in many places, and culture is one of the things that will get priced out first. How do you hold on? Theres an interesting article by Dr. Angie Kim about community ownership in Oakland, California. There, the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is exploring new financing models to buy land that might otherwise go to real estate speculators. And Erika Hennebury, a cultural affairs officer in the City of Toronto, offers a survey of cultural land trusts in Toronto, Vancouver, London, and San Francisco. Night mayors are another growing trend. Laia Gasch Caslas writes about how London implemented this policy, and theres so much practical stuff in there. When the area around the Ministry of Sound, the legendary electronic music club, began to gentrify, the city required new development to have triple-pane windows and soundproof walls. A housing development person might not have been concerned about something like that, but a person in the city government paying attention to culture at night was. Guaranteed income for artists through programs that fund them to do work in communities is a new trend, toolike the Mellon Foundations $125 million Creatives Rebuild New York COVID-19 relief initiative. There have been some real interesting innovations, and it’s always in a place you might least expect where culture might intersect with city making. Equity and justice are strong currents throughout the book. To rewind a bit, the conversation in the aughts around urban cultural planning revolved around orienting cities toward Creative Class in service of economic growth, which contributed to gentrification and displacement. You argue that just framing cultural planning from an economic perspective is limiting. Why is that an important distinction? Schupbach: Cities are very complex things and you need every tool in your tool kit to try to make it better for all of the citizens. There are cultural tools, so why wouldn’t you use them? In the aughts, there was a strong economic argument that kind of rode a wave across cities around the world because of Richard Floridas The Rise of the Creative Class book. It opened a lot of doors for mayors and cities to start a conversation about urban cltural planning. So Im grateful for that. What Florida was talking about still matters, but we have a deeper level of sophistication about all the places that culture can help, and also how to build equity and justice. This work has come way beyond the creative economy. It intersects with transportation, as Katherine Dirgas chapter on artists and transit planning explains. One chapter describes how a law lab at Northeastern University is working with community groups fighting housing instability. Amirtahmasebi: In a lot of contexts, when we talk about culture, we have to assign value. There’s no other way. In some places, there are grants available to develop theater or music or create a mural. But in a lot of parts of the world, when that money is not available, you have to make a case. So I think that’s why the creative class argument was very appealing to a lot of my colleagues and myself at the time. When you go talk to a mayor of a secondary city in Asia or Africa, how can you say let’s build a theater when you don’t have sanitation or housing? It’s extremely difficult to quantify qualities like social cohesion and social capital. Dr. Jackson says in the book that if you want to destroy a society, you kill the culture. It’s also true that if you want to build a society, you build their culture. It should be obvious, right? We shouldnt have to make an economic case for it. Recognizing where value lies is another theme. You argue that culture bearers are important to center in planning and that expanding the fields understanding of who these figures are is critical. Can you share a bit more about this? Schupbach: This concept of culture bearers is so important. It’s an inside urban cultural planning term, but it really is about who holds the culture in a place, and who passes it down. Everybody kind of knows who that is in their neighborhood probably, right? It’s not just about the formally trained artist. For example, altar makers in Los Angeles may not call themselves artists, but they are truly holders of the culture. There’s an article in the book on cultural asset mapping. It’s not just the number of artists and theaters; it’s really about digging deeper into what makes a place a place. Where would you like to see urban cultural planning go next? Amirtahmasebi: The next step is not thinking of culture as something that is completely separate from other sectors in the city. I would like cultural plans to be one chapter of the citys overall plan. A lot of times, cultural plans don’t speak to what is happening with planning departments in other parts of the city. Schupbach: Theres huge potential in the under-explored public health space. Dr. Fakunle saw the power of storytelling in the loneliness crisis, as we talked about. Well, there are a lot of health crises. There’s a lot of stuff about art therapy, but how does it intersect with place in a smart way? And how does that connect to disaster? We’re in a moment of creative destruction right now in the United States. A lot of stuff is being torn down. Im not so interested in the daily panic about the tear down; Im really interested in what do we build on the other side? What are the new policy ideas? What are the new structures we can build? Things are changing. A lot of things for a lot of people weren’t working before. Lets actually try to build something better. What do you see as the ultimate outcome of cultural planning applied to the fullest degree? Amirtahmasebi: The well-being of humans and being able to thrive, especially with intangible cultural heritage. To be the source of social and psychological resilience, especially in these times of hardship, everywhere in the world Schupbach: Hard same. The Routledge Handbook to Urban Cultural Planning is available from routledge.com.
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Step inside a newly built apartment complex in almost any American city and you’re likely to find people congregating in an unexpected place. They’re not in the pool or the game rooms or the gym. The people are gathering in the mailroom. Through an unusual collision of building codes, postal regulations, shopping habits, and a global pandemic, mailrooms have become a new kind of social space in apartment buildings. And designers are finding new ways of taking what has long been a utilitarian peripheral space and turning it into a central square where residents can dwell and interact. Julia Lauve is an interior designer in Dallas and her firm Workshop Studio designed the mailroom for a recently completed 213-unit apartment building in suburban Lewisville, Texas. Instead of presenting a simple row of metal mailboxes, the mailroom appears to be more of a lounge, with a large U-shaped sofa in the middle, dark paneled walls, soft lighting, and wide carpeted floor. There are tables where residents can sit and open their mail or pull out a laptop, and doors to the street turn it into a waiting room for visitors or rideshare services. “It pulls you in with some soft seating and invites you to stay there for a little while instead of just opening your mailbox, getting your three or four pieces of junk mail, tossing them in the trash, and leaving,” Lauve says. The Mill [Photo: The English Den/courtesy Workshop Studio] The mailroom is also front and center in the building, rather than hidden in some back room. “It is an extension of the lobby and the community spaces within this property, instead of it being an afterthought and tucked away,” says Lauve. She’s created several other similar mailroom designs for apartment complexes in Texas, and there are residential projects from Arizona to Virginia where mailrooms are considered just as much of a resident amenity as a pool or a gym. The Mill [Photo: The English Den/courtesy Workshop Studio] Why mailrooms are such a desired perk The mailroom’s sudden rebirth may seem random, but it has come about through a perfect storm of outside influences. “A lot of it is driven by code,” says Sheena Brittingham, managing partner of Vida Design, an interior design firm based in Portland that has multiple mailroom design projects in its portfolio. Recent revisions to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require large apartment buildings to have at least some mailboxes within a “reach range” between 15 and 48 inches from the ground, and many local jurisdictions require all mailboxes to fall within that range, adding more linear footage to the overall mailroom size. Building codes that once required turning radii in hallways and common areas to be at least 60 inches have increased the minimum to 67 inches, adding additional space between rows of mailboxes. “[Mailrooms are] just getting larger and larger and taking up more space,” says Brittingham. “On most of our projects we’ve approached it like, let’s make this a beautiful experience and make it a place people actually want to come.” That means putting more design touches into a real estate footprint that has swollen in size. Lauve’s project in Lewisville, Texas, for example, has about 8,700 square feet of amenity space on two floors, including a clubhouse, a gym, and a business center. Almost 1,000 square feet of that is dedicated to the mailroom. “It’s a lot of space,” she says. The Mill [Photo: The English Den/courtesy Workshop Studio] The main courier of mailthe United State Postal Service itselfhas also influenced this trend. Mail receptacle standards revised in 2020 now require that multifamily residential buildings locate their mailrooms “reasonably close” to the nearest place where a mail carrier can park their delivery vehicle, which many local postmasters have interpreted as a 100-foot rule of thumb. That’s brought mailrooms out of the dark corners and much closer to the front of the building, blurring the edges between mail infrastructure and the lounge-like lobbies and sleekly designed common areas many of these developments include. Brittingham says her firm used this new condition to influence its design concept for a mailroom in a recent project in San Diego, which sets aside some of the mailroom’s counterspace for a typewriter that nudgs people to contribute to a public journal of sorts. “It’s trying to engage the residents a little bit more in an analog way,” she says. “Mail is such an analog experience that it’s kind of nostalgic.” The Society, Bradbury [Photo: courtesy Vida Design] Redesigning mailrooms for the work-from-home era With the rise of e-commerce, dedicating more space to mail has become a modern necessity. “Anything that you could possibly need can be delivered to your door,” says Lauve. “People are now receiving all of this stuff from mail services, delivery services. So it’s become this behemoth amount of space that a developer needs to consider to make everybody happy.” The Society, Ruby [Photo: courtesy Vida Design] Parcel rooms and delivery lockers are now also part of the mailroom landscape, with an increasingly sophisticated array of hardware capable of handling the daily onslaught of deliveries too big to fit in a typical mailbox. Brittingham says some of her firm’s projects have invested in space and technology to make this process as smooth as possible for residents, including secure rooms with key-coded doors, video surveillance, and elegant lighting. “We want to really elevate that experience because everybody is going here almost every day to pick up their packages,” she says. “We don’t want it to feel like you’re going down some creepy corridor to get your stuff.” Increased rates of package delivery is one side effect of the pandemic. Another is the growth of flexible work, which has turned many spacesintentionally or notinto places where people can do their jobs. “We’re seeing a lot of overlap in any amenity space for cowork,” says Brittingham. “Any space or any surface where you give people an outlet and Wi-Fi, it gets utilized.” Her firm’s mailroom design projects have built this reality into its designs, adding extra seating and tables to allow for people to linger or even decamp from their usual workspace. In post-occupancy studies of projects, Brittingham says the shared spaces within mailrooms are used regularly. “We see a lot of people coming down during the day and just sitting on their laptop or being on their phone in a public space and just wanting to be together in any common area,” she says. The Society, Felix [Photo: courtesy Vida Design] Building managers are also claiming these spaces for themselves. Brittingham says the loungelike atmosphere of the mailroom has become an informal area for a building’s leasing manager to meet with prospective tenants, closer to the ebb and flow of residential life, showing a glimpse of the social potential of living in a big apartment building. The Society, Felix [Photo: courtesy Vida Design] The reemergence of mailrooms is partly happenstance, but this space is becoming the heart of multifamily residential projects. It may be a more critical third place than the other conventional amenity spaces within these buildings. “We’ve done arcade rooms. We’ve done golf simulators. We’ve done coffee shops that are attached as part of a multifamily property. So there is this chase for what is the most sought after amenity,” says Lauve. “What we have really found through our experience is it’s not the amenity, it’s community.”
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I dont know about you, but I usually cringe when I get my weekly Screen Time Report. Did I really spend that much time online? Turns out, Im pretty average. According to DataReportals 2025 Global Overview Report, adults worldwide clock in about six hours and 38 minutes on digital devices each day. While being average is comforting, I know I could benefit from more time unplugged. Yet, the thought of a full digital detox feels scary. It’s very hard to completely disconnect yourself, says Cristiano Winckler, director of digital marketing for Somebody Digital, a digital marketing agency. But anything in excess is going to have negative consequences. The question is, how can we still be present online, but not in a way that is going to cause anxiety? Worries about being offline are common, and Winckler analyzed the most common perceived career risks according to Google Trend search data. He found three of the biggest concernsand why we shouldnt stress over them so much. Being Inaccessible People who work remotely often fear that a digital detox may portray them as inaccessible or out of the loop, says Winckler. For example, in our organization we have lots of different ways of communicating with each other, he says. We have emails, WhatsApp, and Slack. Some clients like to use Microsoft Teams. If you’re managing three to five clients, you have to communicate with them, plus your team members. People are afraid of being inaccessible. Instead of being tethered to message apps all day, get ahead of other peoples expectations. For example, let your team members know when youll be offline or are doing focused work. Winckler adds that organizations should implement policies that help their employees feel more confident placing boundaries around their time. You don’t have to be 100% available all the time, he says. People will feel more comfortable having conversations, and they will become more efficient in dealing with certain tasks than before. Missing Networking Opportunities Social media, such as LinkedIn, can be a valuable networking tool, and another common worry is that a digital detox could cost opportunities if they dont act quickly enough. But that’s not the case, says Winckler. People need to understand they do not control how their posts are going to be presented, he says. I sometimes get comments from people on posts that I published several weeks ago because LinkedIn and other social media platforms dont necessarily show that post to everybody on my network at the same time. They usually pace out the exposure. Instead, Winckler recommends time-blocking an hour per week to go through your social media channels and interact and reply. You can still keep that networking element, which is quite important, while still keeping a good balance, he says. Lagging Industry Awareness In addition to networking opportunities, social media can serve as a real-time feed for industry trends and news. Implementing a digital detox may cause you to worry that youll fall behind on emerging practices and competitor updates. If you completely disconnect yourself from important channels, you will definitely miss market trends, says Winckler. Everything happens superfast in the digital world, and I would not recommend that you disconnect completely. Instead, utilize tools to curate content for you so you can spend less time staying current. For example, Winckler recommends using news alerts and filters. Or subscribe to channels and newsletters that package relevant information and events that happened last week in your field. In the digital marketing world, for example, there are amazing channels on LinkedIn and other social media platforms that will summarize everything for you and will give you a snapshot of what you need to know, he says. You can consume what is relevant to you and spend more time on the topics that will have a direct impact on your career. Its using technology in your favor. Finding Balance You dont need to go offline for long stretches of time to improve your relationship with the digital world. While its natural to be concerned about being inaccessible, missing network opportunities, and industry awareness, its also possible to create balance with boundaries, leveraging technology as a tool and not let it take over your life and habits, says Winckler. That’s a true digital detox, he says. The benefits outweigh the concerns of not always being available by quite a margin. It can take time to establish, but you will see a positive impact. The goal is to be present online, but not in a way that is going to cause anxiety.
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Weve been told that the future of work is all about freedom. Companies offer unlimited PTO, flexible hours, and asynchronous communication channels that we can access anytime. The promise is that fewer constraints will make us more empowered, more creative, and more connected. Sounds great in theory, but in practice, that kind of freedom without structure often leads to chaos. Without clear boundaries, work becomes a blur. Expectations go unspoken, resentment builds, and ultimately, trust erodes. And the very flexibility meant to liberate us begins to wear us down. The healthiest organizations arent boundaryless; theyre boundary-wise. Why Boundaries Matter More Than Ever In todays workplace, where hybrid schedules, digital fatigue, and high emotional load are the norm, boundaries arent just a personal preference; theyre the cultural infrastructure. Consider this: 47% of employees say they feel burned out at work, and one of the top drivers is unclear or constantly shifting expectations. Meanwhile, 76% of remote workers report difficulty disconnecting from work. A workplace without boundaries doesnt create engagement; it creates exhaustion. Boundaries arent about protecting hours but about safeguarding capacity in all its forms: the energy, focus, and attention we need to do meaningful work. Many people resist the idea of boundaries because they sound rigid or limiting. But boundaries dont actually constrain our powerthey clarify it. Boundaries reinforce trust by setting expectations, expressing what we truly value, and defining where we end and others begin. As workplace author Greg McKeown puts it: Constraints dont block progress, they shape it. A deadline forces a start. A boundary protects your attention. We need to stop thinking of boundaries as barriers and start seeing them as containersthe structures that give freedom its form. Boundaries dont prevent flow; instead, they create the conditions for it. A Moment When Yes Was the Problem I once worked with the leaders of an innovative climate tech company that was scaling fast. Responsiveness was a badge of honor, Slack was always on, meetings were rarely unscheduled and often urgent, and everything was an immediate yes. But beneath the surface, there was extreme fatigue, frustration, and blurred priorities. The culture looked high-performing on paper, but felt hollow in practice. In a facilitated session, one team member admitted, I never know when Im allowed to shut off. And Im afraid that setting limits will make me look like I dont care. That moment shifted everything. What followed wasnt a productivity fixit was a shared reset. The team introduced core hours for collaboration, quiet blocks for focused work, and Focus Fridays without meetings or Slack messages. Within weeks, their energy felt reinvigorated. A sense of clarity returned, morale improved, and creativity reemerged. The team didnt slow down; it just aligned itself using boundaries. When you stop trying to do everything, you make space for what matters most. How to Build Healthy Boundaries at Work Boundaries arent about shutting others out but about showing up with intention. Heres a simple framework I use with leaders and teams: Be clear about your nonnegotiables. Before you can communicate boundaries to others, you need to define them for yourself. What lines cant be crossedwhether thats after-hours communication, personal ethics, or feedback norms? Clarity starts within, then becomes a shared agreement. Articulate your boundaries early. Dont assume others know. Share them out loud, and revisit them when your context shifts. Setting boundaries isnt a one-time conversationits a leadership habit that evolves alongside your role and relationships. Leave room for a buffer. Not every line is absolute. Build a pause zone for conversation and recalibrationthis could mean committing to a 30-minute delay before responding to nonurgent messages or setting up clear blocks in the week for focused work versus collaborative time. A pause zone creates space to respond with intention rather than react on autopilot. Align with your values. A boundary that protects your time but violates your purpose wont hold. Make sure your boundaries serve your bigger why. The most sustainable boundaries are those that feel not only practical but deeply principled. Notice your signals. Resentment, anxiety, and exhaustion are often signs that a boundary has been breached or needs reinforcement. Your emotional patterns are datalisten to them before they become burnout. Communicate with care and clarity. Boundaries are an act of mutual respect, not a rejection. Consideration doesnt require an apology. You can be both direct and generousand thats often when boundaries land best. Evaluate and evolve. What worked last year may not work now. Boundaries should shift with your life, your leadership, and your team. Revisit them regularly and treat them as a living part of how you work, not a fixed set of rules. Boundaries as a Cultural Practice Boundaries arent just personal; theyre also cultural. When leaders model them, teams follow. And when teams build them together, the results are measurable. Focus sharpens, collaboration becomes more intentional, burnout decreases, trust deepens, and innovation increases, not because people hustle harder, but because theyre working from a place of clarity and care. Boundaries dont diminish connection. They deepen itbecause they make it safe to be fully present. Start by asking yourself and your team these questions: Where in our work are we overextended, unclear, or always on? Whats one boundary you need to set, or revisit? Where is so-called freedom creating confusion or drift? In work cultures without boundaries, people dont thrive. They scatter and self-protect, and eventually, they burn out. But when leaders and teams get clear on their edgeson whats okay and whats notthey build something far more powerful: trust, clarity, creative energy, and a deeper sense of shared purpose. Boundaries arent a sign of disconnection, but a practice of alignment. They dont hold us back; they keep us together.
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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. The AI search landscape is transforming at breakneck speed. New “Deep Research” tools from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity autonomously search and gather information from dozenseven hundredsof sites, then analyze and synthesize it to produce comprehensive reports. While a human might take days or weeks to produce these 30-page citation-backed reports, AI Deep Research reports are ready in minutes. Traditional AI queries deliver isolated answers to specific questions, while Deep Research tools conduct sophisticated investigations with dozens of interconnected searches. Its like the difference between a quick reference check and a thorough research expedition. Nine Practical Ways to Use AI for Deep Research AI research tools shine when you need comprehensive information on complex topics. Here are specific use cases where they excel: 1. Craft Custom Itineraries Create detailed, personalized travel plans by specifying your destination, dates, activity preferences, budget, cultural interests, and whatever else is important to you. These AI-generated itineraries often surface unexpected gems. When planning a family trip recently, my wife and I discovered a fantastic farm stay in Pennsylvania through a Perplexity query. We wouldn’t have found it otherwise. Use the results as a starting point to identify interesting possibilities, then follow up with targeted research. Specify dietary preferences, accessibility needs, and your taste in accommodations, restaurants, and entertainment, for more tailored recommendations. Ive saved a block of text about this to reuse. Use follow-up queries to get more specifics on attractions or activities that appeal to you, or to compare and contrast potential itineraries. Example: Deep Research itinerary for a family vacation in Brookline, MA. Compare results from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot. 2. Compile Organization Reports Get comprehensive backgrounders on companies, non-profits, or any organization in minutes rather than clicking through dozens of search results. Compare similar organizations or competitors Specify format. Maybe youd like a case study format, a topical report, a chronological history, or an industry context analysis. Specify metrics of interest like funding history, revenue growth patterns, leadership changes, media coverage trends, law suits, or anything else you care about. For closely-held private organizations data may be scarce, so read results skeptically. Advanced tip: Copy excerpts from Deep Research reports into Claude to transform them into visual dashboardsincluding charts and interactive elementsusing Claude Artifacts. You can share those with colleagues. Watch: Grace Leungs helpful video illustrates how and why to try this. Example: Deep Research report on Trader Joes. 3. Research Notable People Explore backgrounds of news figures, historical personalities, or even fictional characters. Request specific information like podcast appearances, YouTube videos, or published works to build a well-rounded understanding of the individual. Ask about connections between the person and influential contemporaries Ask for lesser-known background details or contributions often overlooked Specify time periods to focus on particular life phases or epochs Example: Deep Research on Michel de Montaigne. 4. Explore Complex Concepts Learn about complex topics in any fieldfrom botany to venture capitalwith AI-structured explanations tailored to your knowledge level. Ask for real-world examples, analogies, anecdotes, quotes, common misconceptions, and step-by-step explanations. Ask for quiz or discussion questions to test your understanding. After reading the report, generate an AI tutor with a Custom GPT, Gemini Gem, or Poe bot to further strengthen your understanding. Example: Applications for AI in medical diagnosis via Gemini & Perplexity. 5. Discover Places in Depth Investigate a places historical significance, cultural development, architecture, art, music, literature, or economic, social, or political history. I find this richer, personalized context can feel more resonant than a more generic travel guide. Ask about little-known local events, hidden gems, or notable personalities Specify your interest in fashion, architecture, history, sports, or whatever else Products too: Get a backgrounder on a new type of oven youre considering, or pianos that might suit your home. Example: Help me learn about Coolidge Corner in Brookline, Massachusetts. 6. Analyze Debates and Controversies Explore complex controversies from multiple perspectives. Examine international conflicts, ethical debates, or local issues. Deep Research reports can present multiple viewpoints with examples and evidence to deepen your understanding of nuances. You can also ak for notable quotes and an annotated reading list. Ask how the debate has evolved over time and who has been involved Specify that you want evidence-based arguments from multiple disciplines Ask for areas of common ground between opposing viewpoints Example: Is generative art revolutionizing creativityor devaluing it? 7. Decode Cultural Works Gain insights into books, paintings, music, or other creative works by exploring critical analyses, historical context, and expert interpretations. This works particularly well when you’re in the middle of reading a book or have just encountered an intriguing piece of art. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art last week, I saw Tang Dynasty zodiac figurines and asked AI to help me learn about them. (More info & a generated image). Caveat: as a non-expert learning about something new, Im not always in a strong position to assess the merits of AI analysis. When in doubt, its helpful to have cited sources for gauging the quality of the information. Request info about a work’s influence on subsequent artists or movements Ask for analysis of technical innovations or stylistic elements Compare interpretations of the book, play, poem, art, or piece of music from different time periods or cultural contexts Example: Help me deepen my appreciation of Mozarts 5th Violin Concerto. 8. Explore Evolving Trends Investigate linguistic, political, fashion, sports, arts, business, or cultural trends in a particular place or time period, or compare trends across cultures. Ask for predictive insights about how the trend might evolve Include in your prompt questions about counter-trends or critics Request data visualizations if the trend has quantitative aspects, e.g. the Beanie Baby craze Example: What are top AI training programs for journalists around the world? 9. Examine Historical Context Explore historical events through multiple lenses – political, economic, social, and cultural. Direct your AI research assistant to focus on specific date ranges, if relevant. Ask it draw from diverse sources across countries and perspectives. Request primary source recommendations Ask for comparisons across countries, regions or time periods Specify your prior knowledge so the report is tailored for your context Example: Help me learn more about the history of the Dozier School for Boys. When Deep Research isn’t your best option Use other tools when youre not looking for a comprehensive research report, but instead want something quick, or for: Simple factual questions like award winners or sports results are better addressed with basic Google or Perplexity searches. Breaking news where online info is limited. Multimedia searches may work better with specialized search engines, like Listen Notes for finding someones podcast appearances. Paywalls If the open Web lacks relevant info, dont expect miracles. Further Caveats The bottom line: Check the source list before diving into a report. When you know of high quality sources, reference them in your prompt. This Claude thread helped me include high-quality sources for my Trader Joes inquiry. Keep an eye out for errors. Verify info in these reports. The presence of citations doesnt guarantee accuracy. For example, some sources may publish estimates that get treated by an AI search agent as definitive data. Research is only as good as its sources. Some subjects lack extensive source material. AI research reports may, in such cases, rely heavily on publishers with flimsy fact-checking or an axe to grind. How to strengthen Deep Research queries The quality of your prompt significantly impacts your results: Be detailed about your topic, reasons for interest, and how you’ll use the information Unlike standard Google searches where you only provide keywords, deep research queries benefit from detailed direction. Guide your AI research assistant on specific areas of focus, recommended sourcing, prior context, and formatting: how best to present its findings. Specify your preferred tone & format tables, lists, pros/cons, bullets Request tables for comparing options, pro/con lists for debates, or categorized lists for resources like podcasts, videos, and books. You can even customize language complexitygraduate-level analysis vs beginner-friendly simplicity. Provide context about your existing knowledge and audience Mention what you already know. If youll be sharing a report with colleagues, clarify that specific audiences context. If you want something brief, say so. Be patient. Quality research isnt instant. While Gemini and Perplexity typically deliver results within a few minutes, ChatGPT’s deeper analysis can take a half hour. The thoroughness of these results justifies the wait vs. instant but shallower search results. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
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