trivial pursuits
Trivial Pursuits is a record of every Wikipedia page I visited from 2017 to 2023, collected and transformed into a thick, printed book. This was my way of creating a diary—not through writing, but by tracing the concepts and ideas that sparked my curiosity over time.
From Browsing to Book
The project started with my browser history, which I saved over the years. By processing the data with custom tools, I turned it into something tangible. The first part of the book lists all the pages I visited, organized by date, like a timeline of the ideas I’ve explored.
A Data-Driven Approach
In the second part, I analyzed the data to uncover patterns and connections, using advanced tools such as sentence-transformer models and dimensionality reduction via UMAP.
Hierarchical clustering further structured the information into nested layers of categories and subcategories, each level illuminating a different facet of my journey.
A Map of Interests
To make the connections more vivid, I created a map resembling a geographical chart, based on a scatterplot built using the models.
Each area represents different domains of knowledge, akin to continents and islands, showing how ideas relate to each other. This map, also printed as a poster, serves as a centerpiece for exploring these connections.
