"Cistercian Numbers" are incredibly cool

It's a rare numeric system designed by 13th century monks

Each number is a based on a single vertical stick, with patterns you draw in all four quadrants off it -- top right, top left, bottom right, bottom left

A single glyph can represent a number from 1 to 9,999

It's in my recent weekly "Linkfest" newsletter, here: https://buttondown.email/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-3-cisterian-numbers-robots-that-hug-and/

Want to subscribe? Pay-what-you-want here: https://buttondown.email/clivethompson

I call it "The opposite of doomscrolling'