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Seth's Blog
The second mistake That’s the avoidable one and the one that usually causes the real trouble. When the first mistake...
a year ago
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a year ago
That’s the avoidable one and the one that usually causes the real trouble. When the first mistake flusters us, breaks our rhythm or messes with our confidence, we’re far more likely to make the second one. It’s almost impossible to avoid making a mistake. But avoiding the second...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Rosanna Morris I am an illustrator and printmaker, working mainly with relief. I work from my large studio on the...
a year ago
81
a year ago
I am an illustrator and printmaker, working mainly with relief. I work from my large studio on the top floor of an creative warehouse in east Bristol. I also run a courses, workshops and printmaking events. Describe your printmaking process. I usually start with a pencil...
Seth's Blog
Convenience and scams The scam era is upon us. Aided by AI, borderless currency and the internet of things, there are more...
a year ago
22
a year ago
The scam era is upon us. Aided by AI, borderless currency and the internet of things, there are more people than ever before making a living hustling to steal, impersonate, defraud and otherwise violate our trust. When the world was inconvenient, this was difficult. The banker...
The Great Discontent...
Yashas Mitta Yashas is a creative director and ambitious connector. He was also a self-described outsider for...
a year ago
3
a year ago
Yashas is a creative director and ambitious connector. He was also a self-described outsider for much of his life, and his path from Bangalore, India to New York City has been a winding one driven by sheer stubbornness and a keen instinct for creating community wherever he goes....
Seth's Blog
Productivity week: Bonus In an economy built on skill, knowledge, and attitude, the single most powerful way to improve your...
a year ago
29
a year ago
In an economy built on skill, knowledge, and attitude, the single most powerful way to improve your productivity is to learn something. You put in the effort once and it pays off for decades. There are more ways for an adult to learn now than at any time in our history, and all...
Seth's Blog
After the emergency If we need to wait until after the short-term emergency is settled, it’s unlikely we’re ever going...
11 months ago
73
11 months ago
If we need to wait until after the short-term emergency is settled, it’s unlikely we’re ever going to get to work on the long-term important work. Of course, we want to do “everything we can” when an emergency strikes. But the standard for that has always involved tradeoffs....
On the Arts
How do you actually create AI art? A Walkthrough of Using Midjourney, a Popular AI Art Creation App
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Stevie and Marvin When Marvin Gaye joined Motown, he went with his strengths. He wanted to work only in the studio. He...
a year ago
74
a year ago
When Marvin Gaye joined Motown, he went with his strengths. He wanted to work only in the studio. He hated touring and was sure he lacked the charisma and other gifts that made some musicians great onstage. This didn’t really fit the label’s strengths, and he struggled to find...
Seth's Blog
When the sun is shining Our job as professionals is to show up and do the work. Not simply respond to incoming or do the...
a year ago
92
a year ago
Our job as professionals is to show up and do the work. Not simply respond to incoming or do the chores, but to create and innovate. And yet, some days feel more conducive than others. There are moments when it simply flows. When the surf’s up, cancel everything else. Don’t waste...
Seth's Blog
Curation (vs the road to junk) The independent bookstore down the street is carefully curated. Each book takes up the spot that a...
a year ago
40
a year ago
The independent bookstore down the street is carefully curated. Each book takes up the spot that a different book could inhabit, so the owner makes sure that there’s a great reason a title is included. Amazon, on the other hand, has no shelf space problem, and the Kindle...
Handprinted - Blog
Drypoint - Which plate is right for my project? Drypoint is a fantastic intaglio technique as it requires limited equipment to create a plate. It's...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
Drypoint is a fantastic intaglio technique as it requires limited equipment to create a plate. It's a great way of creating a printed drawing and is one of the printmaking techniques where the positive mark is the one that prints (unlike relief printing for example). There are...
Seth's Blog
Asking for directions It hadn’t happened in such a long time that I hesitated to respond. As I was walking through town, a...
a month ago
15
a month ago
It hadn’t happened in such a long time that I hesitated to respond. As I was walking through town, a driver pulled up, rolled down his window and said, “is this the way to Irvington?” We now take for granted that we’re unlikely to ever again be in a car and not know where we […]
Open Culture
Watch Tom Waits For No One, the Pioneering Animated Music Video from 1979 Tom Waits For No One, above, is surely the only film in history to have won an Oscar for Scientific...
10 months ago
59
10 months ago
Tom Waits For No One, above, is surely the only film in history to have won an Oscar for Scientific and Technical Achievement for its creator and a first place award at the Hollywood Erotic Film and Video Festival. Director John Lamb and his partner, Bruce Lyon also deserve...
Seth's Blog
Make or buy? If you’re a writer, it probably doesn’t pay to chop down trees and make your own paper, or even to...
a year ago
26
a year ago
If you’re a writer, it probably doesn’t pay to chop down trees and make your own paper, or even to set up a little machine shop to make your own pens. That’s pretty obvious. Should the smoothie shop make its own almond milk? It’s pretty clear that Starbucks should have a team of...
Seth's Blog
Small groups, well organized And those are the two challenges of anyone seeking to make an impact. First, we get distracted by...
a year ago
24
a year ago
And those are the two challenges of anyone seeking to make an impact. First, we get distracted by the inclination to make the group as big as we can imagine. After all, the change is essential, the idea is a good one. It’s for everyone. Except that’s a trap. Because a group...
Seth's Blog
Queued It’s sort of the opposite of “cued.” In addition to being delightful to spell, the idea of work...
a year ago
75
a year ago
It’s sort of the opposite of “cued.” In addition to being delightful to spell, the idea of work that’s queued up is energizing. The chapter ahead of schedule, the process in place for the next quarter, the continued commitment to learning… It is locked, loaded and ready to go....
Seth's Blog
A protest or a project? Protests let off steam. They organize people who might not show up by creating a moment in time...
a year ago
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a year ago
Protests let off steam. They organize people who might not show up by creating a moment in time where there’s enough opportunity and social pressure that they participate. A protest sends a message. But almost every time, the very things that made a protest appealing mean that it...
Seth's Blog
A really good reason Do you see the defaults? The question, “What are things like around here?” has two possible answers....
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Do you see the defaults? The question, “What are things like around here?” has two possible answers. When a new idea or opportunity arrives, your organization says yes, unless there’s a really good reason to say no. Or your organization says no, unless someone makes a powerful...
Seth's Blog
Vocal fatigue Most of us talk, some of us do it for a living. When your voice is on the fritz, it can affect your...
7 months ago
49
7 months ago
Most of us talk, some of us do it for a living. When your voice is on the fritz, it can affect your entire body as well as the way you approach your day. I’ve read all 25+ of my audiobooks myself, and I used to be able to complete each one in a day […]
Seth's Blog
Boring to who? Sometimes, marketers, musicians or speakers dig themselves into a solipsistic rabbit hole. They’ve...
6 months ago
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6 months ago
Sometimes, marketers, musicians or speakers dig themselves into a solipsistic rabbit hole. They’ve heard their stuff before. They think everyone else has too. So they bury the lede, look for new laughs and most of all, try to avoid boring themselves. Which often leads to...
Seth's Blog
When did we lose consciousness? In medical TV dramas, losing consciousness is something that happens suddenly and dramatically. We...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
In medical TV dramas, losing consciousness is something that happens suddenly and dramatically. We can all tell… the body is still there, but the mind is gone, at least for now. Unfortunately, this happens in real life. At work. In our personal lives. For a few minutes or even a...
Seth's Blog
Kazoo lessons Knowledge and technique used to be closely guarded secrets. Admission to the guild was reserved for...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Knowledge and technique used to be closely guarded secrets. Admission to the guild was reserved for a few, and crafts like typesetting, plumbing and medicine were off limits to most folks. One of the reasons for the explosion in productivity and innovation in the last century is...
Prolost
What I Want to Do in Apple Vision Pro Still frame from Hello! by Goro Fujita, created in VR using Quill Today’s the day to pre-order Apple...
a year ago
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a year ago
Still frame from Hello! by Goro Fujita, created in VR using Quill Today’s the day to pre-order Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s first “spatial computing” device. It’s an expensive VR headset that either represents an opportunity to beta-test the future, or double down on past failings...
Seth's Blog
Your audiobook Here’s a useful habit that’s more than a hack… The next time things are going well, when a project...
8 months ago
51
8 months ago
Here’s a useful habit that’s more than a hack… The next time things are going well, when a project is about to launch, when a meeting has been successful, when the sun is shining… take your phone and go for a walk. Hit record on an audio app and make a twenty-minute audiobook....
The Great Discontent...
Ophelia Chong Ophelia Chong has had a long and storied career in photography, art, and creative direction that...
a year ago
4
a year ago
Ophelia Chong has had a long and storied career in photography, art, and creative direction that spans from magazines and music labels to film festivals and book publishing. When a family member’s medicinal marijuana use inspired her to dip her toes into the world of weed, Chong...
Seth's Blog
Charged by the word In a hurried world with infinite content, it’s worth considering that you’re no longer paid by the...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
In a hurried world with infinite content, it’s worth considering that you’re no longer paid by the word when you write, in fact, you should pay for every extra word you use. Be as brief as is useful.
Anarchy Unfolds
Did we really just get taken over by fascists in less than a month? Red Round-up #2
3 months ago
Prolost
Mac Studio and Studio Display Mac Studio with M1 Ultra and Apple Studio Display, running Cinema 4D and Redshift. In October of...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Mac Studio with M1 Ultra and Apple Studio Display, running Cinema 4D and Redshift. In October of 2021 I got to test a 14″ MacBook Pro with M1 Max processor. It performed so well, that I, along with many Mac power-users, questioned whether it could replace my desktop Mac. Last...
Seth's Blog
The slog, the hobby and the quest Here’s a simple XY grid to help you think about your next project, freelance career or startup: All...
a year ago
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a year ago
Here’s a simple XY grid to help you think about your next project, freelance career or startup: All too common are ‘fun’ businesses where someone finds a hobby they like and tries to turn it into a gig. While the work may be fun, the uphill grind of this sort of project is...
Seth's Blog
Play fair & work hard Two of the building blocks of a resilient society. And the opposite of the lazy shortcut. The...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
Two of the building blocks of a resilient society. And the opposite of the lazy shortcut. The meanings of both clauses change over time… Play fair: Work hard: Social media and politics have done a great job of celebrating people who seek selfish shortcuts, simply because it’s...
Seth's Blog
The two bicycle errors Momentum activities like public speaking, board sports and leadership all share an attribute with...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
Momentum activities like public speaking, board sports and leadership all share an attribute with riding a bicycle: It gets easier when you get good at it. The first error we often make is believing that someone (even us) will never be good at riding a bike, because riding a bike...
Anarchy Unfolds
Is anarchy compatible with modern society? Problems of scale and shape in imagining the futures
2 months ago
Stat Significant
6 Reasons to Be (Cautiously) Optimistic About Movies in 2025: A Statistical Analysis Six reasons to be optimistic about the film industry.
4 months ago
Open Culture
Watch an Enthusiast Drive the First Car Ever Made, the 1885 Mercedes Benz In 1885, Karl Benz built what’s now considered the first modern automobile. According to the...
a year ago
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a year ago
In 1885, Karl Benz built what’s now considered the first modern automobile. According to the Mercedes Benz website, the car featured a “compact high-speed single-cylinder four-stroke engine installed horizontally at the rear, a tubular steel frame … and three wire-spoked wheels....
Open Culture
The Story of Lee Miller: From the Cover of Vogue to Hitler’s Bathtub In late-twenties Manhattan, a nineteen-year-old woman named Elizabeth “Lee” Miller stepped off the...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
In late-twenties Manhattan, a nineteen-year-old woman named Elizabeth “Lee” Miller stepped off the curb and into the path of a car. She was pulled back to safety by none other than the magnate Condé Nast, founder of the eponymous publishing company. Not long thereafter, Miller,...
Open Culture
Watch the 1896 Film The Pistol Duel, a Startling Re-Creation of the Last Days of Pistol Dueling in... One sometimes hears lamented the tendency of movies to depict Mexico — and in particular, its...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
One sometimes hears lamented the tendency of movies to depict Mexico — and in particular, its capital Mexico City — as a threatening, rough-and-tumble place where human life has no value. Such concerns turn out to be nearly as old as cinema itself, having first been raised in...
Seth's Blog
Good advice The cult of consulting suggests that if you simply had better advice from someone who knew more than...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
The cult of consulting suggests that if you simply had better advice from someone who knew more than you, your problems could be solved. Generally, the advice isn’t really the hard part. There’s endless good advice just a click away. The art is in creating the conditions for...
Seth's Blog
Game design and strategy (Bongo part 3) What’s it for? Making something fun is a good place to start if you’re building a casual word game...
5 months ago
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5 months ago
What’s it for? Making something fun is a good place to start if you’re building a casual word game like Bongo. But it’s not enough. Lots of things are fun, for a while, but that doesn’t meant that they’re worth the investment of time and money it takes to build them. From the...
Seth's Blog
The broomstick objection Every founder, leader, sales rep and person on a dating app has heard this. Why did the Wizard ask...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Every founder, leader, sales rep and person on a dating app has heard this. Why did the Wizard ask Dorothy to bring him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch? It’s not because he needed a broomstick. It’s because he wanted Dorothy to go away. If you send someone away to get...
Seth's Blog
The good news What if there were a pipeline into your day, a series of emails or posts or feeds that had nothing...
a year ago
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a year ago
What if there were a pipeline into your day, a series of emails or posts or feeds that had nothing but nice things, positive feedback and encouragement coming your way? Amazingly, you could build something like that in just a few minutes and have it forever. If the bad news...
Ian Betteridge
Ten Blue Links, “ignoring the election” edition 1. UK university fees going up (but not by enough to make the system work) For those of you not in...
6 months ago
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6 months ago
1. UK university fees going up (but not by enough to make the system work) For those of you not in the UK, the British system of university funding is a weird mash-mash of different stuff, cobbled together from the mistakes made by successive governments. When I was young, the...
Open Culture
The First Professional Footage of Pink Floyd Gets Captured in a 1967 Documentary (and the Band Also... British filmmaker and novelist Peter Whitehead has been credited with inventing the music video with...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
British filmmaker and novelist Peter Whitehead has been credited with inventing the music video with his promo films for the Rolling Stones in the mid-60s. According to Ali Catterall and Simon Wells, authors of Your Face Here, a study of “British Cult Film since the Sixties,”...
Seth's Blog
Confronting consciousness Everyone knows what it is to be conscious, and we imagine that other people are also aware. That we...
a year ago
20
a year ago
Everyone knows what it is to be conscious, and we imagine that other people are also aware. That we have a voice in our heads, apparent agency and free will, a little person inside who is commenting, making decisions and in charge. We’re not sure if dogs have this, and we’re...
The Last...
Hunger Games Catching Fire: Badass Body Count sorry old man, I have a dress fitting to go to Number of people killed: 15 Number of...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
sorry old man, I have a dress fitting to go to Number of people killed: 15 Number of people Katniss kills: 1 Number of times she is saved by someone else: 6 Number of times she saves someone else: 0 But boy oh boy, wasn't she spectacular at practice, 9 targets in 30...
Seth's Blog
If “no” is not an option… Then neither is “yes.” Enrollment requires choice. PS one of my all-time favorite encore episodes of...
a year ago
25
a year ago
Then neither is “yes.” Enrollment requires choice. PS one of my all-time favorite encore episodes of Akimbo is out this week: How to get into a famous college.
Seth's Blog
Books don’t sell That’s not true, actually. Books sell, but book doesn’t. The odds of a particular book selling a lot...
a year ago
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a year ago
That’s not true, actually. Books sell, but book doesn’t. The odds of a particular book selling a lot of copies are close to zero. The truth of the long tail is that most titles are way out on the fringe. Now that book publishing is unleashed from retail distribution, the math is...
Seth's Blog
How to change the world All successful cultural change (books, movies, public health), has a super-simple two-step loop:...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
All successful cultural change (books, movies, public health), has a super-simple two-step loop: AWARENESSTENSION–>Loop<– It’s easy to focus on awareness. Get the word out. Hype. Promo. I think that’s a mistake. Because awareness without tension is useless. The tension is like...
Open Culture
Carl Jung Offers an Introduction to His Psychological Thought in a 3‑Hour Interview (1957) In the 1950s, it was fashionable to drop Freud’s name — often as not in pseudo-intellectual sex...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
In the 1950s, it was fashionable to drop Freud’s name — often as not in pseudo-intellectual sex jokes. Freud’s preoccupations had as much to do with his fame as the actual practice of psychotherapy, and it was assumed — and still is to a great degree — that Freud had “won” the...
Seth's Blog
Trusting AI For generations, humans have been entrusting their lives to computers. Air Traffic Control,...
3 months ago
42
3 months ago
For generations, humans have been entrusting their lives to computers. Air Traffic Control, statistical analysis of bridge resilience, bar codes for drug delivery, even the way stop lights are controlled. But computers aren’t the same as the LLMs that run on them. Claude.ai is my...
Handprinted - Blog
Easy Christmas Cards Six Ways We’ve had a lot of fun this week working on easy, quick and fun ways to print your own Christmas...
a year ago
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a year ago
We’ve had a lot of fun this week working on easy, quick and fun ways to print your own Christmas cards! We’ve come up with six simple ways for you to try. Take a look at our instructions below and have a go yourself.   Bah Humbug Lino Printed Card This two-layered lino card is...
Seth's Blog
Personal process notation “I’ll remember it later.” I’ll confess, I rarely do. It turns out, it’s easier to remember questions...
a year ago
27
a year ago
“I’ll remember it later.” I’ll confess, I rarely do. It turns out, it’s easier to remember questions than answers. And tools like Google Docs and photos in the cloud give us a chance to build our own personal search engine. It takes 14 steps to construct the pages in one of my...
Seth's Blog
Willfully uninformed Access to information used to be scarce. We ranked college libraries on how many books they had, and...
a year ago
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a year ago
Access to information used to be scarce. We ranked college libraries on how many books they had, and time at the microfilm reader was booked in advance. Today, if there’s something I don’t know, it’s almost certainly because I haven’t cared enough to find out. I don’t understand...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Moïra Swann Bonjour everyone! Moïra Swann is an English and Proustian adaptation from my real name Anne-Marie:...
over a year ago
51
over a year ago
Bonjour everyone! Moïra Swann is an English and Proustian adaptation from my real name Anne-Marie: while Anne-Marie lives in France and works full-time in a wonderful museum dedicated to the French painter Anne-Louis Girodet, Moïra Swann does lino printing whenever she can, as an...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: A Time To Kill Globe Emojis Gone Viral and Le Poisson Steve
2 weeks ago
Seth's Blog
Seriously One way to deal with a changing world and new problems is to take yourself very seriously, others...
a week ago
1
a week ago
One way to deal with a changing world and new problems is to take yourself very seriously, others not so much. The other way is to take the situation quite seriously, but perhaps not focus so much on taking ourselves seriously. As Ani DiFranco points out, rock musicians take...
Open Culture
Thomas Edison’s Recordings of Leo Tolstoy: Hear the Voice of the Great Russian Novelist Born 196 years ago, Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s life (1828–1910) spanned a period of immense...
7 months ago
45
7 months ago
Born 196 years ago, Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s life (1828–1910) spanned a period of immense social, political, and technological change, paralleled in his own life by his radical shift from hedonistic nobleman to theologian, anarchist, and vegetarian pacifist. Though he did...
Seth's Blog
Technical debt and AI slop Technical debt is easy to incur. It’s unnecessary added features, undocumented code, support for...
2 weeks ago
15
2 weeks ago
Technical debt is easy to incur. It’s unnecessary added features, undocumented code, support for outmoded interactions and anything that slows down your ability to update and upgrade your work. Tech debt is the combination of doing what feels right at the time, in a hurry, and...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker Round-Up 2024! It has been another incredible year of printmaking inspiration. We've put together a round-up of all...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
It has been another incredible year of printmaking inspiration. We've put together a round-up of all our fantastic Meet the Maker artists from 2024, alongside their advice or inspiration for other printmakers. Read through for a wholesome dose of printmaking magic, and click...
Not Boring by Packy...
Hyperlegible 002: Utsav Mamoria How to live an intellectually rich life
a month ago
Open Culture
Stanley Kubrick’s Annotated Copy of Stephen King’s The Shining The web site Overlook Hotel has posted pictures of Stanley Kubrick’s personal copy of Stephen King’s...
5 months ago
41
5 months ago
The web site Overlook Hotel has posted pictures of Stanley Kubrick’s personal copy of Stephen King’s novel The Shining. The book is filled with highlighted passages and largely illegible notes in the margin—tantalizing clues to Kubrick’s intentions for the movie. The site...
Prolost
Apple’s “EDR” Brings High Dynamic Range to Non-HDR Displays Was it worth buying a Pro Display XDR just for this joke? Yes. Apple caused quite a stir with the...
over a year ago
16
over a year ago
Was it worth buying a Pro Display XDR just for this joke? Yes. Apple caused quite a stir with the announcement of their Pro Display XDR, a High Dynamic Range display that occupies a convoluted space in the market. It seeks to be both a Very Nice Computer Display, and a reference...
Seth's Blog
Our new school When I include links to various books and items on this blog, your purchases generate a small...
4 months ago
36
4 months ago
When I include links to various books and items on this blog, your purchases generate a small royalty that I earmark for worthy causes. This year, we were able to help BuildOn and the community in Khakh build a new school. It’s the first real school building the village has ever...
Seth's Blog
The paradox of insular language We often develop slang or codewords to keep the others from understanding what we’re saying. Here’s...
a year ago
20
a year ago
We often develop slang or codewords to keep the others from understanding what we’re saying. Here’s an example (thanks BK) of the lengths that some are going to be able to take about Chinese politics. Of course, if you come up with a concealed enough code, the people you’re...
Open Culture
The Final Days of Leo Tolstoy Captured in Rare Footage from 1910 114 years ago today (November 20, 1910), Leo Tolstoy—the author who gave us two major Russian...
5 months ago
45
5 months ago
114 years ago today (November 20, 1910), Leo Tolstoy—the author who gave us two major Russian classics Anna Karenina and War & Peace—died at Astapovo, a small, remote train station in the heart of Russia. Pneumonia was the official cause. His death came just weeks after Tolstoy,...
Open Culture
Ernest Hemingway’s Favorite Hamburger Recipe Image via Wikimedia Commons In 2013, the food writer Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan stumbled across an article...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Image via Wikimedia Commons In 2013, the food writer Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan stumbled across an article in the Boston Globe describing a trove of digitized documents from Ernest Hemingway’s home in Cuba that had been recently donated to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and...
Seth's Blog
It goes without saying A phrase that’s been showing up recently is, “no pressure.” It usually comes in a pitch letter of...
a year ago
67
a year ago
A phrase that’s been showing up recently is, “no pressure.” It usually comes in a pitch letter of some sort, written by someone who isn’t in a position to exert any pressure. So why say it? It’s a bit like, “while supplies last.” And “to be honest…” which is perhaps the most...
Open Culture
Mark Twain & Helen Keller’s Special Friendship: He Treated Me Not as a Freak, But as a Person... Sometimes it can seem as though the more we think we know a historical figure, the less we actually...
9 months ago
60
9 months ago
Sometimes it can seem as though the more we think we know a historical figure, the less we actually do. Helen Keller? We’ve all seen (or think we’ve seen) some version of The Miracle Worker, right?—even if we haven’t actually read Keller’s autobiography. And Mark Twain? He can...
Seth's Blog
2 + 2 Arguments about taste are more common than ever before. The long tail makes it easy to find what you...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
Arguments about taste are more common than ever before. The long tail makes it easy to find what you like, and to talk about what you don’t. There’s no accounting for taste, and that’s a good thing. Because taste is useful. Flopping the toilet paper under or over the roll,...
Not Boring by Packy...
Chaos is a Ladder Vertical Integrators: Part V
a week ago
Open Culture
Discover the CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual: A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization... I’ve always admired people who can successfully navigate what I refer to as “Kafka’s Castle,” a term...
5 months ago
47
5 months ago
I’ve always admired people who can successfully navigate what I refer to as “Kafka’s Castle,” a term of dread for the many government and corporate agencies that have an inordinate amount of power over our permanent records, and that seem as inscrutable and chillingly absurd as...
Seth's Blog
That might be the wrong question “Will it work?” Along the way, we’ve been pushed to load our decisions with a need for certainty....
a month ago
17
a month ago
“Will it work?” Along the way, we’ve been pushed to load our decisions with a need for certainty. It’s easier, it seems, to not try than it is to fail. But the question, “is it worth trying?” unlocks possibility. A surgeon in the middle of an operation should probably not...
On the Arts
Generative AI and the Falling Costs of Art Creation For individual creators on a budget, the future is bright.
a year ago
Open Culture
Watch Animations Showing How Humans Migrated Across the World Over the Past 60,000 Years Ex Africa semper aliquid novi. Attributed to various luminaries of antiquity, that saying (the...
a year ago
72
a year ago
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi. Attributed to various luminaries of antiquity, that saying (the probable inspiration for Isak Dinesen’s poem “Ex Africa,” itself the probable inspiration for her memoir Out of Africa, which in turn was loosely adapted into Sydney Pollack’s...
Open Culture
Behold a Digital Restoration of 655 Plates of Roses & Lilies by Pierre-Joseph Redouté: The Greatest... Pierre-Joseph Redouté made his name by painting flowers, an achievement impossible without a...
5 months ago
43
5 months ago
Pierre-Joseph Redouté made his name by painting flowers, an achievement impossible without a meticulousness that exceeds all bounds of normality. He published his three-volume collection Les Roses and his eight-volume collection Les Liliacées between 1802 and 1824, and a glance...
Seth's Blog
The paradigm flip Paradigm shifts are appealing but rarely well executed. A paradigm is our mental model of the world....
a year ago
27
a year ago
Paradigm shifts are appealing but rarely well executed. A paradigm is our mental model of the world. We’re surrounded by people who share a similar model, and as long as the model is working, we live our lives without thinking much about it. If you lived in a space station, the...
escape the algorithm
Is Substack exaggerating its network effects? The data tells the story writers want to hear... but is it true?
a year ago
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Meaningful Nonsense: How I generate sentences I’m coding a system in JavaScript that generates sentences of “meaningful nonsense”. Here are some...
11 months ago
21
11 months ago
I’m coding a system in JavaScript that generates sentences of “meaningful nonsense”. Here are some examples. I set off on this path because I’m working on a series of generative diagrams and I wanted them to have titles. Immediately I was drawn in by the effect of the diagrams...
Seth's Blog
Amplifying the fringes Culture is: “People like us do things like this.” We might even have a chance to choose our group....
6 months ago
50
6 months ago
Culture is: “People like us do things like this.” We might even have a chance to choose our group. Hipsters do this, hippies do that. People in this town wear this outfit, students at this school hang out here on Saturdays… We might be born into a culture. Less agency, but just...
Seth's Blog
Why and how Let’s get rid of science class in school. Instead, beginning in kindergarten, we could devote a...
4 weeks ago
12
4 weeks ago
Let’s get rid of science class in school. Instead, beginning in kindergarten, we could devote a class to curiosity and explanation. A class that persistently and consistently teaches kids to ask why and to answer how. The unacceptable single-word answers are “because” and...
Seth's Blog
How many sparks? That’s the tempting question. How much hustle, hoopla and initiative do we need to get this idea...
5 months ago
55
5 months ago
That’s the tempting question. How much hustle, hoopla and initiative do we need to get this idea ignited in the marketplace… But the much better question is: How much kindling do we have? Kindling doesn’t happen all at once. It’s the result of investments over time. We can earn...
Seth's Blog
Where is your N + 1? If three people are coming over for dinner, does that stress you out? What if it’s 17? If you’re...
3 weeks ago
12
3 weeks ago
If three people are coming over for dinner, does that stress you out? What if it’s 17? If you’re giving a talk explaining your strategy to four people, does it feel like a high-risk event? What if it’s 54? How many more people are required before it flips to stressful? Because...
Open Culture
An Introduction to The Babylonian Map of the World–the Oldest Known Map of the World Taking a first glance at the Babylonian Map of the World, few of us could recognize it for what it...
9 months ago
41
9 months ago
Taking a first glance at the Babylonian Map of the World, few of us could recognize it for what it is. But then again, few of us are anything like the British Museum Middle East department curator Irving Finkel, whose vast knowledge (and ability to share it compellingly) have...
Open Culture
Jerry Seinfeld Delivers Commencement Address at Duke University: You Will Need Humor to Get Through... This weekend, Jerry Seinfeld gave the commencement speech at Duke University and offered the...
12 months ago
94
12 months ago
This weekend, Jerry Seinfeld gave the commencement speech at Duke University and offered the graduates his three keys to life: 1. bust your ass, 2. pay attention, and 3. fall in love. Then, 10 minutes later, he added essentially a fourth key to life: “Do not lose your sense of...
Prolost
Red Giant VFX Suite Today Red Giant has released a brand-new collection of plug-ins for visual effects compositing. It’s...
over a year ago
29
over a year ago
Today Red Giant has released a brand-new collection of plug-ins for visual effects compositing. It’s called VFX Suite, and some of these tools are things I’ve been dreaming about since computers were beige. There are nine plug-ins in the suite. You can learn about all of them at...
Stat Significant
The Rise of Faith-Based Films: A Statistical Analysis The economics and origins of the faith-based film industry.
7 months ago
Seth's Blog
Refusing the salon of the refused This week is the 150th anniversary of the most important failed art exhibit of all time. It was...
a year ago
37
a year ago
This week is the 150th anniversary of the most important failed art exhibit of all time. It was organized by and featured artists who weren’t even among those that had a slot at the runner’s up exhibit for artists who weren’t featured in the real Salon in Paris. Manet didn’t have...
Open Culture
The Complete Howard Stern Interview with Kamala Harris It’s hard to know where to start. This election comes down to whether or not we want to reward...
7 months ago
36
7 months ago
It’s hard to know where to start. This election comes down to whether or not we want to reward someone who tried to subvert our democracy four years ago. Whether we want to preserve the alliances that have kept the peace since World War II. Whether women want to resist losing...
Seth's Blog
Tom Peters Tom announced his retirement today, at 80 years old, after 45 years of Excellence and perhaps...
over a year ago
77
over a year ago
Tom announced his retirement today, at 80 years old, after 45 years of Excellence and perhaps 10,000,000 miles flown. I remember a photo of him sleeping on a bench in an airport in Siberia. I remember him holding my young son just before we went on stage in Florida together...
Seth's Blog
Getting AI to do your work That’s the first step, certainly. If you don’t, your boss will. The second step is to take the time...
8 months ago
54
8 months ago
That’s the first step, certainly. If you don’t, your boss will. The second step is to take the time you’ve freed up and do work that the AI can’t do.
Seth's Blog
Spines out I lost a cookbook the other day. After twenty more minutes of searching, there it was, right on the...
a year ago
25
a year ago
I lost a cookbook the other day. After twenty more minutes of searching, there it was, right on the cookbook shelf. But the spine was much more subtle than the cover, and it hadn’t been what I was looking for or expecting. We spend a lot of time on our (metaphorical) book covers....
Seth's Blog
They will lose your data The rules are pretty consistent: We’re all creators now. Podcasting, videoing, photographing,...
over a year ago
76
over a year ago
The rules are pretty consistent: We’re all creators now. Podcasting, videoing, photographing, spreadsheeting… and we’re building a foundation of valuable data as we go. The software companies that produce the tools we use push their engineers in many ways, but not to create...
Seth's Blog
“I don’t care” This is difficult. Care requires time and effort, and we can’t care about everything, all the way,...
2 months ago
22
2 months ago
This is difficult. Care requires time and effort, and we can’t care about everything, all the way, all the time. If you’re prepared to care about every element of your work, then you also have to decide to not care about something else. Because caring equally about everything...
Open Culture
How Choose Your Own Adventure Books Became Beloved Among Generations of Readers We’ve all read plenty of literature written in the first person, and plenty of literature written in...
9 months ago
59
9 months ago
We’ve all read plenty of literature written in the first person, and plenty of literature written in the third person. The second person, with its main subject of neither “I” nor “he” or “she” but “you,” is considerably harder to come by, and the writers who take it up tend to be...
Seth's Blog
On choosing a college For some fortunate 17 year olds, the end of the year is the day for a momentous decision, one that’s...
a year ago
33
a year ago
For some fortunate 17 year olds, the end of the year is the day for a momentous decision, one that’s largely out of the comfort zone of a 17 year old. A four-year college education in the US can cost nearly half a million dollars once we count the expenses and foregone...
Seth's Blog
The leaping curve The learning curve is familiar to many people. It might be steep, but it’s continuous. Organizations...
over a year ago
81
over a year ago
The learning curve is familiar to many people. It might be steep, but it’s continuous. Organizations (and people) work their way up it, one step at a time (it’s the black line in the graph below). But there’s rarely a continuous learning curve. Instead, it’s often interrupted by...
Neocha – Culture &...
Natural Selection
over a year ago
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: MintFlamingo Hi - I’m Alex! I’m a freelance graphic designer by day, and a self-taught linocut printmaker by...
over a year ago
43
over a year ago
Hi - I’m Alex! I’m a freelance graphic designer by day, and a self-taught linocut printmaker by night. Although my day job is ‘creative’ I think I really fell in love with making/designing my own linocut prints as it allows me to create whatever I like, without being restricted...
Stat Significant
How Streaming Elevated (and Ruined) Documentaries: A Statistical Analysis Unpacking streaming's embrace and erosion of non-fiction storytelling.
6 months ago
Handprinted - Blog
Mark Marking - Using Etching Tools When you’ve degreased and prepared your plate for etching, there are a variety of tools you can use...
a year ago
92
a year ago
When you’ve degreased and prepared your plate for etching, there are a variety of tools you can use to mark into the surface. Any marks made into the surface of the grounds will expose your plate to the mordant. When etched, these marks will become sunken areas for ink to sit,...
Stat Significant
Do People Actually Hate Coldplay? A Statistical Analysis Examining Coldplay's confusing cultural reputation.
2 months ago
Open Culture
Carl Jung Psychoanalyzes Hitler: “He’s the Unconscious of 78 Million Germans.” “Without the German... Were you to google “Carl Jung and Nazism”—and I’m not suggesting that you do—you would find yourself...
6 months ago
51
6 months ago
Were you to google “Carl Jung and Nazism”—and I’m not suggesting that you do—you would find yourself hip-deep in the charges that Jung was an anti-Semite and a Nazi sympathizer. Many sites condemn or exonerate him; many others celebrate him as a blood and soil Aryan hero. It can...
Seth's Blog
Productive assets and useful flows Assets are ownable. They are devices, skills, connections or properties that allow us to amplify our...
a year ago
61
a year ago
Assets are ownable. They are devices, skills, connections or properties that allow us to amplify our effort and do our work with more impact. A drill press is an asset, so is your law degree. The permission you have to talk with your customers, the benefit of the doubt you get...
Ian Betteridge
Weeknote, Sunday 15th December
4 months ago
Seth's Blog
The tactics trap You have a strategy. Perhaps you didn’t even choose it but you have one… and it’s not working. The...
2 months ago
15
2 months ago
You have a strategy. Perhaps you didn’t even choose it but you have one… and it’s not working. The dominant question is, “what do I do now?” Which tactic do we use? How do we get the word out? How do we close this sale, solve the problem and succeed? Perhaps we should look to […]
Seth's Blog
The seduction of grad school For a certain cohort of high-performing students at famous colleges, graduate school feels...
a year ago
32
a year ago
For a certain cohort of high-performing students at famous colleges, graduate school feels irresistible. If you’re good at school, the challenge and offer of law school, med school or a famous business school means you get to do more of what you’re good at. You’re offered a...
Seth's Blog
Expertise and credentials In the ideal world, credentials would be awarded to all experts, and withdrawn from all charlatans....
3 months ago
37
3 months ago
In the ideal world, credentials would be awarded to all experts, and withdrawn from all charlatans. But they don’t always line up as neatly as that. An expert is someone who can keep a promise. Point to the results that demonstrate your skill and understanding and commitment and...
Seth's Blog
Decoding ‘story’ Marketers like to talk about the story we tell. And non-marketers imagine that we’re referring to...
a year ago
36
a year ago
Marketers like to talk about the story we tell. And non-marketers imagine that we’re referring to Goldilocks and other ‘once upon a time’ moments. Because stories are the basic building block of culture, it’s difficult to see the nuance in this simple word. But one or two...
Stat Significant
When Do Viewers Get Hooked on a TV Show? A Statistical Analysis When do TV viewers become committed fans?
a month ago
Seth's Blog
Effect vs affect In a culture fascinated by attitude, gloss and performance, it’s easy to believe that adopting an...
over a year ago
59
over a year ago
In a culture fascinated by attitude, gloss and performance, it’s easy to believe that adopting an affect is precisely what you need to make a difference. In fact, the persistent, generous work that happens when no one is looking is what actually makes a difference. Looking the...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: New Popes and Cooked Kids Plus! Meme Wars and 16th Century TMZ
2 days ago
Seth's Blog
What spoiled wrecks There’s nothing wrong with abundance and joy. But being spoiled causes two real problems: As a...
11 months ago
72
11 months ago
There’s nothing wrong with abundance and joy. But being spoiled causes two real problems: As a community increases in wealth, the number of spoiled citizens increases as well. It’s often the acid that corrodes the magic that created the wealth in the first place. Whining is a...
Seth's Blog
Customer service is a choice It’s either part of your strategy or you’re paying for your mistake. 800 numbers changed the way...
a year ago
27
a year ago
It’s either part of your strategy or you’re paying for your mistake. 800 numbers changed the way large brands dealt with the public. Instantly, and for free, a consumer could contact a company about a product or service and they would work to make it right. It was more than...
Open Culture
Face to Face with Carl Jung: ‘Man Cannot Stand a Meaningless Life’ (1959) Carl Gustav Jung, founder of analytic psychology and explorer of the collective unconscious, was...
9 months ago
47
9 months ago
Carl Gustav Jung, founder of analytic psychology and explorer of the collective unconscious, was born on July 26, 1875 in the village of Kesswil, in the Thurgau canton of Switzerland. Above, we present a fascinating 39-minute interview of Jung by John Freeman for the BBC program...
Open Culture
Bruce Springsteen Endorses Kamala Harris & Makes the Case Against Donald Trump The Boss speaks the truth in a dinner. Find it on Instagram.
7 months ago
Open Culture
Patti Smith Reads Her Final Letter to Robert Mapplethorpe, Calling Him “the Most Beautiful Work of... If you go to hear Patti Smith in concert, you expect her to sing “Beneath the Southern Cross,”...
11 months ago
61
11 months ago
If you go to hear Patti Smith in concert, you expect her to sing “Beneath the Southern Cross,” “Because the Night,” and almost certainly “People Have the Power,” the hit single from Dream of Life. Like her 1975 debut Horses, that album had a cover photo by Robert...
Blog - Mac Pierce
Decreasing the F.Q. - A talk on Facial Recognition and the Opt Out Cap Links to a talk I gave on the Opt-Out cap and the state of surveillance via facial recognition.
over a year ago
Blog - Mac Pierce
Magic Wheelchair - a Frozen sled for Angelle Working on a Frozen themed costume for Angelle.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
What to do with firm footing If we’ve got tenure, a lifetime appointment or simply a really secure gig, what should we do with...
a year ago
64
a year ago
If we’ve got tenure, a lifetime appointment or simply a really secure gig, what should we do with it? One option is to race to the bottom, to chase short-term self-focused outcomes and to see how much we can get away with. (Probably, quite a bit). The other is to take this rare...
Seth's Blog
With the sound off If you’re watching a YouTube clip or a talking head, you can probably tell whether or not you...
over a year ago
76
over a year ago
If you’re watching a YouTube clip or a talking head, you can probably tell whether or not you disagree with someone even with the sound off. And we judge a book or an article on the layout and appearance long before we’ve read all the words. Human beings invented symbolic logic...
Open Culture
Take a 3D Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel & Explore Michelangelo’s Masterpieces Up Close Today, 133 cardinals from around the world enter the conclave to determine the next pope, during...
4 days ago
2
4 days ago
Today, 133 cardinals from around the world enter the conclave to determine the next pope, during which they’ll cast their votes in the Sistine Chapel. Despite being one of the most famous tourist attractions in Europe, the Sistine Chapel still serves as a venue for such important...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
What is Generative Art? Randomness, rules and natural systems. Some non-restrictive definitions and an exploration of the...
over a year ago
17
over a year ago
Randomness, rules and natural systems. Some non-restrictive definitions and an exploration of the form.
escape the algorithm
Announcing the Escape the Algorithm ᵐⁱᶜʳᵒsupporter Program Welcoming tiny acts of codependence
3 months ago
Open Culture
Inside the Beautiful Home Frank Lloyd Wright Designed for His Son (1952) Being Frank Lloyd Wright’s son surely came with its downsides. But one of the upsides — assuming you...
a year ago
56
a year ago
Being Frank Lloyd Wright’s son surely came with its downsides. But one of the upsides — assuming you could stay in the mercurial master’s good graces — was the possibility of his designing a house for you. Such was the fortune of his fourth child David Samuel Wright, a Phoenix...
Not Boring by Packy...
Long Questions/Short Answers Questions reshape reality
2 months ago
Seth's Blog
Mind reading It’s thrilling when someone reads our minds. Sometimes we call it hospitality, or smart user...
4 days ago
2
4 days ago
It’s thrilling when someone reads our minds. Sometimes we call it hospitality, or smart user interface design. Sometimes, it simply feels like being seen. The person or the system knows what you need, perhaps before you even realize what that might be. This is a special sort of...
Open Culture
The Page That Changed Comics Forever: Discover the Innovative 1950s Comic Book That Almost Went... If you grew up reading American comic books during the second half of the twentieth century, you’ll...
9 months ago
35
9 months ago
If you grew up reading American comic books during the second half of the twentieth century, you’ll be familiar with the seal of the Comics Code Authority. I remember seeing it stamped onto the upper-right corner of issues of titles from The Amazing Spider-Man to reprints of Carl...
The Great Discontent...
Schessa Garbutt Schessa Garbutt is the founder of the Inglewood–based design studio, Firebrand. An educator,...
10 months ago
4
10 months ago
Schessa Garbutt is the founder of the Inglewood–based design studio, Firebrand. An educator, lecturer, and published essayist (see The Black Experience in Design anthology, a must-read). Garbutt works at the intersection of co-design practices and making huge, mind-bending ideas...
Stat Significant
Which Celebrities Popularized (or Tarnished) Baby Names? A Statistical Analysis Which public figures impacted baby naming trends?
4 months ago
Open Culture
Revisit Episodes of Liquid Television, MTV’s 90s Showcase of Funny, Irreverent & Bizarre Animation MTV stands for Music Television, and when the network launched in 1981, its almost entirely music...
7 months ago
65
7 months ago
MTV stands for Music Television, and when the network launched in 1981, its almost entirely music video-based programming was true to its name. Within a decade, however, its mandate had widened to the point that it had become the natural home for practically any exciting...
Open Culture
What Would Happen If a Nuclear Bomb Hit a Major City Today: A Visualization of the Destruction One of the many memorable details in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop...
a year ago
47
a year ago
One of the many memorable details in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, placed prominently in a shot of George C. Scott in the war room, is a binder with a spine labeled “WORLD TARGETS IN MEGADEATHS.” A megadeath, writes Eric...
Blog - Mac Pierce
XL Flex Arms, posable mounting for cameras and lighting. Making a few custom mounts for cameras and camera accessories.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
A next frontier for spam and scams Please be on the alert for: Spam that includes your name, address, phone number and other personal...
7 months ago
60
7 months ago
Please be on the alert for: Spam that includes your name, address, phone number and other personal details. Phone calls that are from human-sounding bots that pretend to be from friends or trusted brands. Job offers. Video mashups that include AI-generated people that seem to be...
Marian's Blog
Infinite procedurally generated city with the Wave Function Collapse algorithm This is a game where you walk through an infinite city that is procedurally generated as you...
over a year ago
16
over a year ago
This is a game where you walk through an infinite city that is procedurally generated as you walk. It is generated from a set of blocks with the Wave Function Collapse algorithm. You can download a playable build of the game on itch.io and you can get the source code on...
Seth's Blog
Twenty questions Your next project might feel like a calling, but it’s a choice. A choice that will have an impact on...
7 months ago
33
7 months ago
Your next project might feel like a calling, but it’s a choice. A choice that will have an impact on each day you spend on it. There are no right answers here, but before you fall in love with a business or an organization, it may pay to think about these and other options that...
Seth's Blog
The reality of chasing pop It’s tempting for a creator. To make a pop hit, a song or a book or a meme that becomes a popular...
over a year ago
55
over a year ago
It’s tempting for a creator. To make a pop hit, a song or a book or a meme that becomes a popular idea and part of the culture. In our lifetimes, it’s become possible to imagine that you could even make a living creating pop. But pop is a harsh mistress, because pop means...
Seth's Blog
To be well published Sooner or later, we benefit from being well-published. Publishing has nothing to do with printing....
a year ago
24
a year ago
Sooner or later, we benefit from being well-published. Publishing has nothing to do with printing. It’s the act of taking risks to bring a new idea to people who want to embrace it. It’s the head of the lab who works behind the scenes to be sure the talented scientist gets a gig...
Seth's Blog
Reimagining cities in a few simple questions What would happen if public transportation were free? What if it were paid for by congestion...
over a year ago
50
over a year ago
What would happen if public transportation were free? What if it were paid for by congestion pricing, digitally implemented? What if public toilets were safe, beautiful, well-appointed and consistently maintained? What if there were a tax on empty storefronts, payable after three...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Ian Phillips Hi, I’m Ian Phillips, a printmaker based in Mid Wales. I’m originally from Leicestershire and...
2 months ago
25
2 months ago
Hi, I’m Ian Phillips, a printmaker based in Mid Wales. I’m originally from Leicestershire and studied illustration at Leicester Polytechnic. After graduation I attempted the life of a freelance Illustrator in London, but quite quickly, well after a few years, realised it wasn’t...
Open Culture
Bambi Meets Godzilla: #38 on the List of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time (1969) In 1994, Jerry Beck edited the book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation...
5 months ago
39
5 months ago
In 1994, Jerry Beck edited the book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals, which challenged experts to create a ranking of the best short, cel animated cartoons ever made. To no one’s surprise, the experts chose 10 Warner Bros. animations crafted...
Open Culture
The Night Frank Zappa Jammed With Pink Floyd … and Captain Beefheart Too (Belgium, 1969) Recently an older musician acquaintance told me he never “got into ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ and all...
8 months ago
35
8 months ago
Recently an older musician acquaintance told me he never “got into ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ and all that,” referring to the “first major space jam” of Pink Floyd’s career and the subsequent explosion of space rock bands. I found myself a little taken aback. Though I was born too...
Open Culture
The Story of Francis Ford Coppola’s Four-Decade-Struggle to Make Megalopolis This past summer, out came a trailer for Megalopolis, the movie Francis Ford Coppola has spent half...
7 months ago
48
7 months ago
This past summer, out came a trailer for Megalopolis, the movie Francis Ford Coppola has spent half of his life trying to make. It took the bold approach of opening with quotes from reviews of his previous pictures, and not positive ones: when it was first released, Rex Reed...
Seth's Blog
Lost on purpose …of course, if you’re lost on purpose, you’re not lost. Lost is only possible if you are fixed on...
a year ago
23
a year ago
…of course, if you’re lost on purpose, you’re not lost. Lost is only possible if you are fixed on getting somewhere specific.
Handprinted - Blog
Inking Methods for Etching Once you've made an etching plate, you may be ready to print an edition - or you might want to proof...
5 months ago
71
5 months ago
Once you've made an etching plate, you may be ready to print an edition - or you might want to proof it to decide on further edits. Taking a print is the only way you’ll be able to see how your plate is progressing. This blog is part of a series featuring tips and techniques to...
Seth's Blog
The nuanced challenge of “The Regular Kind” In a breakthrough study by Alex Berke at MIT, she and her team showed that labeling a menu item as...
a year ago
21
a year ago
In a breakthrough study by Alex Berke at MIT, she and her team showed that labeling a menu item as vegan significantly decreased how many people would order it. In similar conditions, it turns out that more people choose exactly the same item if it doesn’t carry that label. One...
Open Culture
The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse: Rick Beato Explains Earlier this month, a North Carolina man was charged with generating songs using an...
7 months ago
42
7 months ago
Earlier this month, a North Carolina man was charged with generating songs using an artificial-intelligence system and configuring bots to stream them automatically, thus racking up some $10 million in illegal royalties. Though that amount no doubt startles many of us, in this...
Haterade
Nostalgia Pizza The virtues (and limitations) of the Soggy School Lunch Square
over a year ago
Open Culture
B.B. King Changes a Broken Guitar String Mid-Song at Farm Aid, and Doesn’t Miss a Beat (1985) The scene is Farm Aid, 1985, attended by a crowd of 80,000 people. The song is “How Blue Can You...
6 months ago
34
6 months ago
The scene is Farm Aid, 1985, attended by a crowd of 80,000 people. The song is “How Blue Can You Get.” And the key moment comes at the 3:10 mark, when the blues legend B.B. King breaks a guitar string, then manages to replace it before the song finishes minutes later. All the...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #141 Building Civilizations, Nuclear Moon, Physical Intelligence, Argentina, Creatine
2 weeks ago
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Strangford (Jo Pearson) Hi! I’m Jo, working as a printmaker under the name 'Strangford' in Northern Ireland - though I’m...
11 months ago
112
11 months ago
Hi! I’m Jo, working as a printmaker under the name 'Strangford' in Northern Ireland - though I’m originally from South London. Describe your printmaking process. I make large, bright, unusual relief prints from my home studio; mostly of animals. I carve into flooring lino - it’s...
Seth's Blog
Slow down to speed up Almost all car crashes would be avoided if the driver were just going a bit slower. (That’s why it’s...
3 months ago
40
3 months ago
Almost all car crashes would be avoided if the driver were just going a bit slower. (That’s why it’s more accurate to call them “crashes” and not “accidents.”) That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have bold plans. That’s essential. It’s the last-second shortcuts that get us into...
Seth's Blog
Mediocre tools Lousy tools are dangerous. They endanger our safety (physical or emotional) and undermine our work....
4 months ago
73
4 months ago
Lousy tools are dangerous. They endanger our safety (physical or emotional) and undermine our work. Lousy tools are pretty easy to avoid, because they reveal themselves whenever we use them. Great tools are magical. They multiply our effort, amplify the quality of our work and...
Seth's Blog
The unaware snoop Here’s a breakthrough that’s about to happen somewhere: A GPT that reads every email that anyone in...
over a year ago
75
over a year ago
Here’s a breakthrough that’s about to happen somewhere: A GPT that reads every email that anyone in your organization has ever sent and makes it easy to ask it questions about what the entire organization knows. A person could probably not find the time, bandwidth or privacy...
Seth's Blog
The long-range forecast keeps shifting Exactly. That’s why it’s a forecast, not an accurate account of what’s going to happen in the...
a year ago
25
a year ago
Exactly. That’s why it’s a forecast, not an accurate account of what’s going to happen in the future. This seems axiomatic, but our desire for certainty keeps letting us down. The shifting of forecasts is evidence that they’re merely forecasts.
Open Culture
Stephen Fry Explains Why Artificial Intelligence Has a “70% Risk of Killing Us All” Apart from his comedic, dramatic, and literary endeavors, Stephen Fry is widely known for his avowed...
9 months ago
64
9 months ago
Apart from his comedic, dramatic, and literary endeavors, Stephen Fry is widely known for his avowed technophilia. He once wrote a column on that theme, “Dork Talk,” for the Guardian, in whose inaugural dispatch he laid out his credentials by claiming to have been the owner of...
The Last...
Ten Extra Seconds Would Have Saved True Detective's Finale what could it mean? You just watched a historical TV moment: never before has the audience for a...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
what could it mean? You just watched a historical TV moment: never before has the audience for a show been smarter than its writer.   I submit as second evidence the season finale for The Bachelor that was on yesterday, for three hours, drawing ten million "people".  Just...
Seth's Blog
Your preference is not universal You’re entitled to it, and we will do our best to help you find what you want. But it’s unlikely...
a year ago
74
a year ago
You’re entitled to it, and we will do our best to help you find what you want. But it’s unlikely that what you want is what everyone wants. It’s hard to believe that there is only one appropriate standard for value, observance, speed or performance. The easiest way for us to help...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #142 Neuralink, Joby, Distributed AI, Diabetes Down Under, Hill & Valley
a week ago
Seth's Blog
The unwarranted smile When we do something nice for someone, a ‘thank you’ and a smile is nice to receive. And, in many...
12 months ago
54
12 months ago
When we do something nice for someone, a ‘thank you’ and a smile is nice to receive. And, in many parts of human culture, it’s a bit expected. But when something goes wrong, if we drop a plate or miss a turn or make someone late, it’s particularly delightful and memorable if we...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Jenny O'Leary Hi, my name is Jenny O’Leary and I am a textile artist and tutor living in Shropshire. I work with...
9 months ago
78
9 months ago
Hi, my name is Jenny O’Leary and I am a textile artist and tutor living in Shropshire. I work with batik (hot wax resist), mainly on tissue paper - combining it with bleach, ink and dyes. I sometimes stitch to create beautiful surfaces and textures. Collage and layering are an...
escape the algorithm
Artisinal white noise Shhhhhhhh
a year ago
Anarchy Unfolds
March '24 Myths & Recs Sleep deprivation, Kim Petras, the Anthropocene, and more
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Student coach Big football at colleges in the US costs more than $5 billion a year. And none of these programs has...
10 months ago
77
10 months ago
Big football at colleges in the US costs more than $5 billion a year. And none of these programs has a student acting as a coach. The same analysis, at a much smaller scale, applies to school theater directors and producers, conductors of the jazz band or orchestra and even the...
Open Culture
RIP David Sanborn: See Him Play Alongside Miles Davis, Randy Newman, Sun Ra, Leonard Cohen and... It’s late in the evening of Saturday, October 28th, 1989. You flip on the television and the...
11 months ago
104
11 months ago
It’s late in the evening of Saturday, October 28th, 1989. You flip on the television and the saxophonist David Sanborn appears onscreen, instrument in hand, introducing the eclectic blues icon Taj Mahal, who in turn declares his intent to play a number with “rural humor” and...
Open Culture
The Steampunk Clocks of 19th-Century Paris: Discover the Ingenious System That Revolutionized... A middle-class Parisian living around the turn of the twentieth century would have to budget for...
9 months ago
48
9 months ago
A middle-class Parisian living around the turn of the twentieth century would have to budget for services like not just water or gas, but also time. Though electric clocks had been demonstrated, they were still a high-tech rarity; installing one in the home would have been...
Open Culture
How the Hugely Acclaimed Shōgun TV Series Makes Translation Interesting Many of us grew up seeing hardback copies of Shōgun on various domestic bookshelves. Whether their...
7 months ago
54
7 months ago
Many of us grew up seeing hardback copies of Shōgun on various domestic bookshelves. Whether their owners ever actually got through James Clavell’s famously hefty novel of seventeenth-century Japan is open to question, but they may well have seen the first television adaptation,...
Seth's Blog
Indifferent overhead Every business and individual has overhead. The bills we have to pay and the costs we incur that...
a year ago
47
a year ago
Every business and individual has overhead. The bills we have to pay and the costs we incur that aren’t directly related to our income. You pay them whether or not you’re busy. But there are two kinds of overhead, worth differentiating: Different overhead … the investments that...
Open Culture
The Origins of Anime: Watch Early Japanese Animations (1917 to 1931) Japanese animation, AKA anime, might be filled with large-eyed maidens, way cool robots, and...
a year ago
50
a year ago
Japanese animation, AKA anime, might be filled with large-eyed maidens, way cool robots, and large-eyed, way cool maiden/robot hybrids, but it often shows a level of daring, complexity and creativity not typically found in American mainstream animation. And the form has spawned...
Seth's Blog
A thoughtful review Thanks to Francis Wade for emailing me this review of THIS IS STRATEGY. Francis works in strategy,...
5 months ago
53
5 months ago
Thanks to Francis Wade for emailing me this review of THIS IS STRATEGY. Francis works in strategy, and I’m so delighted the book resonated the way it did. Case: You are a corporate strategic planner – someone immersed in defining a future for your organization. But lately, you...
Seth's Blog
Overstuffed The empty part of the drawer is what makes it a useful tool. Same goes for a filing cabinet, a...
a year ago
35
a year ago
The empty part of the drawer is what makes it a useful tool. Same goes for a filing cabinet, a toolbox and a calendar. Slack is underrated.
Seth's Blog
The swag is here To celebrate the new book, here are some limited edition swag options to benefit good causes and...
a year ago
33
a year ago
To celebrate the new book, here are some limited edition swag options to benefit good causes and independent craftspeople. You can find them all at seths.store. I went to Brooklyn and worked with Dan at the Arm to create a set of five handmade letterpress posters. They’re 12...
escape the algorithm
The Real Divorcees of Facebook Marketplace For sale: wife shoes, hardly worn
a year ago
Ian Betteridge
20241202 Ten Blue Links, the late late late show edition! Technically this is eight blue links, because I spent the weekend in Bristol and we’re getting...
5 months ago
36
5 months ago
Technically this is eight blue links, because I spent the weekend in Bristol and we’re getting towards Christmas. Next week: five blue links and a bag of wine gums. 1. RIP ChromeOS (sort of) Odd as it sounds today, when I talk a lot about user privacy and avoiding cloud services,...
Seth's Blog
Actionable feedback “Do you want to know what I think?” The best answer might be, “no.” Because this person is not very...
a year ago
26
a year ago
“Do you want to know what I think?” The best answer might be, “no.” Because this person is not very good at offering useful feedback. Because you didn’t create this product or service or performance to please this person. They’re not the customer. Because you’re not going to...
Handprinted - Blog
Making an Aluminium Plate Etching We recently covered in our blog how to make marks on etching plates using tools and resists. Now...
8 months ago
93
8 months ago
We recently covered in our blog how to make marks on etching plates using tools and resists. Now we’re going to put together what we’ve learnt to create a print! This blog is part of a series featuring tips and techniques to get you started with aluminium or zinc plate etching....
Open Culture
How 2001: A Space Odyssey Became “the Hardest Film Kubrick Ever Made” Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has been praised in all manner of terms since it came out...
8 months ago
50
8 months ago
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has been praised in all manner of terms since it came out more than half a century ago. An early advertising campaign, tapping into the enthusiasm of the contemporary counterculture, called it “the ultimate trip”; in the equivalently trendy...
Seth's Blog
Spire confusion When architects show off their work, or propose a bold new building complex or even ask for a zoning...
a year ago
43
a year ago
When architects show off their work, or propose a bold new building complex or even ask for a zoning variance, the public sees the external photos. The tall spire, the innovative use of glass, the weird hole in the center of the building. And when a car company shows off a new...
Handprinted - Blog
In the Studio 2022 We have had the pleasure of hosting lots of new and exciting Fab Friday workshops and wonderful...
over a year ago
38
over a year ago
We have had the pleasure of hosting lots of new and exciting Fab Friday workshops and wonderful Guest Tutors in 2022, exploring a variety of printmaking techniques. Take a look at this selection of work produced by students throughout the year:   Life Drawing - Mono Screen...
Seth's Blog
Nihil hic deest This page intentionally left blank has a long history. I thought it was an IBM thing from the 1960s,...
over a year ago
53
over a year ago
This page intentionally left blank has a long history. I thought it was an IBM thing from the 1960s, but I was off by a thousand or more years. There are good reasons for a page to be blank. Folding signatures, printing processes, having chapters start on the right or the left…...
Haterade
How to Garnish Instructions on making (and becoming) a Silly Goose
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Good businesses solve real problems But not all real problems lead to good businesses. There are problems all around us. People need...
a year ago
17
a year ago
But not all real problems lead to good businesses. There are problems all around us. People need housing, health care and food. They want delight, belonging and status. When a company shows up in the marketplace with a product or service that people eagerly choose to buy, it’s...
Seth's Blog
The distribution of character Along the way, we have been taught to associate character skills like honesty, rationality,...
10 months ago
60
10 months ago
Along the way, we have been taught to associate character skills like honesty, rationality, agreeableness, grit and care with surface metrics like wealth or power. That’s almost certainly incorrect. And if we make assumptions based on vague measures of class, we’re going to get...
Seth's Blog
Bongo is here And you can be the first on your block to play it. It’s free. Click here to see today’s game. Over...
5 months ago
44
5 months ago
And you can be the first on your block to play it. It’s free. Click here to see today’s game. Over the next week, I’m going to do a few bonus posts to explain how we thought about the creation and game design and marketing of this new project. The last eighteen months of...
Seth's Blog
There are no stupid mistakes There are mistakes. These are moments when reality teaches us something. And there’s stupid. This is...
over a year ago
69
over a year ago
There are mistakes. These are moments when reality teaches us something. And there’s stupid. This is what happens when we refuse to learn from our mistakes. “Don’t be stupid” is a fine mantra. It’s particularly apt when talking about cultural forces, political agendas and our...
Seth's Blog
More vs. better If every building in the shopping district in a big city was owned by one landlord, rents would go...
a year ago
22
a year ago
If every building in the shopping district in a big city was owned by one landlord, rents would go up. So would the prices of everything sold. The landlord would keep a significant percentage of each store’s profits and innovation would suffer as well. Google’s monopoly is real....
Seth's Blog
An end to pop Pop culture depends on scarcity. When there are only a few TV stations or a dozen radio stations,...
over a year ago
81
over a year ago
Pop culture depends on scarcity. When there are only a few TV stations or a dozen radio stations, it’s likely that many of us watch or hear the same thing at the same time. And so a popular TV show or song from fifty years ago probably reached twenty times as many people as a […]
Seth's Blog
The audacity of the crowd anthem There’s little doubt that We Are the Champions is one of the great crowd anthems of our time. Just...
over a year ago
72
over a year ago
There’s little doubt that We Are the Champions is one of the great crowd anthems of our time. Just about any group can be stirred into a frenzy just by playing a few bars: The same goes Rapper’s Delight. And yet… Can you imagine how frightening it must have been to play it live...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Ghibli-fy Everything Plus: Elon's fake numbers and a Good Shrek Prediction
a month ago
Seth's Blog
Get/Want/Have To Get to, want to and have to are an endless braid. How much of our time do we spend on each? Have to...
over a year ago
42
over a year ago
Get to, want to and have to are an endless braid. How much of our time do we spend on each? Have to is often up to someone else. The things we’re required to do by the system or the people in it. Get to is a matter of perspective. Trust and health and leverage […]
Seth's Blog
Projects and the long haul Rome was built in a day. It wasn’t finished in a day. In fact, it’s still not finished. But the day...
10 months ago
54
10 months ago
Rome was built in a day. It wasn’t finished in a day. In fact, it’s still not finished. But the day someone said, “this is Rome,” and announced the project, it was there. Sometimes we get hung up on the beginning, unwilling to start Rome unless we’re sure we can finish it without...
Seth's Blog
The NSE confusions “Nobody wants this” is unlikely. “Somebody will like this” is almost certainly true. “Everyone needs...
a month ago
15
a month ago
“Nobody wants this” is unlikely. “Somebody will like this” is almost certainly true. “Everyone needs this” is a trap. The work begins with finding the right somebodies, while ignoring the imaginary everyone. Scale is rarely the first signal of important work.
Seth's Blog
Nice bike A well-designed bicycle is efficient, inexpensive and delightful. If you use your bike on the right...
a year ago
34
a year ago
A well-designed bicycle is efficient, inexpensive and delightful. If you use your bike on the right paths, with appropriate goals, it can deliver exactly what you need, while also allowing you to go at your own pace, see what’s going on around you and feel grounded. Until, of...
escape the algorithm
Folk search engines Strategies better than plain Google.
a year ago
Open Culture
The World’s First Mobile Phone Shown in 1922 Vintage Film A number of years ago, British Pathé uncovered some striking footage from 1922 showing two women...
8 months ago
44
8 months ago
A number of years ago, British Pathé uncovered some striking footage from 1922 showing two women experimenting with the first mobile phone. A spokesman for the archive said: ”It’s amazing that 90 years ago mobile phone technology and music … was not only being thought of but...
Seth's Blog
Giving up vs. quitting Shrug your shoulders, care less, phone it in. One software company I used to depend on has sort of...
10 months ago
38
10 months ago
Shrug your shoulders, care less, phone it in. One software company I used to depend on has sort of given up. They have plenty of cash in the bank, but they simply stopped trying. You can feel it in their updates, their customer service, their approach to the future. Giving up is...
John Reynolds -...
Homepage Designer & Creative Director in Dallas, TX X/Twitterread.cv Instagram vimeo are.na LinkedIn
over a year ago
Handprinted - Blog
Offset Registration for Multi Block Linocuts Accurate registration can be difficult when printing multi-block linocuts. Offset printing will show...
2 months ago
25
2 months ago
Accurate registration can be difficult when printing multi-block linocuts. Offset printing will show you exactly where your design will sit on each block, allowing you to cut a set of blocks that will print in perfect alignment.  Begin by preparing a registration board. This will...
Seth's Blog
The magic of the commons Sheep are not like ideas. 200 years ago, William Foster Lloyd began pointing out that if land is...
4 months ago
36
4 months ago
Sheep are not like ideas. 200 years ago, William Foster Lloyd began pointing out that if land is shared, ranchers will all have an incentive to overgraze their sheep–if they don’t, the thinking goes, the others will. Each farmer expands until the commons is ruined. And this...
Seth's Blog
The missing file It contained some of my best writing. Cogent, clear and powerful. I found it. It wasn’t nearly as...
8 months ago
61
8 months ago
It contained some of my best writing. Cogent, clear and powerful. I found it. It wasn’t nearly as good as I remembered. In fact, it was hardly useful. The opposite happens with the things we fear. When they show up, they’re likely to be a lot less fearsome than we imagined.
Seth's Blog
Expectations We might deserve something. We might be entitled to it. But expectations are a story we tell...
19 hours ago
2
19 hours ago
We might deserve something. We might be entitled to it. But expectations are a story we tell ourselves, and that story is up to us. The simple life hack is to lower your expectations, regardless of what you’re entitled to. Create the conditions for the outcome you seek, but leave...
Open Culture
Wes Anderson Directs & Stars in an Ad Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Montblanc’s Signature Pen One hardly has to be an expert on the films of Wes Anderson to imagine that the man writes with a...
12 months ago
48
12 months ago
One hardly has to be an expert on the films of Wes Anderson to imagine that the man writes with a fountain pen. Maybe back in the early nineteen-nineties, when he was shooting the black-and-white short that would become Bottle Rocket on the streets of Austin, he had to settle for...
Seth's Blog
The page-a-day calendar Time passes. And humans have always kept track. Distribution and technology combined to create a few...
9 months ago
66
9 months ago
Time passes. And humans have always kept track. Distribution and technology combined to create a few decades where the tear off daily calendar was nearly ubiquitous (read on for details on my new one, a collaboration with Debbie Millman). First, the industry needed to efficiently...
Anarchy Unfolds
Is human society natural? On the human/nature divide and how to overcome it
2 months ago
Seth's Blog
Worst possible While it’s tempting to compare suffering, inconvenience, unfairness or general no-goodness, it’s not...
2 months ago
20
2 months ago
While it’s tempting to compare suffering, inconvenience, unfairness or general no-goodness, it’s not helpful. Someone else’s trauma doesn’t diminish yours. In fact, when we can find the space to see that others have their own mess to deal with, it opens the door for forward...
Marian's Blog
Designing a Lego orrery I've always been a fan of the Lego Technic series, especially those models that have gears and...
11 months ago
27
11 months ago
I've always been a fan of the Lego Technic series, especially those models that have gears and cranks and moving parts. But it seems that Lego is shifting the focus of the Technic series away from functional models, so I had to take matters into my own hands. I think an orrery is...
Seth's Blog
Self restaint vs systemic restraint It’s not hypocritical to help yourself at a buffet at the same time you counsel the owner of the...
over a year ago
78
over a year ago
It’s not hypocritical to help yourself at a buffet at the same time you counsel the owner of the restaurant to limit the number of trips that people take so that the restaurant can become sustainable. It’s possible to argue for systemic changes to cultural systems while also...
Open Culture
Solving a 2,500-Year-Old Puzzle: How a Cambridge Student Cracked an Ancient Sanskrit Code If you find yourself grappling with an intellectual problem that’s gone unsolved for millennia, try...
8 months ago
70
8 months ago
If you find yourself grappling with an intellectual problem that’s gone unsolved for millennia, try taking a few months off and spending them on activities like swimming and meditating. That very strategy worked for a Cambridge PhD student named Rishi Rajpopat, who, after a...
Open Culture
Mythology Expert Reviews Depictions of Greek & Roman Myths in Popular Movies and TV Shows It’s safe to say that we no longer believe in the gods of the ancient world — or rather, that most...
6 months ago
46
6 months ago
It’s safe to say that we no longer believe in the gods of the ancient world — or rather, that most of us no longer believe in their literal existence, but some of us have faith in their box-office potential. This two-part video series from Vanity Fair examines a variety of movies...
Handprinted - Blog
Designing a Repeat Block by Hand Visualising what your design will look like when printed can be the hardest thing about designing a...
a year ago
135
a year ago
Visualising what your design will look like when printed can be the hardest thing about designing a repeat pattern. We have a good method for sketching out your initial design to see how it will work when it has been printed. For this project, we will be using a mounted lino...
Seth's Blog
More alternatives, please There are two ways for an artisan or professional to see the world: Scarcity. This is the idea that...
a week ago
1
a week ago
There are two ways for an artisan or professional to see the world: Scarcity. This is the idea that if there were fewer photographers, more people would hire me to do wedding pictures. That if the bar exam were more selective, it would be easier for my firm to get clients. And if...
Seth's Blog
Fingerprints If a jacket is made by Patagonia or a piece of hardware is made by Teenage Engineering, you can...
11 months ago
73
11 months ago
If a jacket is made by Patagonia or a piece of hardware is made by Teenage Engineering, you can probably tell who made it the first time you see it, even without a logo. A painting by Sonia Delaunay doesn’t need to be signed to know who it’s by. On the other hand, AppleTV streams...
Open Culture
Jack Kerouac’s Hand-Drawn Cover for On the Road (1952) This falls under the category, “If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.” In 1950,...
8 months ago
36
8 months ago
This falls under the category, “If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.” In 1950, when Jack Kerouac released his first novel, The Town and the City, he was less than impressed by the book cover produced by his publisher, Harcourt Brace. (Click here to see why.) So,...
Seth's Blog
The use (and design) of tools It’s hard to build a house without a hammer. The hammer has been around for a long time, and thanks...
3 weeks ago
9
3 weeks ago
It’s hard to build a house without a hammer. The hammer has been around for a long time, and thanks to its intuitive design, a user can get 70% of the benefit after less than ten minutes of instruction. People who depend on hammers for their livelihood are probably at over 95%...
Open Culture
Destino: The Salvador Dalí — Disney Collaboration 57 Years in the Making In 2003, Disney released a six minute animated short called Destino, finally bringing closure to a...
6 months ago
29
6 months ago
In 2003, Disney released a six minute animated short called Destino, finally bringing closure to a project that began 57 years earlier. The story of Destino goes way back to 1946 when two very different cultural icons, Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí, decided to work together on a...
Seth's Blog
Who owns your words? There are many ways to ask and answer this question. Authorship used to be rare, but now, all of us...
5 months ago
48
5 months ago
There are many ways to ask and answer this question. Authorship used to be rare, but now, all of us write something. If you’re putting your words on a social media platform, you might be surprised to discover that they could disappear at any moment. Some platforms acknowledge...
Seth's Blog
“I didn’t see you there” Someone I’ve worked with over the years happened to be driving down my street. I called out and said...
6 months ago
57
6 months ago
Someone I’ve worked with over the years happened to be driving down my street. I called out and said hello… They ignored me. So I repeated myself. “Oh,” they said, recognizing me. “It’s you.” We’re more likely to see, hear and care if the person over there is actually a person. A...
Seth's Blog
Useful assumptions for teachers Not simply in the classroom, but anywhere we hope to inform, inspire or educate: Assume enrollment....
over a year ago
73
over a year ago
Not simply in the classroom, but anywhere we hope to inform, inspire or educate: Assume enrollment. Either someone is committed to learning or they’re not. While many situations place people into a spot where they are compelled to show up (exhibit A: learning arithmetic in grade...
Stat Significant
Is Music Stardom in Decline? A Statistical Analysis Is music stardom dying?
6 months ago
Seth's Blog
Deadlines and tailgaters If the ferry is leaving in fifteen minutes, do you drive faster than normal to get to the dock on...
a year ago
22
a year ago
If the ferry is leaving in fifteen minutes, do you drive faster than normal to get to the dock on time? If someone is driving close behind you and pressuring you to turn when you don’t feel safe, are you more likely to go for it? We can do our work as fast as makes […]
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Rob Jones I am a textiles artist working with Japanese techniques such as Shibori, shaped resist and Katagami...
a year ago
79
a year ago
I am a textiles artist working with Japanese techniques such as Shibori, shaped resist and Katagami stencilling (using indigo to dye the fabric). I also work with formal Japanese embroidery techniques - Sashiko and Kogin (counted thread) embroidery as well as some Boro inspired...
Open Culture
Keith Moon, Drummer of The Who, Passes Out at 1973 Concert; 19-Year-Old Fan Takes Over In November 1973, Scot Halpin, a 19-year-old kid, scalped tickets to The Who concert in San...
9 months ago
86
9 months ago
In November 1973, Scot Halpin, a 19-year-old kid, scalped tickets to The Who concert in San Francisco, California. Little did he know that he’d wind up playing drums for the band that night — that his name would end up etched in the annals of rock ’n’ roll. The Who came to...
Seth's Blog
Choosing your pacemaker Roger Bannister ran a four-minute mile by having a relay race of pace runners next to him. If he...
over a year ago
66
over a year ago
Roger Bannister ran a four-minute mile by having a relay race of pace runners next to him. If he could keep up with his pacer, he’d finish the run in record time. If you work in an office where people are regularly shipping breakthrough work, it’s likely your work will ship as...
On the Arts
What are Liminal Spaces? And why are they so popular? “Liminal spaces” have become trendy in recent years, especially on TikTok, Tumblr, and YouTube. But...
a year ago
24
a year ago
“Liminal spaces” have become trendy in recent years, especially on TikTok, Tumblr, and YouTube. But what makes a space liminal? And why are they so popular lately?
Haterade
RECIPE: Barbecue Boost, Quickly (BBQ) Running Gel This one's for the meatheads.
a year ago
escape the algorithm
Foreskin’s Comment What a Billie Eilish Youtube comment diarist can teach us about forging meaningful online rituals
a year ago
Infinite Scroll
Why You Should Read Web Fiction A beginner's guide to an underappreciated format
5 months ago
Seth's Blog
Wrestling, fighting or dancing? We can wrestle with a challenge or a problem and find energy and possibility while doing it. And we...
a year ago
26
a year ago
We can wrestle with a challenge or a problem and find energy and possibility while doing it. And we can dance with someone else as we seek a mutual way forward. Fighting tends to be more brutal, final and hurtful than is often productive. You don’t want to spend your days...
Seth's Blog
Learning in August What better time? An hour a day for a month and you can learn a skill you’ll have forever. Beach...
9 months ago
59
9 months ago
What better time? An hour a day for a month and you can learn a skill you’ll have forever. Beach reads are a fine way to chill out, but a month spent to learn a skill is a fine way to take advantage of a quiet time. My brand new course on Strategy is now […]
Seth's Blog
You are a media theorist If you’ve ever caught a ball, you’re a physicist. You might not be trained in it, but your intuitive...
a month ago
17
a month ago
If you’ve ever caught a ball, you’re a physicist. You might not be trained in it, but your intuitive sense of where the ball is going to land requires having a theory about gravity. And if you’ve ever taken aspirin for a headache, you’ve articulated a theory about medicine....
Seth's Blog
The second time through One way to understand creative work is to think about the time and effort required to do something...
a month ago
17
a month ago
One way to understand creative work is to think about the time and effort required to do something the first time versus doing it again. A novel might take five years to write. Retyping it takes a day. A company could easily expend 10,000 hours of effort before launching a new...
Seth's Blog
But what if it’s voluntary? For more than 130 years, we’ve celebrated Labor Day in the US and Canada. And May Day has been...
a year ago
21
a year ago
For more than 130 years, we’ve celebrated Labor Day in the US and Canada. And May Day has been around about as long. Around here, it’s become mostly a seasonal marker, but it was founded to devote just a day to something that deserves much more… to commemorate and celebrate the...
Seth's Blog
Avoiding technology Robert Caro never learned to type. He pecks out his books two fingers at a time on an electric...
a year ago
27
a year ago
Robert Caro never learned to type. He pecks out his books two fingers at a time on an electric typewriter. There are two reasons to avoid learning a proven new technology: You know what it can do and how it will change your life and you don’t want it. You don’t know what it can...
Anarchy Unfolds
Not today, pink elephants of doom Blue Bulletin #1
3 weeks ago
Seth's Blog
The 77% threshold When the gas car was first introduced, it couldn’t compete with horses. After all, we’d had...
a year ago
76
a year ago
When the gas car was first introduced, it couldn’t compete with horses. After all, we’d had thousands of years to optimize our systems around horseback, and this new technology was still nascent. Roads were rare, gas stations were scarce and the cars themselves were unreliable....
Seth's Blog
Credulous Where do con men come from? There are three conditions that need to be met: First, there needs to be...
a month ago
13
a month ago
Where do con men come from? There are three conditions that need to be met: First, there needs to be rising societal pressure to get ahead, cut the line and find a win. Second, there needs to be people willing to set aside their ethical principles to take advantage of others in...
Stat Significant
Unpacking Vinyl's Remarkable Revival: A Statistical Analysis The fall and rise of vinyl and record stores.
7 months ago
Open Culture
Bringing Tsarist Russia to Life: Vivid Color Images from 1905–1915 History escapes us. Events that changed the world forever, or should have, slide out of collective...
8 months ago
37
8 months ago
History escapes us. Events that changed the world forever, or should have, slide out of collective memory. If we’re pointing fingers, we might point at educational systems that fail to educate, or at huge historical blind spots in mass media. Maybe another reason the recent past...
Open Culture
Why You Do Your Best Thinking In The Shower: Creativity & the “Incubation Period” Image via Wikimedia Commons “The great Tao fades away.” So begins one translation of the Tao Te...
10 months ago
39
10 months ago
Image via Wikimedia Commons “The great Tao fades away.” So begins one translation of the Tao Te Ching’s 18th Chapter. The sentence captures the frustration that comes with a lost epiphany. Whether it’s a profound realization when you just wake up, or moment of clarity in the...
Seth's Blog
Decisions as effort Why are we more likely to get tasks done than to take on new initiatives? Checking something off a...
6 months ago
49
6 months ago
Why are we more likely to get tasks done than to take on new initiatives? Checking something off a to-do list requires far less emotional energy than adding something to the list was in the first place. As is often the case, “resistance” is the answer. It’s easy to type a book,...
Seth's Blog
Consequences Frederick Lewis Donaldson created a list of seven social sins that was soon popularized by Gandhi....
a year ago
37
a year ago
Frederick Lewis Donaldson created a list of seven social sins that was soon popularized by Gandhi. One hundred years later, it’s more relevant and more urgent than ever. Wealth without work.Pleasure without conscience.Knowledge without character.Commerce without morality.Science...
Seth's Blog
Stopping a runaway train It feels urgent because it is. But by the time the train is running away, it might be too late. The...
9 months ago
57
9 months ago
It feels urgent because it is. But by the time the train is running away, it might be too late. The better strategy is to not sign up for trains that are likely to run away. The first principle of risk reduction is to figure out if you can stop it later. If you can’t, […]
Seth's Blog
Decoding the Knock Knock situation Novels, movies, even consulting, are based on a knock knock business model. Tom Cruise made a movie,...
a month ago
22
a month ago
Novels, movies, even consulting, are based on a knock knock business model. Tom Cruise made a movie, and you need to buy a ticket to see it. Jane Collins is an engineering professional and you need to pay to get their insight about how to fix your bridge. This 300-page...
Open Culture
Behold Gustave Doré’s Dramatic Illustrations of the Bible (1866) One occasionally hears it said that, thanks to the internet, all the books truly worth reading are...
10 months ago
59
10 months ago
One occasionally hears it said that, thanks to the internet, all the books truly worth reading are free: Shakespeare, Don Quixote, the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the Divine Comedy, the Bible. Can it be a coincidence that all of these works inspired illustrations by Gustave Doré?...
Anarchy Unfolds
Genshin Impact & the appeal of open-world games I’ve been playing a lot of Genshin Impact lately.
6 months ago
Seth's Blog
Too much competition There are two approaches: Broaden your offerings, make them easier, cheaper and more available. Dumb...
a year ago
45
a year ago
There are two approaches: Broaden your offerings, make them easier, cheaper and more available. Dumb them down and race to the bottom. Or… Focus on the customers who care enough about your idiosyncratic and particular offerings that they’ll not only happily walk away from the...
Haterade
Tiny Hot Dogs for the Modern Man Introducing: Smoke Sheaths
over a year ago
Open Culture
Bukowski Reads Bukowski: Watch a 1975 Documentary Featuring Charles Bukowski at the Height of His... In 1973, Richard Davies directed Bukowski, a documentary that TV Guide described as a “cinema-verite...
a year ago
47
a year ago
In 1973, Richard Davies directed Bukowski, a documentary that TV Guide described as a “cinema-verite portrait of Los Angeles poet Charles Bukowski.” The film finds Bukowski, then 53 years old, “enjoying his first major success,” and “the camera captures his reminiscences … as he...
Seth's Blog
Invite: Behind-the-scenes webinar for the new book In two weeks, I’ll be hosting a live webinar about my new book, answering questions and connecting...
over a year ago
46
over a year ago
In two weeks, I’ll be hosting a live webinar about my new book, answering questions and connecting people to get serious in discussing the new way of work. The details are here. I hope you can make it. It’s possible that I’ve now written more bestselling business titles than any...
Open Culture
What Is Religion Actually For?: Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury Weigh In In the nineteen-sixties, the music media encouraged the notion that a young rock-and-roll fan had to...
a year ago
34
a year ago
In the nineteen-sixties, the music media encouraged the notion that a young rock-and-roll fan had to side with either the Beatles or their rivals, the Rolling Stones. On some level, it must have made sense, given the growing aesthetic divide between the music the two world-famous...
Seth's Blog
Just looking Lots of people go to the beach but very few get in the water. 3,000 students go to the football game...
a year ago
17
a year ago
Lots of people go to the beach but very few get in the water. 3,000 students go to the football game to watch 20 of their peers play. And we go to a conference to meet people and connect, and then spend most of our time hoping someone else will see us and care enough […]
Seth's Blog
Launching GOODBIDS Over the next few days, I’m going to feature a new project we launched today. A small and mighty...
a year ago
40
a year ago
Over the next few days, I’m going to feature a new project we launched today. A small and mighty team has been working on this for a year. I want to share the highlights along with some of the critical design choices we made along the way Each year, charities in the US raise...
Infinite Scroll
MAGA as Master Morality How Nietzsche explains our Trumpist moment
2 months ago
Anarchy Unfolds
To beat fascism, tell better stories On false narratives and the stories we need to tell
3 months ago
Open Culture
How Sci-Fi Writers Isaac Asimov & Robert Heinlein Contributed to the War Effort During World War II Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague De Camp at the Navy Yard in 1944 Robert Heinlein was...
10 months ago
35
10 months ago
Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague De Camp at the Navy Yard in 1944 Robert Heinlein was born in 1907, which put him on the mature side by the time of the United States’ entry into World War II. Isaac Asimov, his younger colleague in science fiction, was born in 1920 (or...
Open Culture
When Samuel Beckett Drove Young André the Giant to School Are your idle moments spent inventing imaginary conversations between strange bedfellows? The sort...
8 months ago
50
8 months ago
Are your idle moments spent inventing imaginary conversations between strange bedfellows? The sort of conversation that might transpire in a pickup truck belonging to Samuel Beckett, say, were the Irish playwright to chauffeur the child André Rene Roussimoff—aka pro wrestler...
Seth's Blog
Belief is contagious Placebos work and placebos spread. We’re wired to believe something, but the specifics of what we...
a year ago
26
a year ago
Placebos work and placebos spread. We’re wired to believe something, but the specifics of what we believe often come from other people. When there were a limited number of channels, mainstream ideas were the focus of our conversations, because the mainstream was all that was...
Open Culture
Coursera Offers $120 Off of Coursera Plus (Until September 30), Giving You Unlimited Access to... A quick reminder: As the new school year gets underway, millions of students are heading back to...
7 months ago
52
7 months ago
A quick reminder: As the new school year gets underway, millions of students are heading back to classrooms. And you can too. From now until September 30, 2024, Coursera is offering a 30% discount on its annual subscription plan called “Coursera Plus.” Normally priced at $399,...
Seth's Blog
Manipulation, indoctrination and addiction They’re often related. It’s not unusual for someone to have more experience or knowledge than we do....
a year ago
28
a year ago
They’re often related. It’s not unusual for someone to have more experience or knowledge than we do. If they use that knowledge to their benefit, not ours, they might be manipulating us. If we knew what they knew, we wouldn’t have gone along. This is the difference between a...
Seth's Blog
Mediocrity and perfectionism It’s surprising to realize that they’re the same. They are both places to hide. When we ship average...
9 months ago
52
9 months ago
It’s surprising to realize that they’re the same. They are both places to hide. When we ship average work, it’s not our fault. We’re simply doing what the manual says, and if you don’t like it, blame the culture and the system. And when we hold back on shipping because it isn’t...
On the Arts
Link List: 20 Articles + Websites About the Arts A wide-ranging collection of links on ballet, ugly architecture, Soviet Control rooms, Hokusai, and...
a year ago
John Reynolds -...
Mammoth Life - Wanna Be Loved Music Video Title: Wanna Be LovedArtist: Mammoth LifeYear: 2014 --
over a year ago
Infinite Scroll
Internet Book Club: Careless People Incuriosity, carelessness, and the current political moment
a month ago
Open Culture
Jean-Paul Sartre Rejects the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964: “It Was Monstrous!” In a 2013 blog post, the great Ursula K. Le Guin quotes a London Times Literary Supplement column by...
8 months ago
53
8 months ago
In a 2013 blog post, the great Ursula K. Le Guin quotes a London Times Literary Supplement column by a “J.C.,” who satirically proposes the “Jean-Paul Sartre Prize for Prize Refusal.” “Writers all over Europe and America are turning down awards in the hope of being nominated for...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Fiona Black My name is Fiona Black and I am an artist, folk musician, writer, history geek and lover of stories....
11 months ago
83
11 months ago
My name is Fiona Black and I am an artist, folk musician, writer, history geek and lover of stories. Home for me is the Highland village of Evanton, just north of Inverness on the shore of the Cromarty Firth. I am happy to have returned to live and create in the Highlands, and I...
Handprinted - Blog
Batik on Paper Batik is a fun, dynamic way of creating bold and beautiful designs on cloth but did you know batik...
10 months ago
92
10 months ago
Batik is a fun, dynamic way of creating bold and beautiful designs on cloth but did you know batik can be made on paper too? We used some Tej Prakrtika paper (as well as testing some others) to create a colourful, abstract batik.  You'll find lots more batik projects here. Begin...
Seth's Blog
Retreat! We’ve managed to lionize, celebrate and elevate the mindset of “CHARGE!” Even when better judgment...
9 months ago
41
9 months ago
We’ve managed to lionize, celebrate and elevate the mindset of “CHARGE!” Even when better judgment and experience would indicate that we’re often more likely to succeed with a strategic re-evaluation of the situation. Making a new decision based on new information isn’t weakness....
Seth's Blog
I was wrong about sun tea The story is a good one: put some tea bags in a mason jar filled with fresh, cold water. Put it in...
11 months ago
86
11 months ago
The story is a good one: put some tea bags in a mason jar filled with fresh, cold water. Put it in the sun. Four hours later, smooth and delicious tea is waiting for you. The photons from the sun go through the clear glass and the water, strike the leaves and transfer radiant...
Seth's Blog
Fidelity, compression and culture The alphabet is a miracle, one that is compounded by books. And the lessons we learn from this...
over a year ago
73
over a year ago
The alphabet is a miracle, one that is compounded by books. And the lessons we learn from this cornerstone of modern culture apply to organizations, meetings, tech, politics and almost everything we do together. Your copy of To Kill a Mockingbird contains every single word that...
Handprinted - Blog
In the Studio 2024 What a busy year in the studio! Thank you to everyone who has joined us for a workshop, event or...
4 months ago
79
4 months ago
What a busy year in the studio! Thank you to everyone who has joined us for a workshop, event or open access studio session. Let's take a look at what's being going on in the Handprinted Studio in 2024: WORKSHOPS 2024 has been packed with workshops, taught by our team as well as...
Seth's Blog
The opposite of ‘perfect’ It’s not junk. No, the opposite of perfect is: Meets spec Useful On time Productive Valuable By...
7 months ago
43
7 months ago
It’s not junk. No, the opposite of perfect is: Meets spec Useful On time Productive Valuable By definition, good enough is good enough. If the spec isn’t what you need, change the spec. But perfect is unattainable and perfect is a place to hide.
Seth's Blog
The thought that counts Well, maybe not. In 2024, worldwide gift card sales will pass a trillion dollars for the first time....
4 months ago
54
4 months ago
Well, maybe not. In 2024, worldwide gift card sales will pass a trillion dollars for the first time. It’s a good grift. Surveys show that the buyer spends about 21% less per gift than they do when they actually buy something, while the recipients of the gift find themselves...
Open Culture
The “Nonsense” Botanical Illustrations of Victorian Artist-Poet Edward Lear (1871–77) Since the Victorian era, Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” has been, for generation upon...
9 months ago
58
9 months ago
Since the Victorian era, Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” has been, for generation upon generation in the English-speaking world, the kind of poem that one simply knows, whether one remembers actually having read it or not. As with most such works that seep so...
Infinite Scroll
The Weak Men of MAGA How Weak Men create Hard Times
4 days ago
Open Culture
Tracking Pianist Yuja Wang’s Heartbeats During Her Marathon Rachmaninoff Performance The Carnegie Hall YouTube Channel sets the scene: On January 28, 2023, pianist Yuja Wang joined The...
10 months ago
50
10 months ago
The Carnegie Hall YouTube Channel sets the scene: On January 28, 2023, pianist Yuja Wang joined The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Carnegie Hall for a once-in-a-lifetime, all-Rachmaninoff marathon that featured the composer’s four piano concertos...
Seth's Blog
Getting to no “Yes” is magical. It brings possibility and forward motion. But it’s almost impossible without “no”...
a year ago
18
a year ago
“Yes” is magical. It brings possibility and forward motion. But it’s almost impossible without “no” and no can be just as frightening. First, there’s the no of “I can’t go for that.” The no of refusing to race to the bottom, the no of avoiding the selfish hustle, the no of...
Seth's Blog
Looking for a handle What if your boots don’t have any straps? Bootstrapping is logically impossible. You can’t pick...
a year ago
27
a year ago
What if your boots don’t have any straps? Bootstrapping is logically impossible. You can’t pick yourself up into the air by lifting on your boots, no matter how hard you try, because gravity isn’t just a good idea, it’s the law. But it’s significantly more difficult if your boots...
Seth's Blog
The (very) long tail The average YouTube video gets five new views every day. Let’s parse that for a second. 5 billion...
a year ago
17
a year ago
The average YouTube video gets five new views every day. Let’s parse that for a second. 5 billion YouTube plays a day, spread over about a billion videos means that while some videos live in the short head and get millions of views, there are a huge number of videos that get...
Open Culture
A Japanese Zen Monk Explains What Zen Is Really About Despite developing in Asia, as the Chinese form of a religion originally brought over from India and...
5 days ago
1
5 days ago
Despite developing in Asia, as the Chinese form of a religion originally brought over from India and later refined in Japan, Zen Buddhism has long appealed to Westerners as well. Some of that owes to the spare, elegant aesthetics with which popular culture associates it, and more...
Marian's Blog
Raspberry Pi powered fishtank My fishtank is now internet-connected. It is run by a Raspberry Pi that can do three things: Feed...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
My fishtank is now internet-connected. It is run by a Raspberry Pi that can do three things: Feed the fish, switch the lights and take pictures. To feed the fish, the Raspberry Pi sends commands to an automatic fishfeeder that I modified. It can empty any container in any order....
Seth's Blog
Kash’s garden She doesn’t grow plants. The plants grow themselves. Her job is to create conditions for the plants...
a year ago
33
a year ago
She doesn’t grow plants. The plants grow themselves. Her job is to create conditions for the plants to grow. The soil, the water, the light, the weeds… these are the conditions. But none of it happens if the plants don’t do the thing they want to do in the first place. This is...
Infinite Scroll
Infinite Scroll Podcast: Worst Tweets ft. Andrew Heaton It's possible that we might be too online
4 months ago
Open Culture
How Rasputin Inspired the “Fictitious Persons” Disclaimer Commonly Seen in Movies “This is a work of fiction,” declares the disclaimer we’ve all noticed during the end credits of...
5 months ago
51
5 months ago
“This is a work of fiction,” declares the disclaimer we’ve all noticed during the end credits of movies. “Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.” In most cases, this may seem so trivial that it hardly merits a mention, but the...
Seth's Blog
Two sides of “a big deal” Many businesses thrive by helping people deal with projects that feel like they have high stakes. A...
a year ago
19
a year ago
Many businesses thrive by helping people deal with projects that feel like they have high stakes. A kid’s first haircut, the offsite storage of data backup, an upcoming family reunion, a medical procedure or the inscription on a sentimental piece of jewelry or watch. But, if the...
Seth's Blog
Multiple choice “None of the above” is often the best option. We’re regularly confronted with multiple-choice...
9 months ago
85
9 months ago
“None of the above” is often the best option. We’re regularly confronted with multiple-choice questions. The foundation is already established, the options are already limited, do you want this or that? But the real questions lie in the assumptions that happened before you were...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Kathryn Green I am a textile artist and tutor, specialising in dye and print processes to create organic, layered...
a year ago
82
a year ago
I am a textile artist and tutor, specialising in dye and print processes to create organic, layered and textural art textile pieces for exhibition, in addition to capsule collections of wearable art and interior accessories.  Having obtained a First-class degree in textiles, I...
Seth's Blog
Time well spent Doing what? When we choose which job to apply for, what career to commit to, which business to...
2 months ago
25
2 months ago
Doing what? When we choose which job to apply for, what career to commit to, which business to start, it might be worth a moment (or a few moments) to get at the heart of what a day well spent produces. What’s it for? Here are a few to get you started: It’s hard to […]
Seth's Blog
Customer satisfaction and tipping In North America, tipping is an unfair system built into the status quo by law. Restaurants aren’t...
a year ago
34
a year ago
In North America, tipping is an unfair system built into the status quo by law. Restaurants aren’t allowed to easily spread tips around, and as a result, they tend to to exacerbate many of the inequities in our culture at the same time that they make it hard to count on a fair...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Maplands Maplands is a long-form generative art project I released on fxhash on 5th Jan 2022. It sold out...
over a year ago
13
over a year ago
Maplands is a long-form generative art project I released on fxhash on 5th Jan 2022. It sold out 256 pieces in exactly 2 minutes.
Open Culture
How a 16th-Century Explorer’s Sailing Ship Worked: An Animated Video Takes You on a Comprehensive... These days, it feels as if you can’t go very long at all before scrolling past another announcement...
7 months ago
59
7 months ago
These days, it feels as if you can’t go very long at all before scrolling past another announcement about some new technological development (realized or scheduled) related to space exploration. Some react to this by wondering what could possibly be out there in the universe to...
Seth's Blog
The stories we tell ourselves If it happened to us, our memory of it is a story, our record of it with us at the center. Even if...
4 months ago
55
4 months ago
If it happened to us, our memory of it is a story, our record of it with us at the center. Even if it’s on video, even if other people were there, our narrative and the context and the play by play belong to us. The useful question might be: “Is my story helpful?” And […]
Prolost
Slugline 2 From the Slugline Blog: Slugline 2 is a new app that replaces the old Slugline for Mac. It has a...
over a year ago
30
over a year ago
From the Slugline Blog: Slugline 2 is a new app that replaces the old Slugline for Mac. It has a slick new UI, which includes a lovely dark mode. Big new features include: a drag-and-drop outline, an awesome new timeline, color-coded notes, Final Draft import/export, and Live...
Seth's Blog
More is More More hope. More health. More security. More innovation. More breakthroughs. More connection. More...
a year ago
76
a year ago
More hope. More health. More security. More innovation. More breakthroughs. More connection. More creation. More joy. The climate movement doesn’t have to be about asking individuals to bear the burden of systemic problems. It’s not about living with less.  It’s about demanding...
Seth's Blog
Fooled Now it’s a business model. People are regularly fooled by crypto scams, NFT hype, opioid felons,...
over a year ago
89
over a year ago
Now it’s a business model. People are regularly fooled by crypto scams, NFT hype, opioid felons, algorithmic spam at scale, health claims, illogical political arguments, fundraising pitches, overnight shortcuts on the road to riches or happiness and MLM hustle. Your account has...
Seth's Blog
Childish or childlike? Childlike involves wonder. It’s the ability to see the world with fresh eyes and create magic....
a year ago
25
a year ago
Childlike involves wonder. It’s the ability to see the world with fresh eyes and create magic. Childish, on the other hand, is living as if there are no consequences. Over time, we’ve gotten very good at meauring the long and short-term consequences of our actions. And good at...
Haterade
It's Okay to Be a Mediocre Cook The Mitt Romney salmon is good, actually.
a year ago
Blog - Mac Pierce
USB C to 12vDC Adaptors for Camera gear Making converters to power all of my camera accessories off of USB-C
over a year ago
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Jessie de Salis I am Jessie de Salis. I run a screen printing textile business with my cousin, Alice. We print...
8 months ago
62
8 months ago
I am Jessie de Salis. I run a screen printing textile business with my cousin, Alice. We print colourful patterned fabrics from a Somerset barn, a space we share with the sparrows and house-martins. What inspires you? I love bold and bright design. I always seem to come back to...
Seth's Blog
Making change happen One way to do it is to get people to want what you want. The other way is to help them get what they...
over a year ago
73
over a year ago
One way to do it is to get people to want what you want. The other way is to help them get what they want in a way that gets you what you want. They’re not the same. Changing what someone wants is very different from helping them see the story and the path that […]
Infinite Scroll
Worst Tweets of 2024 - Dishonorable Mentions All of the most horrifying posts on Twitter that didn't make the final bracket
4 months ago
Seth's Blog
Exceed or maintain? In just about every group, people decide in advance how they’ll show up when it comes to learning,...
11 months ago
81
11 months ago
In just about every group, people decide in advance how they’ll show up when it comes to learning, to winning and to responding to opportunities. They’re wearing a hat with a label, and over time, it’s not hard to recognize. This can change based on pedagogy, social conditions...
Seth's Blog
Hungry (vs. not full) If consumption is the point (the engine of the economy, the focus of our marketing, the driver of...
9 months ago
57
9 months ago
If consumption is the point (the engine of the economy, the focus of our marketing, the driver of our status) then it’s easy to get confused about the difference between something that’s nearly empty (and must be refilled to ensure we keep going) and something that’s not quite...