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Ian Betteridge
Ten Blue Links, “I am your BFDL” edition 1. Tech benevolent dictators are still… dictators in the tech community there is a concept of the...
7 months ago
52
7 months ago
1. Tech benevolent dictators are still… dictators in the tech community there is a concept of the “benevolent dictator for life”. This is a leadership model where one person, usually the founder, has the final say on decisions. They guide the project’s direction, relying on their...
Seth's Blog
The nature of traps Our culture is filled with man-made traps, situations worth avoiding. They have three elements:...
8 months ago
55
8 months ago
Our culture is filled with man-made traps, situations worth avoiding. They have three elements: Because of the third element, the organizer or beneficiaries of a trap can spend time and money to make it ever more seductive and to conceal the nature of what you’re actually signing...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker - Rebecca Perdue Hello! I'm Rebecca Perdue. I am a printmaker and artist based in a small garden studio in Wiltshire....
a year ago
87
a year ago
Hello! I'm Rebecca Perdue. I am a printmaker and artist based in a small garden studio in Wiltshire. I work primarily in linocut and monoprint, but also paint and make occasional silver jewellery pieces and textiles. I'm very interested in linking work across several...
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
26
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
Collectibles (and list updates) The Strategy Deck that I made to go with my book has developed a real following. It’s a powerful way...
6 months ago
54
6 months ago
The Strategy Deck that I made to go with my book has developed a real following. It’s a powerful way to break a creative logjam. Taking out the deck in a meeting lowers resistance and increases a sense of possibility and playfulness. I’ve just gone back to press for a fourth...
Open Culture
Why Bob Dylan’s Unreleased “Blind Willie McTell” Is Now Considered a Masterpiece Most Dylanologists disagree about which is the single greatest song in Bob Dylan’s catalog, but few...
3 weeks ago
9
3 weeks ago
Most Dylanologists disagree about which is the single greatest song in Bob Dylan’s catalog, but few would deny “Blind Willie McTell” a place high in the running. It may come as a surprise — or, to those with a certain idea of Dylan and his fan base, the exact opposite of a...
Open Culture
14 Self-Portraits by Pablo Picasso Show the Evolution of His Style: See Self-Portraits Moving from... 15 years old (1896) It’s possible to look at Pablo Picasso’s many formal experiments and periodic...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
15 years old (1896) It’s possible to look at Pablo Picasso’s many formal experiments and periodic shifts of style as a kind of self-portraiture, an exercise in shifting consciousness and trying on of new aesthetic identities. The Spanish modernist made a career of sweeping...
Seth's Blog
After the meteorite When it slams into your house and destroys it, we’re likely to pursue one of two lines of thinking:...
a year ago
33
a year ago
When it slams into your house and destroys it, we’re likely to pursue one of two lines of thinking: –How did I cause this? What choices did I make, what mistakes did I permit, why did I deserve to have this damage, or who can I blame? –Well, that happened, now what should I do?...
Seth's Blog
“Usualing” This is not a real word, but it’s useful nonetheless. When we default to doing what we did without...
5 months ago
37
5 months ago
This is not a real word, but it’s useful nonetheless. When we default to doing what we did without examining our options, we’re ‘usualing.’ It’s a helpful way to save time, because we can’t re-examine every possible option or we’d never get out the door in the morning. We wear...
Open Culture
Is Andrew Huberman Ruining Your Morning Coffee Routine? Andrew Huberman–the host of the influential Huberman Lab podcast–has gotten a lot of mileage out of...
10 months ago
55
10 months ago
Andrew Huberman–the host of the influential Huberman Lab podcast–has gotten a lot of mileage out of his recommended morning routine. His routine emphasizes the importance of getting sunlight within 30–60 minutes of waking; also engaging in light physical activity; hydrating well;...
Seth's Blog
The Beatles and Taylor Swift When we’re in the middle of a cultural swirl, it’s normal to believe that everyone else is too....
a year ago
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a year ago
When we’re in the middle of a cultural swirl, it’s normal to believe that everyone else is too. That’s part of the magic of a cultural swirl–it’s our friends, our work, our world. Most of these moments are actually tiny pockets. An episode of the much-talked-about TV show...
Seth's Blog
Important change is systems change Willpower is overrated. If you want to eat healthier, don’t work hard to avoid stopping at the...
11 months ago
44
11 months ago
Willpower is overrated. If you want to eat healthier, don’t work hard to avoid stopping at the cookie jar when you walk into the kitchen. Get rid of the cookie jar. Systems are long-lasting, widespread and resilient. We can push back on them with effort, but over time, the system...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Powerful Group Chats Plus! Every kind of AI - sycophantic, predatory and unethical!
2 months ago
Seth's Blog
Hope and truth The candidate running for re-election offers truth. This is what I did, I would like to do it again....
a year ago
21
a year ago
The candidate running for re-election offers truth. This is what I did, I would like to do it again. The candidate coming out of nowhere offers hope. We can’t know but we can imagine. Kickstarter offers hope. No reviews, no tests, simply a promise of what might be. Book...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: X-ocracy Now The government is now run by Elon Musk's X
6 months ago
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...
10 months ago
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10 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...
Seth's Blog
PW 3: Errors and productivity If productivity is useful work created by time or money, it’s worth thinking about what we mean by...
a year ago
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a year ago
If productivity is useful work created by time or money, it’s worth thinking about what we mean by ‘useful’. There are areas where reliability is crucial. It turns out that building an airplane that works 95% of the time is incredibly easy compared to building one that never...
Open Culture
A Free Yale Course on Medieval History: 700 Years in 22 Lectures In 22 lectures, Yale historian Paul Freedman takes you on a 700-year tour of medieval history....
a month ago
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a month ago
In 22 lectures, Yale historian Paul Freedman takes you on a 700-year tour of medieval history. Moving from 284‑1000 AD, this free online course covers “the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam and the Arabs, the ‘Dark Ages,’...
Seth's Blog
The long walk Before buying a house, it makes sense to spend a day on foot, walking around the neighborhood....
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Before buying a house, it makes sense to spend a day on foot, walking around the neighborhood. You’ll notice things you might have missed in a car. Before starting a business, spend a few shifts working the cash register at a similar establishment. And before going into...
Seth's Blog
I’ve been doing it wrong all along This is one of the great benefits of learning. It’s also a common challenge. When we get better at...
a year ago
32
a year ago
This is one of the great benefits of learning. It’s also a common challenge. When we get better at something, it is preceded by a moment of incompetence. In that moment, we’re not exactly sure how to do it better, but we realize that the way we’d been doing it wasn’t nearly as...
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
91
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
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
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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...
Seth's Blog
The Pizza Principle Good pizza is rare, even though the method to create it is well known. Any efforts to make it more...
a year ago
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a year ago
Good pizza is rare, even though the method to create it is well known. Any efforts to make it more convenient, cheaper or easier will almost always make it worse. If you think this post is about pizza, I’m afraid that we’re already stuck.
Seth's Blog
The bitterness loop Spoiled leads to bitter. A sense of entitlement is a trap, because bitterness demands more evidence...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Spoiled leads to bitter. A sense of entitlement is a trap, because bitterness demands more evidence and seeks to maintain dominance over the other emotions. When we’re busy looking for more reasons to be bitter, we’re not taking the time to do generative work, to connect and to...
Neocha – Culture &...
Unorthodox Means
over a year ago
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Elon's Endgame Plus! Livestreamers in jail, confused Catholics, and the Immigrant Song
8 months ago
Seth's Blog
“I’ve never seen you paint” … said the collector to the painter Jasper Johns. “Neither have I.” Watching is different than...
a year ago
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a year ago
… said the collector to the painter Jasper Johns. “Neither have I.” Watching is different than doing. Trying to do both at the same time is a challenge.
Ian Betteridge
Ten Blue Links “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date” Edition 1. Who rules us? Google changed its rules on what kind of behaviour it regards as “spam” and, of...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
1. Who rules us? Google changed its rules on what kind of behaviour it regards as “spam” and, of course, the impact on some companies will be pretty negative. The behaviour it is targeting is so-called “parasite SEO”, where a publisher allows a third party to create content for...
Seth's Blog
Honesty about better “I don’t want to learn to be better,” is something we rarely admit. We don’t say: I don’t want to...
5 months ago
51
5 months ago
“I don’t want to learn to be better,” is something we rarely admit. We don’t say: I don’t want to learn statistics, even though it will dramatically improve my decision making. I don’t want to learn a new programming language, even though it will get me a better job. I don’t want...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #129 Supersonic Boom, DeepSeek, Science Corp, Heart Allografts, New Space, Meter
5 months ago
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #139 Dire Wolves, Base Power, ZBB Regulation, Zipline, Amca, Solano Shipyard
3 months ago
Open Culture
When the Dutch Tried to Live in Concrete Spheres: An Introduction to the Bolwoningen in the... In the decades after the Second World War, many countries faced the challenge of rebuilding their...
4 weeks ago
11
4 weeks ago
In the decades after the Second World War, many countries faced the challenge of rebuilding their housing and infrastructure while also having to accommodate a fast-arriving baby boom. The government of the Netherlands got more creative than most, putting money toward...
Open Culture
Igor Stravinsky’s “Illegal” Arrangement of “The Star Spangled Banner” (1944) In 1939, Igor Stravinsky emigrated to the United States, first arriving in New York City, before...
2 weeks ago
10
2 weeks ago
In 1939, Igor Stravinsky emigrated to the United States, first arriving in New York City, before settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard during the 1939–40 academic year. While living in Boston, the composer conducted...
Blog - Mac Pierce
The making of A Scanner Darkly How and why I made A Scanner Darkly, an art piece that reads off text using spotlights in the...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
How and why I made A Scanner Darkly, an art piece that reads off text using spotlights in the shape of security cameras.
Anarchy Unfolds
Not today, pink elephants of doom Blue Bulletin #1
3 months ago
Stat Significant
Who's the Worst Actor in Movie History? A Statistical Analysis Who's the worst actor of all time, and why?
10 months ago
Seth's Blog
The positive auction In 2023, I developed a new idea that transforms an old way of doing commerce. In traditional...
a year ago
35
a year ago
In 2023, I developed a new idea that transforms an old way of doing commerce. In traditional auctions, there are rounds of bidding and the high bidder pays to get the prize. The last bid is the amount paid, and no one else is charged anything. This is an interesting ‘game’ in...
Seth's Blog
Gentle Scrabble hacks Perhaps these might make a great game more fun: Maximize total score: Exactly the same rules as...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Perhaps these might make a great game more fun: Maximize total score: Exactly the same rules as regular Scrabble, but focus on increasing the total score of all players instead of defeating the others. It’s subtle, it can be challenging for a good player, and it creates more...
Seth's Blog
Leading side by side Orchestras are difficult. One reason is that we’re really good at noticing when they’re out of tune....
6 months ago
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6 months ago
Orchestras are difficult. One reason is that we’re really good at noticing when they’re out of tune. Just a tiny bit off changes our perception of the sound. The other reason is that if the performers wait for a leader in their section to go first, every entrance and every attack...
Open Culture
Watch The Cure Perform a Three-Hour Concert in London, Celebrating the Release of Their New Album httpv://www.youtube.com/live/_aWDlaxvEZo Last Friday, The Cure celebrated the release of their new...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
httpv://www.youtube.com/live/_aWDlaxvEZo Last Friday, The Cure celebrated the release of their new album, Songs of a Lost World, with a three-hour set at the Troxy in London. The band kicked off the show by performing all eight tracks from the album, before then playing another...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Ieuan Edwards I’m a linocut printmaker and illustrator based in Broadstairs on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, which...
over a year ago
87
over a year ago
I’m a linocut printmaker and illustrator based in Broadstairs on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, which is home to a good few other lino folks and a thriving and supportive art scene in general. Describe your printmaking process. I tend to print fairly small runs of reduction linocut...
Seth's Blog
Where are you? When you’re reading a good historical novel, you might be there and then. When you’re checking your...
a year ago
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a year ago
When you’re reading a good historical novel, you might be there and then. When you’re checking your email, you are in a conversation between and among, over there, not here. When you’re imagining what went wrong in that conversation yesterday, you are living in yesterday. And...
Ian Betteridge
Ten Blue Links, “your time is up” edition This week… But first, an announcement! TLDR: Over the holidays, I will be migrating this site from...
7 months ago
91
7 months ago
This week… But first, an announcement! TLDR: Over the holidays, I will be migrating this site from WordPress.com to Ghost. This may mean a little disruption, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum. Why am I doing this? I’ve been a paying customer of WordPress.com for my site...
Seth's Blog
Our new school When I include links to various books and items on this blog, your purchases generate a small...
6 months ago
42
6 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...
Prolost
iPhone ProRes Log in Peru and Taiwan This is a blog post about a video, which is about new color-conversion LUTs for Apple Log footage...
a year ago
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a year ago
This is a blog post about a video, which is about new color-conversion LUTs for Apple Log footage from the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max (updated from my first set). The video is also a mini-travelogue of my recent trips to Taiwan and Peru. This post dives a bit deeper into both the...
Marian's Blog
3D Printed Mechanical Digital Clock This post is about building a 3D printed, mechanical digital clock, made out of seven-segment...
3 months ago
32
3 months ago
This post is about building a 3D printed, mechanical digital clock, made out of seven-segment displays. The project was inspired by a video by Lukas Deem, who built a clock with seven-segment displays where the segments slide in and out when they change their state. In his...
Open Culture
David Bowie Songs Reimagined as Pulp Fiction Book Covers: Space Oddity, Heroes, Life on Mars & More In the last year, screenwriter Todd Alcott’s hobby has blown up into a legit side career. This Etsy...
10 months ago
76
10 months ago
In the last year, screenwriter Todd Alcott’s hobby has blown up into a legit side career. This Etsy seller isn’t peddling kombucha SCOBYs, letter pressing new baby announcements, or repurposing old barns for use as cutting boards. No, Alcott’s crafty fortunes fall squarely at the...
Open Culture
Read the Uncompromising Letter That Steve Albini (RIP) Wrote to Nirvana Before Producing In Utero... Today, Steve Albini, the musician and producer of important albums by Nirvana, PJ Harvey, the Pixies...
a year ago
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a year ago
Today, Steve Albini, the musician and producer of important albums by Nirvana, PJ Harvey, the Pixies and many others, passed away in Chicago, at the all-too-early age of 61. In tribute, we’re bringing you this classic 2013 post from our archive.  Journeyman record producer Steve...
Blog - Mac Pierce
NCCCIAP 2025 - Photos + A photo gallery showcasing images taken at the 2025 National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron...
3 months ago
33
3 months ago
A photo gallery showcasing images taken at the 2025 National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practices.
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
45
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...
Seth's Blog
The generosity of concealment Human beings never reveal all of our emotions. We don’t simply blurt out the first thing that pops...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Human beings never reveal all of our emotions. We don’t simply blurt out the first thing that pops into our head in a meeting, or insult someone upon meeting them. We’re able to give people the benefit of the doubt (which requires doubt before we can offer the benefit) and to...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Caroline Fearn Hello, I’m Caroline. I live in London. Two years ago I picked up a carving tool and a block of lino....
over a year ago
94
over a year ago
Hello, I’m Caroline. I live in London. Two years ago I picked up a carving tool and a block of lino. I quite liked it.   Describe your printmaking process My process is an intuitive one, so I typically just start, and I will see what develops through doing. Experimenting with...
Open Culture
Discover Paul Éluard and Max Ernst’s Still-Bizarre Proto-Surrealist Book Les Malheurs des immortels... When the names of French poet Paul Éluard and German artist Max Ernst arise, one subject always...
8 months ago
59
8 months ago
When the names of French poet Paul Éluard and German artist Max Ernst arise, one subject always follows: that of their years-long ménage à trois — or rather, “marriage à trois,” as a New York Times article by Annette Grant once put it. It started in 1921, Grant writes, when the...
Prolost
M1 Max MacBook Pro Long-term Report The 2021 MacBook Pro alongside the cable-management fail of my iMac Pro Back in October when I got a...
over a year ago
30
over a year ago
The 2021 MacBook Pro alongside the cable-management fail of my iMac Pro Back in October when I got a chance to use a pre-release 14″ MacBook Pro with M1 Max processor, I openly questioned whether this laptop could replace my venerable iMac Pro. Four months later, I’m back with an...
Handprinted - Blog
Screen Printing with Permaset Puff Paste Puff Paste is a great way to add a little something extra to your fabric prints! It adds depth and...
over a year ago
85
over a year ago
Puff Paste is a great way to add a little something extra to your fabric prints! It adds depth and texture and is so much fun to use. In this project, we have exposed a screen and used it to print with Puff Paste onto a tote bag: Half-fill the coating trough with photo emulsion....
Open Culture
A 3D Model Reveals What the Parthenon and Its Interior Looked Like 2,500 Years Ago Standing atop the Acropolis in Athens as it has for nearly 2,500 years now, the Parthenon remains an...
a month ago
19
a month ago
Standing atop the Acropolis in Athens as it has for nearly 2,500 years now, the Parthenon remains an impressive sight indeed. Not that those two and a half millennia have been kind to the place: one of the most famous ruins of the ancient world is still, after all, a ruin. But it...
Open Culture
Buckminster Fuller’s Map of the World: The Innovation That Revolutionized Map Design (1943) In 2017, we brought you news of a world map purportedly more accurate than any to date, designed by...
11 months ago
72
11 months ago
In 2017, we brought you news of a world map purportedly more accurate than any to date, designed by Japanese architect and artist Hajime Narukawa. The map, called the AuthaGraph, updates a centuries-old method of turning the globe into a flat surface by first converting it to a...
Handprinted - Blog
Offset Registration for Multi Block Linocuts Accurate registration can be difficult when printing multi-block linocuts. Offset printing will show...
4 months ago
32
4 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...
Open Culture
Honoré de Balzac Writes About “The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee,” and His Epic Coffee Addiction 174 years after his death, Honoré de Balzac remains an extremely modern-sounding wag. Were he alive...
a year ago
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a year ago
174 years after his death, Honoré de Balzac remains an extremely modern-sounding wag. Were he alive today, he’d no doubt be pounding out his provocative observations in a coffice, a café whose free wifi, lenient staff, and abundant electrical outlets make it a magnet for writers....
Seth's Blog
Uncomfortable ideas The ideas aren’t uncomfortable, we are. You don’t have to like the weather to acknowledge that it’s...
2 months ago
15
2 months ago
The ideas aren’t uncomfortable, we are. You don’t have to like the weather to acknowledge that it’s raining.
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Nick Morley (with giveaway!) Nick Morley, aka Linocutboy, is an artist, illustrator, author and educator specialising in linocut....
over a year ago
86
over a year ago
Nick Morley, aka Linocutboy, is an artist, illustrator, author and educator specialising in linocut. His prints have been bought by people all over the world and his illustrations have appeared on book covers and in magazines. Nick teaches regular linocut workshops at Hello Print...
Open Culture
Watch Philosophy Lectures That Became a Hit During COVID by Professor Michael Sugrue (RIP): From... If we ask which philosophy professor has made the greatest impact in this decade, there’s a solid...
a year ago
51
a year ago
If we ask which philosophy professor has made the greatest impact in this decade, there’s a solid case to be made for the late Michael Sugrue. Yet in the nearly four-decade-long career that followed his studies at the University of Chicago under Allan Bloom (author of The Closing...
Seth's Blog
Big scale, big impact The Beatles changed music. Starbucks changed coffee. Perhaps your project is aiming to reach a large...
3 weeks ago
11
3 weeks ago
The Beatles changed music. Starbucks changed coffee. Perhaps your project is aiming to reach a large audience. Consultants call it market share. What percentage of the available market have you reached with your idea? No one hits everyone, but many organizations seek to be a...
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
46
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...
Seth's Blog
The sad compromise of “sponsored results” Google made a fortune and honed sponsored search results into an art form. The theory is that people...
10 months ago
47
10 months ago
Google made a fortune and honed sponsored search results into an art form. The theory is that people who want the traffic the most will pay for the clicks, and of course, if the advertisers don’t have something you ultimately want, they’ll just waste their money. Let the market...
Seth's Blog
The opposite of a good idea… might also be a good idea. The hard part isn’t finding proof before you begin. The hard part is...
4 months ago
35
4 months ago
might also be a good idea. The hard part isn’t finding proof before you begin. The hard part is beginning, knowing you might not succeed.
Seth's Blog
The absence of proof Belief makes us human. Belief is our tool to dance with a possible future, confront our fears, and...
a year ago
25
a year ago
Belief makes us human. Belief is our tool to dance with a possible future, confront our fears, and build community. Our personal taste and our preferences belong to us as well, helping us believe in ourselves. For millennia, belief thrived in most parts of our lives. We didn’t...
Stat Significant
The Rise of Faith-Based Films: A Statistical Analysis The economics and origins of the faith-based film industry.
9 months ago
Seth's Blog
The Pinocchio protocol He had a hard time lying because his nose got longer every time he did. Gas-powered leaf blowers...
a year ago
53
a year ago
He had a hard time lying because his nose got longer every time he did. Gas-powered leaf blowers would disappear if the smoke they belched out was black instead of invisible. And few people would start smoking if the deposits on their lungs ended up on their face instead. We’re...
Seth's Blog
The hierarchy of insight It looks like this: Which do we measure the most, spend the most obtaining and argue about most...
10 months ago
42
10 months ago
It looks like this: Which do we measure the most, spend the most obtaining and argue about most often? We might have it backwards. HT Russ Ackoff.
Open Culture
Hear Leo Tolstoy Read From His Last Major Work in Four Languages, 1909 In years past, we’ve brought you rare recordings of Sigmund Freud and Jorge Luis Borges speaking in...
a year ago
105
a year ago
In years past, we’ve brought you rare recordings of Sigmund Freud and Jorge Luis Borges speaking in English. Today we present a remarkable series of recordings of the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy reading a passage from his book, Wise Thoughts for Every Day, in four...
Seth's Blog
A finite ordered set of interesting objects The alphabet is one. 26 letters, no more. One order, that’s it. The Beatles are another. John, Paul,...
over a year ago
38
over a year ago
The alphabet is one. 26 letters, no more. One order, that’s it. The Beatles are another. John, Paul, George and then Ringo. The Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, The Supremes. The astrological zodiac gets us to twelve, but I’m having a really difficult time finding a memorable...
Seth's Blog
Five lessons from week one of This is Strategy Once you decide to write a book about strategy, it raises the bar for having a strategy for the...
8 months ago
55
8 months ago
Once you decide to write a book about strategy, it raises the bar for having a strategy for the launch. People generally focus far too much on the launch of a project. Rocketships need a perfect launch, because just about everything after the launch is simply ballistic. But most...
Open Culture
A New 3D Scan, Created from 25,000 High-Resolution Images, Reveals the Remarkably Well-Preserved... Photos on this page courtesy of the Falklands Maritime Heritage  Few who hear the story of the...
8 months ago
61
8 months ago
Photos on this page courtesy of the Falklands Maritime Heritage  Few who hear the story of the Endurance could avoid reflecting on the aptness of the ship’s name. A year after setting out on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914, it got stuck in a mass of drifting ice...
On the Arts
Winter as Reading Season David Foster Wallace on the necessity of quiet time in order to read.
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Good advice The cult of consulting suggests that if you simply had better advice from someone who knew more than...
6 months ago
55
6 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...
Open Culture
What is Electronic Music?: Pioneering Electronic Musician Daphne Oram Explains (1969) Survey the British public about the most important institution to arise in their country after World...
11 months ago
53
11 months ago
Survey the British public about the most important institution to arise in their country after World War II, and a lot of respondents are going to say the National Health Service. But keep asking around, and you’ll sooner or later encounter a few serious electronic-music...
Stat Significant
Do People Actually Hate Coldplay? A Statistical Analysis Examining Coldplay's confusing cultural reputation.
5 months ago
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
18
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.
Marian's Blog
Agent V – Global Game Jam 2018 Project This year I participated in my first game jam, the Global Game Jam 2018. With a team of artists,...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
This year I participated in my first game jam, the Global Game Jam 2018. With a team of artists, programmers and a sound designer, we made a video game within 48 hours. You play the game as a virus that infiltrates a company’s headquarters. The virus can not move on its own, it...
Open Culture
60 Free Film Noir Movies You Can Watch Online, Including Classics by John Huston, Orson Welles &... During the 1940s and 50s, Hollywood entered a “noir” period, producing riveting films based on...
a month ago
21
a month ago
During the 1940s and 50s, Hollywood entered a “noir” period, producing riveting films based on hard-boiled fiction. These films were set in dark locations and shot in a black & white aesthetic that fit like a glove. Hardened men wore fedoras and forever smoked cigarettes. Women...
Open Culture
Get $160 Off a Year of Coursera Plus & Gain Unlimited Access to Courses in Data Analytics,... A heads-up on a Black Friday special: Between today and December 2, 2024, Coursera is offering a 40%...
7 months ago
38
7 months ago
A heads-up on a Black Friday special: Between today and December 2, 2024, Coursera is offering a 40% discount on its annual subscription plan called “Coursera Plus.” Normally priced at $399, Coursera Plus (now available for $239.40) gives you access to 7,000+ courses for one...
Seth's Blog
The Mona Lisa problem If you want to be a great painter, perhaps you could reverse engineer what made the Mona Lisa such...
4 months ago
35
4 months ago
If you want to be a great painter, perhaps you could reverse engineer what made the Mona Lisa such an important painting. You could move to Italy. You could learn about shadows and light and technique. The problem is that the Mona Lisa isn’t the most famous painting in the world...
Open Culture
Philip K. Dick Theorizes The Matrix in 1977, Declares That We Live in “A Computer-Programmed... In 1963, Philip K. Dick won the coveted Hugo Award for his novel The Man in the High Castle, beating...
a year ago
99
a year ago
In 1963, Philip K. Dick won the coveted Hugo Award for his novel The Man in the High Castle, beating out such sci-fi luminaries as Marion Zimmer Bradley and Arthur C. Clarke. Of the novel, The Guardian writes, “Nothing in the book is as it seems. Most characters are not what they...
Open Culture
The Illustrated Version of “Alice’s Restaurant”: Watch Arlo Guthrie’s Thanksgiving Counterculture... Alice’s Restaurant. It’s now a Thanksgiving classic, and something of a tradition around...
7 months ago
86
7 months ago
Alice’s Restaurant. It’s now a Thanksgiving classic, and something of a tradition around here. Recorded in 1967, the 18+ minute counterculture song recounts Arlo Guthrie’s real encounter with the law, starting on Thanksgiving Day 1965. As the long song unfolds, we hear all about...
Open Culture
How Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd & Jethro Tull Financed the Making Monty Python and the Holy Grail Monty Python and the Holy Grail isn’t a big-budget spectacle, and nobody knew that better than the...
a month ago
22
a month ago
Monty Python and the Holy Grail isn’t a big-budget spectacle, and nobody knew that better than the Pythons themselves. Necessity being the mother of invention, they turned the project’s financial constraints into one of its many sources of humor, fashioning memorable gags out of...
Seth's Blog
Market pressure Every competitor faces pressure, and it varies by industry, consumer/investor segment and geography....
a year ago
38
a year ago
Every competitor faces pressure, and it varies by industry, consumer/investor segment and geography. This applies to services, products, ideas, organizations, jobs… whenever there’s a choice and a market. The pressure might push you to be: But it’s also possible to choose a...
Seth's Blog
What spoiled wrecks There’s nothing wrong with abundance and joy. But being spoiled causes two real problems: As a...
a year ago
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a year 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...
Not Boring by Packy...
Hyperlegible 005: Parakeet Skittle Factory Dementia Monkey Titty Monetization
3 months ago
escape the algorithm
Close reading the trees How competitive Google Street Viewing makes the world feel seen
a year ago
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Using ChatGPT to implement Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings Sol LeWitt‘s Wall Drawings aren’t actually drawings but, rather, instructions for drawings. I...
over a year ago
63
over a year ago
Sol LeWitt‘s Wall Drawings aren’t actually drawings but, rather, instructions for drawings. I asked ChatGPT to implement them in p5js
Seth's Blog
But where are the secret recipes? Over the years, I’ve been sharing recipes as pages here on the blog, but never posting about them…...
4 months ago
41
4 months ago
Over the years, I’ve been sharing recipes as pages here on the blog, but never posting about them… you only got the link if I sent it to you. Well, your wait is over. For those seeking non-obvious but delicious and light-on-their-feet recipes, here you go: (two new ones added,...
Seth's Blog
Everyone wants to be connected But we hesitate to be the connector. Everyone wants to be trusted, but we hesitate to trust. And...
a year ago
60
a year ago
But we hesitate to be the connector. Everyone wants to be trusted, but we hesitate to trust. And everyone wants to be respected, but we often fail to offer our respect. What an opportunity.
Open Culture
“The Vertue of the COFFEE Drink”: An Ad for London’s First Cafe Printed Circa 1652 The story of coffee goes back to the 13th century, when it came out of Ethiopia, then spread to...
3 weeks ago
17
3 weeks ago
The story of coffee goes back to the 13th century, when it came out of Ethiopia, then spread to Egypt and Yemen. It reached the Middle East, Turkey, and Persia during the 16th century, and then Europe during the early 17th, though not without controversy. In Venice, some called...
Open Culture
Watch 70+ Classic Literary Films Free Online: The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Gulliver’s Travels, Jane... The term gaslight has gained so much traction in popular discourse so recently that you’d swear it...
8 months ago
63
8 months ago
The term gaslight has gained so much traction in popular discourse so recently that you’d swear it was coined around 2010. In fact, that particular usage goes at least as far back as 1938, when British novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton wrote a stage thriller about a...
Seth's Blog
Enrollment and engagement Teachers and organizations benefit from both, but they’re not the same. Engagement is the delight we...
3 months ago
23
3 months ago
Teachers and organizations benefit from both, but they’re not the same. Engagement is the delight we have when we lean into the process. Engagement happens when social media is optimized for maximum focus, and it also can be seen in a student who’s in sync with a teacher who...
Stat Significant
How Streaming Elevated (and Ruined) Documentaries: A Statistical Analysis Unpacking streaming's embrace and erosion of non-fiction storytelling.
9 months ago
Open Culture
Hear the First Recording of the Human Voice (1860) When inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville sang a nursery rhyme into his phonoautogram in 1860,...
2 months ago
11
2 months ago
When inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville sang a nursery rhyme into his phonoautogram in 1860, he had no plans to ever play back this recording. A precursor to the wax cylinder, the phonoautogram took inputs for the study of sound waves, but could not be turned into an...
Seth's Blog
Freedom of attitude There are two franchised pack-and-ship shops about equidistant from my home. One has a 4.5 rating...
a year ago
23
a year ago
There are two franchised pack-and-ship shops about equidistant from my home. One has a 4.5 rating and is reliably busy. The other has an astonishingly low 1.5 out of 5 rating. The physical plant is virtually identical, and the marketing and promo are the same. The only difference...
Seth's Blog
The social media lottery Someone is going to end up with 10,000,000 followers. Someone is going to post the next viral...
a year ago
24
a year ago
Someone is going to end up with 10,000,000 followers. Someone is going to post the next viral TikTok. Someone is going to build a meme that spreads around the world. But it probably won’t be me and it probably won’t be you. Buying lottery tickets might be fun, but they’re a lousy...
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....
3 months ago
33
3 months 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...
Seth's Blog
And it can also do that If you were around when the Model T was first announced, you could have built the organizations that...
a year ago
31
a year ago
If you were around when the Model T was first announced, you could have built the organizations that became Disney, McDonald’s and Holiday Inn, all of which were powered by cheap, plentiful cars. You could have become a major developer of suburbs, mortgage banking and even pop...
Seth's Blog
The paradox of lottery thinking Tim Brownson points us to this recent poll of people in Great Britain. About one out of four people...
11 months ago
85
11 months ago
Tim Brownson points us to this recent poll of people in Great Britain. About one out of four people surveyed (of all ages) believe that they could qualify for the Olympics if they trained for the next four years. This is absurd. It’s the very absurdity of it that makes it common....
John Reynolds -...
2024.04.14 2024.04.14
2 months ago
escape the algorithm
The New Turing Test Changing the AI conversation
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Hobson’s choice …is no choice at all. The stable owner gets to pick which horse you get. Take it or leave it. Some...
over a year ago
50
over a year ago
…is no choice at all. The stable owner gets to pick which horse you get. Take it or leave it. Some people prefer this. It means that we’re off the hook and not responsible. It relieves us of the emotional labor of choice. Let someone else worry about it… And so we give up our […]
Open Culture
Join Us on Bluesky. We Will Have Fun Together There’s an eXodus taking place, and millions are finding a new home on Bluesky. In recent days, the...
8 months ago
53
8 months ago
There’s an eXodus taking place, and millions are finding a new home on Bluesky. In recent days, the decentralized social media platform has been gaining 10,000 new users every 10–15 minutes, or about 1 million new users per day. Open Culture is already there, sharing the cultural...
Seth's Blog
Mediocre tools Lousy tools are dangerous. They endanger our safety (physical or emotional) and undermine our work....
6 months ago
82
6 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...
Not Boring by Packy...
Hyperlegible 001: Tina He Jevons Paradox: a personal perspective
3 months ago
Open Culture
The Brilliant Engineering That Made Venice: How a City Was Built on Water Many of us have put off a visit to Venice for fear of the hordes of tourists who roam its streets...
11 months ago
42
11 months ago
Many of us have put off a visit to Venice for fear of the hordes of tourists who roam its streets and boat down its canals day in and day out. To judge by the most visible of its economic activity, the once-mighty city-state now exists almost solely as an Instagramming...
Seth's Blog
16 minutes Some facts and assertions about healthcare (particularly in the US) and then an outline of a change...
5 months ago
42
5 months ago
Some facts and assertions about healthcare (particularly in the US) and then an outline of a change agent that could improve health, perhaps dramatically. And so, a system that’s organized around treatments and status, that misallocates time and effort, causing stress for...
Marian's Blog
Arduino-Wetterstation mit Bluetooth, Datalogging und Android-App Die Wetterdaten für die Wetterstation werden von einem Board gesammelt, das ich für einen...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
Die Wetterdaten für die Wetterstation werden von einem Board gesammelt, das ich für einen Schülerwettbewerb (ILC) bekommen und zusammengesetzt habe. Auf dem Board rechnet ein ATxmega128A3U. Temperatur, Luftfeuchte, Luftdruck, Helligkeit, Regenmenge und Windgeschwindigkeit werden...
Open Culture
Hear Moby Dick Read in Its Entirety by Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, John Waters, Stephen Fry... Image of Moby Dick by David Austen. In 2013, Plymouth University kicked off Moby Dick The Big Read,...
9 months ago
82
9 months ago
Image of Moby Dick by David Austen. In 2013, Plymouth University kicked off Moby Dick The Big Read, promising a full audiobook of Herman Melville’s influential novel, with famous (and not so famous) voices taking on a chapter each. When we first wrote about it here, only six...
Seth's Blog
The landlord and the creative coach The conflict is real. “Jean-Michel [Basquiat] called,” Mr. Warhol wrote in his diary on Sept. 5,...
11 months ago
66
11 months ago
The conflict is real. “Jean-Michel [Basquiat] called,” Mr. Warhol wrote in his diary on Sept. 5, 1983. “He’s afraid he’s just going to be a flash in the pan. And I told him not to worry, that he wouldn’t be. But then I got scared because he’s rented our building on Great Jones...
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...
10 months ago
49
10 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...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Holly Nairn Hello! My name is Holly Nairn and I am a full time Art teacher in Hertfordshire, a job I absolutely...
a month ago
17
a month ago
Hello! My name is Holly Nairn and I am a full time Art teacher in Hertfordshire, a job I absolutely love. I work under the name PaperInkDream and I currently live in Essex with my husband and my cocker spaniel Teddy. Apart from printmaking, I am cycling obsessed and love nothing...
Seth's Blog
Survivor bias and the mistake of stability An asteroid has never destroyed the Earth, therefore an asteroid never will. This brand has been...
over a year ago
79
over a year ago
An asteroid has never destroyed the Earth, therefore an asteroid never will. This brand has been involved in scandals before, and it has always come back stronger, so there’s nothing to worry about. There have been technology changes before, but we’ve always managed to find...
Open Culture
Moebius Gives 18 Wisdom-Filled Tips to Aspiring Artists Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, was a comic book artist who combined blinding speed with boundless...
10 months ago
117
10 months ago
Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, was a comic book artist who combined blinding speed with boundless imagination. He shaped the look of Alien, Empire Strikes Back and The Fifth Element. He reimagined the Silver Surfer for Stan Lee. And he is an acknowledged influence on everyone from...
Open Culture
How Audrey Hepburn Risked Death to Help the Dutch Resistance in World War II Audrey Hepburn may not have had the most prolific Hollywood career, but a fair few of her characters...
10 months ago
58
10 months ago
Audrey Hepburn may not have had the most prolific Hollywood career, but a fair few of her characters still feel today like roles she was born to play. Perhaps the same could have been true of the part of Anne Frank, had she not refused to take it up. When Anne’s father Otto Frank...
Seth's Blog
The community orchestra There are people who get paid to play the flute or bassoon. There are far more people who volunteer...
a year ago
25
a year ago
There are people who get paid to play the flute or bassoon. There are far more people who volunteer to participate in a community orchestra. For many, rehearsals or performances are the high points of their day. The metaphor is powerful, because it teaches us that we all benefit...
Seth's Blog
Niching up Along the way, folks have talked about “niching down” as a way to help a project find focus. But...
a year ago
29
a year ago
Along the way, folks have talked about “niching down” as a way to help a project find focus. But that’s backward. When we identify and embrace the smallest viable audience, we’re moving up. Up the quality hierarchy. Up in responsibility. Up in the likelihood that we’ll make an...
Seth's Blog
A labor of love That’s magical. To have the resources to expend labor on something that fills us with joy. If you’re...
10 months ago
66
10 months ago
That’s magical. To have the resources to expend labor on something that fills us with joy. If you’re lucky enough to encounter this, perhaps it makes sense not to confuse the issue by also trying to turn it into labor for maximum profit. When we focus on one, we often decrease...
Seth's Blog
Surprise and uncertainty Until just recently, a solar eclipse wasn’t a tourist event. It was the cause of real panic. Two...
a year ago
37
a year ago
Until just recently, a solar eclipse wasn’t a tourist event. It was the cause of real panic. Two reasons that are worth considering: Eliminate surprise and explain the circumstances and panic starts to fade.
Seth's Blog
Who do you want to become? Emotional enrollment is at the heart of performance, learning and connection. A coach can quickly...
9 months ago
44
9 months ago
Emotional enrollment is at the heart of performance, learning and connection. A coach can quickly tell when someone is committed to changing their approach in order to change the outcome–it’s easy to tell this person apart from someone who simply wants what they’re already doing...
Seth's Blog
Obvious vs perhaps “Obvious” closes the door to inquiry. “Perhaps” opens it.
3 months ago
Seth's Blog
Broken (and not worth fixing) In one corner of the parking garage near my office, car satellite radio doesn’t work. This is...
8 months ago
58
8 months ago
In one corner of the parking garage near my office, car satellite radio doesn’t work. This is clearly broken, but it’s also not a problem. Certainly not a problem worth anyone’s attention when there are so many other problems to be addressed. Problems, by definition, can be...
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 months ago
34
3 months 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.
Open Culture
The Mushroom Color Atlas: An Interactive Web Site Lets You Explore the Incredible Spectrum of Colors... Enter the Mushroom Color Atlas, and you can discover the “beautiful and subtle colors derived from...
8 months ago
55
8 months ago
Enter the Mushroom Color Atlas, and you can discover the “beautiful and subtle colors derived from dyeing with mushrooms.” Featuring 825 colors, each associated with different types of mushrooms, the interactive atlas lets you appreciate the broad spectrum of colors latent in the...
Seth's Blog
The empathy device It’s interesting to realize that mirrors weren’t perfected until a few hundred years ago. Human...
over a year ago
85
over a year ago
It’s interesting to realize that mirrors weren’t perfected until a few hundred years ago. Human beings spend a lot of time considering our own appearance and our own feelings and most of all, our own needs. The market produces a shift. When it’s a fair and open exchange, the...
Seth's Blog
Anonymity and Bugs Bunny I came across this (ironically) anonymous quote recently: “The offline world is full of sticks, but...
11 months ago
67
11 months ago
I came across this (ironically) anonymous quote recently: “The offline world is full of sticks, but the internet only has carrots.” When we come together in groups, it can bring out the best in people. When those groups are anonymous, porous and transient, though, the opposite...
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...
9 months ago
49
9 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.
Handprinted - Blog
Pigment & Binder - Mixing colours for printing fabric Using Pigment Colours and Binder, you can mix your own bespoke colours for screen printing and block...
a year ago
63
a year ago
Using Pigment Colours and Binder, you can mix your own bespoke colours for screen printing and block printing. Experimenting with different ratio amounts of binder to pigment can create some lovely subtle pale shades and some strong bold colours too.   Keeping a note of your...
Seth's Blog
Project ownership (equity and equity) Since the days of Atari and Apple, the culture of Silicon Valley has been based on the idea of...
3 months ago
33
3 months ago
Since the days of Atari and Apple, the culture of Silicon Valley has been based on the idea of programmers and early employees owning equity in the startups they took a chance on. The media is always happy to write about folks who took a shot on stock options and did very well...
Open Culture
The Heavy-Metal Band Disturbed Covered Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” Ten Years Ago, and... “The Sound of Silence” Is the Most Metal Song of the Past Decade”: imagine that headline, and the...
2 months ago
20
2 months ago
“The Sound of Silence” Is the Most Metal Song of the Past Decade”: imagine that headline, and the contrarian culture piece practically writes itself. Not so long ago, Slate was notorious for publishing that kind of thing, but it seems they’ve now put that sensibility behind them...
Open Culture
George Orwell Reviews Mein Kampf: “He Envisages a Horrible Brainless Empire” (1940) Christopher Hitchens once wrote that there were three major issues of the twentieth century —...
10 months ago
70
10 months ago
Christopher Hitchens once wrote that there were three major issues of the twentieth century — imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism — and George Orwell proved to be right about all of them. Orwell displays his remarkable foresight in a fascinating book review, published in March...
Open Culture
The Hand: An Anti-Totalitarian Animation, Banned for Two Decades & Now Considered One of the... For obvious reasons, most art produced under oppressive regimes comes off as painstakingly...
8 months ago
57
8 months ago
For obvious reasons, most art produced under oppressive regimes comes off as painstakingly inoffensive. For equally obvious reasons, the rare works that criticize the regime tend to do so rather obliquely. This wasn’t so much the case with The Hand, the most famous short by Czech...
John Reynolds -...
SKETCH
over a year ago
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
28
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...
Seth's Blog
Feeding the algorithm The marketing consultant told the client that they have to post three times a day on LinkedIn. “It...
10 months ago
37
10 months ago
The marketing consultant told the client that they have to post three times a day on LinkedIn. “It doesn’t matter if it’s good.” The SEO consultant explained that the website had to be loaded with keywords, and that a big budget needed to be set aside to develop inbound links....
Open Culture
Orson Welles Narrates an Animated Parable About How Xenophobia & Greed Will Put America Into Decline... More than 50 years and 10 presidential administrations have passed since Orson Welles narrated...
9 months ago
59
9 months ago
More than 50 years and 10 presidential administrations have passed since Orson Welles narrated Freedom River. And while it shows signs of age, the animated film, a parable about the role of immigration, race, and wealth in America, still resonates today. Actually, given the...
Neocha – Culture &...
Spectacular Skin
over a year ago
On the Arts
From Gothic Invaders to Mall Goths How an ancient Germanic tribe gave its name to a modern subculture.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Activation is not a secret …but it’s often overlooked. A farmer might yearn for twice as much land. But it’s far more efficient...
2 months ago
20
2 months ago
…but it’s often overlooked. A farmer might yearn for twice as much land. But it’s far more efficient to double the yield on the land he already has. Marketers often hustle to get the word out. To reach more people. And yet, activating the fans you already have–the ones who trust...
Seth's Blog
Birthing tech No one knows the name of the maternity nurse who helped with the delivery of Marie Curie or...
4 months ago
29
4 months ago
No one knows the name of the maternity nurse who helped with the delivery of Marie Curie or Esperanza Spaulding. You might grow up to be a genius, but the team that helped your mom give birth don’t have to be geniuses–they simply have to be pretty good at their craft. The same is...
Seth's Blog
The color-coded wires Have you ever wondered what the wiring layout behind the control panels at Abbey Road studios was...
a year ago
41
a year ago
Have you ever wondered what the wiring layout behind the control panels at Abbey Road studios was like? Neither have I. The Beatles recorded some of their best work there, and I have no idea if it was a rat’s nest of tangled wires, or if each wire was labeled, coded and perfectly...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #135 Solar, LNG, SphereX, Newsom, Packy in Austin, TBPN
4 months ago
Seth's Blog
The Jenga situation When an organization first sets out to have an impact, it discovers that it has no customers, no...
a year ago
27
a year ago
When an organization first sets out to have an impact, it discovers that it has no customers, no clients, no constituents. So it shows up, it makes an offer and it listens. The early days are exciting. Customers are seen and heard and served. Variations are created and value is...
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
90
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
Hiring for stuck Once an organization figures out a successful model, it begins to grow. And when it grows, it needs...
9 months ago
86
9 months ago
Once an organization figures out a successful model, it begins to grow. And when it grows, it needs more staff. And they often hire for specific tasks and the skills that go with them. They need a person who will reliably and obediently deliver what they need right now. And...
Seth's Blog
Replacing bad systems with bad systems A metaphor involving parking meters. Over the years, parking meters in town have evolved into a...
over a year ago
88
over a year ago
A metaphor involving parking meters. Over the years, parking meters in town have evolved into a cumbersome, awkward system. Coins are heavy and you need to have them handy, meters need to be reinforced against theft and breakage, town employees have to empty the coins and...
Open Culture
Why Medieval Bologna Was Full of Tall Towers, and What Happened to Them Image by Toni Pecoraro, via Wikimedia Commons Go to practically any major city today, and you’ll...
a year ago
103
a year ago
Image by Toni Pecoraro, via Wikimedia Commons Go to practically any major city today, and you’ll notice that the buildings in certain areas are much taller than in others. That may sound trivially true, but what’s less obvious is that the height of those buildings tends to...
Seth's Blog
The Le Guin precepts Fabled author Ursula Le Guin had a sign over her desk: Not a bad place to begin.
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Walking the city, walking the world Last week, I passed 800 people as I walked my way through New York. I decided to look at the folks I...
a year ago
27
a year ago
Last week, I passed 800 people as I walked my way through New York. I decided to look at the folks I was walking near. Of those 800 people, not one was as conventionally attractive as a movie star. Few looked like the images I saw on the billboards I passed. Most wouldn’t be cast...
Seth's Blog
Halfway projects Half a canoe is worth less than no canoe at all. On the other hand, eating half a pear is much...
5 months ago
33
5 months ago
Half a canoe is worth less than no canoe at all. On the other hand, eating half a pear is much better than not having one. You might get 85% of the value from only part of the pear. Some projects only benefit us when they’re finished all the way. Knowing this in advance is […]
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Emergence and Generative Art Sometimes, a system is more than the sum of its parts. Simple rules can lead to complex and...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
Sometimes, a system is more than the sum of its parts. Simple rules can lead to complex and surprising phenomena. This is emergence.
Seth's Blog
No time to waste Of course there isn’t. Time is all we’ve got. Time is all there is. We can’t waste time because it’s...
over a year ago
64
over a year ago
Of course there isn’t. Time is all we’ve got. Time is all there is. We can’t waste time because it’s not ours to waste. It’s simply the way we keep track of everything else.
Seth's Blog
Figs, ivy, silphium and of course, commerce It’s just a week until Valentine’s Day, a multi-billion dollar spending jamboree. As often happens,...
5 months ago
28
5 months ago
It’s just a week until Valentine’s Day, a multi-billion dollar spending jamboree. As often happens, the people we depend on for much of it get the short end of the deal, but a little mindful planning can make a difference. The heart shape we associate with love came from leaves....
Anarchy Unfolds
The big picture, AI, chemophobia, rocket mass heaters Green Gatherings #1
9 months ago
Seth's Blog
Sudare sette camicie Sweating through seven shirts… That was the definition of work when work was the same thing as...
a year ago
94
a year ago
Sweating through seven shirts… That was the definition of work when work was the same thing as physical labor. For many of us, the physical labor is no longer the way we add value. And it’s tempting to imagine that we simply have to show up for the coffee. But it’s still called...
Open Culture
How the 18th-Century French Media Stoked a Werewolf Panic If you’ve studied French (or, indeed, been French) in the past couple of decades, you may well have...
a year ago
58
a year ago
If you’ve studied French (or, indeed, been French) in the past couple of decades, you may well have played the card game Les Loups-garous de Thiercelieux. Known in English as The Werewolves of Millers Hollow, it casts its players as hunters, thieves, seers, and other types of...
Seth's Blog
The first nine minutes Mixing up a batch of homemade vegan marshmallow Fluff® is an exercise in patience. For the first...
a year ago
53
a year ago
Mixing up a batch of homemade vegan marshmallow Fluff® is an exercise in patience. For the first nine minutes of the ten minutes it takes in the mixer, not much happens. And then, it transforms into something fluffy and delightful. Without the recipe, it’s unlikely that most...
Open Culture
The Story Told on the Famous Bayeux Tapestry Explained from Start to Finish They say that history is written by the victors, but that isn’t always true: sometimes it’s...
3 days ago
5
3 days ago
They say that history is written by the victors, but that isn’t always true: sometimes it’s embroidered by the victors. Such was the case with the Bayeux Tapestry, which commemorates the build-up to and successful execution of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Created not...
Open Culture
Hear Edgar Allan Poe Stories Read by Iggy Pop, Jeff Buckley, Christopher Walken, Marianne Faithful &... In 1849, a little over 175 years ago, Edgar Allan Poe was found dead in a Baltimore gutter under...
a year ago
98
a year ago
In 1849, a little over 175 years ago, Edgar Allan Poe was found dead in a Baltimore gutter under mysterious circumstances very likely related to violent election fraud. It was an ignominious end to a life marked by hardship, alcoholism, and loss. After struggling for years as the...
Handprinted - Blog
CMYK Screen Printing! CMYK screen printing is a great way of bringing both your photographic and coloured art images to...
5 months ago
60
5 months ago
CMYK screen printing is a great way of bringing both your photographic and coloured art images to life through colour separation. This is achieved by layering four colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) on top of each other using only 4 screens.  To start, you will need to...
The Last...
Still Alive WHERE DID YOU GO? I flatter myself by thinking you are asking this question.  I am writing a book of...
over a year ago
23
over a year ago
WHERE DID YOU GO? I flatter myself by thinking you are asking this question.  I am writing a book of and about porn. IS IT ANY GOOD? Not sure.  I am trying my best.  It's a lot of work, complicated by relentless self-doubt.  The good news is I am drinking more. ALMOST...
Open Culture
Read the Original 32-Page Program for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) One of the very first feature-length sci-fi films ever made, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis took a daring...
a month ago
16
a month ago
One of the very first feature-length sci-fi films ever made, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis took a daring visual approach for its time, incorporating Bauhaus and Futurist influences in thrillingly designed sets and costumes. Lang’s visual language resonated strongly in later decades....
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...
over a year ago
82
over 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...
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...
9 months ago
54
9 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...
Infinite Scroll
Trapped in the Platforms Platform lock in and the Open Web
4 months ago
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Gemma Berenguer (Monostereo) My name is Gemma Berenguer and I'm from Barcelona. I'm a printmaker specialising in screen printing,...
10 months ago
91
10 months ago
My name is Gemma Berenguer and I'm from Barcelona. I'm a printmaker specialising in screen printing, although I also dabble in etching and block printing as well. I run Monostereo, a screen printing company in Barcelona, which has been operating for 15 years now.  I first...
Seth's Blog
Clarke’s Law (part 2) All sufficiently advanced technology is now widespread. Batman used to have gadgets that gave him an...
a month ago
20
a month ago
All sufficiently advanced technology is now widespread. Batman used to have gadgets that gave him an advantage over his adversaries. And Henry Ford had machines that allowed him to produce items far cheaper than the competition. Now, almost all technology magic is widely...
Seth's Blog
Two kinds of salad A useful metaphor for freelancers and small businesses. Every good restaurant should have two...
over a year ago
85
over a year ago
A useful metaphor for freelancers and small businesses. Every good restaurant should have two different salads on the menu. The boring salad is the regular kind. It’s there for people who know that they want a reliable, repeatable, unremarkable salad. It’s the safe part of a safe...
Seth's Blog
Getting to next There’s a difference between ‘rich’ and ‘richer’. And ‘fit’ and ‘fitter’. The problem with a pre-amp...
2 months ago
21
2 months ago
There’s a difference between ‘rich’ and ‘richer’. And ‘fit’ and ‘fitter’. The problem with a pre-amp that goes all the way to 11 isn’t that it’s louder. The problem is that very soon, the person who bought one of these will want one that goes to 12. Living in the liminal space is...
Open Culture
John Nash’s Super Short PhD Thesis: 26 Pages & Two Citations When John Nash wrote “Non-Cooperative Games,” his Ph.D. dissertation at Princeton in 1950, the text...
2 months ago
41
2 months ago
When John Nash wrote “Non-Cooperative Games,” his Ph.D. dissertation at Princeton in 1950, the text of his thesis (read it online) was brief. It ran only 26 pages. And more particularly, it was light on citations. Nash’s diss cited two texts: John von Neumann and Oskar...
Open Culture
How Kodak Invented the Snapshot in the 1800s, Making It Possible for Everyone to Be a Photographer We still occasionally speak of “Kodak moments,” making conscious or unconscious reference to the...
9 months ago
67
9 months ago
We still occasionally speak of “Kodak moments,” making conscious or unconscious reference to the slogan of the Eastman Kodak Company in the nineteen-eighties. Even by that time, Kodak had already been a going concern for nearly a century, furnishing photographers around the world...
Open Culture
Ray Bradbury Explains Why Literature is the Safety Valve of Civilization (in Which Case We Need More... Ray Bradbury had it all thought out. Behind his captivating works of science fiction, there were...
11 months ago
64
11 months ago
Ray Bradbury had it all thought out. Behind his captivating works of science fiction, there were subtle theories about what literature was meant to do. The retro clip above takes you back to the 1970s and it shows Bradbury giving a rather intriguing take on the role of literature...
Open Culture
Ray Bradbury Wrote the First Draft of Fahrenheit 451 on Coin-Operated Typewriters, for a Total of... Image by Alan Light, via Wikimedia Commons It sounds like a third grade math problem: “If Ray...
a year ago
90
a year ago
Image by Alan Light, via Wikimedia Commons It sounds like a third grade math problem: “If Ray Bradbury wrote the first draft of Fahrenheit 451 (1953) on a coin-operated typewriter that charged 10 cents for every 30 minutes, and he spent a total of $9.80, how many hours did it...
Seth's Blog
Drama at work A divo (or diva) is an opera singer with skill. Sometimes, though, that skill comes in a package...
a year ago
31
a year ago
A divo (or diva) is an opera singer with skill. Sometimes, though, that skill comes in a package that also includes imperiousness, skittishness and a fair amount of unpredictable drama. It’s tempting to imagine that CEOs, painters or poets that bring the noise must also have...
Open Culture
How a Student’s Phone Call Averted a Skyscraper Collapse: The Tale of the Citicorp Center The Citigroup Center in Midtown Manhattan is also known by its address, 601 Lexington Avenue, at...
2 months ago
23
2 months ago
The Citigroup Center in Midtown Manhattan is also known by its address, 601 Lexington Avenue, at which it’s been standing for 47 years, longer than the median New Yorker has been alive. Though still a fairly handsome building, in a seventies-corporate sort of way, it now pops out...
escape the algorithm
The Scan Artist What it means to copy the world
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Communications hygiene (and the demise of texting) Attention is scarce. Decisions are difficult. Searching takes effort. For thirty years, texting has...
a year ago
31
a year ago
Attention is scarce. Decisions are difficult. Searching takes effort. For thirty years, texting has been a powerful medium. It’s the thing that vibrates in our pocket. It promises something urgent, and a reply that’s demanded equally urgently. “I’m running ten minutes late,” is a...
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
96
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
The clamp and the mallet While building a project, I found that a key part was stuck. I tapped it with a mallet, then harder,...
a year ago
40
a year ago
While building a project, I found that a key part was stuck. I tapped it with a mallet, then harder, and eventually whacked at it. No luck. Then I got smart and put three clamps around the part, gently turning each one, increasing the pressure, until it simply popped out....
Seth's Blog
Choose your fuel wisely If worrying about paying the mortgage gets you motivated to lean hard into the next project, don’t...
8 months ago
49
8 months ago
If worrying about paying the mortgage gets you motivated to lean hard into the next project, don’t be surprised if that sort of fear arises every time you have hard work to do. If your goal is to teach the naysayers a lesson, remember that you’ll need to find people who you want...
Open Culture
How Our Depiction of Jesus Changed Over 2,000 Years and What He May Have Actually Looked Like Whether or not you believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, you probably envision him (or, if you...
2 months ago
16
2 months ago
Whether or not you believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, you probably envision him (or, if you prefer, Him) in much the same way as most everyone else does. The long hair and beard, the robe, the sandals, the beatific gaze: these traits have all manifested across two millennia...
Seth's Blog
“Can’t complain” (but it might be worth considering) Complaining is a cultural phenomenon, but it’s particularly prevalent in societies with a consumer...
5 months ago
49
5 months ago
Complaining is a cultural phenomenon, but it’s particularly prevalent in societies with a consumer culture (the customer is always right) and those where comfort is coming to be expected. Given all the complaining we do (about the weather, leadership, products, service and...
Seth's Blog
The gap between impossible and normal It keeps getting shorter and shorter. This video couldn’t have been made, at any price, 18 months...
over a year ago
77
over a year ago
It keeps getting shorter and shorter. This video couldn’t have been made, at any price, 18 months ago. 18 weeks ago, it would have required a thousand hours of work. Now, here it is. This impossible is going to happen faster and faster and faster.
Seth's Blog
Bob Dobalina I considered myself someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of a narrow range of mid-1960s TV and...
over a year ago
80
over a year ago
I considered myself someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of a narrow range of mid-1960s TV and certain strains of pop music as well. I was stunned, then, to hear the song Zilch for the first time recently. Mr. Dobalina, Mr. Bob Dobalina. It’s unforgettable. And it’s from the...
Open Culture
How Las Vegas’ Sphere Actually Works: A Looks Inside the New $2.3 Billion Arena If the United States of America is the Roman empire of our time, surely it must have an equivalent...
a year ago
60
a year ago
If the United States of America is the Roman empire of our time, surely it must have an equivalent of the Colosseum. A year ago, you could’ve heard a wide variety of speculations as to what structure that could possibly be. Today, many of us would simply respond with “the...
Open Culture
George Orwell’s Political Views, Explained in His Own Words Among modern-day liberals and conservatives alike, George Orwell enjoys practically sainted status....
a year ago
43
a year ago
Among modern-day liberals and conservatives alike, George Orwell enjoys practically sainted status. And indeed, throughout his body of work, including but certainly not limited to his oft-assigned novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, one can find numerous implicitly or...
Seth's Blog
Sorting and choosing One is far more important than the other. Sorting puts our options into two piles. One pile is the...
2 months ago
12
2 months ago
One is far more important than the other. Sorting puts our options into two piles. One pile is the don’t-like, not-good-enough or wrong stack. These are the flavors we don’t enjoy, the paths that are dead ends and the people we simply don’t want to hang out with. The other pile...
Haterade
I Regret to Announce that I Cannot Stop Eating the Shaq Gummies I have the blood sugar of a very large, very tall man.
5 months ago
Open Culture
Maurice Sendak’s First Published Illustrations: Discover His Drawings for a 1947 Popular Science... McGraw-Hill/public domain; copy from the Niels Bohr Library & Archives Once upon a time, long before...
10 months ago
41
10 months ago
McGraw-Hill/public domain; copy from the Niels Bohr Library & Archives Once upon a time, long before Maurice Sendak illustrated Where The Wild Things Are (1963), he published, notes Ars Technica, “his first professional illustrations in a 1947 popular science book about nuclear...
Seth's Blog
Why and how Let’s get rid of science class in school. Instead, beginning in kindergarten, we could devote a...
3 months ago
29
3 months 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
Kinds of power There’s the James Bond villian sort of power, based on division, dominance and destruction. This is...
8 months ago
64
8 months ago
There’s the James Bond villian sort of power, based on division, dominance and destruction. This is the short-term power of bullies, trauma and mobs. And then there’s a more resilient form of power. This is power based on connection, discussion and metrics. A power based in...
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...
11 months ago
88
11 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...
Seth's Blog
Own it and label it This takes guts, and hustlers are afraid to do so. Thirty years ago, when the avalanche of email...
5 months ago
40
5 months ago
This takes guts, and hustlers are afraid to do so. Thirty years ago, when the avalanche of email spam was on the horizon, I proposed that any commercial email should have a $ in the subject line. A simple way for email programs to filter it out if you’re not looking for it....
Open Culture
High-Tech Analysis of Ancient Scroll Reveals Plato’s Burial Site and Final Hours Even if you can name only one ancient Greek, you can name Plato. You can also probably say at least...
a year ago
58
a year ago
Even if you can name only one ancient Greek, you can name Plato. You can also probably say at least a little about him, if only some of the things humanity has known since antiquity. Until recently, of course, that qualification would have been redundant. But now, thanks to an...
Open Culture
“Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the... There are some words out there that are brilliantly evocative and at the same time impossible to...
a year ago
62
a year ago
There are some words out there that are brilliantly evocative and at the same time impossible to fully translate. Yiddish has the word shlimazl, which basically means a perpetually unlucky person. German has the word Backpfeifengesicht, which roughly means a face that is badly in...
Seth's Blog
Getting the word out “How do you get the word out?” I’ve heard this from presidential candidates, from small business...
a year ago
35
a year ago
“How do you get the word out?” I’ve heard this from presidential candidates, from small business leaders and nonprofits as well. It’s easy to believe that the goal of marketing is to shout, hype, hustle and otherwise promote. It’s tempting to focus on your story as the top of the...
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
28
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....
Infinite Scroll
The Weak Men of MAGA How Weak Men create Hard Times
2 months ago
Haterade
The Haterade Help Desk Is Now Taking Calls The mailbag returns (soon)
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Input choice is easily taken for granted We can give instructions to a fellow human by: Most people develop voiceboxes and limbs and facial...
a year ago
23
a year ago
We can give instructions to a fellow human by: Most people develop voiceboxes and limbs and facial expressions that make any of these usable. Computers, over the decades, have had to have them engineered. In 1983, Dan Lovy built a parser for the adventure games I was marketing at...
Stat Significant
Who's the Greatest Actor in Movie History? A Statistical Analysis Who's the greatest movie actor of all time, and why?
11 months ago
Seth's Blog
What’s for breakfast? Peter Drucker didn’t say “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but reality rarely gets in the way...
5 months ago
45
5 months ago
Peter Drucker didn’t say “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but reality rarely gets in the way of a good quote. But what does it mean? I think what ‘not Drucker’ meant was that MBA tactics will always be subverted by the power of systems, and that systems disguise themselves...
Seth's Blog
Don’t know, don’t care Clients and customers can be frustrating. Perhaps they don’t know what you know. Perhaps they don’t...
over a year ago
87
over a year ago
Clients and customers can be frustrating. Perhaps they don’t know what you know. Perhaps they don’t care. It’s possible to educate and inspire. It might be more productive to find the few that want to go where you do.
Infinite Scroll
Infinite Scroll x GiveDirectly Read to the end for an AI cokehead
7 months ago
Open Culture
The Invisible Horror of The Shining: How Music Makes Stanley Kubrick’s Iconic Film Even More... Inexplicable as it may sound to readers of this site, there are movie-lovers who claim not to enjoy...
a week ago
10
a week ago
Inexplicable as it may sound to readers of this site, there are movie-lovers who claim not to enjoy the work of Stanley Kubrick. But even his most steadfast non-appreciators have to hand it to him for The Shining, his 1980 Stephen King adaptation widely considered one of the...
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...
11 months ago
71
11 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...
Seth's Blog
Trying harder Or trying better? Fast runners aren’t the same as slow runners, but with more effort. And great...
a year ago
41
a year ago
Or trying better? Fast runners aren’t the same as slow runners, but with more effort. And great chefs or violinists or actors… it’s not about doing what you did yesterday, but more of that. It’s something different.
Seth's Blog
The Cliffs Notes paradox For a decade, Cliffs Notes were the bestselling section of the bookstore. They were a simple way for...
over a year ago
114
over a year ago
For a decade, Cliffs Notes were the bestselling section of the bookstore. They were a simple way for any high school student to get insight, examples and answers about the books they were assigned and read (or didn’t read). When Cliffs published a list of their thirty bestselling...
Seth's Blog
Fooling ourselves It’s tempting to believe that we’re not easy to fool. Not by a magician, a politician or a banker....
a year ago
27
a year ago
It’s tempting to believe that we’re not easy to fool. Not by a magician, a politician or a banker. Other folks might be easily duped by a spammer or a hustler, but not us. And yet, no one fools you more than you. When you look in the mirror, do you see what others see, […]
Anarchy Unfolds
Genshin Impact & the appeal of open-world games I’ve been playing a lot of Genshin Impact lately.
9 months ago
Seth's Blog
The blank page Sometimes, we’re so afraid of creation that we don’t even leave blank pages around. If your...
a year ago
67
a year ago
Sometimes, we’re so afraid of creation that we don’t even leave blank pages around. If your workspace has a hole exactly the size of a creative idea in it, you’re more likely to fill the hole. When we decrease the number of steps to begin creating, and increase the expectation...
Open Culture
A Young Jim Henson Teaches You How to Make Puppets with Socks, Tennis Balls & Other Household Goods... By the time he filmed this video archived on Iowa Public Television’s YouTube channel, Jim Henson...
a month ago
15
a month ago
By the time he filmed this video archived on Iowa Public Television’s YouTube channel, Jim Henson was just about to strike gold with a new children’s show called Sesame Street. The year was 1969, and he already had 15 years of puppetry experience under his belt, from children’s...
Seth's Blog
Direct questions worth answering For everyone on the team… Do you care enough to do great work? Can we agree on what great work looks...
a year ago
29
a year ago
For everyone on the team… Do you care enough to do great work? Can we agree on what great work looks like? When the world changes, do we have a process to redefine great work? Do you have the tools you need to reach your goals? How could we create a system where great work […]
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...
11 months ago
98
11 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
Later or now? When we feel like doing something selfish, indulgent, hurtful or short-term, we can simply decide to...
a year ago
40
a year ago
When we feel like doing something selfish, indulgent, hurtful or short-term, we can simply decide to do it later. And when it occurs to us that we might be able to make a useful contribution or do something important, perhaps we could do it now.
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #134 Blue Ghost, Starlink, Roche’s SBX, Wooly Mice, Female Brains, Tardigrades
4 months ago
Haterade
I Hereby Disqualify Myself from the Olympic Pizza Luge Team A Very Special Mailbag
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Polishing the problem I won’t walk away. I won’t ease any of the constraints. I won’t forgive. I won’t get a coach. It’s...
5 months ago
41
5 months ago
I won’t walk away. I won’t ease any of the constraints. I won’t forgive. I won’t get a coach. It’s personal. I don’t want to talk about it. I will think about this often. I can add another problem just like this one. I can do this. Persistent perfect problems are a great way to...
Open Culture
Ken Burns’ New Documentary on Leonardo da Vinci Streaming Online (in the US) for a Limited Time A quick heads up: The filmmaker Ken Burns has just released his new documentary on Leonardo da...
7 months ago
64
7 months ago
A quick heads up: The filmmaker Ken Burns has just released his new documentary on Leonardo da Vinci. Running nearly four hours, the film offers what The New York Times calls a “thorough and engrossing biography” of the 15th-century polymath. Currently airing on PBS, the film can...
Seth's Blog
At all costs Principles have a priority. Isaac Asimov’s three rules of robotics were: First LawA robot may not...
8 months ago
58
8 months ago
Principles have a priority. Isaac Asimov’s three rules of robotics were: First LawA robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second LawA robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would...
Open Culture
The 11 Censored Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Cartoons That Haven’t Been Aired Since 1968 For decades and decades, Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons have served as a...
10 months ago
69
10 months ago
For decades and decades, Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons have served as a kind of default children’s entertainment. Originally conceived for theatrical exhibition in the nineteen-thirties, they were animated to a standard that held its own against the...
Seth's Blog
Demanding certainty The defenders of the status quo often demand certainty when facing decisions about the future. It...
a year ago
34
a year ago
The defenders of the status quo often demand certainty when facing decisions about the future. It sets up the conditions for doing nothing, because certainty never happens until the future arrives. It’s much more useful to look at probabilities. Flipping a fair coin has a 50%...
Open Culture
The Enchanting Opera Performances of Klaus Nomi After making one of the grandest entrances in music history on the stages of East Village clubs, the...
10 months ago
38
10 months ago
After making one of the grandest entrances in music history on the stages of East Village clubs, the BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test, and Saturday Night Live, theatrical German new wave space alien Klaus Nomi died alone in 1983, a victim of the “first beachhead of the AIDS...
Marian's Blog
LED Matrix Materials Guide I built an LED matrix out of 256 WS2812 LEDs. This post will describe which materials I used and...
over a year ago
35
over a year ago
I built an LED matrix out of 256 WS2812 LEDs. This post will describe which materials I used and which I tried with no success so you don’t have to. Case For the case, I used a custom made photo frame. The main purpose of the case is to look good, which is...
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...
11 months ago
63
11 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
The network scam Lana Swartz coined this term in her breakthrough paper on crypto. A scam always involves a...
a year ago
30
a year ago
Lana Swartz coined this term in her breakthrough paper on crypto. A scam always involves a transaction. In the traditional fraud, the scammer tells a lie and the buyer, either with or without diligence, believes it and loses everything. You buy the magic beans, but they don’t...
Seth's Blog
Our homunculus is showing The little person at the control panel, the one who sees what the retina produces, the one who...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
The little person at the control panel, the one who sees what the retina produces, the one who decides, the one who speaks up… (This is the dualist solution to the free will problem–yes, I have a physical body, they say, but I also have a little human inside of me that gets to...
Open Culture
The Entire History of English in 22 Minutes When we speak English, we might say we’re speaking the language of Samuel Johnson, the man who wrote...
4 days ago
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4 days ago
When we speak English, we might say we’re speaking the language of Samuel Johnson, the man who wrote its first dictionary. Or we could say we’re speaking the language of Shakespeare, who coined more English terms than any other individual in history. It would make just as much...
Prolost
Introducing Prolost Beta Prolost Beta is a new subscription offering on the Prolost Store. It's an occasional email from me...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Prolost Beta is a new subscription offering on the Prolost Store. It's an occasional email from me containing a download or a link to something cool I'm working on, that's not quite ready to become a product yet. Or maybe ever. This will most often be Lightroom presets or...
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...
10 months ago
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10 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...
Open Culture
When the CIA Studied Psychic Techniques to Alter Human Consciousness & Unlock Time Travel: Discover... By now, it’s widely known that the Central Intelligence Agency ran a decades-long program of...
a year ago
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a year ago
By now, it’s widely known that the Central Intelligence Agency ran a decades-long program of experiments involving LSD and other psychoactive drugs called MKUltra from the nineteen-fifties to the seventies. As one might suspect, that wasn’t the only research project into the...
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
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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...
Seth's Blog
All customers are the same [and all customers are different.] Customers are why you’re here. They pay the bills and they are...
a year ago
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a year ago
[and all customers are different.] Customers are why you’re here. They pay the bills and they are the primary driver of your growth. But each adds a different amount of value to your organization and the journey you’re on. The customer who spends 100x as much as the average...
The Last...
The Maintenance Of Certification Exam As Fetish no need to wait for the receipt (I had reworked an old post for a psychiatry trade journal, which I...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
no need to wait for the receipt (I had reworked an old post for a psychiatry trade journal, which I would happily have linked you to, except that page 2 is behind a login wall. So here is the version I submitted before the editors edited it, slightly longer with more typos. I am...
Open Culture
RIP Paul Auster: Hear the Master of the Postmodern Page-Turner Discuss How He Became a Writer In the Louisiana Channel interview clip from 2017 above, the late Paul Auster tells the story of how...
a year ago
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a year ago
In the Louisiana Channel interview clip from 2017 above, the late Paul Auster tells the story of how he became a writer. Its first episode had appeared more than twenty years earlier, in a New Yorker piece titled “Why Write?”: “I was eight years old. At that moment in my life,...
Seth's Blog
Ready to be… Disappointed Delighted Amazed Offended Ripped off Grateful Loved Sometimes we get what we expect.
a month ago
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a month ago
Disappointed Delighted Amazed Offended Ripped off Grateful Loved Sometimes we get what we expect.
Seth's Blog
Powerlessness Not a lack of power, but feeling as though we have none. Some people have been indoctrinated to...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
Not a lack of power, but feeling as though we have none. Some people have been indoctrinated to prefer a life with no agency, as it also brings no responsibility. At the other extreme, some folks have decided that they have more power than they actually do. Video games offer...
Infinite Scroll
JOB - A theatrical review A Broadway play about Content Moderation
8 months ago
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Bethan Designs Hi! I’m Beth (Bethan) a printmaker who found a love for linocut relief printing. I’m based in a...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
Hi! I’m Beth (Bethan) a printmaker who found a love for linocut relief printing. I’m based in a little village in the middle of Derbyshire.  Describe your printmaking process. My printmaking process probably isn’t as traditional as others, I draw my designs digitally and transfer...
Seth's Blog
Pique-a-boo Marketers seek to make an impact, and that takes interest. Three ways to spell the key word: Peak...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Marketers seek to make an impact, and that takes interest. Three ways to spell the key word: Peak interest can’t get any higher. It never happens at launch. It’s the result of cultural change and an idea moving through the population. Peek interest happens when there’s scarcity...
Seth's Blog
Effort and value We expend effort. We create value. It’s easy to get confused about which one we’re going to...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
We expend effort. We create value. It’s easy to get confused about which one we’re going to ultimately be compensated for.
Seth's Blog
Finding a more useful umwelt Add up all the senses you use and the things you notice: that’s your umwelt. It’s pretty obvious...
a year ago
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a year ago
Add up all the senses you use and the things you notice: that’s your umwelt. It’s pretty obvious that your dog has a different one than you do. They see fewer colors and smell far more intelligently. Sea slugs see a much wider range of colors, and bats can sense vibrations. Among...
Seth's Blog
Where does your mind go when it wanders? My friend Jason points out that this might be where your heart is. What would have to change for you...
a year ago
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a year ago
My friend Jason points out that this might be where your heart is. What would have to change for you to actually follow the wandering and make it real? Or for your mind to choose to wander somewhere else? Somewhere you’re already going.
Haterade
Who Booby-Trapped This Tiny Cabbage? And other critical questions from the mailbag.
over a year ago
Rectangle
Coming soon A newsletter about rectangles, but mostly design.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Responsibility and blame It’s tempting to hand it to other people. If someone else takes the blame, if they accept the...
a year ago
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a year ago
It’s tempting to hand it to other people. If someone else takes the blame, if they accept the responsibility, then we get satisfaction and we’re off the hook. Alas, this doesn’t work unless the others do the taking and do the accepting. Which is unlikely. We’re giving power to...
Seth's Blog
Can you draw it on a graph? Explain it with quadrants? Translate it into Spanish? It’s easy to memorize a few words that purport...
a year ago
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a year ago
Explain it with quadrants? Translate it into Spanish? It’s easy to memorize a few words that purport to explain something, but all they do is relabel it. If you truly understand something, you can use different modalities to help someone else understand it. The magic of a good...
Open Culture
Browse 64 Years of RadioShack Catalogs Free Online … and Revisit the History of American Consumer... “I bet RadioShack was great once,” writes former employee Jon Bois in a much-circulated 2014 piece...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
“I bet RadioShack was great once,” writes former employee Jon Bois in a much-circulated 2014 piece for SB Nation. “I can’t look through their decades-old catalogs and come away with any other impression. They sold giant walnut-wood speakers I’d kill to have today. They sold...
Seth's Blog
Problems and the clover Systemic and existential problems dance their way through three circles: If it’s not solvable, we’ll...
a year ago
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a year ago
Systemic and existential problems dance their way through three circles: If it’s not solvable, we’ll pretend it’s not a problem. If the cultural cost of solving the problem is too high, we’ll pretend there’s no solution. People don’t spend a lot of time planning for death because...
Seth's Blog
Pavlonian coincidence There are two kinds of coincidences. The first is the one that we often talk about. It’s the...
a year ago
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a year ago
There are two kinds of coincidences. The first is the one that we often talk about. It’s the make-believe magic of two things occurring that we didn’t expect to occur. When you and your long-lost college roommate end up randomly sharing adjacent bowling lanes when you’re...
Seth's Blog
“For what purposes will it be useful?” In 1840, at the dawn of the information age, the king of Sardinia asked Charles Babbage what nearly...
a year ago
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a year ago
In 1840, at the dawn of the information age, the king of Sardinia asked Charles Babbage what nearly instant messaging like the telegraph could possibly be good for. Twenty years later, it was obvious. When I first saw Prodigy in 1986, I saw that the consumer internet would have...
Seth's Blog
What are you thinking about? A philosopher can spend a month, a year or a career thinking about one knotty problem. Making...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
A philosopher can spend a month, a year or a career thinking about one knotty problem. Making assertions, testing theories, understanding how others are thinking about it as well. But this exercise shouldn’t be reserved for academics. What are you working on? When will you change...
Seth's Blog
Uphill and downhill challenges There’s a big hill near my house. Sometimes, a bicyclist will really pedal hard on the downhill....
a month ago
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a month ago
There’s a big hill near my house. Sometimes, a bicyclist will really pedal hard on the downhill. It’s good for the ego. It’s also crazy dangerous, since braking and steering become much more difficult, and high speed gives you less time to react. And sometimes cars rev their way...
Open Culture
The Most Iconic Hip-Hop Sample of Every Year (1973–2023) Hip-hop was once a subculture, but by now it’s long since been one of the unquestionably dominant...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Hip-hop was once a subculture, but by now it’s long since been one of the unquestionably dominant forms of popular music — not just in America, and not just among young people. There are, of course, still a fair few hip-hop holdouts, but even they’ve come to know a thing or two...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #127 New Glenn, Mechazilla, Moon, Varda W-2, Wooly Mammoths, AI Tutors, MatterGen, Anduril
6 months ago
Seth's Blog
Them or us? What kind of culture will we build? At work, in our community, online? Each of us builds culture...
a year ago
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a year ago
What kind of culture will we build? At work, in our community, online? Each of us builds culture every time we interact with anyone else. Opting out isn’t possible, all we can do is decide what sort of impact and contribution we’re each going to make. It’s tempting to say, “they”...
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...
Infinite Scroll
Internet Book Club: 'Because Internet' How the internet is changing the English language
4 months ago
Seth's Blog
Reality as reassurance Culture makes it tempting (and easy) to insulate ourselves from reality. Credit card debt is an...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Culture makes it tempting (and easy) to insulate ourselves from reality. Credit card debt is an invisible burden, until it’s not. Ignoring the changes in our climate makes our days easier, but not our years. We can avoid the bank balance, not work on the annual budget and ignore...
Open Culture
50+ Free Charlie Chaplin Films Online A few things to know about Charlie Chaplin. He starred in over 80 films, reeling off most during the...
4 days ago
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4 days ago
A few things to know about Charlie Chaplin. He starred in over 80 films, reeling off most during the silent film era. In 1914 alone, he acted in 40 films, then another 15 in 1915. By the 1920s, Chaplin had emerged as the first larger-than-life movie star and director, if not the...
Seth's Blog
The friendly professional Friendly doesn’t mean saying ‘yes’ all the time, or changing every policy, or giving up our...
a year ago
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a year ago
Friendly doesn’t mean saying ‘yes’ all the time, or changing every policy, or giving up our principles. Friendly is how it feels, not what it does.
Open Culture
What’s Under London? Discover London’s Forbidden Underworld When the words London and underground come together, the first thing that comes to most of our...
a year ago
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a year ago
When the words London and underground come together, the first thing that comes to most of our minds, naturally, is the London Underground. But though it may enjoy the honorable distinction of the world’s first railway to run below the streets, the stalwart Tube is hardly the...
Seth's Blog
March is strategy month January feels like the start of the year, but there’s always a hangover from the holidays. In the...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
January feels like the start of the year, but there’s always a hangover from the holidays. In the northern Hemisphere, February is dark and dreary and we’re mostly hunkering down waiting for the short month to end. But March? Around the world, March can be a chance to get down to...
Open Culture
A Playlist of the 3,300 Best Films & Documentaries on Youtube, Including Works by Hitchcock,... ?si=yCx1pqpcATHND90L Once upon a time, the most convenient means of discovering movies was cable...
a year ago
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a year ago
?si=yCx1pqpcATHND90L Once upon a time, the most convenient means of discovering movies was cable television. This held especially true for those of us who happened to be adolescents on a break from school, ready and willing morning, midday, or night to sit through the...
Seth's Blog
Taken for granted A poignant definition of civilization is all the conveniences, courtesies, standards, insulation and...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
A poignant definition of civilization is all the conveniences, courtesies, standards, insulation and tools that we hardly notice now but that we would miss if they were gone.
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...
a year ago
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a year 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...
Open Culture
The First Recording of Allen Ginsberg Reading “Howl” (1956) Image by Michiel Hendryckx, via Wikimedia Commons Occasionally I slip into an ivory tower mentality...
a year ago
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a year ago
Image by Michiel Hendryckx, via Wikimedia Commons Occasionally I slip into an ivory tower mentality in which the idea of a banned book seems quaint—associated with silly scandals over the tame sex scenes in James Joyce or D.H. Lawrence. After all, I think, we live in an age when...
Seth's Blog
Grandiosity as a form of hiding A business that says its mission is to, “reinvent local commerce to better serve our customers and...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A business that says its mission is to, “reinvent local commerce to better serve our customers and neighborhoods,” can spend a lot of time doing not much of anything before they realize that they’re not actually creating value. A non-profit that seeks to create “fairness and...
Seth's Blog
The tooth fairy Make a list of things you used to believe. Fervently, certainly, completely. Things that you were...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
Make a list of things you used to believe. Fervently, certainly, completely. Things that you were sure of, but now, with the passage of time and the benefit of experience, you know to be incorrect or incomplete. Of course, it’s not just mythical creatures beloved by children....
Seth's Blog
The distribution of character Along the way, we have been taught to associate character skills like honesty, rationality,...
a year ago
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a year 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
“They’re not paying me enough to care” This is an understandable sentiment. As jobs push people to be automatons and often offer little in...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
This is an understandable sentiment. As jobs push people to be automatons and often offer little in the way of respect, it’s easy to quietly quit. But perhaps, they’re not paying you enough to not care. Spending your days, day after day, not caring is a tragedy. They might not...
Open Culture
How the Ancient Greeks Built Their Magnificent Temples: The Art of Ancient Engineering Doric, Ionic, Corinthian: these, as practically everyone who went through school in the West somehow...
5 days ago
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5 days ago
Doric, Ionic, Corinthian: these, as practically everyone who went through school in the West somehow remembers, are the three varieties of classical column. We may still recall them, more specifically, as representing the three ancient Greek architectural styles. But as...
Marian's Blog
16×16 LED Matrix This is a 16×16 RGB LED matrix, made of 256 WS2812B LEDs. It’s powered by a Raspberry Pi and can...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This is a 16×16 RGB LED matrix, made of 256 WS2812B LEDs. It’s powered by a Raspberry Pi and can display images and animations. With a game controller attached, it can play games. The pictures below show how I built the frame. Painting the base plate Drawing...
Marian's Blog
No Man’s Starfield This is a shader I made that renders a flight through a starfield. It’s meant to look like the...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
This is a shader I made that renders a flight through a starfield. It’s meant to look like the galactic map that you can see in No Man’s Sky. Here is a link to the project on shadertoy: No Man’s Starfield The cool thing about this is that it runs inside a shader. A shader is a...
Open Culture
Buckminster Fuller Tells the World “Everything He Knows” in a 42-Hour Lecture Series (1975) History seems to have settled Buckminster Fuller’s reputation as a man ahead of his time. He...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
History seems to have settled Buckminster Fuller’s reputation as a man ahead of his time. He inspires short, witty popular videos like YouTuber Joe Scott’s “The Man Who Saw The Future,” and the ongoing legacy of the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI), who note that “Fuller’s...
Seth's Blog
The weird math of halfway 6 times 1/2 doesn’t equal 3. It equals zero. We’re tempted to do a little less than we need to....
a year ago
27
a year ago
6 times 1/2 doesn’t equal 3. It equals zero. We’re tempted to do a little less than we need to. Perhaps we’re busy, with too many options. Perhaps it’s resistance, pushing us to hold a little bit back. Whatever the reason, when we show up just a little, we get zero credit. The...
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
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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...
Seth's Blog
“How do I get the most of out my people?” Alas, this is the wrong question for a leader or manager to ask. It’s more productive to wonder,...
a month ago
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a month ago
Alas, this is the wrong question for a leader or manager to ask. It’s more productive to wonder, “how do we create the conditions for our people to get to where they’re heading?”
Open Culture
T. S. Eliot’s Classic Modernist Poem The Waste Land Gets Adapted into Comic-Book Form The phrase “April is the cruelest month” was first printed more than 100 years ago, and it’s been in...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
The phrase “April is the cruelest month” was first printed more than 100 years ago, and it’s been in common circulation almost as long. One can easily know it without having the faintest idea of its source, let alone its meaning. This is not, of course, to call T. S. Eliot’s The...
Seth's Blog
The grid of inquiry Expertise and firmly held beliefs don’t always go together. Here’s a simple XY grid to help us...
a year ago
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a year ago
Expertise and firmly held beliefs don’t always go together. Here’s a simple XY grid to help us choose where to sit at whatever table we’re invited to: Plenty of well-trained professionals have earned the right to have strongly held beliefs. These convictions save them time and...
Handprinted - Blog
Mark Making - Using Resists Using tools on your plate isn’t the only way you can create marks within an etching. You can also...
a year ago
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a year ago
Using tools on your plate isn’t the only way you can create marks within an etching. You can also use resists to stop the mordant from reaching the surface of your plate. Resists can help achieve more subtle marks and washes, and they can also be applied using a brush to control...
Prolost
The M1 Max MacBook Pros Apple opened their October event with a young musician creating an Apple-inspired music track in a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Apple opened their October event with a young musician creating an Apple-inspired music track in a dingy garage filled with gear worth tens of thousands of dollars. Some viewers commented on the unrealistic portrayal of a creative professional. But I felt like I was looking in a...
Seth's Blog
Fingerprints If a jacket is made by Patagonia or a piece of hardware is made by Teenage Engineering, you can...
a year ago
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a year 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...
Seth's Blog
The coming ubiquity The fuss about AI might be mis-focused. It’s easy to point to a computer-created essay, song or...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
The fuss about AI might be mis-focused. It’s easy to point to a computer-created essay, song or illustration and find the defects or errors. Given hard work by 1,000 trained people, it’s likely that a human could make something more useful or inspired than a computer could. But...
Seth's Blog
The biggest thing you bring to the project is forward Forward motion is an asset, a skill and a job title. Elevators used to need elevator operators. They...
2 months ago
11
2 months ago
Forward motion is an asset, a skill and a job title. Elevators used to need elevator operators. They didn’t go anywhere unless someone got on and announced they wanted to go somewhere. Initiative, desire and being willing to take responsibility are powerful because most of us...
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
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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...
Infinite Scroll
How the Internet Changed Gen Z Humor "Soup Time", says Standing Frog
3 months ago
Open Culture
Get Unlimited Access to Courses & Certificates: Coursera Is Offering 40% (or $159) Off of Coursera... A heads-up on a deal: Between today and December 2, 2024, Coursera is offering a 40% discount on its...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
A heads-up on a deal: Between today and December 2, 2024, Coursera is offering a 40% discount on its annual subscription plan called “Coursera Plus.” Normally priced at $399, Coursera Plus (now available for $239.40) gives you access to 7,000+ courses for one all-inclusive...
Seth's Blog
The expanding frontier of ignorance Some fields of endeavor continue to narrow down the unknown, in search of the recipe, the efficient...
a year ago
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a year ago
Some fields of endeavor continue to narrow down the unknown, in search of the recipe, the efficient method of industry. And others live on Feynman’s expanding frontier of ignorance, where each closed door leads to several newly opened ones. That’s a fundamental choice in our...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Bro Economy Everywhere Plus! Oral Traditions, Woke Chili, and Montoya
5 months ago
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...
over a year ago
22
over 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...
Seth's Blog
The best intern on the team A great intern brings positive energy, a relentless work ethic and doesn’t cost very much. They ask...
4 months ago
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4 months ago
A great intern brings positive energy, a relentless work ethic and doesn’t cost very much. They ask a lot of questions, and the most useful questions will help you see an existing situation with fresh eyes. Of course, you’ll expect them to make mistakes, and a professional needs...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Curved Line Jellyfish I had pictured something quite bold, graphical and geometric but I ended with gradients and...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
I had pictured something quite bold, graphical and geometric but I ended with gradients and floatiness.
Handprinted - Blog
Spooktacular Screen Printing Projects! Get into the spooky spirit with a Halloween screen printing project! Create t-shirts, tote bags, and...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
Get into the spooky spirit with a Halloween screen printing project! Create t-shirts, tote bags, and poster prints that’re hauntingly fun and frightfully easy!   Party Prints - Speedball Night Glo Acrylic Ink on Paper! If you’re a Halloween lover this project is for you! Using...
Seth's Blog
Embracing the Rotten Tomato gap The site gives movies two scores on a scale from 1 to 100: One is from critics, and the other is...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
The site gives movies two scores on a scale from 1 to 100: One is from critics, and the other is from typical viewers who are taking the time to chime in. Many movies have virtually the same score in each category. But some films have a 40 or 50 point gap. How could the […]
Seth's Blog
ChatGPT for you AI is a mystery. To many, it’s a threat. It turns out that understanding a mystery not only makes it...
a year ago
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a year ago
AI is a mystery. To many, it’s a threat. It turns out that understanding a mystery not only makes it feel less like a threat, it gives us the confidence to make it into something better. I use ChatGPT4 just about every day, and I’m often surprised at how frequently it surprises...