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Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #125 Commonwealth Fusion, Off-grid Solar Microgrids, HORNET, Astranis , Technology Brothers
6 months ago
Open Culture
The Big Map of Who Lived When Shows Which Cultural Figures Walked the Earth at the Same Time: From... We could call the time in which we live the “Information Age.” Or we could describe it more vividly...
9 months ago
42
9 months ago
We could call the time in which we live the “Information Age.” Or we could describe it more vividly as the era of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart, Beyoncé and Bob Dylan. Whatever you think of the work of any of...
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
84
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...
Seth's Blog
Abundance and ideas A colleague got an angry note. It concluded with, “you should know better.” The transgression? The...
a year ago
30
a year ago
A colleague got an angry note. It concluded with, “you should know better.” The transgression? The sender was offended that my friend had written a post about a concept she’s been developing for nearly a decade. Of course, no idea is unique, and the posted idea sort of rhymed...
Seth's Blog
For customers vs to customers In the life of every enterprise, the moment arises when a choice has to be made: Are you here for...
a year ago
23
a year ago
In the life of every enterprise, the moment arises when a choice has to be made: Are you here for your customers, to give them what they seek, or are you trying to do something to your customers, to squeeze out extra income? This doesn’t mean that the only path is to keep...
Stat Significant
Does 'Avatar' Have No Cultural Footprint? A Statistical Analysis Investigating claims of Avatar's cultural irrelevance.
9 months ago
Seth's Blog
Goals and expectations [a note to a frustrated friend, just starting out on a long career] There are three reasons that our...
a year ago
21
a year ago
[a note to a frustrated friend, just starting out on a long career] There are three reasons that our goals might not be achieved. In order of palatability, they are: Perhaps the goals are too lofty, too based on chance, unlikely for anyone to achieve, surrounded by barriers that...
Open Culture
Hear the Evolution of the London Accent Over 660 Years: From 1346 to 2006 Read a novel by Charles Dickens, and you’ll still today feel transported back to the London of the...
10 months ago
59
10 months ago
Read a novel by Charles Dickens, and you’ll still today feel transported back to the London of the eighteen-twenties. Some of that experience owes to his lavishly reportorial descriptive skills, but even more to his way with dialogue. Dickens faithfully captured the vocabulary of...
Seth's Blog
Division is easier than connection But connection is where the value lies. Connected, resilient communities create possibility and...
3 months ago
24
3 months ago
But connection is where the value lies. Connected, resilient communities create possibility and forward motion. Division is satisfying in the short run, and it might even draw a crowd. But the only useful reason to disconnect is if it opens up the chance to increase connection...
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
30
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...
Seth's Blog
On to the next thing Vitally important, rarely taught, easily messed up. In order to go onto the next thing, which we all...
over a year ago
130
over a year ago
Vitally important, rarely taught, easily messed up. In order to go onto the next thing, which we all do (unless you’re still wearing pajamas with feet and taking ballet lessons), we need to walk away from the last thing. Wrap it up, learn from it, leave it in good hands. And we...
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
12
2 months ago
The ideas aren’t uncomfortable, we are. You don’t have to like the weather to acknowledge that it’s raining.
escape the algorithm
Is Substack exaggerating its network effects? The data tells the story writers want to hear... but is it true?
a year ago
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
62
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, […]
escape the algorithm
Folk search engines Strategies better than plain Google.
a year ago
John Reynolds -...
2024.04.14 2024.04.14
2 months ago
Seth's Blog
Updating our stuck interactions There are few sitcoms, thrillers or plays where the plot can tolerate the addition of a cell phone....
a year ago
35
a year ago
There are few sitcoms, thrillers or plays where the plot can tolerate the addition of a cell phone. Once the characters have the ability to connect and clear up misunderstandings at will, a lot of tension disappears. If Juliet had had a smartphone, she and Romeo would have ended...
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
25
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
Confused by signals Even at a distance, we can sometimes tell if someone is educated, rich, powerful or physically...
2 weeks ago
10
2 weeks ago
Even at a distance, we can sometimes tell if someone is educated, rich, powerful or physically attractive. But that doesn’t always correlate with smart, kind or honest. Strong signals might not be the same as useful ones.
Seth's Blog
The half apology What a waste. Something went wrong, and the other person cared enough about the relationship to let...
a year ago
95
a year ago
What a waste. Something went wrong, and the other person cared enough about the relationship to let you know. Perhaps they’re hoping that you can rebuild a bridge. That you can see what they see and care enough to do something about it. A half apology is a little like half a...
Seth's Blog
Peak infrastructure Community resources are easy to take for granted. Unevenly distributed, they’re the sort of thing we...
a year ago
85
a year ago
Community resources are easy to take for granted. Unevenly distributed, they’re the sort of thing we miss only when they’re gone. Invisible things are easy to ignore. I was stunned to see a sign in Connecticut that listed the names of dozens of highway workers who had been killed...
Seth's Blog
The problem with ‘very’ It’s a lazy amplifier. “Very” can modify almost any adjective, but it might not deliver our intended...
8 months ago
59
8 months ago
It’s a lazy amplifier. “Very” can modify almost any adjective, but it might not deliver our intended message. Putting it in front of a positive like “charming” or “kind” or “generous” can make it clear that we mean what we said, but more so. But, placed in front of a description...
Seth's Blog
And when it breaks? Most of the pitch and the demo is all about how terrific our plans are, and how well our gadget...
a week ago
7
a week ago
Most of the pitch and the demo is all about how terrific our plans are, and how well our gadget works. But if we hope for resilience, perhaps it makes sense to show off how gracefully the system breaks. Because it will break. Because plans won’t work out. Because we’ll be...
Seth's Blog
Hope and expectations They’re not the same thing. Hope can fuel us. Hope can be refilled. Hope opens the door to...
a year ago
32
a year ago
They’re not the same thing. Hope can fuel us. Hope can be refilled. Hope opens the door to possibility. Expectations, on the other hand, are a trap. They make us brittle and lead to disappointment. When we raise our hopes and lower our expectations, we establish a resilient way...
Seth's Blog
Status (and the grass tax) Status shows up whenever humans do, and it is the invisible underpinning of our culture. The front...
3 weeks ago
12
3 weeks ago
Status shows up whenever humans do, and it is the invisible underpinning of our culture. The front lawn was only invented around the time of Columbus. The idea was to demonstrate that you had time and money to waste. You could take useful land and make it non-productive. You...
Seth's Blog
(Free) subscription drive Every four years, give or take, I make a big but cheap ask: Consider subscribing to this blog. If...
a year ago
31
a year ago
Every four years, give or take, I make a big but cheap ask: Consider subscribing to this blog. If you’re already a subscriber, please ask five colleagues or friends to subscribe. It’s free. You can subscribe by email by putting your email address in the little box. Click below if...
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
48
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 […]
Seth's Blog
Shields down Michael Lopp helped coin an important term. When you’re a skilled craftsperson with high market...
a year ago
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a year ago
Michael Lopp helped coin an important term. When you’re a skilled craftsperson with high market value, there may be recruiters knocking on your door. An employee who has ‘shields up’ doesn’t even bother to answer the door. When shields are down, you’re open to at least hearing...
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
15
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...
Seth's Blog
Thoughts on audiobooks I’m listening more than reading these days, and I find that a good audiobook can make a real impact...
8 months ago
70
8 months ago
I’m listening more than reading these days, and I find that a good audiobook can make a real impact on the way I absorb and learn from a book. It’s a once in a century sort of shift in this medium. My new book is now available in audio. It’s not on Audible, at least […]
Blog - Mac Pierce
Decreasing the F.Q. - A talk on Facial Recognition and the Opt Out Cap Links to a talk I gave on the Opt-Out cap and the state of surveillance via facial recognition.
over a year ago
Open Culture
Face to Face with Carl Jung: ‘Man Cannot Stand a Meaningless Life’ (1959) Carl Gustav Jung, founder of analytic psychology and explorer of the collective unconscious, was...
11 months ago
52
11 months ago
Carl Gustav Jung, founder of analytic psychology and explorer of the collective unconscious, was born on July 26, 1875 in the village of Kesswil, in the Thurgau canton of Switzerland. Above, we present a fascinating 39-minute interview of Jung by John Freeman for the BBC program...
Infinite Scroll
Internet Book Club: Careless People Incuriosity, carelessness, and the current political moment
3 months ago
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
39
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...
Seth's Blog
Get/Want/Have To Get to, want to and have to are an endless braid. How much of our time do we spend on each? Have to...
over a year ago
46
over a year ago
Get to, want to and have to are an endless braid. How much of our time do we spend on each? Have to is often up to someone else. The things we’re required to do by the system or the people in it. Get to is a matter of perspective. Trust and health and leverage […]
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Aurore Swithenbank Hiya, I’m Aurore Swithenbank, a printmaker living in South East London with my partner and cute cat....
2 months ago
31
2 months ago
Hiya, I’m Aurore Swithenbank, a printmaker living in South East London with my partner and cute cat. I moved to London when I was 10 from France and haven’t looked back since.  Describe your printmaking process.  My printmaking method is linocut. I plan most of my designs with...
Open Culture
How Marcel Duchamp Signed a Urinal in 1917 & Redefined Art Marcel Duchamp didn’t sign his name on a urinal for lack of ability to create “real” art. In fact,...
10 months ago
53
10 months ago
Marcel Duchamp didn’t sign his name on a urinal for lack of ability to create “real” art. In fact, as explained by gallerist-Youtuber James Payne in the new Great Art Explained video above, Duchamp’s grandfather was an artist, as were three of his siblings; he himself attained...
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
31
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
Wild Hope Now: The power of books for causes Non-profits and charities depend on the emotional and financial support of their backers. And that...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Non-profits and charities depend on the emotional and financial support of their backers. And that support is always based on a story. A story of possibility, of justice, of community. They serve to right wrongs, to fix problems, to shine a light and to make things better. I’ve...
Seth's Blog
I fixed it for you Creativity is about hope and possibility. It gives us a chance to make things better. Plenty has...
a year ago
39
a year ago
Creativity is about hope and possibility. It gives us a chance to make things better. Plenty has been written about the sad iPad ad that Apple just apologized for. It wasn’t just out of character for the story Apple tells, it was a cheap hack, taking the nihilism and helplessness...
Seth's Blog
The marketing department That’s the first part of the confusion. It’s a group of people who can’t decide what the thing they...
a year ago
46
a year ago
That’s the first part of the confusion. It’s a group of people who can’t decide what the thing they do is supposed to be. Is it: Advertising Publicity Increasing retail distribution Direct and measured response SEO Making the logo pretty Wholesale and trade relationships...
Seth's Blog
Change your shoes Like all good metaphors, it might be practical too. Your ‘shoes’ are the point of greatest leverage....
6 months ago
58
6 months ago
Like all good metaphors, it might be practical too. Your ‘shoes’ are the point of greatest leverage. The spot where you have traction and engage with the world most directly. For a freelancer, it might be the way you engage with customers, or your software tools. It might be the...
Seth's Blog
Digital shortcuts and cognitive load I used to drive 200 miles to Boston once a week or so. After a few trips on the highway, my...
a year ago
134
a year ago
I used to drive 200 miles to Boston once a week or so. After a few trips on the highway, my subconscious figured out that getting behind a few trucks for the entire ride enabled me to spend four hours without using much conscious effort on driving. Every day, we make decisions....
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
34
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
The essence of industrialism Efficiency + Convenience. Not everything is industrialized. A backyard garden, a freelance editor,...
2 months ago
32
2 months ago
Efficiency + Convenience. Not everything is industrialized. A backyard garden, a freelance editor, even a chef with a hands-on restaurant. These folks are building a practice and producing value, but they haven’t embraced industrialization. That happens when management steps in,...
Seth's Blog
Bad design might simply be obsolete design Perhaps you’ve encountered a sink with two taps, not one. One for hot, one for cold, without a...
3 months ago
22
3 months ago
Perhaps you’ve encountered a sink with two taps, not one. One for hot, one for cold, without a chance to mix them before you scald or chill yourself. It seems absurd that the folks who figured out the technology to build sinks with running water couldn’t be bothered with the last...
Seth's Blog
PW 4: Productivity and tools Adam Smith and Karl Marx both wrote about the pin-making machine. Not too long ago, pins (for hats,...
a year ago
29
a year ago
Adam Smith and Karl Marx both wrote about the pin-making machine. Not too long ago, pins (for hats, to hold shirts in place, etc.) were incredibly expensive. They were a luxury item, and a handmade pin might cost more than buying lunch. The pin-making machine changed this. It...
Ian Betteridge
Weeknote, Monday 23rd December A week off work, yay! Obviously that has not stopped me checking and replying to a few emails. My...
6 months ago
58
6 months ago
A week off work, yay! Obviously that has not stopped me checking and replying to a few emails. My team were also attempting to get me to help them cheat at the work Christmas quiz using WhatsApp. Shamefully, they didn’t even win. I had my first face to face physio session about...
Open Culture
J. G. Ballard Demystifies Surrealist Paintings by Dalí, Magritte, de Chirico & More Before his signature works like The Atrocity Exhibition, Crash, and High-Rise, J. G. Ballard...
10 months ago
48
10 months ago
Before his signature works like The Atrocity Exhibition, Crash, and High-Rise, J. G. Ballard published three apocalyptic novels, The Drowned World, The Burning World, and The Crystal World. Each of those books offers a different vision of large-scale environmental disaster, and...
Seth's Blog
What do we do with our chance? Everyone needs more chances, more benefit of the doubt, more opportunity. But what turns a chance...
6 months ago
49
6 months ago
Everyone needs more chances, more benefit of the doubt, more opportunity. But what turns a chance into a big break is what we do with it once the chance arrives.
Seth's Blog
When did we lose consciousness? In medical TV dramas, losing consciousness is something that happens suddenly and dramatically. We...
9 months ago
78
9 months ago
In medical TV dramas, losing consciousness is something that happens suddenly and dramatically. We can all tell… the body is still there, but the mind is gone, at least for now. Unfortunately, this happens in real life. At work. In our personal lives. For a few minutes or even a...
Seth's Blog
The weird arithmetic of coordinated action Twenty handwritten letters received by someone in power are worth a hundred times as much as two...
5 months ago
104
5 months ago
Twenty handwritten letters received by someone in power are worth a hundred times as much as two letters. And when that becomes a hundred different personal letters, increasing in volume, from different people, delivered to an organization every week for a year… it’s worth a...
Seth's Blog
Versions of reality A sea slug sees far more colors than you do, and you probably see more than a profoundly color-blind...
4 days ago
5
4 days ago
A sea slug sees far more colors than you do, and you probably see more than a profoundly color-blind person. Who’s right? We each carry our own version of reality, our own story about what happened, what’s around us and how things work. Our chosen reality serves two useful...
Open Culture
The Final Days of Leo Tolstoy Captured in Rare Footage from 1910 114 years ago today (November 20, 1910), Leo Tolstoy—the author who gave us two major Russian...
7 months ago
51
7 months ago
114 years ago today (November 20, 1910), Leo Tolstoy—the author who gave us two major Russian classics Anna Karenina and War & Peace—died at Astapovo, a small, remote train station in the heart of Russia. Pneumonia was the official cause. His death came just weeks after Tolstoy,...
Open Culture
David Lynch Releases on YouTube Interview Project: 121 Stories of Real America Recorded on a... Take a sufficiently long road trip across America, and you’re bound to encounter something or...
9 months ago
52
9 months ago
Take a sufficiently long road trip across America, and you’re bound to encounter something or someone Lynchian. Whether or not that idea lay behind Interview Project, the undertaking had the endorsement of David Lynch himself. Not coincidentally, it was conceived by his son...
Seth's Blog
Inconvenient! That’s great news. The thing you need, the road ahead, the element that will transform your...
over a year ago
41
over a year ago
That’s great news. The thing you need, the road ahead, the element that will transform your project–it appears to be inconvenient. That’s terrific, because it means that most other people can’t be bothered. It’s valuable because the very inconvenience of it makes it scarce. The...
Open Culture
The Longest Drivable Distance in the World: Discover the Ultimate Road Trip No matter what country we live in, we’ve all fantasized about taking our own great American road...
9 months ago
69
9 months ago
No matter what country we live in, we’ve all fantasized about taking our own great American road trip, considering a variety of the infinitely many possible routes. The most obvious would be driving between Los Angeles and New York, a distance of 2,800 miles that would take a bit...
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
88
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...
Seth's Blog
Obvious vs perhaps “Obvious” closes the door to inquiry. “Perhaps” opens it.
3 months ago
Seth's Blog
How many more in the bag? In a huge bag of chips, each individual chip isn’t worth as much as if there’s only a few. On a long...
a month ago
15
a month ago
In a huge bag of chips, each individual chip isn’t worth as much as if there’s only a few. On a long vacation, each day might feel less precious than on a short one. This is an invented construct. Our perception and embrace of time and the available alternatives is up to us. If...
Seth's Blog
Refocusing Freedom, liberty and independence are human rights. But they depend on responsibility....
yesterday
3
yesterday
Freedom, liberty and independence are human rights. But they depend on responsibility. Responsibility to others, to our future, to the community. Responsibility for our actions and our choices. The only way to earn our independence is to keep the promises we’ve made. Can we...
Seth's Blog
Phrenology For thousands of years, and as recently as the 1930s, phrenology was seen as a useful proxy to judge...
a year ago
94
a year ago
For thousands of years, and as recently as the 1930s, phrenology was seen as a useful proxy to judge someone’s character. Carefully charting the bumps on someone’s head, along with the slope of their forehead and other telltale signs was seen as a thoughtful and proven way to...
Open Culture
A Japanese Zen Monk Explains What Zen Is Really About Despite developing in Asia, as the Chinese form of a religion originally brought over from India and...
2 months ago
14
2 months ago
Despite developing in Asia, as the Chinese form of a religion originally brought over from India and later refined in Japan, Zen Buddhism has long appealed to Westerners as well. Some of that owes to the spare, elegant aesthetics with which popular culture associates it, and more...
Open Culture
Leonardo da Vinci’s Elegant Design for a Perpetual Motion Machine Is perpetual motion possible? In theory… I have no idea…. In practice, so far at least, the answer...
a month ago
22
a month ago
Is perpetual motion possible? In theory… I have no idea…. In practice, so far at least, the answer has been a perpetual no. As Nicholas Barrial writes at Makery, “in order to succeed,” a perpetual motion machine “should be free of friction, run in a vacuum chamber and be totally...
Open Culture
How the Oldest Company in the World, Japan’s Temple-Builder Kongō Gumi, Has Survived Nearly 1,500... Image from New York Public Library, via Wikimedia Commons If you visit Osaka, you’ll be urged to see...
10 months ago
99
10 months ago
Image from New York Public Library, via Wikimedia Commons If you visit Osaka, you’ll be urged to see two old buildings in particular: Osaka Castle and Shitennō-ji (above), Japan’s first Buddhist temple. In beholding both, you’ll behold the work of construction firm Kongō Gumi...
Marian's Blog
Adversarial Generation of Continuous Implicit Shape Representations This article provides an overview of the paper "Adversarial Generation of Continuous Implicit Shape...
over a year ago
29
over a year ago
This article provides an overview of the paper "Adversarial Generation of Continuous Implicit Shape Representations", which I co-authored with Matthias Fey. While the paper focuses on the theoretical aspects, I'll provide a higher level explanation and and some visualizations...
Seth's Blog
There’s always a placebo switch The trick is knowing where it is and using it well. Wanting control doesn’t always mean needing to...
a year ago
25
a year ago
The trick is knowing where it is and using it well. Wanting control doesn’t always mean needing to have control. Sometimes it is simply a desire to be acknowledged. HT to Brian.
Seth's Blog
If they know, they should tell us Asymmetrical information creates real problems. And fixing the flow of useful proxies benefits both...
6 months ago
78
6 months ago
Asymmetrical information creates real problems. And fixing the flow of useful proxies benefits both sides. Cigarette companies knew a great deal about the addictions they were causing and the illnesses that resulted. If the public had known, they would have made different...
Seth's Blog
Scaffolds and talent Kindergarten teachers matter more than you think. Chess isn’t a talent, it’s a learned practice....
a year ago
24
a year ago
Kindergarten teachers matter more than you think. Chess isn’t a talent, it’s a learned practice. We’re sorting for head starts, not growth. And that’s just the first chapter. I think Hidden Potential is the most important book in Adam Grant’s career. The indoctrination around...
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
31
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 […]
Prolost
Virtual NAB at C4DLive TLDR; Hi! C4DLive is happening this week! Already! Watch my talk at noon PDT on Thursday, April...
over a year ago
27
over a year ago
TLDR; Hi! C4DLive is happening this week! Already! Watch my talk at noon PDT on Thursday, April 23! Ask questions! Buy Cinema 4D, Get Red Giant Complete for 50% Off Red Giant Complete is free for students and teachers TGNTR; If it weren’t for COVID-19, the newly-combined...
Seth's Blog
Becoming intentional about virtual meetings A manual I recently read listed the “cons” of having a meeting virtually: To be accurate, every one...
a year ago
31
a year ago
A manual I recently read listed the “cons” of having a meeting virtually: To be accurate, every one of these points should have “so far” added. The videogame market is far bigger than the box office of Hollywood films. The people who play video games at home for hours at a time...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #130 CT-179, Deep Research, NanoCas, Replit Agent, Go Birds
4 months ago
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: MrBeast Games The System Plus! A Momfluencer Horror Story and an Important Orca Update
7 months ago
On the Arts
Istanbul's Blue Tile Paradise The Hidden Mosque of Rüstem Pasha
a year ago
Seth's Blog
The list of compromises All the no-compromise solutions have failed. If there was a way to solve our problem without giving...
over a year ago
53
over a year ago
All the no-compromise solutions have failed. If there was a way to solve our problem without giving something up, we would have done that already. So, if a persistent problem important, the question is not: Should we compromise or not? The question is: Which changes are we going...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #128 Stargate, Operator, Unleashing American Energy and Crypto, Synthetic Eukaryotic Genome, Zipline,...
5 months ago
12
5 months ago
Stargate, Operator, Unleashing American Energy and Crypto, Synthetic Eukaryotic Genome, Zipline, Contrary Tech Trends, Sacca on Ferriss
Open Culture
Jack Kerouac’s Hand-Drawn Cover for On the Road (1952) This falls under the category, “If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.” In 1950,...
10 months ago
40
10 months ago
This falls under the category, “If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.” In 1950, when Jack Kerouac released his first novel, The Town and the City, he was less than impressed by the book cover produced by his publisher, Harcourt Brace. (Click here to see why.) So,...
Seth's Blog
Variety and the long tail In a We Are All Weird universe, there are two sorts of cultural disappointments. The first has been...
a year ago
30
a year ago
In a We Are All Weird universe, there are two sorts of cultural disappointments. The first has been around since the dawn of cable: We don’t all watch the same thing. We don’t all talk about it, hits aren’t really hits, not like they used to be. There’s no comparison in the reach...
Seth's Blog
Better than Google I haven’t done a Google search in months. Perplexity is more powerful, more pleasant and more...
a year ago
44
a year ago
I haven’t done a Google search in months. Perplexity is more powerful, more pleasant and more effective. Instead of being corrupted by invasive ads, surveillance and sneaky dark patterns, it presents you with a simple, footnoted explanation of exactly what you’re looking for....
Seth's Blog
Solving invented problems Some problems, when well solved, lead to making things better. Some problems give us a chance to get...
a year ago
23
a year ago
Some problems, when well solved, lead to making things better. Some problems give us a chance to get back on course. And some problems are opportunities to be generous. But many of the problems that we seek to solve are actually invented, and maybe we could benefit by simply...
The Great Discontent...
Luke Zahm “Everyone eats. There's so much beauty in realizing that humaneness and that oneness.” This is the...
a year ago
10
a year ago
“Everyone eats. There's so much beauty in realizing that humaneness and that oneness.” This is the ethos of Luke Zahm. The James Beard-nominated chef, host of the hit PBS show Wisconsin Foodie, and owner of the widely acclaimed Driftless Café in Viroqua, Wisconsin, believes food...
Open Culture
Martin Scorsese Plays Vincent Van Gogh in a Short, Surreal Film by Akira Kurosawa The idea of the auteur director has been a controversial one at times given the sheer number of...
11 months ago
59
11 months ago
The idea of the auteur director has been a controversial one at times given the sheer number of people required at every stage to produce a film. But it hangs together for me when you look at the films of say, Martin Scorsese or Akira Kurosawa, both directors with very...
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
55
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...
Marian's Blog
What I learned from building autonomous model race cars for a year I was part of a university project group that develops autonomous model race cars. We are a group of...
over a year ago
28
over a year ago
I was part of a university project group that develops autonomous model race cars. We are a group of twelve students working on the project in part time for year. We were provided with a car that meets the requirements for the F1/10th competition. Even though competing in F1/10th...
Not Boring by Packy...
Us Against Spacetime On the improbability and promise of being alive on Earth in 2025
2 months ago
Seth's Blog
Turtleneck confusion Apple didn’t succeed because of the way Steve Jobs dressed. Just like SBF’s hair didn’t put him in...
a year ago
35
a year ago
Apple didn’t succeed because of the way Steve Jobs dressed. Just like SBF’s hair didn’t put him in jail. We can look at the outré behavior of various Silicon Valley overlords and come to the conclusion that it’s not only a necessary part of the job but actually the cause of their...
Open Culture
Orson Welles Narrates Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner in an Experimental Film Featuring the... Around here we subscribe to the theory that there’s no such thing as too much Orson Welles. In years...
9 months ago
62
9 months ago
Around here we subscribe to the theory that there’s no such thing as too much Orson Welles. In years past, we gave you Welles narrating Plato’s Cave Allegory and Kafka’s “Before the Law,” and, before that, the Welles-narrated parable Freedom River, and the list goes on. Now, we...
Seth's Blog
Compounding head starts When a six-year-old kid beats the other kids at tennis, that kid is more likely to be encouraged to...
over a year ago
89
over a year ago
When a six-year-old kid beats the other kids at tennis, that kid is more likely to be encouraged to play more, or to get a coach, and pretty soon, they’re much better at tennis than the others. When a musical group has a single that gets some buzz on Spotify, they’re more likely...
Seth's Blog
Naming is part of marketing A name is a hook for us to hang a story on. We need to begin with empathy and a useful story… useful...
a year ago
43
a year ago
A name is a hook for us to hang a story on. We need to begin with empathy and a useful story… useful to the people who want to believe it, spread it, and use it to accomplish their goals. But then, the story needs firm footing and a way to stick with us. Patagonia […]
Open Culture
Death: A Free Online Philosophy Course from Yale Helps You Grapple with the Inescapable It pays to think intelligently about the inevitable. And this course taught by Yale professor Shelly...
9 months ago
57
9 months ago
It pays to think intelligently about the inevitable. And this course taught by Yale professor Shelly Kagan does just that, taking a rich, philosophical look at death. Here’s how the course description reads: There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to...
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 […]
Seth's Blog
On the dot Hardy came home from school and proudly showed his mom the cheap plastic trinkets he had earned that...
a year ago
31
a year ago
Hardy came home from school and proudly showed his mom the cheap plastic trinkets he had earned that day. “I stood quietly on the dot and so I got some tickets. And if I stand on the dot quietly tomorrow, I can get some more prizes!” First grade! That’s one way to indoctrinate...
Prolost
New Photography Shortcuts Using ToolBox Pro My love affair with Apple’s Shortcuts took a bit of a hit during the transition to iOS 13, but my...
over a year ago
33
over a year ago
My love affair with Apple’s Shortcuts took a bit of a hit during the transition to iOS 13, but my fascination with this on-device development environment has been rekindled thanks to a new app called ToolBox Pro. ToolBox Pro is a free iOS/iPadOS app that adds powerful new actions...
Haterade
Who Booby-Trapped This Tiny Cabbage? And other critical questions from the mailbag.
over a year ago
Haterade
Introducing: Barbecue Running Gel It's time to smoke the competition.
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Writing your book I spent time this week with two authors who are showing up to share their lives, their insights, and...
a year ago
28
a year ago
I spent time this week with two authors who are showing up to share their lives, their insights, and their generosity in the form of books. A good book will change the reader, but it makes an even bigger impact on the author. Here’s a classic episode of Akimbo. Book publishing...
Seth's Blog
The audacity of the crowd anthem There’s little doubt that We Are the Champions is one of the great crowd anthems of our time. Just...
over a year ago
78
over a year ago
There’s little doubt that We Are the Champions is one of the great crowd anthems of our time. Just about any group can be stirred into a frenzy just by playing a few bars: The same goes Rapper’s Delight. And yet… Can you imagine how frightening it must have been to play it live...
Not Boring by Packy...
Hyperlegible 007: 50 Things Brian Potter Has Learned Writing Construction Physics Things are almost always more complicated than they seem.
2 months ago
Seth's Blog
Complex or complicated? Complicated problems have a solution, and the solution can often be found by breaking the...
a year ago
25
a year ago
Complicated problems have a solution, and the solution can often be found by breaking the complicated portions into smaller pieces. And complicated problems often have an emotional component, because there are parts of the problem we don’t want to look at closely, or deal with...
Open Culture
Jimi Hendrix Opens for The Monkees on a 1967 Tour; Then Flips Off the Crowd and Quits It’s easy to dismiss The Monkees. Critics and listeners have been doing it since the sixties,...
11 months ago
70
11 months ago
It’s easy to dismiss The Monkees. Critics and listeners have been doing it since the sixties, although the band has also come in for its share of reappraisals, particularly for their psych-rock album Head. (That’s the soundtrack from the 1968 Jack Nicholson-directed art film of...
On the Arts
The Necrologs of Bulgaria Remembering the Dead in Daily Life
a year ago
Seth's Blog
When the committee decides They’re almost always conservative. Whether it’s a governmental body, the strategy group at a big...
a year ago
26
a year ago
They’re almost always conservative. Whether it’s a governmental body, the strategy group at a big company or the membership panel at the local country club, we can learn a lot by seeing what they approve and when they stall. Of course, each of us know a lot about our offering,...
Haterade
Tiny Hot Dogs for the Modern Man Introducing: Smoke Sheaths
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
We can agree about schismogenesis Anthropologist Gregory Bateson highlighted that often, culture is based on oppositional behavior....
3 months ago
30
3 months ago
Anthropologist Gregory Bateson highlighted that often, culture is based on oppositional behavior. And it can spiral. They say “up” and the easy thing is to say “down.” Literally, “the creation of division.” Your competitor launches a product and you work to undermine it with a...
Seth's Blog
… or the highway Our instincts might not be as good as we hope. Going with your gut is thrilling. It’s personal,...
4 months ago
29
4 months ago
Our instincts might not be as good as we hope. Going with your gut is thrilling. It’s personal, vulnerable and brave. And if it’s getting you what you seek, keep at it. But often, our instincts are a way of hiding, undermined by a lack of knowledge. If you haven’t done the...
Open Culture
Unlock AI’s Potential in Your Work and Daily Life: Take a Popular Course from Google Generative AI is rapidly becoming an essential tool for streamlining work and solving complex...
7 months ago
36
7 months ago
Generative AI is rapidly becoming an essential tool for streamlining work and solving complex challenges. However, knowing how to use GenAI effectively isn’t always obvious. That’s where Google Prompting Essentials comes in. This course will teach you to write clear and specific...
Haterade
Cooking with Dom DeLuise The dream of the ‘90s is alive and portly
2 months ago
Infinite Scroll
The UnPopulist: Abundance Politics This week I’m in The UnPopulist with an article about the politics of the abundance agenda:
5 months ago
Seth's Blog
Don’t steal the revelation Learning is a journey of incompetence. First, we realize that there’s something we don’t know. Then...
5 months ago
43
5 months ago
Learning is a journey of incompetence. First, we realize that there’s something we don’t know. Then we see that we’re going to be better at it, and we’re not good at it yet. Then we figure it out and we’ve succeeded. Repeat. When we pre-process the information and simply test...
Seth's Blog
Defending the apostrophe Does it need defending? The sign on some bushes near a park in my town says, Beware: Bee’s. A local...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Does it need defending? The sign on some bushes near a park in my town says, Beware: Bee’s. A local merchant adds a note to some receipts that says, Your awesome. It’s tempting to speak up and point out that the sky comma is showing up where it shouldn’t. And missing when it...
Seth's Blog
Population and big innovations It’s tempting to embrace the meme that the best way for humans to solve the big problems in front of...
over a year ago
45
over a year ago
It’s tempting to embrace the meme that the best way for humans to solve the big problems in front of us is to increase the population, perhaps dramatically. The thinking goes that people are the ones who can solve problems, and more people give us more problem-solvers. This...
Anarchy Unfolds
The rich don't have authority On the myth of power and money
5 months ago
Stat Significant
Is Music Stardom in Decline? A Statistical Analysis Is music stardom dying?
8 months ago
Seth's Blog
Foundering or floundering? Floundering is flopping around and making little progress. A Dutch word for getting mired and lost....
8 months ago
64
8 months ago
Floundering is flopping around and making little progress. A Dutch word for getting mired and lost. Foundering is what we call it when the ship goes down. It’s an ancient French word based on bottom. Too often, in our desperate attempt to not founder, we flounder. Better, I...
Rectangle
The Linear effect Is everything looking the same?
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Digital editions on big sale As many of my readers get ready for a long weekend, here are two of my books now on discount at...
2 days ago
4
2 days ago
As many of my readers get ready for a long weekend, here are two of my books now on discount at Amazon–for another few days. This is Strategy is 90% off on the Kindle. $3! And This is Marketing is discounted as well. If you’ve read or listened to either one, here’s a new AI […]
Anarchy Unfolds
Straight Talk About Being Gay Transcending orientation helps straight men and boys too
11 months ago
Seth's Blog
Normalizing selfishness Shoplifters lurk in the shadows. They realize that they will have an easier time if they quietly...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Shoplifters lurk in the shadows. They realize that they will have an easier time if they quietly steal stuff, because speaking up about it won’t help their cause. Sometimes, though, some people seek to change the culture in a way that celebrates taking. “I own this jetski and I...
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...
7 months ago
30
7 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
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.
Open Culture
The History of Electronic Music in 476 Tracks (1937–2001) Photo of Karlheinz Stockhausen by Kathinka Pasveer via Wikimedia Commons You may hear the phrase...
a week ago
12
a week ago
Photo of Karlheinz Stockhausen by Kathinka Pasveer via Wikimedia Commons You may hear the phrase “electronic music” and think of superstar dubstep DJs in funny helmets at beachside celebrity parties. Alternatively, you may think of the mercurial compositions of Karlheinz...
Seth's Blog
Different kinds of people It’s a tempting shortcut. Different kinds of people prefer pop tarts to pizza, or prefer expensive...
a year ago
46
a year ago
It’s a tempting shortcut. Different kinds of people prefer pop tarts to pizza, or prefer expensive wine to beer, or prefer amusement parks to bowling. Except everyone is the same and everyone is different. What’s actually useful is to realize that in this moment, under these...
Seth's Blog
Rituals The things we do each day, every day, often arrive without intent. By the time we realize that...
over a year ago
45
over a year ago
The things we do each day, every day, often arrive without intent. By the time we realize that they’re now habits, these random behaviors have already become part of how we define ourselves and the time we spend. Bringing intent to our rituals gives us the chance to rewire our...
On the Arts
On the Arts: A Year-End Review A brief guide to everything published this year.
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Trading trust The Brookings Institution did a fascinating survey series over the last five years. I have two...
a year ago
35
a year ago
The Brookings Institution did a fascinating survey series over the last five years. I have two takeways from this: The first is that focused and persistent propaganda is able to shift public opinion about institutions they don’t have direct interaction with. The more important...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Rosanna Reade I am a printmaker and illustrator from Northern Ireland, living and working in Edinburgh. I studied...
over a year ago
54
over a year ago
I am a printmaker and illustrator from Northern Ireland, living and working in Edinburgh. I studied History of Art at University but have reverted back to creating art rather than talking or writing about it! As a self-taught printmaker, there is quite a lot of trial and error...
Open Culture
A Bicycle Trip: Watch an Animation of The World’s First LSD Trip in 1943 On August 16, 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann was synthesizing a new compound called lysergic...
a year ago
51
a year ago
On August 16, 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann was synthesizing a new compound called lysergic acid diethylamide-25 when he got a couple of drops on his finger. The chemical, later known worldwide as LSD, absorbed into his system, and, soon after, he experienced an intense...
Open Culture
Archaeologists Discover an Ancient Roman Sandal with Nails Used for Tread A recreation of the military sandals. (Photo: Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation)...
11 months ago
63
11 months ago
A recreation of the military sandals. (Photo: Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation) Whether you’re putting together a stage play, a film, or a television series, if the story is set in ancient Rome, you know you’re going to have to get a lot of sandals on order. This...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Angela Chalmers Hi, my name is Angela Chalmers. I am a visual artist living in North Yorkshire. I work with...
4 months ago
37
4 months ago
Hi, my name is Angela Chalmers. I am a visual artist living in North Yorkshire. I work with cameraless photography techniques and the cyanotype process producing 2D and 3D artworks on paper and textiles. Cyanotype dates from the early days of photography and produces beautiful...
Anarchy Unfolds
Queer Folk Don't Need Orientation How decade-old discourse shows us a way out
9 months ago
Marian's Blog
Raspberry Pi Wetterstation Um die Daten, die meine Arduino-Wetterstation liefert, verfügbarer zu machen, habe ich mich...
over a year ago
17
over a year ago
Um die Daten, die meine Arduino-Wetterstation liefert, verfügbarer zu machen, habe ich mich entschieden, das Projekt jetzt mit einem Raspberry Pi weiterzuführen. Die Sensordaten werden wieder vom ILC-Board geliefert, das ich für den Schülerwettbewerb Intel Leibniz Challenge...
Open Culture
Behold James Sowerby’s Strikingly Illustrated New Elucidation of Colours (1809) James Sowerby was an artist dedicated to the natural world. It thus comes as no surprise that he was...
11 months ago
46
11 months ago
James Sowerby was an artist dedicated to the natural world. It thus comes as no surprise that he was also enormously interested in color, especially given the era in which he lived. Born in 1757, he made his professional start as a painter of flowers: a viable career path in...
Open Culture
A 5‑Hour Journey Through North Korean Entertainment: Propaganda Films, Kids’ Cartoons, Sketch Comedy... Over the second half of the twentieth century, South Korea became rich, and in the first decades of...
a year ago
38
a year ago
Over the second half of the twentieth century, South Korea became rich, and in the first decades of the twenty-first, it’s become a global cultural superpower. The same can’t be said for North Korea: after a relatively strong start in the nineteen-fifties and sixties, its economy...
Seth's Blog
Should we assume rational goodwill? There’s often a choice between following the cultural dictates of a given group or seeking out...
a year ago
22
a year ago
There’s often a choice between following the cultural dictates of a given group or seeking out demonstrable facts and the scientific method. Which do you expect most people would choose? Which would you choose? When we revert to a testable analysis of what works, we’re relying on...
Seth's Blog
Which sort of sinecure? Sooner or later, we find a place to hide. A place of security or sustenance. A place of safety. That...
over a year ago
78
over a year ago
Sooner or later, we find a place to hide. A place of security or sustenance. A place of safety. That sort of foundation can give us peace of mind and open the door to possibility. But, it’s possible that we can turn it into a trap as well. A situation so perfectly created that...
Open Culture
Was William Shakespeare’s Marriage Closer—and Less Estranged—Than We Thought?: A 17th-Century Letter... Image via Hereford Cathedral and Hereford Mappa Mundi Trust At this point, every aspect of William...
2 months ago
8
2 months ago
Image via Hereford Cathedral and Hereford Mappa Mundi Trust At this point, every aspect of William Shakespeare’s life has produced more speculation than any of us could digest in a lifetime. That goes for his professional life, of course, but also his even more scantily...
Seth's Blog
The magic of placebos One of two things is true: A placebo is a force beyond understanding, one that is capable of...
over a year ago
84
over a year ago
One of two things is true: A placebo is a force beyond understanding, one that is capable of disappearing when we do the appropriate double-blind tests and has mechanisms that defy our knowledge of the laws of physics. Or… A placebo is a prompt for our subconscious to do the hard...
Seth's Blog
Hiding the ‘aha’ The most effective persuasion happens when we persuade ourselves. The purpose of the memo or the...
a year ago
32
a year ago
The most effective persuasion happens when we persuade ourselves. The purpose of the memo or the table or the graph or the presentation is to create the conditions for someone to make up their own minds. Because it’s almost impossible to make up their mind for them. The aha is...
Seth's Blog
Embodied energy It might only cost $2 in the vending machine, but that can of soda is a complicated battery. It...
9 months ago
64
9 months ago
It might only cost $2 in the vending machine, but that can of soda is a complicated battery. It stores the energy of the machines that were used to mine the bauxite, the ship that brought the ore to Iceland, the astonishing temperatures used to create the aluminum, then more...
Marian's Blog
Connecting my fish tank to the Internet of Things – Part 1: Hacking an automatic fish feeder I bought a used automatic fish feeder from ebay. This device is completely mechanic and very old...
over a year ago
17
over a year ago
I bought a used automatic fish feeder from ebay. This device is completely mechanic and very old (older than 1989). It has 27 containers for fish food and a disc that does one rotation per day. By sticking pins into that disc one can trigger one or more feedings per day. A pin...
Seth's Blog
What’s new at purple.space? There are now 1,000 of us in this online community that’s not a social network. Proudly a millionth...
a year ago
24
a year ago
There are now 1,000 of us in this online community that’s not a social network. Proudly a millionth the size of some other online experiences. It includes the original Creative’s Workshop, with hundreds of people working through it, side by side. And just added, access to the...
Open Culture
How the Hugely Acclaimed Shōgun TV Series Makes Translation Interesting Many of us grew up seeing hardback copies of Shōgun on various domestic bookshelves. Whether their...
9 months ago
59
9 months ago
Many of us grew up seeing hardback copies of Shōgun on various domestic bookshelves. Whether their owners ever actually got through James Clavell’s famously hefty novel of seventeenth-century Japan is open to question, but they may well have seen the first television adaptation,...
Seth's Blog
Dreams and roadblocks The first step is to imagine what the people you serve want and care about it. The second is to...
a year ago
77
a year ago
The first step is to imagine what the people you serve want and care about it. The second is to figure out why they don’t have it yet. If you can help people get to where they seek to go, when they’re ready to get there, the stuff called marketing gets significantly easier.
Seth's Blog
Perfect pavement Paving the ground might be an option. Pavement is invisible to the driver. It’s expected, smooth,...
a year ago
61
a year ago
Paving the ground might be an option. Pavement is invisible to the driver. It’s expected, smooth, resilient and gets out of the way. You only notice a road when it’s not paved well. Nature, on the other hand, is never perfect. All untouched forests are natural, yet each is...
Blog - Mac Pierce
Back into the FE-AL: Iron Pour at Sculpture Trails Indiana In which I detail the process of making a cannonball by participating at a very unique iron...
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Two kinds of creative feedback If you’re the client or the boss, it’s possible that someone is going to create creative work for...
4 months ago
36
4 months ago
If you’re the client or the boss, it’s possible that someone is going to create creative work for you. Sooner or later, you’ll get something that doesn’t work. You might want to explain why it’s not good enough. Perhaps you can demonstrate how it doesn’t fit the genre or meet...
Open Culture
Watch the Earliest-Known Charles Dickens Film: The Death of Poor Joe A little over a decade ago, a curator at the British Film Institute (BFI) discovered the oldest...
a year ago
47
a year ago
A little over a decade ago, a curator at the British Film Institute (BFI) discovered the oldest surviving film featuring a Charles Dickens character, “The Death of Poor Joe.” The silent film, directed by George Albert Smith in 1900, brings to life Dickens’ character Jo, the...
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
28
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
The reluctant spammer “I don’t want to send this pitch to a list of every single podcaster in the world, but we have to...
a year ago
78
a year ago
“I don’t want to send this pitch to a list of every single podcaster in the world, but we have to get the word out.” “I don’t want to send an email to every one of our previous donors every three days until they unsubscribe, but our work is so important, it has to be […]
Seth's Blog
“But what if I’m wrong? If we’re going to come together and invest the time in conversation, in research or in analysis, we...
a year ago
47
a year ago
If we’re going to come together and invest the time in conversation, in research or in analysis, we should begin by understanding what would be required for you or I to change our minds. If you’re not willing to consider that you’re wrong, then, in the words of a Dan Dennett,...
Open Culture
Hear Alan Watts’s 1960s Prediction That Automation Will Necessitate a Universal Basic Income One of the most propulsive forces in our social and economic lives is the rate at which emerging...
a week ago
9
a week ago
One of the most propulsive forces in our social and economic lives is the rate at which emerging technology transforms every sphere of human labor. Despite the political leverage obtained by fearmongering about immigrants and foreigners, it’s the robots who are actually taking...
Seth's Blog
1,000 fans (which sort?) Not all customers are fans. And not all fans are the sort of customers you can thrive with. Cadres...
a month ago
16
a month ago
Not all customers are fans. And not all fans are the sort of customers you can thrive with. Cadres of supporters often migrate into one of two camps… The generous stans (a more positive riff from a twenty-year-old Eminem track), are there for the work and the change being made,...
On the Arts
Winter as Reading Season David Foster Wallace on the necessity of quiet time in order to read.
a year ago
Open Culture
Édouard Manet Illustrates Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, in a French Edition Translated by Stephane... Edgar Allan Poe achieved almost instant fame during his lifetime after the publication of The...
7 months ago
44
7 months ago
Edgar Allan Poe achieved almost instant fame during his lifetime after the publication of The Raven (1845), but he never felt that he received the recognition he deserved. In some respects, he was right. He was, after all, paid only nine dollars for the poem, and he struggled...
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
37
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...
Handprinted - Blog
Using Hawthorn Process Colours We've been stocking Hawthorn Stay Open Inks for 6 years now! These inks are oil based inks and work...
over a year ago
82
over a year ago
We've been stocking Hawthorn Stay Open Inks for 6 years now! These inks are oil based inks and work beautifully for relief printing. We have a fantastic range of colours including the process range. Process colours are inks specially formulated to create a full spectrum of...
Seth's Blog
Kash’s garden She doesn’t grow plants. The plants grow themselves. Her job is to create conditions for the plants...
a year ago
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a year ago
She doesn’t grow plants. The plants grow themselves. Her job is to create conditions for the plants to grow. The soil, the water, the light, the weeds… these are the conditions. But none of it happens if the plants don’t do the thing they want to do in the first place. This is...
Prolost
Apple’s “Let Loose” iPad Event was Shot on iPhone — With Panavision Lenses Still from Apple’s “Let Loose” video. Apple unveiled their new line of iPads yesterday in a...
a year ago
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a year ago
Still from Apple’s “Let Loose” video. Apple unveiled their new line of iPads yesterday in a pre-recorded video titled “Let Loose.” As with the previous “Scary Fast” MacBook Pro launch video, “Let Loose” ends with a tag proclaiming “Shot on iPhone” — this time adding “Edited on...
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,...
4 months ago
27
4 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....
Seth's Blog
Better at being better In most competitive markets, when an organization offers a new benefit, others will quickly move to...
6 months ago
58
6 months ago
In most competitive markets, when an organization offers a new benefit, others will quickly move to match it. This means that it’s hard to justify the hard work of creating something better, because it’s just going to become a new standard. It doesn’t pay for a credit card...
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
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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...
Seth's Blog
Avoid false proxies They’re toxic, wasteful and a tempting trap. It’s one of the most important topics in my new book....
over a year ago
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over a year ago
They’re toxic, wasteful and a tempting trap. It’s one of the most important topics in my new book. (And here’s a new podcast on it). We need proxies. You’re not allowed to read the book before you buy it or taste the ketchup before you leave the store. We rely on labels and...
escape the algorithm
Close reading the trees How competitive Google Street Viewing makes the world feel seen
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Useful assumptions for teachers Not simply in the classroom, but anywhere we hope to inform, inspire or educate: Assume enrollment....
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Not simply in the classroom, but anywhere we hope to inform, inspire or educate: Assume enrollment. Either someone is committed to learning or they’re not. While many situations place people into a spot where they are compelled to show up (exhibit A: learning arithmetic in grade...
Stat Significant
Have Movies Stopped Killing Their Main Character? A Statistical Analysis A data-driven investigation of movie hero mortality rates
a month ago
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Jenny McCabe I am printmaker based up north in Lancaster. I currently work mainly with intaglio printmaking...
over a year ago
62
over a year ago
I am printmaker based up north in Lancaster. I currently work mainly with intaglio printmaking methods, preferring metal plate etchings and card Collagraph constructed plates. I have been making printed items for many years including printed textiles and writing books about...
escape the algorithm
howdidyoufind.me a website about how people found this website
9 months ago
Seth's Blog
The unwritten rules get written …when someone decides to selfishly push. There’s an assumption of civility and fairness in all of...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
…when someone decides to selfishly push. There’s an assumption of civility and fairness in all of our interactions. When a harsh competitor unilaterally breaks unwritten rules (because it’s “not technically against the rules”) the community then writes down a new rule. The best...
Seth's Blog
Getting better at bucket management If you throw a bucket of water on a small campfire, you’ll succeed in putting it out. Pour a...
a year ago
27
a year ago
If you throw a bucket of water on a small campfire, you’ll succeed in putting it out. Pour a bucketful of sake into one of those little glasses and you’ll waste most of it and ruin the table setting. And try to use a bucket to refill a dried-out lake and not much will happen. […]
Seth's Blog
The obligations of the Town Hall A few hundred years ago, small towns in New England embraced the idea of the town hall. Citizens (at...
a year ago
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a year ago
A few hundred years ago, small towns in New England embraced the idea of the town hall. Citizens (at the time, just the white men) came together and worked through the town’s agenda. Each person could speak, each person could vote, it was direct and sometimes effective. Part of...
Seth's Blog
Demanding certainty The defenders of the status quo often demand certainty when facing decisions about the future. It...
a year ago
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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%...
Seth's Blog
The challenge of “a risky scheme” New ideas aren’t adopted all at once. A few people go first while the rest of us watch to see how it...
11 months ago
66
11 months ago
New ideas aren’t adopted all at once. A few people go first while the rest of us watch to see how it goes. “Look, Mikey, he likes it!” This is the story of tech innovations, dance crazes and even food. Ideas spread horizontally, and people who prefer the status quo will embrace...
Seth's Blog
Default to surrender AI chatbots highight a challenge that is worth understanding. It applies to customer service,...
a year ago
33
a year ago
AI chatbots highight a challenge that is worth understanding. It applies to customer service, bureaucracies and teachers as well… If you ask an AI a question and it’s not confident in the answer, it should say, “I’m not sure.” That could be followed up with, “do you want me to...
Marian's Blog
Uni-Timer Ich bin seit diesem Semester Student und in der Uni dauern Vorlesungen immer 90 Minuten, von...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
Ich bin seit diesem Semester Student und in der Uni dauern Vorlesungen immer 90 Minuten, von “viertel nach” bis “viertel vor”. Da kam mir die Idee, dass man eine Uhr bräuchte, die nicht den Fortschritt der aktuellen Stunde, sondern den der aktuellen Vorlesung zeigt. Dazu habe ich...
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
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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.
Open Culture
Ancient Greek Armor Gets Tested in an 11-Hour Battle Simulation Inspired by the Iliad By Greek law, every male citizen over the age of eighteen must spend from nine months to a year in...
a year ago
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a year ago
By Greek law, every male citizen over the age of eighteen must spend from nine months to a year in the Hellenic Armed Forces. As in every country with such a policy of mandatory conscription, this is surely not a prospect relished by most conscripts-to-be. But then, it can’t be...
On the Arts
What is the Demoscene? An Interview with Filipe Cruz on the Influential but Obscure Art Form
a year ago
Infinite Scroll
How the Internet Changed Gen Z Humor "Soup Time", says Standing Frog
3 months ago
The Last...
Who Bullies The Bullies? but they're welcome to buy an iphone Pacific Standard. Get it? It's like The Atlantic,...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
but they're welcome to buy an iphone Pacific Standard. Get it? It's like The Atlantic, but it's Pacific. Totally different. So unlike The Atlantic, it will "attack the conventional wisdom from a west coast perspective." That's a quote. "But didn't the editors come from...
Haterade
RECIPE: School Lunch Pizza Crust Embrace the USDA-Certified Sog
over a year ago
Open Culture
Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments for Living Virtuously (1930) Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons Bertrand Russell may have lived his long life...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons Bertrand Russell may have lived his long life concerned with big topics in logic, mathematics, politics, and society, but that didn’t keep him from thinking seriously about how to handle his own day-to-day relationships. That hardly...
Open Culture
Destino: The Salvador Dalí — Disney Collaboration 57 Years in the Making In 2003, Disney released a six minute animated short called Destino, finally bringing closure to a...
8 months ago
33
8 months ago
In 2003, Disney released a six minute animated short called Destino, finally bringing closure to a project that began 57 years earlier. The story of Destino goes way back to 1946 when two very different cultural icons, Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí, decided to work together on a...
Prolost
Slugline 2 From the Slugline Blog: Slugline 2 is a new app that replaces the old Slugline for Mac. It has a...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
From the Slugline Blog: Slugline 2 is a new app that replaces the old Slugline for Mac. It has a slick new UI, which includes a lovely dark mode. Big new features include: a drag-and-drop outline, an awesome new timeline, color-coded notes, Final Draft import/export, and Live...
Seth's Blog
The problem with shock design If attention is what you seek and attention is what you measure, it’s likely you’ll create drama....
7 months ago
51
7 months ago
If attention is what you seek and attention is what you measure, it’s likely you’ll create drama. And drama is inherently short-lived. The managing director of Jaguar said, “We’ve certainly gathered an awful lot of attention over the last few weeks.” Choosing the word “awful” was...
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
24
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...
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...
a week ago
5
a week 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...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Jennie Ing Describe your printmaking process. I make linocut prints by the reduction method. This is where all...
a year ago
31
a year ago
Describe your printmaking process. I make linocut prints by the reduction method. This is where all the colours come from the same piece of lino with the successive cutting away of the lino block and printing a new colour over the top of the last. The edition size has to be...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Elon's Endgame Plus! Livestreamers in jail, confused Catholics, and the Immigrant Song
7 months ago
Open Culture
Why You Do Your Best Thinking In The Shower: Creativity & the “Incubation Period” Image via Wikimedia Commons “The great Tao fades away.” So begins one translation of the Tao Te...
a year ago
42
a year ago
Image via Wikimedia Commons “The great Tao fades away.” So begins one translation of the Tao Te Ching’s 18th Chapter. The sentence captures the frustration that comes with a lost epiphany. Whether it’s a profound realization when you just wake up, or moment of clarity in the...
Seth's Blog
Infamy We’ve gotten so hung up on famous that it’s easy to forget that there are two kinds of renown. Being...
11 months ago
44
11 months ago
We’ve gotten so hung up on famous that it’s easy to forget that there are two kinds of renown. Being known for lowering the standards of discourse, cheating, or whining is a choice, but why would you trade your reputation to become infamous?
Stat Significant
The Business of the Olympics: Rising Revenues, Diminishing Cultural Reach. A Statistical Analysis How does the Olympics remain relevant (and make money) in a world full of digital distractions?
11 months ago
Seth's Blog
Study groups If I had to choose one metric that would determine how well someone would do in law school, it...
a year ago
24
a year ago
If I had to choose one metric that would determine how well someone would do in law school, it wouldn’t be the LSAT or another test. It would be whether or not they formed a study group, and who else was in it. Of course, the same is true for your project, or any sort […]
Handprinted - Blog
Testing your Copper Sulphate Solution When you’ve mixed a fresh batch of copper sulphate mordant, or if you have an old batch that you...
a year ago
40
a year ago
When you’ve mixed a fresh batch of copper sulphate mordant, or if you have an old batch that you haven’t used for a few months, it’s good practice to test the strength of your solution. By creating some test strips for both line and tones, you’ll create yourself a reference point...
Open Culture
David Bowie/Nirvana’s “The Man Who Sold The World” Played on the Gayageum, a Korean Instrument from... East meets West, and the Ancient, the Modern. That’s what happens every time Luna Lee plays one of...
a month ago
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a month ago
East meets West, and the Ancient, the Modern. That’s what happens every time Luna Lee plays one of your favorites on the Gayageum, a Korean instrument that dates back to the 6th century. We’ve featured her work in years past (see the Relateds below). Above, watch one of her...
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...
3 weeks ago
11
3 weeks 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....
escape the algorithm
A complete guide to pretending you saw the total solar eclipse I cannot relate to you
a year ago
Open Culture
David Bowie’s Fashionable Mug Shot From His 1976 Marijuana Bust David Bowie always managed to look cool, even when he was being booked for a felony. In early 1976,...
9 months ago
43
9 months ago
David Bowie always managed to look cool, even when he was being booked for a felony. In early 1976, Bowie was on his “Isolar” tour, performing as the Thin White Duke, a persona he would describe as “a very Aryan fascist type — a would-be romantic with no emotions at all.” Bowie...
Seth's Blog
Indifferent overhead Every business and individual has overhead. The bills we have to pay and the costs we incur that...
a year ago
51
a year ago
Every business and individual has overhead. The bills we have to pay and the costs we incur that aren’t directly related to our income. You pay them whether or not you’re busy. But there are two kinds of overhead, worth differentiating: Different overhead … the investments that...
Open Culture
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Is Now a Retro Video Game The Rocky Horror Picture Show–it started first as a musical stage production in 1973, then became a...
9 months ago
34
9 months ago
The Rocky Horror Picture Show–it started first as a musical stage production in 1973, then became a cult classic film in 1975. Now, a half-century later, it gets reborn as a retro video game. Scheduled to be released by Halloween, the game features “8‑bit chiptune renditions of...
Seth's Blog
Velocity and possibility The art of project management includes the dance between velocity and possibility. If you describe...
a year ago
36
a year ago
The art of project management includes the dance between velocity and possibility. If you describe the outcome with specificity and remove as many variables as possible, you’ll get the work done with more speed, higher reliability and less cost. That velocity, though, might...
Not Boring by Packy...
Primer: From Software to Schools Watch now (47 mins) | To fix the school system, build schools
4 months 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
57
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
Worst possible While it’s tempting to compare suffering, inconvenience, unfairness or general no-goodness, it’s not...
3 months ago
28
3 months ago
While it’s tempting to compare suffering, inconvenience, unfairness or general no-goodness, it’s not helpful. Someone else’s trauma doesn’t diminish yours. In fact, when we can find the space to see that others have their own mess to deal with, it opens the door for forward...
Seth's Blog
Most people (and the people you choose) Most people want you to make something cheap, write something short, share something funny, and fit...
over a year ago
43
over a year ago
Most people want you to make something cheap, write something short, share something funny, and fit in. But the people you serve… they might want something else. The few people you need to thrive in your work might want you to write something they’ll remember for a long time, or...
Seth's Blog
Squeaky wheels One strategy is to spend time finding the one wheel and address it. The better approach is to...
3 weeks ago
10
3 weeks ago
One strategy is to spend time finding the one wheel and address it. The better approach is to realize that if there’s one wheel that’s squeaking, it’s likely that all the wheels need lubrication.
Seth's Blog
2 + 2 Arguments about taste are more common than ever before. The long tail makes it easy to find what you...
a year ago
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a year ago
Arguments about taste are more common than ever before. The long tail makes it easy to find what you like, and to talk about what you don’t. There’s no accounting for taste, and that’s a good thing. Because taste is useful. Flopping the toilet paper under or over the roll,...
Seth's Blog
If it were really important… Could we change our minds? When was the last time new information caused you to walk away from an...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Could we change our minds? When was the last time new information caused you to walk away from an idea you were confident in? It gets harder and harder to do, and more and more important.
Seth's Blog
This is number 10,000 Give or take. It’s hard to get the exact count through the sands of time. But it’s at least 10,000...
2 months ago
24
2 months ago
Give or take. It’s hard to get the exact count through the sands of time. But it’s at least 10,000 blog posts as of today. That’s 25 years, once or twice a day. Back of the envelope, that’s about 2 billion blog post views. I’ve written and edited every post myself, hence the...
Open Culture
Behold a Creative Animation of the Bayeux Tapestry In previous centuries, unless you were a member of the nobility, a wealthy religious order, or a...
9 months ago
59
9 months ago
In previous centuries, unless you were a member of the nobility, a wealthy religious order, or a merchant guild, your chances of spending any significant amount of time with a Medieval tapestry were slim. Though “much production was relatively coarse, intended for decorative...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Michelle Hughes I’m a printmaker and illustrator, living in York, North Yorkshire. I create limited edition linocut...
a year ago
66
a year ago
I’m a printmaker and illustrator, living in York, North Yorkshire. I create limited edition linocut prints inspired by the British countryside and British wildlife. Describe your printmaking process. When I started making lino prints I used SoftCut lino and a wooden spoon to...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Dave Buonaguidi Dave Buonaguidi, AKA Real Hackney Dave is a Hackney-based artist who combines the visual and verbal...
4 months ago
37
4 months ago
Dave Buonaguidi, AKA Real Hackney Dave is a Hackney-based artist who combines the visual and verbal language of advertising and propaganda with unique imagery and materials of found objects and ephemera. In a previous life, Dave worked in advertising for over 35 years, founding...
Prolost
Apple’s “EDR” Brings High Dynamic Range to Non-HDR Displays Was it worth buying a Pro Display XDR just for this joke? Yes. Apple caused quite a stir with the...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
Was it worth buying a Pro Display XDR just for this joke? Yes. Apple caused quite a stir with the announcement of their Pro Display XDR, a High Dynamic Range display that occupies a convoluted space in the market. It seeks to be both a Very Nice Computer Display, and a reference...
The Great Discontent...
Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor When Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor came up with the idea for Ear Hustle, the podcast they’ve hosted...
a year ago
19
a year ago
When Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor came up with the idea for Ear Hustle, the podcast they’ve hosted together since 2017, Earlonne was serving a prison sentence of 31 years to life—the result of California’s three-strikes law. The two met at San Quentin State Prison where Nigel, a...
Open Culture
Hannah Arendt Explains the Rise of Totalitarian Regimes–and the Strategies Needed to Combat Them “Adolf Eichmann went to the gallows with great dignity,” wrote the political philosopher Hannah...
a year ago
55
a year ago
“Adolf Eichmann went to the gallows with great dignity,” wrote the political philosopher Hannah Arendt, describing the scene leading up to the prominent Holocaust-organizer’s execution. After drinking half a bottle of wine, turning down the offer of religious assistance, and even...
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
67
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...
On the Arts
The Paradox of the Garden of Eden An Interview with Professor David Fenner
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Orange cars In a given neighborhood, just about all the cars are the same. There are few that are pink, orange...
2 weeks ago
10
2 weeks ago
In a given neighborhood, just about all the cars are the same. There are few that are pink, orange or purple, for example. There’s nothing inherently wrong with those frequencies of light. Nothing that modern paint technology can’t deliver, nothing that offends the rods and cones...
Open Culture
An Introduction to The Babylonian Map of the World–the Oldest Known Map of the World Taking a first glance at the Babylonian Map of the World, few of us could recognize it for what it...
11 months ago
44
11 months ago
Taking a first glance at the Babylonian Map of the World, few of us could recognize it for what it is. But then again, few of us are anything like the British Museum Middle East department curator Irving Finkel, whose vast knowledge (and ability to share it compellingly) have...
Infinite Scroll
Worst Tweets of 2024 - Dishonorable Mentions All of the most horrifying posts on Twitter that didn't make the final bracket
6 months ago
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Moïra Swann Bonjour everyone! Moïra Swann is an English and Proustian adaptation from my real name Anne-Marie:...
over a year ago
57
over a year ago
Bonjour everyone! Moïra Swann is an English and Proustian adaptation from my real name Anne-Marie: while Anne-Marie lives in France and works full-time in a wonderful museum dedicated to the French painter Anne-Louis Girodet, Moïra Swann does lino printing whenever she can, as an...
Seth's Blog
The empathy of magic Magicians know where the trapdoors are, what’s up their sleeves and how to hide the ball. And yet,...
a year ago
20
a year ago
Magicians know where the trapdoors are, what’s up their sleeves and how to hide the ball. And yet, mechanical skill is just the first step in being actually good at magic. The real skill is in finding the empathy to imagine that someone else might believe. To do the trick for...
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...
a week ago
9
a week 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...
Stat Significant
Which Car Brands are Frequently Featured in Popular Music? A Statistical Analysis Which car brands are a fixture of song lyrics?
2 months ago
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...
8 months ago
52
8 months ago
This past summer, out came a trailer for Megalopolis, the movie Francis Ford Coppola has spent half of his life trying to make. It took the bold approach of opening with quotes from reviews of his previous pictures, and not positive ones: when it was first released, Rex Reed...
Seth's Blog
Early next week… It’s going to get busy around here. I wanted to share some upcoming events (online and in person) so...
8 months ago
58
8 months ago
It’s going to get busy around here. I wanted to share some upcoming events (online and in person) so you can plan ahead… there are five more for the end of the week, but here we go: Linda Rottenberg is joining me on LinkedIn on Monday. She’s built an extraordinary organization...
Blog - Mac Pierce
p5.js on Squarespace - The Basics A quick guide on how to get p5.js guides working on Squarespace.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Purchase decisions All purchases involve a decision. Yes or no, this or that, now or later… But it’s helpful to realize...
a year ago
42
a year ago
All purchases involve a decision. Yes or no, this or that, now or later… But it’s helpful to realize that all decisions involve a purchase. When we decide to spend time or take a risk or make a commitment, our brains act in a way very similar to how we choose to make a purchase....
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Ian Phillips Hi, I’m Ian Phillips, a printmaker based in Mid Wales. I’m originally from Leicestershire and...
4 months ago
35
4 months ago
Hi, I’m Ian Phillips, a printmaker based in Mid Wales. I’m originally from Leicestershire and studied illustration at Leicester Polytechnic. After graduation I attempted the life of a freelance Illustrator in London, but quite quickly, well after a few years, realised it wasn’t...
Neocha – Culture &...
A Life Laid Bare
a month ago
Seth's Blog
On building a cathedral If you’re in need of a gathering place, a dry, functional, centrally located facility for your folks...
a year ago
36
a year ago
If you’re in need of a gathering place, a dry, functional, centrally located facility for your folks to meet, a cathedral is probably way more than you need. It’s far more expensive to build and maintain and not optimal in delivering what’s required. But what if this building...
Seth's Blog
The last little bit Important hills usually get much steeper at the top. 99% of the training in competitive athletics is...
11 months ago
65
11 months ago
Important hills usually get much steeper at the top. 99% of the training in competitive athletics is devoted to the last 1% of performance. A tenth of a second. The same is true for squeezing the last bit of performance out of a car, a grape or a semiconductor. And healthcare,...
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...
a month ago
19
a month 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
The reality of meliorism Nearly 150 years ago, George Eliot gave us a name for our project. She pointed out that we could...
6 months ago
54
6 months ago
Nearly 150 years ago, George Eliot gave us a name for our project. She pointed out that we could ameliorate the problems of the human condition, day by day, year by year, toward better. Max Roser highlighted three sentences that seem like they can’t all be true: “The world is...
Seth's Blog
Complaints are a gift It’s easy to see a complaint as simple whining, the narcissistic impatience of someone who has...
a year ago
93
a year ago
It’s easy to see a complaint as simple whining, the narcissistic impatience of someone who has enough insulation from the real world that they can share their dissatisfaction over just about anything. But a complaint unheard gives us no way to improve. In our current medical...
Seth's Blog
Sufficient resolution Robert Johnson is known as the king of the Delta blues. One reason is that his small output was...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Robert Johnson is known as the king of the Delta blues. One reason is that his small output was brilliant. The other, bigger reason is that the recordings that remain of his short life are among the earliest that sound good… most audio recordings from before 1936 sound antique...
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...
4 months ago
40
4 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...
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
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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...
Open Culture
Hear the Isolated Vocals of Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush in “Don’t Give Up”: The Power of Perseverance Just by chance, could you use a song about perseverance and overcoming adversity? Something to give...
7 months ago
52
7 months ago
Just by chance, could you use a song about perseverance and overcoming adversity? Something to give you a little encouragement and reassurance? Then we submit to you “Don’t Give Up,” featuring the isolated vocals of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. When he released the song on his...
Seth's Blog
Exceed or maintain? In just about every group, people decide in advance how they’ll show up when it comes to learning,...
a year ago
88
a year ago
In just about every group, people decide in advance how they’ll show up when it comes to learning, to winning and to responding to opportunities. They’re wearing a hat with a label, and over time, it’s not hard to recognize. This can change based on pedagogy, social conditions...
Open Culture
A Forgotten 16th-Century Manuscript Reveals the First Designs for Modern Rockets The Austrian military engineer Conrad Haas was a man ahead of his time — indeed, about 400 years...
2 months ago
27
2 months ago
The Austrian military engineer Conrad Haas was a man ahead of his time — indeed, about 400 years ahead, considering that he was working on rockets aimed for outer space back in the mid-sixteenth century. Needless to say, he never actually managed to launch anything into the upper...
Open Culture
How Édouard Manet Became “the Father of Impressionism” with the Scandalous Panting, Le Déjeuner sur... Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863) caused quite a stir when it made its public debut in...
a year ago
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a year ago
Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863) caused quite a stir when it made its public debut in 1863. Today, we might assume that the controversy surrounding the painting had to do with its containing a nude woman. But, in fact, it does not contain a nude woman — at least...
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
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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
George Orwell’s Rules for Making the Perfect Cup of Tea: A Short Animation Several years back, Colin Marshall highlighted George Orwell’s essay, “A Nice Cup of Tea,” which...
a month ago
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a month ago
Several years back, Colin Marshall highlighted George Orwell’s essay, “A Nice Cup of Tea,” which first ran in the Evening Standard on January 12, 1946. In that article, Orwell weighed in on a subject the English take seriously–how to make the perfect cup of tea. (According to...
Open Culture
A Digital Archive Features Hundreds of Audio Cassette Tape Designs, from the 1960s to the 1990s Audio cassette tapes first appeared on the market in the early nineteen-sixties, but it would take...
10 months ago
80
10 months ago
Audio cassette tapes first appeared on the market in the early nineteen-sixties, but it would take about a decade before they came to dominate it. And when they did, they’d changed the lives of many a music-lover by having made it possible not just to listen to their albums of...
Seth's Blog
“And” fatigue Digital abundance creates a new problem. Most of our lives are filled with “or” decisions. You can...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Digital abundance creates a new problem. Most of our lives are filled with “or” decisions. You can have this or that. You can save money for the big party or you can go out for lunch. You can have exactly one thing for dessert–cake or fruit. But the war for our attention has...
Open Culture
The Long Game of Creativity: If You Haven’t Created a Masterpiece at 30, You’re Not a Failure Orson Welles directed the greatest movie ever made, Citizen Kane, at age 25, with only a limited...
11 months ago
63
11 months ago
Orson Welles directed the greatest movie ever made, Citizen Kane, at age 25, with only a limited knowledge of the medium. When Paul McCartney was 25, he, along with his fellow Beatles, released the era-defining album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. By age 29, Pablo Picasso...
John Reynolds -...
Hembree - Walk Alone Music Video Title: Walk AloneArtist: HembreeYear: 2014 --
over a year ago
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
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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...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Striking Out General strikes, Opinion Blunders, and Yassified Shrek
4 months ago
Seth's Blog
It could have easily gone the other way It could have been way better. It could have been far worse. It’s easy to imagine that outcomes are...
a year ago
24
a year ago
It could have been way better. It could have been far worse. It’s easy to imagine that outcomes are inevitable, but they’re not. Was it your fault, or was it luck (good or bad)? If our story of the past is filled with second guesses, shame or blame, it can carry forward. Or...
Seth's Blog
No lunging I’ve been working hard on my juggling (actual juggling, not metaphorical juggling). The secret, as I...
a year ago
30
a year ago
I’ve been working hard on my juggling (actual juggling, not metaphorical juggling). The secret, as I wrote about in The Practice is the throwing, not the catching. If you get the throws right, the catches are easy. The way to focus on the throws is simple but culturally...
Open Culture
Harvard Lets You Take 133 Free Online Courses: Explore Courses on Justice, American Government,... Image by Rizka, via Wikimedia Commons In South Korea, where I live, there may be no brand as...
a month ago
10
a month ago
Image by Rizka, via Wikimedia Commons In South Korea, where I live, there may be no brand as respected as Habodeu. Children dream of it; adults seemingly do anything to play up their own connections to it, however tenuous those connections may be. But what is Habodeu? An...
Seth's Blog
A new cooperative workshop My colleague Ava Morris is running her Song of Significance Workshop on Friday, October 6. It’s...
a year ago
23
a year ago
My colleague Ava Morris is running her Song of Significance Workshop on Friday, October 6. It’s powerful, effective and personal. It runs worldwide, in Zoom, and it’s completely interactive–every participant participates. This will be the third session… the first two got rave...
Open Culture
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 490,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use Update: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has put online 492,000 high-resolution images of artistic...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
Update: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has put online 492,000 high-resolution images of artistic works. Even better, the museum has placed the vast majority of these images into the public domain, meaning they can be downloaded directly from the museum’s website for...
Seth's Blog
The thought that counts Well, maybe not. In 2024, worldwide gift card sales will pass a trillion dollars for the first time....
6 months ago
59
6 months ago
Well, maybe not. In 2024, worldwide gift card sales will pass a trillion dollars for the first time. It’s a good grift. Surveys show that the buyer spends about 21% less per gift than they do when they actually buy something, while the recipients of the gift find themselves...
Seth's Blog
Assume lack of context The person you’re working with might not know what you know, might not see what you see. It’s...
a year ago
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a year ago
The person you’re working with might not know what you know, might not see what you see. It’s tempting to begin where we are. But it’s more useful to begin where they are.
Open Culture
The History of the World in One Beautiful, 5‑Foot-Long Chart (1931) In the image above, we see an impressive pre-internet macro-infographic called a “Histomap.” Its...
3 weeks ago
11
3 weeks ago
In the image above, we see an impressive pre-internet macro-infographic called a “Histomap.” Its creator John B. Sparks (who later created “histomaps” of religion and evolution) published the graphic in 1931 with Rand McNally. The five-foot-long chart—purportedly covering 4,000...
Open Culture
Watch Pablo Picasso’s Creative Process Unfold in Real-Time: Rare Footage Shows Him Creating Drawings... Pablo Picasso was born not long before the invention of the motion picture. With a different set of...
a month ago
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a month ago
Pablo Picasso was born not long before the invention of the motion picture. With a different set of inclinations, he might have become one of the most daring pioneers of that medium. Instead, as we know, he mastered and then practically reinvented the much older art form of...
Seth's Blog
She’s here! Some restaurants keep a photo of the local reviewer in the kitchen. The thinking is that if someone...
a year ago
87
a year ago
Some restaurants keep a photo of the local reviewer in the kitchen. The thinking is that if someone notices she’s in the building, everyone can up their game. And some musicians wait eagerly for A&R person to be in the crowd. If they really kill it tonight, a record deal might...
Open Culture
The Hobo Ethical Code of 1889: 15 Rules for Living a Self-Reliant, Honest & Compassionate Life Who wants to be a billionaire? A few years ago, Forbes published author Roberta Chinsky Matuson’s...
2 months ago
12
2 months ago
Who wants to be a billionaire? A few years ago, Forbes published author Roberta Chinsky Matuson’s sensible advice to businesspeople seeking to shoot up that golden ladder. These lawful tips espoused such familiar virtues as hard work and community involvement, and as such, were...
Open Culture
Albert Einstein’s Grades: A Fascinating Look at His Report Cards Albert Einstein was a precocious child. At the age of twelve, he followed his own line of reasoning...
a month ago
10
a month ago
Albert Einstein was a precocious child. At the age of twelve, he followed his own line of reasoning to find a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. At thirteen he read Kant, just for the fun of it. And before he was fifteen he had taught himself differential and integral calculus....
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
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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...
Seth's Blog
If “no” is not an option… Then neither is “yes.” Enrollment requires choice. PS one of my all-time favorite encore episodes of...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Then neither is “yes.” Enrollment requires choice. PS one of my all-time favorite encore episodes of Akimbo is out this week: How to get into a famous college.
Open Culture
Watch James Earl Jones Read Kurt Vonnegut’s Letter Urging High-School Students to Create Art & Make... As cultural figures, the late James Earl Jones and Kurt Vonnegut would seem to have had little in...
9 months ago
41
9 months ago
As cultural figures, the late James Earl Jones and Kurt Vonnegut would seem to have had little in common, but each could easily be recognized by his voice. Jones’ will come to mind as soon as you think of Darth Vader, Simba’s father, or “This is CNN.” Vonnegut’s distinction was...
Seth's Blog
Predicting the past It’s not unusual to encounter conflicting weather reports. One site says it’s going to rain, the...
3 months ago
28
3 months ago
It’s not unusual to encounter conflicting weather reports. One site says it’s going to rain, the other insists it won’t. On the other hand, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. It’s sunny, right now, you can tell. A weather service that said it was...
Seth's Blog
We are all goofballs When someone makes an obvious mistake, it’s tempting to label then with a term that’s dismissive or...
3 months ago
24
3 months ago
When someone makes an obvious mistake, it’s tempting to label then with a term that’s dismissive or even hurtful. A label is permanent, a noun, a way to sort and divide. But of course, others can say precisely the same thing about us when we were uninformed, selfish or in a...
Open Culture
The Amazing Engineering of Roman Baths Few depictions of ancient Roman life neglect to reference all the time ancient Romans spent at the...
a year ago
93
a year ago
Few depictions of ancient Roman life neglect to reference all the time ancient Romans spent at the baths. One gets the impression that their civilization was obsessed with cleanliness, in contrast to most of the societies found around the world at the time, but that turns out...
Seth's Blog
Amazon Smile gets a frown I’m pretty sure how the first meetings went almost a decade ago: “Well, we’re paying our affiliates...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
I’m pretty sure how the first meetings went almost a decade ago: “Well, we’re paying our affiliates 5% for referrals. If we pay charities a tenth of that and call it a donation, it’ll be great PR and we’ll also make a profit on every sale because we won’t need to pay a full...
Open Culture
Richard Feynman Creates a Simple Method for Telling Science From Pseudoscience (1966) Photo by Tamiko Thiel via Wikimedia Commons How can we know whether a claim someone makes is...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Photo by Tamiko Thiel via Wikimedia Commons How can we know whether a claim someone makes is scientific or not? The question is of the utmost consequence, as we are surrounded on all sides by claims that sound credible, that use the language of science—and often do so in attempts...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #141 Building Civilizations, Nuclear Moon, Physical Intelligence, Argentina, Creatine
2 months ago
Open Culture
Watch Animations Showing How Humans Migrated Across the World Over the Past 60,000 Years Ex Africa semper aliquid novi. Attributed to various luminaries of antiquity, that saying (the...
a year ago
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a year ago
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi. Attributed to various luminaries of antiquity, that saying (the probable inspiration for Isak Dinesen’s poem “Ex Africa,” itself the probable inspiration for her memoir Out of Africa, which in turn was loosely adapted into Sydney Pollack’s...
Seth's Blog
Three things about innovation New approaches will never be embraced by everyone at first. If you need unanimous consent, you’re...
a year ago
66
a year ago
New approaches will never be embraced by everyone at first. If you need unanimous consent, you’re not going to move forward. And it’s not convenient. If it were, someone would have done it already. Finally, it’s not sure to work. If you need any or all three of these things for...
Seth's Blog
Signal and noise If the signal is very weak and the noise is large, it’s easy to imagine that there’s no signal at...
a year ago
29
a year ago
If the signal is very weak and the noise is large, it’s easy to imagine that there’s no signal at all. AI and computers can be used as lenses now, which means we can strip away the noise and see things that we certainly didn’t expect. Dina Katabi at MIT can point a radio antenna...
Open Culture
The Complete Howard Stern Interview with Kamala Harris It’s hard to know where to start. This election comes down to whether or not we want to reward...
8 months ago
40
8 months ago
It’s hard to know where to start. This election comes down to whether or not we want to reward someone who tried to subvert our democracy four years ago. Whether we want to preserve the alliances that have kept the peace since World War II. Whether women want to resist losing...
Seth's Blog
I was wrong about sun tea The story is a good one: put some tea bags in a mason jar filled with fresh, cold water. Put it in...
a year ago
92
a year ago
The story is a good one: put some tea bags in a mason jar filled with fresh, cold water. Put it in the sun. Four hours later, smooth and delicious tea is waiting for you. The photons from the sun go through the clear glass and the water, strike the leaves and transfer radiant...
Seth's Blog
Make or buy? If you’re a writer, it probably doesn’t pay to chop down trees and make your own paper, or even to...
a year ago
28
a year ago
If you’re a writer, it probably doesn’t pay to chop down trees and make your own paper, or even to set up a little machine shop to make your own pens. That’s pretty obvious. Should the smoothie shop make its own almond milk? It’s pretty clear that Starbucks should have a team of...
Seth's Blog
The paradox of brittle Optimizing a device or system means squeezing every drop of productivity out of it. In the...
9 months ago
60
9 months ago
Optimizing a device or system means squeezing every drop of productivity out of it. In the short-run, optimization works as long as the world stays the same. We can optimize a device to work at capacity. However, something working at capacity blows up if you step on the gas when...
Infinite Scroll
JOB - A theatrical review A Broadway play about Content Moderation
8 months ago
Infinite Scroll
The Weak Men of MAGA How Weak Men create Hard Times
a month ago
Open Culture
Thousands of Pablo Picasso’s Works Now Available in a New Digital Archive If you want to immerse yourself in the world of Pablo Picasso, you might start at the Museo Picasso...
a year ago
58
a year ago
If you want to immerse yourself in the world of Pablo Picasso, you might start at the Museo Picasso Málaga, located in the artist’s Spanish birthplace. But to understand how his work developed throughout his life, you’ll have to get out of Spain — which is just what Picasso did...
Infinite Scroll
The New Age of Thought Crime Conservatives raged against woke cancellations. Now they're eagerly doing it themselves.
2 months ago
Seth's Blog
In defense of the hard parts Yesterday’s post was a little glib. Without a doubt, we add more value when we focus on the...
10 months ago
57
10 months ago
Yesterday’s post was a little glib. Without a doubt, we add more value when we focus on the emotional labor of important work, leaving others the chance to create commodities. But the repetitive, difficult nature of leaning into commodity production can give us insight, humility...
Seth's Blog
True/useful Here’s a simple grid that might change the way you think about internal stories: When we believe in...
a year ago
26
a year ago
Here’s a simple grid that might change the way you think about internal stories: When we believe in something that’s useful but not true, it can serve a helpful purpose. The tooth fairy, perhaps. When we act on something that’s useful and also true, we’ve found a resilient path...
Seth's Blog
The challenge of N + 1 “Just a little more,” might be a useful way to self motivate, until it isn’t. N + 1 pushes us to win...
a year ago
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a year ago
“Just a little more,” might be a useful way to self motivate, until it isn’t. N + 1 pushes us to win every race, every argument, every bank balance competition. Sometimes this is simply a self challenge, not designed to hurt others, but the problem with never being satisfied is...
Seth's Blog
“How can I help?” If you have a series of tasks to do, it’s easier to ignore this question and simply get back to...
10 months ago
60
10 months ago
If you have a series of tasks to do, it’s easier to ignore this question and simply get back to work. Doing the tasks is more efficient than coordinating the help. But if your work is a project, a bigger mission that involves making a change happen, it’s much more productive to...
Stat Significant
Which Music Was Underappreciated in Its Time? A Statistical Analysis What music slipped through the cracks but eventually found its audience?
5 months ago
Seth's Blog
Is there a market(place)? Not all needs have a market (yet). A market is a category. A market is a place with competition. In...
7 months ago
51
7 months ago
Not all needs have a market (yet). A market is a category. A market is a place with competition. In a market, people have habits and budgets and social pressure to engage. There are buyers and sellers. In many cultures, there’s a market for all the items that go with a...
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
78
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...
Seth's Blog
Practical approaches for more effective teamwork Give credit, take responsibility Get aligned on timeframes Insist on a spec, write one, improve it...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Give credit, take responsibility Get aligned on timeframes Insist on a spec, write one, improve it Agree on a budget Keep a calendar Don’t hold a grudge Speak up clearly and generously Show your work Share your fears Make promises and keep them Do the reading Talk about people...
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
37
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...
Open Culture
How Art Conservators Restore Old Paintings & Revive Their Original Colors We tend to imagine old paintings as having a muted, yellow-brown cast, and not without reason. Many...
a week ago
6
a week ago
We tend to imagine old paintings as having a muted, yellow-brown cast, and not without reason. Many of the examples we’ve seen in life really do look that way, though usually not because the artist intended it. As Julian Baumgartner of Chicago’s Baumgartner Fine Art Restoration...
Seth's Blog
The challenge of focus groups for bold ideas “We’re thinking of having a holiday every year where kids of all ages go door to door unescorted and...
8 months ago
57
8 months ago
“We’re thinking of having a holiday every year where kids of all ages go door to door unescorted and beg for candy, and adults dress up in expensive and revealing costumes and get drunk. Would you be likely to participate?” It’s not really a helpful question. (Yes, Halloween is...
Open Culture
A New Analysis of Beethoven’s DNA Reveals That Lead Poisoning Could Have Caused His Deafness Despite the intense scrutiny paid to the life and work of Ludwig van Beethoven for a couple of...
a year ago
36
a year ago
Despite the intense scrutiny paid to the life and work of Ludwig van Beethoven for a couple of centuries now, the revered composer still has certain mysteries about him. Some of them he surely never intended to clarify, like the identity of “Immortal Beloved”; others he...
Seth's Blog
The missing post I had a great idea for a post, my best blogging of the year, in fact. I worked it all out when I was...
over a year ago
89
over a year ago
I had a great idea for a post, my best blogging of the year, in fact. I worked it all out when I was driving, but when I arrived, it was gone. Vanished. So I went searching for it, trying out dozens of possible ideas. I never found it. But I did find five other […]
Seth's Blog
Customer traction is the hard part A new business is complicated. It involves weaving together suppliers, partners, customers,...
over a year ago
39
over a year ago
A new business is complicated. It involves weaving together suppliers, partners, customers, processes, technology, leases, employees, logos, capital and more. Along the way, it’s easy to get distracted, but focusing on the hard parts is a useful way to move forward. You could...
Open Culture
The World’s Oldest Homework: A Look at Babylonian Math Homework from 4,000 Years Ago Homework has lately become unfashionable, at least according to what I’ve heard from teachers in...
a month ago
10
a month ago
Homework has lately become unfashionable, at least according to what I’ve heard from teachers in certain parts of the United States. That may complicate various fairly long-standing educational practices, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect an absolute drop in standards and...
Seth's Blog
Your preference is not universal You’re entitled to it, and we will do our best to help you find what you want. But it’s unlikely...
over a year ago
80
over a year ago
You’re entitled to it, and we will do our best to help you find what you want. But it’s unlikely that what you want is what everyone wants. It’s hard to believe that there is only one appropriate standard for value, observance, speed or performance. The easiest way for us to help...
Seth's Blog
The third impossibility The first was radio and television. Humans around the world spending a significant portion of their...
a year ago
90
a year ago
The first was radio and television. Humans around the world spending a significant portion of their waking hours consuming audio and video recordings of other people. The second was the internet. Five to ten hours a day interacting, in real time, with other people, many of them...
Seth's Blog
Memo to the future The experience of the now is often more vivid than a distant memory. As a result, we can make...
5 months ago
53
5 months ago
The experience of the now is often more vivid than a distant memory. As a result, we can make decisions in the future without enough regard for how we felt the last time we were in a similar situation. Here’s a simple hack that can inform your decisions… You know someone who...