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Open Culture
The First Professional Footage of Pink Floyd Gets Captured in a 1967 Documentary (and the Band Also... British filmmaker and novelist Peter Whitehead has been credited with inventing the music video with...
a year ago
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a year ago
British filmmaker and novelist Peter Whitehead has been credited with inventing the music video with his promo films for the Rolling Stones in the mid-60s. According to Ali Catterall and Simon Wells, authors of Your Face Here, a study of “British Cult Film since the Sixties,”...
Seth's Blog
The explosion We spend much of our worrying time on crises. Our media is filled with warnings, coverage and fear...
over a year ago
82
over a year ago
We spend much of our worrying time on crises. Our media is filled with warnings, coverage and fear of cataclysms. The big boom, the sudden end, the crash. In fact, rot is far more common. Things decay unless we persistently work to support them. Organizations, reputations,...
Seth's Blog
Where are you? When you’re reading a good historical novel, you might be there and then. When you’re checking your...
a year ago
31
a year ago
When you’re reading a good historical novel, you might be there and then. When you’re checking your email, you are in a conversation between and among, over there, not here. When you’re imagining what went wrong in that conversation yesterday, you are living in yesterday. And...
Seth's Blog
The hard parts (and the important parts) The hard parts of what you do all day can feel fraught. It’s heavy lifting. Emergencies. Dangerous...
10 months ago
68
10 months ago
The hard parts of what you do all day can feel fraught. It’s heavy lifting. Emergencies. Dangerous labor. The stakes are high and the work can be difficult. The important parts of what you do all day are valuable to someone else. This is what you’re getting paid for–solving a...
Open Culture
Behold the First American Board Game, Travellers’ Tour Through the United States (1822) Asked to name a classic American board game, most of us would first think of Monopoly, whose imagery...
10 months ago
60
10 months ago
Asked to name a classic American board game, most of us would first think of Monopoly, whose imagery and verbiage — Park Place, Rich Uncle Pennybags, “Do not pass go” — has worked its way deep into the culture since Parker Brothers brought it to market in 1935. Despite that, it...
Handprinted - Blog
Screen Printing with Permaset Puff Paste Puff Paste is a great way to add a little something extra to your fabric prints! It adds depth and...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Puff Paste is a great way to add a little something extra to your fabric prints! It adds depth and texture and is so much fun to use. In this project, we have exposed a screen and used it to print with Puff Paste onto a tote bag: Half-fill the coating trough with photo emulsion....
Seth's Blog
The seduction of false promises Why do we buy the pitch of the snake oil salesman, the flim-flam man, the con artist, the demagogue...
a year ago
58
a year ago
Why do we buy the pitch of the snake oil salesman, the flim-flam man, the con artist, the demagogue or the trickster? As our modern world becomes more informed and more rational, we see an increase (not the expected decrease) in scams, hustles, and chaos. There are Jokers and...
Open Culture
How Jackson Pollock Redefined Modern Art: An Introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sQ_cfZ8q9kVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled:...
2 weeks ago
25
2 weeks ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sQ_cfZ8q9kVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Jackson Pollock: the Myth of the Modern Artist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sQ_cfZ8q9k) In his lifetime, Jackson Pollock had only one successful art show. It took place at the...
Seth's Blog
New ways to codify purpose And then what happens? Many small businesses start with generosity and good intent at their core....
over a year ago
87
over a year ago
And then what happens? Many small businesses start with generosity and good intent at their core. But it’s a rough ride, and especially when outside funding is involved, it’s easy to get seduced by the bright lights of Milton Friedman and an obsession with short-term profits....
Open Culture
When Slavoj Žižek and Jordan Peterson Debated Capitalism Versus Marxism Karl Marx was a German philosopher-historian (with a few other pursuits besides) who wrote in...
11 months ago
92
11 months ago
Karl Marx was a German philosopher-historian (with a few other pursuits besides) who wrote in pursuit of an understanding of industrial society as he knew it in the nineteenth century and what its future evolution held in store. There are good reasons to read his work still...
Open Culture
How to Potty Train Your Cat: A Handy Manual by Jazz Musician Charles Mingus Charles Mingus, the innovative jazz musician, was known for having a bad temper. He once got so...
7 months ago
34
7 months ago
Charles Mingus, the innovative jazz musician, was known for having a bad temper. He once got so irritated with a heckler that he ended up trashing his $20,000 bass. Another time, when a pianist didn’t get things right, Mingus reached right inside the piano and ripped the strings...
Seth's Blog
The opposite of insubordination “Do as I say.” That’s industrial management in four words. If you don’t follow the instructions to...
a year ago
32
a year ago
“Do as I say.” That’s industrial management in four words. If you don’t follow the instructions to the letter, you’re insubordinate. Not subordinate. Complete subordination might have been the goal in an industrial setting. But now, it’s dangerous, expensive and inefficent....
Open Culture
Harvard Removes the Human Skin Binding from a Book in Its Collection Since 1934 In June of 2014, Harvard University’s Houghton Library put up a blog post titled “Caveat Lecter,”...
a year ago
57
a year ago
In June of 2014, Harvard University’s Houghton Library put up a blog post titled “Caveat Lecter,” announcing “good news for fans of anthropodermic bibliopegy, bibliomaniacs, and cannibals alike.” The occasion was the scientific determination that a book in the Houghton’s...
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...
Seth's Blog
Own it and label it This takes guts, and hustlers are afraid to do so. Thirty years ago, when the avalanche of email...
4 months ago
38
4 months ago
This takes guts, and hustlers are afraid to do so. Thirty years ago, when the avalanche of email spam was on the horizon, I proposed that any commercial email should have a $ in the subject line. A simple way for email programs to filter it out if you’re not looking for it....
Seth's Blog
Avoiding food waste confusion Everybody eats That’s the biggest problem. While plenty of people drive or play pickleball, eating...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Everybody eats That’s the biggest problem. While plenty of people drive or play pickleball, eating is particularly widespread. Seven billion people multiplies into a big number… Creating the food we eat has significant climate impact. Some of the factors, in unranked order: Even...
Seth's Blog
Evenly distributed For the first time, the only time, everyone on Earth was in the same boat at the same time. We’ve...
a year ago
28
a year ago
For the first time, the only time, everyone on Earth was in the same boat at the same time. We’ve long been divided by privilege, by caste, by accidents of birth or by organized hierarchies. Sure, there have been events that struck us all at once. Landing on the moon caused us...
Open Culture
Aldous Huxley Explains How Man Became “the Victim of His Own Technology” (1961) Just a couple of days ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted out a video promoting, “the new iPad Pro: the...
a year ago
91
a year ago
Just a couple of days ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted out a video promoting, “the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created.” The response has been overwhelming, and overwhelmingly negative: for many viewers, the ad’s imagery of a hydraulic press crushing a heap of...
Open Culture
Kurt Vonnegut’s Lost Board Game Is Finally for Sale Kurt Vonnegut’s life was not without its ironies. Fighting in World War II, that descendant of a...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
Kurt Vonnegut’s life was not without its ironies. Fighting in World War II, that descendant of a long line of German immigrants in the United States found himself imprisoned in Dresden just when it was devastated by Allied firebombing. To understand the relevance of this...
Seth's Blog
Personal process notation “I’ll remember it later.” I’ll confess, I rarely do. It turns out, it’s easier to remember questions...
a year ago
30
a year ago
“I’ll remember it later.” I’ll confess, I rarely do. It turns out, it’s easier to remember questions than answers. And tools like Google Docs and photos in the cloud give us a chance to build our own personal search engine. It takes 14 steps to construct the pages in one of my...
Seth's Blog
Sudare sette camicie Sweating through seven shirts… That was the definition of work when work was the same thing as...
12 months ago
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12 months ago
Sweating through seven shirts… That was the definition of work when work was the same thing as physical labor. For many of us, the physical labor is no longer the way we add value. And it’s tempting to imagine that we simply have to show up for the coffee. But it’s still called...
Open Culture
How Eyes Evolved: A Fascinating Tour Through the Animal Kingdom Above, Lars Schmitz, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, guides us “through a giant tree of...
2 months ago
8
2 months ago
Above, Lars Schmitz, a professor at Claremont McKenna College, guides us “through a giant tree of life mapping the evolution of eyes in the animal kingdom: how they work, why they’ve taken the form they have, and the evolutionary advantages they’ve unlocked across species.” The...
Seth's Blog
Thinking about jobs Since I was born, the planet has invented 6 billion jobs. Technology is said to threaten the...
7 months ago
50
7 months ago
Since I was born, the planet has invented 6 billion jobs. Technology is said to threaten the replacement of human labor, yet, somehow we’ve found useful activities for a rapidly growing population. Coordinated without a coordinator, people go to work each day, often doing...
On the Arts
The Paradox of the Garden of Eden An Interview with Professor David Fenner
a year ago
Open Culture
Fritz Lang First Depicted Artificial Intelligence on Film in Metropolis (1927), and It Frightened... Artificial intelligence seems to have become, as Michael Lewis labeled a previous chapter in the...
a year ago
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a year ago
Artificial intelligence seems to have become, as Michael Lewis labeled a previous chapter in the recent history of technology, the new new thing. But human anxieties about it are, if not an old old thing, then at least part of a tradition longer than we may expect. For vivid...
Open Culture
Coursera Offers $120 Off of Coursera Plus (Until September 30), Giving You Unlimited Access to... A quick reminder: As the new school year gets underway, millions of students are heading back to...
9 months ago
58
9 months ago
A quick reminder: As the new school year gets underway, millions of students are heading back to classrooms. And you can too. From now until September 30, 2024, Coursera is offering a 30% discount on its annual subscription plan called “Coursera Plus.” Normally priced at $399,...
Seth's Blog
More alternatives, please There are two ways for an artisan or professional to see the world: Scarcity. This is the idea that...
2 months ago
7
2 months ago
There are two ways for an artisan or professional to see the world: Scarcity. This is the idea that if there were fewer photographers, more people would hire me to do wedding pictures. That if the bar exam were more selective, it would be easier for my firm to get clients. And if...
Seth's Blog
A labor of love That’s magical. To have the resources to expend labor on something that fills us with joy. If you’re...
10 months ago
65
10 months ago
That’s magical. To have the resources to expend labor on something that fills us with joy. If you’re lucky enough to encounter this, perhaps it makes sense not to confuse the issue by also trying to turn it into labor for maximum profit. When we focus on one, we often decrease...
John Reynolds -...
Collage Collage 2016
over a year ago
Open Culture
Buckminster Fuller Tells the World “Everything He Knows” in a 42-Hour Lecture Series (1975) History seems to have settled Buckminster Fuller’s reputation as a man ahead of his time. He...
11 months ago
69
11 months ago
History seems to have settled Buckminster Fuller’s reputation as a man ahead of his time. He inspires short, witty popular videos like YouTuber Joe Scott’s “The Man Who Saw The Future,” and the ongoing legacy of the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI), who note that “Fuller’s...
Open Culture
How Magician David Copperfield Made the Statue of Liberty Disappear (1983) In April, 1983, 50 million television viewers watched the illusionist David Copperfield make the...
7 months ago
69
7 months ago
In April, 1983, 50 million television viewers watched the illusionist David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear, straight into thin air. If you’re north of 50, you perhaps remember the spectacle. How did he do it? 40 years later, the YouTube channel Mind Blown Magic...
Ian Betteridge
Weeknote, Sunday 8th December 2024 This time of year, work becomes a tension between two opposing forces: the inevitable winding down...
6 months ago
43
6 months ago
This time of year, work becomes a tension between two opposing forces: the inevitable winding down of the year, as fewer projects appear and people begin to drift away, and the equally inevitable rush to get whatever remains to be done. It’s a tension that keeps me awake at night...
Seth's Blog
The paradox of points Points aren’t just for games. Points are how we keep score and decide what to do next. Pick your...
8 months ago
51
8 months ago
Points aren’t just for games. Points are how we keep score and decide what to do next. Pick your scorekeeping wisely. Too much focus on the score can bend us or break us, pushing us to engage with too much focus and without regard for balance. And our attachment to obvious points...
Seth's Blog
In search of chatoyancy A cat’s eye is smooth but doesn’t seem to be… there’s a mystery of depth. That illusion is called...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
A cat’s eye is smooth but doesn’t seem to be… there’s a mystery of depth. That illusion is called chatoyancy. The same is true for some sorts of woods (cedar is an exception). The digital age makes it more and more likely we’re experiencing things through a flat screen, and as a...
Stat Significant
How Long Does Music Stardom Last? A Statistical Analysis When do music stars achieve fame, and how long does fame typically last?
11 months ago
Seth's Blog
The challenge of excess capacity Marketing as we know it happened because of machines. Machines made factories dramatically more...
6 months ago
50
6 months ago
Marketing as we know it happened because of machines. Machines made factories dramatically more efficient, which meant that producers could no longer easily sell everything they made. When you go from making four ceramic plates a day to 4,000, your capacity starts to look like a...
Open Culture
The Page That Changed Comics Forever: Discover the Innovative 1950s Comic Book That Almost Went... If you grew up reading American comic books during the second half of the twentieth century, you’ll...
11 months ago
39
11 months ago
If you grew up reading American comic books during the second half of the twentieth century, you’ll be familiar with the seal of the Comics Code Authority. I remember seeing it stamped onto the upper-right corner of issues of titles from The Amazing Spider-Man to reprints of Carl...
Seth's Blog
The seduction of grad school For a certain cohort of high-performing students at famous colleges, graduate school feels...
over a year ago
35
over a year ago
For a certain cohort of high-performing students at famous colleges, graduate school feels irresistible. If you’re good at school, the challenge and offer of law school, med school or a famous business school means you get to do more of what you’re good at. You’re offered a...
Seth's Blog
Communications hygiene (and the demise of texting) Attention is scarce. Decisions are difficult. Searching takes effort. For thirty years, texting has...
a year ago
29
a year ago
Attention is scarce. Decisions are difficult. Searching takes effort. For thirty years, texting has been a powerful medium. It’s the thing that vibrates in our pocket. It promises something urgent, and a reply that’s demanded equally urgently. “I’m running ten minutes late,” is a...
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...
Infinite Scroll
On Consumption vs Production How to improve yourself and be happier, online or offline
7 months ago
Seth's Blog
The maverick and the status quo The future isn’t the same as the past. Technology develops, systems change and most of all, someone...
a year ago
25
a year ago
The future isn’t the same as the past. Technology develops, systems change and most of all, someone cares enough to make things better. The maverick isn’t the selfish gunslinger of myth. In fact, she’s focused on resilient, useful interactions that change what we expect, pushing...
Open Culture
The World Record for the Shortest Math Article: 2 Words In 2004, John Conway and Alexander Soifer, both working on mathematics at Princeton University,...
a month ago
20
a month ago
In 2004, John Conway and Alexander Soifer, both working on mathematics at Princeton University, submitted to the American Mathematical Monthly what they believed was “a new world record in the number of words in a [math] paper.” Soifer explains: “On April 28, 2004 … I submitted...
Seth's Blog
Books and more, winter 2024 They’re a gift that lasts forever, because your friend will remember what they learned and how they...
7 months ago
44
7 months ago
They’re a gift that lasts forever, because your friend will remember what they learned and how they felt… and they can keep it on their bookshelf or hard drive as a reminder in case they forget… Amazon chose This is Strategy for a Kindle deal today. It’s only $4. Also, the...
Seth's Blog
The leap In action movies, there’s a lot of leaping. Brave shifts in which the hero gets from here to there,...
a year ago
47
a year ago
In action movies, there’s a lot of leaping. Brave shifts in which the hero gets from here to there, all at once. It’s easy to imagine that sudden leaps are how we make our impact. This is blog post #9000 (give or take). When did the leap happen? It wasn’t an external leap. The...
Seth's Blog
The paradox of lessons The people most likely to sign up for coaching or additional learning are the folks who are already...
a year ago
70
a year ago
The people most likely to sign up for coaching or additional learning are the folks who are already good at their craft. “I’m terrible at this,” can lead to, “and I don’t want to be reminded of it.” Or perhaps, “I don’t want to waste their time,” or, “I’m never going to get...
Haterade
RECIPE: Barbecue Boost, Quickly (BBQ) Running Gel This one's for the meatheads.
a year ago
Prolost
Cameras, Phones, and Log — What’s the Juice? I know, I know, another video about shooting video in log on iPhones? I promise I’ll move on to...
5 months ago
42
5 months ago
I know, I know, another video about shooting video in log on iPhones? I promise I’ll move on to other topics, but two events happening in one week pushed me into making this video: Samsung adding log to the Galaxy s25 Ultra My brother-in-law texting me “Do you have a fix for...
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...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Julia Triay Hi! I'm Julia Triay, I'm an illustrator and printmaker from Mallorca, Spain based in Norwich. I...
5 months ago
71
5 months ago
Hi! I'm Julia Triay, I'm an illustrator and printmaker from Mallorca, Spain based in Norwich. I moved to Norwich 8 years ago to study illustration. I fell in love with this fine city and made it my home. I recently quit my job to become a full time illustrator, which has been a...
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
Open Culture
How Filmmakers Make Cameras Disappear: Mirrors in Movies If you’ve never tried your hand at filmmaking, you might assume that its hardest visual challenges...
9 months ago
63
9 months ago
If you’ve never tried your hand at filmmaking, you might assume that its hardest visual challenges are the creation of effects-laden spectacles: starships duking it out in space, monsters stomping through major cities, animals speaking and dancing like Broadway stars, that sort...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #132 Curing Blindness, Genetic Womb Treatment, Evo 2, AI co-scientist, Topological Qubits, Robots
4 months ago
Seth's Blog
The leaping curve The learning curve is familiar to many people. It might be steep, but it’s continuous. Organizations...
over a year ago
86
over a year ago
The learning curve is familiar to many people. It might be steep, but it’s continuous. Organizations (and people) work their way up it, one step at a time (it’s the black line in the graph below). But there’s rarely a continuous learning curve. Instead, it’s often interrupted by...
Open Culture
How Editing Saved Ferris Bueller’s Day Off & Made It a Classic “In our salad days, we are ripe for a particular movie that will linger, deathlessly, long after the...
10 months ago
62
10 months ago
“In our salad days, we are ripe for a particular movie that will linger, deathlessly, long after the greenness has gone,” writes the New Yorker’s Anthony Lane in a recent piece on movies in the eighties. “When a friend turned to me after the first twenty minutes of Ferris...
Seth's Blog
The hierarchy of insight It looks like this: Which do we measure the most, spend the most obtaining and argue about most...
9 months ago
42
9 months ago
It looks like this: Which do we measure the most, spend the most obtaining and argue about most often? We might have it backwards. HT Russ Ackoff.
escape the algorithm
The New Turing Test Changing the AI conversation
a year ago
Seth's Blog
The tooth fairy Make a list of things you used to believe. Fervently, certainly, completely. Things that you were...
11 months ago
62
11 months ago
Make a list of things you used to believe. Fervently, certainly, completely. Things that you were sure of, but now, with the passage of time and the benefit of experience, you know to be incorrect or incomplete. Of course, it’s not just mythical creatures beloved by children....
Marian's Blog
Game prototypes I’d like to share two game prototypes I made a few years ago. The first one is based on Tetris: ...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
I’d like to share two game prototypes I made a few years ago. The first one is based on Tetris: It was written in C++ with bare-bones OpenGL. Once you press shift, the game enters a “fast mode”, where the down button takes a piece all the way down and if you...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Midjourney takes on Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings Continuing my mission to use AI tools for things they really weren’t designed for and aren’t very...
over a year ago
23
over a year ago
Continuing my mission to use AI tools for things they really weren’t designed for and aren’t very good at and then judging the results.
On the Arts
From Gothic Invaders to Mall Goths How an ancient Germanic tribe gave its name to a modern subculture.
over a year ago
Blog - Mac Pierce
Host Jumping, thinking about viruses and how they’re changing. Thinking about the concepts and reasons behind the making of my work ‘Host Jump’.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Which agenda? Every day matters. It seems like a waste to spend one as a to-do list item on someone else’s agenda....
a year ago
87
a year ago
Every day matters. It seems like a waste to spend one as a to-do list item on someone else’s agenda. It’s easy to become so focused on checking the boxes that we forget that there are people involved. Peers, colleagues and friends that with something human to offer, if we only...
Open Culture
Jerry Seinfeld Delivers Commencement Address at Duke University: You Will Need Humor to Get Through... This weekend, Jerry Seinfeld gave the commencement speech at Duke University and offered the...
a year ago
101
a year ago
This weekend, Jerry Seinfeld gave the commencement speech at Duke University and offered the graduates his three keys to life: 1. bust your ass, 2. pay attention, and 3. fall in love. Then, 10 minutes later, he added essentially a fourth key to life: “Do not lose your sense of...
Neocha – Culture &...
Reflections on Urban Isolation
11 months ago
Seth's Blog
Rigor and curiosity Kids grow up with innate curiosity. It’s the hardwired instinct that permits us to walk, talk and...
3 weeks ago
14
3 weeks ago
Kids grow up with innate curiosity. It’s the hardwired instinct that permits us to walk, talk and survive long before we get to school. And at school, the industrial imperative prizes rigor over just about everything else. Obedience, detail orientation and system compliance are...
Seth's Blog
Jump in the lake The waters of Buck Lake are cool and clear and restorative. All summer, it’s tempting to go for a...
a year ago
85
a year ago
The waters of Buck Lake are cool and clear and restorative. All summer, it’s tempting to go for a swim. But it’s also a hassle. You need to change your clothes, find someone to guard, bring a towel and most of all, gasp at the transition when the cold water hits. And yet… no one...
Seth's Blog
The second mistake That’s the avoidable one and the one that usually causes the real trouble. When the first mistake...
a year ago
30
a year ago
That’s the avoidable one and the one that usually causes the real trouble. When the first mistake flusters us, breaks our rhythm or messes with our confidence, we’re far more likely to make the second one. It’s almost impossible to avoid making a mistake. But avoiding the second...
Seth's Blog
Software done well There are a few tools I use regularly that make me smile, because the craftspeople who made them...
a year ago
45
a year ago
There are a few tools I use regularly that make me smile, because the craftspeople who made them decided to build something with extra magic and care. By using and paying for well crafted software, we often get far more than we pay for… Ecamm is the tool I use for all my online...
Seth's Blog
Finding the others Consider purple.space a new community for professionals to connect without hustle. Peer-to-peer...
a year ago
20
a year ago
Consider purple.space a new community for professionals to connect without hustle. Peer-to-peer support, brainstorming, community workshops, coaching, dailies and more. Distributed work doesn’t have to be disconnected work. Freelancing, creating, and leading can feel solitary,...
Seth's Blog
Glib One of the valid complaints about some AI systems is that they make stuff up, with confidence, and...
11 months ago
83
11 months ago
One of the valid complaints about some AI systems is that they make stuff up, with confidence, and without sourcing, and then argue when challenged. Unsurprisingly, this sounds a lot like people. We often end up with what we are willing to tolerate. Show your work and ask for...
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 […]
Seth's Blog
The opportunity for AI formbots Forms are a convenient way for bureaucracies to collect information. They’re convenient because they...
6 months ago
72
6 months ago
Forms are a convenient way for bureaucracies to collect information. They’re convenient because they offload the work to the patient/customer/taxpayer. The shift in labor led to an explosion of self-serve forms, but the built-in inefficiencies punish everyone. The fundamental...
Marian's Blog
Computer Vision and Robotics Demo with Raspberry Pi This spring, I spent some time at SAP’s commercial hackerspace. I wanted to explore how computer...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
This spring, I spent some time at SAP’s commercial hackerspace. I wanted to explore how computer vision can be used with embedded devices and robotics. I built a demo that can detect QR codes and similar symbols and point a laser at them. Possible applications of this are putting...
Open Culture
James Earl Jones (RIP) Reads Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” Note: With the sad passing of James Earl Jones, at age 93, we’re bringing back a post from our...
9 months ago
51
9 months ago
Note: With the sad passing of James Earl Jones, at age 93, we’re bringing back a post from our archive–one featuring Jones reading two great American poets, Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman. These readings first appeared on our site in 2014. For all its many flaws the original...
On the Arts
Link List: 20 Articles + Websites About the Arts A wide-ranging collection of links on ballet, ugly architecture, Soviet Control rooms, Hokusai, and...
a year ago
On the Arts
How to Write a Proper Haiku A Starter's Guide to the Deceptively Simple Poetic Form
a year ago
Seth's Blog
On burning bridges Building a bridge is far more difficult than maintaining one. While it’s tempting to imagine that...
4 weeks ago
10
4 weeks ago
Building a bridge is far more difficult than maintaining one. While it’s tempting to imagine that we’re always racing forward, it’s far more likely we’ll benefit from traveling over this bridge again one day soon.
Ian Betteridge
Ten Blue Links, “stoically facing the end times” edition 1. When is AI coding not AI coding? You might have heard something about how Google now creates a...
8 months ago
33
8 months ago
1. When is AI coding not AI coding? You might have heard something about how Google now creates a quarter of its code using AI. But as with most things concerning everyone’s favourite hot tech, the devil is in the details. And the details, according to this poster on Hacker News,...
Open Culture
What is Electronic Music?: Pioneering Electronic Musician Daphne Oram Explains (1969) Survey the British public about the most important institution to arise in their country after World...
10 months ago
52
10 months ago
Survey the British public about the most important institution to arise in their country after World War II, and a lot of respondents are going to say the National Health Service. But keep asking around, and you’ll sooner or later encounter a few serious electronic-music...
Open Culture
Leonard Bernstein Introduces the Moog Synthesizer to the World in 1969, Playing an Electrified... When Wendy Carlos released Switched-On Bach in 1968, her “greatest hits” compilation of the Baroque...
a year ago
78
a year ago
When Wendy Carlos released Switched-On Bach in 1968, her “greatest hits” compilation of the Baroque composer’s music, played entirely on the Moog analog synthesizer, the album became an immediate hit with both classical and pop audiences. Not only was it “acclaimed as real music...
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
The Weekly World News version of the future What if someone is just making stuff up? Years ago, I worked with the supermarket tabloid to make an...
a month ago
9
a month ago
What if someone is just making stuff up? Years ago, I worked with the supermarket tabloid to make an ironic, shouty, somewhat funny book that has turned out to match much of the discourse we find surrounding us. When we flew down to Florida to meet their team, I was amazed to...
Seth's Blog
The early adopter (and the dilettante) The early adopter bought an iPhone in 2008 and never looked back. They played a few games of...
a year ago
25
a year ago
The early adopter bought an iPhone in 2008 and never looked back. They played a few games of pickleball and then joined a club and bought the equipment. They picked up a new magazine on the newsstand and then subscribed, and they bought the new bestseller and then read the...
Open Culture
Isaac Newton Creates a List of His 57 Sins (Circa 1662) Sir Isaac Newton, arguably the most important and influential scientist in history, discovered the...
7 months ago
60
7 months ago
Sir Isaac Newton, arguably the most important and influential scientist in history, discovered the laws of motion and the universal force of gravity. For the first time ever, the rules of the universe could be described with the supremely rational language of mathematics....
Seth's Blog
Spines out I lost a cookbook the other day. After twenty more minutes of searching, there it was, right on the...
a year ago
27
a year ago
I lost a cookbook the other day. After twenty more minutes of searching, there it was, right on the cookbook shelf. But the spine was much more subtle than the cover, and it hadn’t been what I was looking for or expecting. We spend a lot of time on our (metaphorical) book covers....
Seth's Blog
Knowing the territory There is always room for someone who really knows their way around an industry, a technology or a...
9 months ago
74
9 months ago
There is always room for someone who really knows their way around an industry, a technology or a problem. That’s what agents, agencies and organizers do. The hard part isn’t in finding people who will value true on-the-ground expertise. The hard part is actually earning it and...
Seth's Blog
Where is your N + 1? If three people are coming over for dinner, does that stress you out? What if it’s 17? If you’re...
2 months ago
24
2 months ago
If three people are coming over for dinner, does that stress you out? What if it’s 17? If you’re giving a talk explaining your strategy to four people, does it feel like a high-risk event? What if it’s 54? How many more people are required before it flips to stressful? Because...
Seth's Blog
The steps vs. the concept If you memorize the steps, you have a direct, simple and fast path to obtain the result. Until the...
2 months ago
21
2 months ago
If you memorize the steps, you have a direct, simple and fast path to obtain the result. Until the world changes. Even the tiniest shift in the system will render your memorization useless. On the other hand, if you understand the concept, you’ll be able to produce the steps...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Holly Nairn Hello! My name is Holly Nairn and I am a full time Art teacher in Hertfordshire, a job I absolutely...
3 weeks ago
12
3 weeks ago
Hello! My name is Holly Nairn and I am a full time Art teacher in Hertfordshire, a job I absolutely love. I work under the name PaperInkDream and I currently live in Essex with my husband and my cocker spaniel Teddy. Apart from printmaking, I am cycling obsessed and love nothing...
Seth's Blog
Getting the word out “How do you get the word out?” I’ve heard this from presidential candidates, from small business...
a year ago
34
a year ago
“How do you get the word out?” I’ve heard this from presidential candidates, from small business leaders and nonprofits as well. It’s easy to believe that the goal of marketing is to shout, hype, hustle and otherwise promote. It’s tempting to focus on your story as the top of the...
Seth's Blog
99 vs 0 If you get a 99% quality haircut or a 99% close-to-perfect meal, it’s better than good. On the other...
over a year ago
93
over a year ago
If you get a 99% quality haircut or a 99% close-to-perfect meal, it’s better than good. On the other hand, if the scrub nurse only does a 99% job of disinfecting the tools in the operating room, you’re still going to die of an infection. Some projects respond very well to...
Seth's Blog
When in doubt, look for the fear When someone acts in a surprising way, we can begin to understand by wondering what they might be...
a year ago
19
a year ago
When someone acts in a surprising way, we can begin to understand by wondering what they might be afraid of.
Stat Significant
Who's the Worst Actor in Movie History? A Statistical Analysis Who's the worst actor of all time, and why?
9 months ago
Open Culture
How Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton & Harold Lloyd Pulled Off Their Spectacular Stunts During Silent... It can be tempting to view the box office’s domination by visual-effects-laden Hollywood spectacle...
a month ago
26
a month ago
It can be tempting to view the box office’s domination by visual-effects-laden Hollywood spectacle as a recent phenomenon. And indeed, there have been periods during which that wasn’t the case: the “New Hollywood” that began in the late nineteen sixties, for instance, when the...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Nervous MAGAs Plus! Creepy AI and College Admission Discourse
3 months ago
Seth's Blog
Hungry (vs. not full) If consumption is the point (the engine of the economy, the focus of our marketing, the driver of...
11 months ago
62
11 months ago
If consumption is the point (the engine of the economy, the focus of our marketing, the driver of our status) then it’s easy to get confused about the difference between something that’s nearly empty (and must be refilled to ensure we keep going) and something that’s not quite...
Seth's Blog
Convenience and scams The scam era is upon us. Aided by AI, borderless currency and the internet of things, there are more...
a year ago
25
a year ago
The scam era is upon us. Aided by AI, borderless currency and the internet of things, there are more people than ever before making a living hustling to steal, impersonate, defraud and otherwise violate our trust. When the world was inconvenient, this was difficult. The banker...
Stat Significant
Which Movies Have "Aged Poorly"? A Statistical Analysis Which films have not stood the test of time?
2 months ago
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...
Marian's Blog
Android-Benachrichtigungen auf dem Schreibtisch Das Ziel dieses Projekts ist, Benachrichtigungen von meinem Android-Handy automatisch auf einem...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
Das Ziel dieses Projekts ist, Benachrichtigungen von meinem Android-Handy automatisch auf einem LoL-Shield (Lots of LEDs) anzuzeigen. Dazu benutze ich einen Raspberry Pi, der sowieso schon auf meinem Schreibtisch steht, einen Arduino für das Schild und auf dem Handy Tasker, um...
Seth's Blog
With the sound off If you’re watching a YouTube clip or a talking head, you can probably tell whether or not you...
over a year ago
82
over a year ago
If you’re watching a YouTube clip or a talking head, you can probably tell whether or not you disagree with someone even with the sound off. And we judge a book or an article on the layout and appearance long before we’ve read all the words. Human beings invented symbolic logic...
Open Culture
The First “Selfie” In History Taken by Robert Cornelius, a Philadelphia Chemist, in 1839 In 2013, the Oxford Dictionaries announced that “selfie” had been deemed their Word of The Year. The...
11 months ago
44
11 months ago
In 2013, the Oxford Dictionaries announced that “selfie” had been deemed their Word of The Year. The term, whose first recorded use as an Instagram hashtag occurred on January 27, 2011, was actually invented in 2002, when an Australian chap posted a picture of himself on an...
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...
Handprinted - Blog
How to Design and Print a Half Drop Repeating Pattern A half drop is a great way of creating a repeating pattern where the repeat is slightly obscured. It...
over a year ago
85
over a year ago
A half drop is a great way of creating a repeating pattern where the repeat is slightly obscured. It can make for a less gridded-looking structure and add complexity to your design. Here's a simple, analogue way to make one. Start by drawing around your block. We are...
Open Culture
How a Steady Supply of Coffee Helped the Union Win the U.S. Civil War Americans doing “e‑mail jobs” and working in the “laptop class” tend to make much of the quantity of...
a year ago
57
a year ago
Americans doing “e‑mail jobs” and working in the “laptop class” tend to make much of the quantity of coffee they require to keep going, or even to get started. In that sense alone, they have something in common with Civil War soldiers. “Union soldiers were given 36 pounds of...
Seth's Blog
Speaking up For many, the imagined cost of speaking up is almost always higher than the actual cost. And we live...
a year ago
23
a year ago
For many, the imagined cost of speaking up is almost always higher than the actual cost. And we live with the cost in our imagination daily, dying a little bit over time as we keep our insights to ourselves. Speaking up is a skill, and we can only improve it with practice.
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Distributing Randomness A good pseudorandom number generator gives an even distribution of results from 0 to 1 but...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
A good pseudorandom number generator gives an even distribution of results from 0 to 1 but sometimes in generative art we might want something different.
Seth's Blog
Quietly change it When we think about altering a policy, a setting or even the outfit we usually wear, it’s easy to...
over a year ago
85
over a year ago
When we think about altering a policy, a setting or even the outfit we usually wear, it’s easy to imagine that everyone is going to notice. In fact, almost no one will. That’s because no one cares about the noise in our head (or the actions we take) nearly as much as we do. You...
Seth's Blog
Blame your tools Blame the clients. And blame the conditions. But then, you’re on the hook to get better tools, find...
12 months ago
119
12 months ago
Blame the clients. And blame the conditions. But then, you’re on the hook to get better tools, find better clients and work in better conditions. It’s not convenient, but it’s possible. If it’s not worth the effort, we can simply accept what we’ve chosen and get back to work.
Seth's Blog
Misunderstanding bigness IBM spent a fortune fighting calls for them to be broken up. So did AT&T and Microsoft. In all three...
11 months ago
50
11 months ago
IBM spent a fortune fighting calls for them to be broken up. So did AT&T and Microsoft. In all three cases, there’s plenty of evidence that they would have been better off if they had simply broken themselves up. Microsoft is still recovering and IBM never will. One computer...
Seth's Blog
Projects and the red zone Many projects are never finished. There are countless broken and not-quite-fixed cars in garages....
over a year ago
81
over a year ago
Many projects are never finished. There are countless broken and not-quite-fixed cars in garages. There are crafts projects, massive redevelopments and everything in between. They sit unfinished because of bad planning, lack of resources, and most of all, a lack of resolve and...
Seth's Blog
“I don’t care” This is difficult. Care requires time and effort, and we can’t care about everything, all the way,...
3 months ago
31
3 months ago
This is difficult. Care requires time and effort, and we can’t care about everything, all the way, all the time. If you’re prepared to care about every element of your work, then you also have to decide to not care about something else. Because caring equally about everything...
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...
Open Culture
How Henri Matisse Scandalized the Art Establishment with His Daring Use of Color Even those of us not particularly well-versed in art history have heard of a painting style called...
9 months ago
34
9 months ago
Even those of us not particularly well-versed in art history have heard of a painting style called fauvism — and probably have never considered what it has to do with fauve, the French word for a wild beast. In fact, the two have everything to do with one another, at least in the...
Seth's Blog
The cheap chocolate system The first step in building a successful and elegant strategy is to see the systems that are part of...
8 months ago
40
8 months ago
The first step in building a successful and elegant strategy is to see the systems that are part of our lives. October is a fine month to take a moment to look closely at one: the system that brings us cheap chocolate. Like most systems, it’s largely invisible. The people in it...
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...
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...
John Reynolds -...
Mammoth Life - Wanna Be Loved Music Video Title: Wanna Be LovedArtist: Mammoth LifeYear: 2014 --
over a year ago
Marian's Blog
3D Printed Mechanical Digital Clock This post is about building a 3D printed, mechanical digital clock, made out of seven-segment...
3 months ago
28
3 months ago
This post is about building a 3D printed, mechanical digital clock, made out of seven-segment displays. The project was inspired by a video by Lukas Deem, who built a clock with seven-segment displays where the segments slide in and out when they change their state. In his...
Open Culture
Will Machines Ever Truly Think? Richard Feynman Contemplates the Future of Artificial Intelligence... Though its answer has grown more complicated in recent years, the question of whether computers will...
a month ago
15
a month ago
Though its answer has grown more complicated in recent years, the question of whether computers will ever truly think has been around for quite some time. Richard Feynman was being asked about it 40 years ago, as evidenced by the lecture clip above. As his fans would expect, he...
Anarchy Unfolds
March '24 Myths & Recs Sleep deprivation, Kim Petras, the Anthropocene, and more
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Tools and the long tail Have you ever made a video that was seen by someone you didn’t know? Or written something that got...
2 months ago
19
2 months ago
Have you ever made a video that was seen by someone you didn’t know? Or written something that got shared outside of your inner circle? The odds of either of these things happening a generation ago were close to zero. Now, it’s common. The skeptics said that people wanted to...
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...
Anarchy Unfolds
Is human society natural? On the human/nature divide and how to overcome it
4 months ago
Open Culture
Behold the Kräuterbuch, a Lavishly Illustrated Guide to Plants and Herbs from 1462 When Konrad von Megenberg published his Buch der Natur in the mid-fourteenth century, he won the...
11 months ago
38
11 months ago
When Konrad von Megenberg published his Buch der Natur in the mid-fourteenth century, he won the distinction of having assembled the very first natural history in German. More than half a millennium later, the book still fascinates — not least for its depictions of cats,...
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...
Seth's Blog
It goes without saying A phrase that’s been showing up recently is, “no pressure.” It usually comes in a pitch letter of...
a year ago
72
a year ago
A phrase that’s been showing up recently is, “no pressure.” It usually comes in a pitch letter of some sort, written by someone who isn’t in a position to exert any pressure. So why say it? It’s a bit like, “while supplies last.” And “to be honest…” which is perhaps the most...
Infinite Scroll
The Unbearable Cynicism of Trump 2.0 Who cares, nothing matters, cry about it
5 months ago
Seth's Blog
Product and process What do we get in exchange for our work? There’s pay, of course, and the satisfaction of a job well...
a year ago
37
a year ago
What do we get in exchange for our work? There’s pay, of course, and the satisfaction of a job well done. There’s stress and human interaction, learning and physical exertion. We get the drama of what might happen next and the delight of actually pulling it off. And mostly we get...
Seth's Blog
What do we owe the future? You are someone’s ancestor. Most immediately, you are the ancestor of the you of tomorrow. That’s...
8 months ago
58
8 months ago
You are someone’s ancestor. Most immediately, you are the ancestor of the you of tomorrow. That’s why we don’t spend every penny in our bank account, why we put leftovers in the fridge, why we earn a degree–it’s a gift to the you of tomorrow. Each of us have a way of thinking...
Open Culture
Watch Tom Waits For No One, the Pioneering Animated Music Video from 1979 Tom Waits For No One, above, is surely the only film in history to have won an Oscar for Scientific...
12 months ago
64
12 months ago
Tom Waits For No One, above, is surely the only film in history to have won an Oscar for Scientific and Technical Achievement for its creator and a first place award at the Hollywood Erotic Film and Video Festival. Director John Lamb and his partner, Bruce Lyon also deserve...
Seth's Blog
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...
Marian's Blog
LED Matrix Software I wrote two programs that run on my LED matrix. They have different approaches and different...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
I wrote two programs that run on my LED matrix. They have different approaches and different aims. This post describes one of them.  The app offers a web interface where users can write simple programs that are then compiled and started instantly from the website. The concept is...
Seth's Blog
Why tell the others? Every internet success works because the network effect kicked in. There’s no other way for an idea...
a year ago
44
a year ago
Every internet success works because the network effect kicked in. There’s no other way for an idea to reliably and economically reach a big enough audience to be sustained. That’s why Super Bowl ads make so little sense in 2024. Ideas that spread win. I wrote a bestseller about...
Seth's Blog
If it’s all in bold Then none of it is in bold.
over a year ago
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
90
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...
Seth's Blog
Semantic algebra Doing math problems in your head is a skill. No one is born knowing the answer to, “You have 35...
a year ago
89
a year ago
Doing math problems in your head is a skill. No one is born knowing the answer to, “You have 35 coins in nickels and quarters. They add up to $4.15. How many quarters do you have?” but we can learn. And some people find it easier than others, but yes, we can learn. The same […]
Not Boring by Packy...
Hyperlegible 006: Forsaking Industrialism Conrad Bastable on how China built its Industrial Platform and what it would take for the West to...
2 months ago
37
2 months ago
Conrad Bastable on how China built its Industrial Platform and what it would take for the West to reindustrialize (hint: tariffs aren't enough)
On the Arts
On the Arts: A Year-End Review A brief guide to everything published this year.
a year ago
Seth's Blog
“I’ve never seen you paint” … said the collector to the painter Jasper Johns. “Neither have I.” Watching is different than...
a year ago
31
a year ago
… said the collector to the painter Jasper Johns. “Neither have I.” Watching is different than doing. Trying to do both at the same time is a challenge.
Open Culture
How the Influential Time-Travel Movie La Jetée Was Made (Almost) Entirely out of Still Photographs In a future where humanity has been driven underground by an apocalyptic event, a prisoner is...
8 months ago
31
8 months ago
In a future where humanity has been driven underground by an apocalyptic event, a prisoner is haunted by the childhood memory of seeing a man gunned down at an airport. A group of scientists make him their time-traveling guinea pig, hoping that he’ll be able to find a way to...
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...
Open Culture
Hear Flannery O’Connor Read “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (1959) Flannery O’Connor was a Southern writer who, as Joyce Carol Oates once said, had less in common with...
a year ago
53
a year ago
Flannery O’Connor was a Southern writer who, as Joyce Carol Oates once said, had less in common with Faulkner than with Kafka and Kierkegaard. Isolated by poor health and consumed by her fervent Catholic faith, O’Connor created works of moral fiction that, according to Oates,...
Seth's Blog
The useful agreement Contrary to expectations, written contracts don’t have to be adversarial. In fact, the effective...
a year ago
19
a year ago
Contrary to expectations, written contracts don’t have to be adversarial. In fact, the effective ones rarely are. When you hand someone a release, a royalty agreement or even a partnership document, it pays to point out the gnarly parts, the controversial bits and the ones that...
Seth's Blog
Reimagining cities in a few simple questions What would happen if public transportation were free? What if it were paid for by congestion...
over a year ago
54
over a year ago
What would happen if public transportation were free? What if it were paid for by congestion pricing, digitally implemented? What if public toilets were safe, beautiful, well-appointed and consistently maintained? What if there were a tax on empty storefronts, payable after three...
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...
Open Culture
Gustave Doré’s Macabre Illustrations of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” (1884) One of the busiest, most in-demand artists of the 19th century, Gustave Doré made his name...
a year ago
58
a year ago
One of the busiest, most in-demand artists of the 19th century, Gustave Doré made his name illustrating works by such authors as Rabelais, Balzac, Milton, and Dante. In the 1860s, he created one of the most memorable and popular illustrated editions of Cervantes’ Don Quixote,...
Seth's Blog
The seduction of compliance We can tell from the words. “I’m just doing my job.” “Will this be on the test?” “Don’t blame me.”...
over a year ago
90
over a year ago
We can tell from the words. “I’m just doing my job.” “Will this be on the test?” “Don’t blame me.” “It’s what everyone else is wearing.” Keep your head down, do what you’re told, don’t stick your neck out, and most of all, pay attention to what everyone else is doing. All of this...
Seth's Blog
Work ethic vs discipline A solid work ethic drives someone to show up, even when they’d rather not. If there’s work on their...
2 months ago
22
2 months ago
A solid work ethic drives someone to show up, even when they’d rather not. If there’s work on their desk, they’ll take it on. Discipline, on the other hand, is the ability to say ‘no’ to free up focus and resources for the work that’s worth saying ‘yes’ to.
Blog - Mac Pierce
+ / - , Actualization Reposting some writing I did a while back on the subject of how additive manufacturing is...
over a year ago
86
over a year ago
Reposting some writing I did a while back on the subject of how additive manufacturing is necessarily a destructive process.
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Idiot Plots Plus! Gavin's podcast, morning routines, and a good chickpea post
3 months ago
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Forecast Forecast is a long-form generative art project released on fxhash on 16th Feb 2023. This article...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
Forecast is a long-form generative art project released on fxhash on 16th Feb 2023. This article contains info about techniques and some rambling about concepts and emotions.
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
What if they’re right? We spend a lot of time in our own heads, certain that our path and our method make sense. We often...
6 months ago
54
6 months ago
We spend a lot of time in our own heads, certain that our path and our method make sense. We often become more certain in the face of criticism or even suggestions. This confidence is essential, as it allows us to lean into our project. Once in a while, though, it might help to...
Seth's Blog
Tom Peters Tom announced his retirement today, at 80 years old, after 45 years of Excellence and perhaps...
over a year ago
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over a year ago
Tom announced his retirement today, at 80 years old, after 45 years of Excellence and perhaps 10,000,000 miles flown. I remember a photo of him sleeping on a bench in an airport in Siberia. I remember him holding my young son just before we went on stage in Florida together...
Marian's Blog
16×16 LED Matrix This is a 16×16 RGB LED matrix, made of 256 WS2812B LEDs. It’s powered by a Raspberry Pi and can...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
This is a 16×16 RGB LED matrix, made of 256 WS2812B LEDs. It’s powered by a Raspberry Pi and can display images and animations. With a game controller attached, it can play games. The pictures below show how I built the frame. Painting the base plate Drawing...
Seth's Blog
What’s the right size? There are no city buses with just four seats. And none with 400 seats. We get to leverage the...
a year ago
32
a year ago
There are no city buses with just four seats. And none with 400 seats. We get to leverage the driver’s effort if we put in a few more seats, but add too many and the bus is too big to make a turn–and soon we’d have to add conductors and cleaners and then the bus […]
Open Culture
9‑Year-Old Edward Hopper Draws a Picture on the Back of His 3rd Grade Report Card In a 2017 press release, the Edward Hopper House announced that it would receive over 1,000...
a year ago
91
a year ago
In a 2017 press release, the Edward Hopper House announced that it would receive over 1,000 artifacts and memorabilia documenting Edward Hopper’s family life and early years. The collection “consists of juvenilia and other materials from the formative years of Hopper’s life and...
Stat Significant
What's the Perfect Song Length? A Statistical Analysis Investigating the "ideal" song length, and whether such a thing exists.
3 months ago
Open Culture
Discover the CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual: A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization... I’ve always admired people who can successfully navigate what I refer to as “Kafka’s Castle,” a term...
7 months ago
53
7 months ago
I’ve always admired people who can successfully navigate what I refer to as “Kafka’s Castle,” a term of dread for the many government and corporate agencies that have an inordinate amount of power over our permanent records, and that seem as inscrutable and chillingly absurd as...
Seth's Blog
Overstuffed The empty part of the drawer is what makes it a useful tool. Same goes for a filing cabinet, a...
over a year ago
37
over a year ago
The empty part of the drawer is what makes it a useful tool. Same goes for a filing cabinet, a toolbox and a calendar. Slack is underrated.
Seth's Blog
A possible AI future Persistent, connected and kind. Most visions of the internet in 1995 were about individuals...
9 months ago
71
9 months ago
Persistent, connected and kind. Most visions of the internet in 1995 were about individuals interacting with content online. It turns out that the internet (inter plus net) is actually about connection. The apps and businesses that were most successful connected people–to ideas,...
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...
Handprinted - Blog
Printing with Heat Stamps If you haven’t tried printing with Heat Stamps yet, this is your new project. It’s really quick to...
a year ago
54
a year ago
If you haven’t tried printing with Heat Stamps yet, this is your new project. It’s really quick to create a unique block that can be reused again and again to create different textures and patterns. All you need is a heat gun and a variety of objects and surfaces to create your...
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
Watch a Japanese Artisan Hand-Craft a Cello in 6 Months Cellists unwilling to settle for any but the finest instrument must, sooner or later, make a...
a year ago
80
a year ago
Cellists unwilling to settle for any but the finest instrument must, sooner or later, make a pilgrimage to Cremona — or rather, to the Cremonas. One is, of course, the city in Lombardy that was home to numerous pioneering master luthiers, up to and including Antonio Stradivari....
Seth's Blog
Professionals are consistent Authenticity is for amateurs. We want the surgeon, the broadcaster or the musician to show up fully,...
9 months ago
54
9 months ago
Authenticity is for amateurs. We want the surgeon, the broadcaster or the musician to show up fully, as the best version of themselves. We know you might be tired from an overnight shift, and authentically feel like phoning it in, but hey, this is the only aorta I’ve got, and I’d...
Seth's Blog
The broomstick objection Every founder, leader, sales rep and person on a dating app has heard this. Why did the Wizard ask...
9 months ago
62
9 months ago
Every founder, leader, sales rep and person on a dating app has heard this. Why did the Wizard ask Dorothy to bring him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch? It’s not because he needed a broomstick. It’s because he wanted Dorothy to go away. If you send someone away to get...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Olesya Dzhurayeva I am Olesya Dzhurayeva, Ukrainian artist. I was born in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, but I...
a year ago
91
a year ago
I am Olesya Dzhurayeva, Ukrainian artist. I was born in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, but I moved to Ukraine as a child. Now I live in Kyiv. Despite the war, I am staying in Ukraine and continue to work. I am an active member of the international printmaking community,...
Seth's Blog
The distribution of character Along the way, we have been taught to associate character skills like honesty, rationality,...
11 months ago
64
11 months ago
Along the way, we have been taught to associate character skills like honesty, rationality, agreeableness, grit and care with surface metrics like wealth or power. That’s almost certainly incorrect. And if we make assumptions based on vague measures of class, we’re going to get...
Seth's Blog
Diagnostics “If it breaks, we’ll know how to fix it.” Old cars had an oil light, and that was about it. Often,...
12 hours ago
2
12 hours ago
“If it breaks, we’ll know how to fix it.” Old cars had an oil light, and that was about it. Often, we build things hoping they’ll work. But complex systems are more resilient when we build in the diagnostics for failure from the start. A multi-unit retail chain, a medical...
Seth's Blog
Out to get you It’s easy to believe that in some moments, the world is out to get you. This is unlikely. The world...
a year ago
37
a year ago
It’s easy to believe that in some moments, the world is out to get you. This is unlikely. The world hardly knows you exist. There is injustice and trauma and systems of caste. There are tiny pockets of humanity that hold a grudge. But most of the time, in most situations, what...
Not Boring by Packy...
Base Power Company: Chapter 2 Violently Executing to Build America's Next Generation Power Company
2 months ago
Infinite Scroll
Midweek Scroll: Woke Puritanism Slack Espionage, Evil Scientists, and RIP Hamster Forums
3 months ago
Open Culture
Nick Cave Narrates an Animated Film about the Cat Piano, the Twisted 18th Century Musical Instrument... What do you imagine when you hear the phrase “cat piano”? Some kind of whimsical furry beast with...
11 months ago
65
11 months ago
What do you imagine when you hear the phrase “cat piano”? Some kind of whimsical furry beast with black and white keys for teeth, maybe? A relative of My Neighbor Totoro’s cat bus? Or maybe you picture a piano that contains several caged cats who shriek along an entire scale when...
Open Culture
Talking Heads Release the First Official Video for “Psycho Killer”: Watch It Online On social media, the Talking Heads teased a major announcement on June 5th, leading fans to wonder...
4 weeks ago
14
4 weeks ago
On social media, the Talking Heads teased a major announcement on June 5th, leading fans to wonder if a reunion—41 years after their last tour—might finally be in the offing. As one fan put it, “If this is a tour announcement, I am going to freak out!” Alas, we didn’t quite get...
Seth's Blog
“What will I tell my boss?” If you can’t answer that six-word question, you’re selling a commodity. Organizations don’t buy...
a year ago
88
a year ago
If you can’t answer that six-word question, you’re selling a commodity. Organizations don’t buy things, people do. And people at companies aren’t spending their own money, so this is the only question on the table. A cogent story, based on affiliation and status, one that sees...
Seth's Blog
The system has fingerprints We all make mistakes. We all do things that we then realize weren’t in our interest, or useful to...
6 months ago
49
6 months ago
We all make mistakes. We all do things that we then realize weren’t in our interest, or useful to the community. If we do it a second time, it’s worth taking a hard look at the system that set us up for failure. How did the system get here? Who benefits? When we can see […]
Open Culture
Carl Jung Offers an Introduction to His Psychological Thought in a 3‑Hour Interview (1957) In the 1950s, it was fashionable to drop Freud’s name — often as not in pseudo-intellectual sex...
11 months ago
69
11 months ago
In the 1950s, it was fashionable to drop Freud’s name — often as not in pseudo-intellectual sex jokes. Freud’s preoccupations had as much to do with his fame as the actual practice of psychotherapy, and it was assumed — and still is to a great degree — that Freud had “won” the...
Seth's Blog
Overconfidence and AI Human beings are often more effective when we’re a bit self-effacing. “I think,” “Perhaps,” or “I...
over a year ago
88
over a year ago
Human beings are often more effective when we’re a bit self-effacing. “I think,” “Perhaps,” or “I might be missing something, but…” are fine ways to give our assertions a chance to be considered. The solar-powered LED calculator we used in school did no such thing. 6 x 7 is 42,...
Seth's Blog
Fingerprints If a jacket is made by Patagonia or a piece of hardware is made by Teenage Engineering, you can...
a year ago
79
a year ago
If a jacket is made by Patagonia or a piece of hardware is made by Teenage Engineering, you can probably tell who made it the first time you see it, even without a logo. A painting by Sonia Delaunay doesn’t need to be signed to know who it’s by. On the other hand, AppleTV streams...
Seth's Blog
A finite ordered set of interesting objects The alphabet is one. 26 letters, no more. One order, that’s it. The Beatles are another. John, Paul,...
over a year ago
38
over a year ago
The alphabet is one. 26 letters, no more. One order, that’s it. The Beatles are another. John, Paul, George and then Ringo. The Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, The Supremes. The astrological zodiac gets us to twelve, but I’m having a really difficult time finding a memorable...
Ian Betteridge
Weeknote, Sunday 15th December
6 months ago
Seth's Blog
The paradox of self skepticism If we’re to publish, teach, invent, imagine or promote, we need the confidence to believe that we...
a year ago
66
a year ago
If we’re to publish, teach, invent, imagine or promote, we need the confidence to believe that we have something to offer. That we are, in some way, right. But the enterprise of rational thought is based on theories, tests and improvements. We can never be certain, all we have is...
escape the algorithm
So you want to escape the algorithm A primer
5 months ago
Open Culture
Steven Spielberg Calls Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange “the First Punk Rock Movie Ever Made” Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick are two of the first directors whose names young cinephiles get...
a year ago
49
a year ago
Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick are two of the first directors whose names young cinephiles get to know. They’re also names between which quite a few of those young cinephiles draw a battle line: you may have enjoyed films by both of these auteurs, but ultimately, you’re...
Seth's Blog
The paradox of insular language We often develop slang or codewords to keep the others from understanding what we’re saying. Here’s...
a year ago
25
a year ago
We often develop slang or codewords to keep the others from understanding what we’re saying. Here’s an example (thanks BK) of the lengths that some are going to be able to take about Chinese politics. Of course, if you come up with a concealed enough code, the people you’re...
Open Culture
What Would Happen If a Nuclear Bomb Hit a Major City Today: A Visualization of the Destruction One of the many memorable details in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop...
a year ago
51
a year ago
One of the many memorable details in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, placed prominently in a shot of George C. Scott in the war room, is a binder with a spine labeled “WORLD TARGETS IN MEGADEATHS.” A megadeath, writes Eric...
Seth's Blog
Take good notes Facts are important, but facts don’t create learning. Stories do. A story fits into (and changes)...
7 months ago
42
7 months ago
Facts are important, but facts don’t create learning. Stories do. A story fits into (and changes) our understanding of the world. Good teachers are storytellers, and storytellers are teachers. Notes, then, aren’t recitations of facts. They’re story prompts. A good note reminds...
Seth's Blog
Learning, connecting, deciding (and amazing) My new short LinkedIn class on project management just launched, and I’ll be discussing it live...
a year ago
34
a year ago
My new short LinkedIn class on project management just launched, and I’ll be discussing it live today with Amanda Ruud … we’ll be there if you want to bring your questions. Sooner or later, all important work becomes project work. After the extraordinary feedback from her last...
Seth's Blog
Kazoo lessons Knowledge and technique used to be closely guarded secrets. Admission to the guild was reserved for...
12 months ago
49
12 months ago
Knowledge and technique used to be closely guarded secrets. Admission to the guild was reserved for a few, and crafts like typesetting, plumbing and medicine were off limits to most folks. One of the reasons for the explosion in productivity and innovation in the last century is...
escape the algorithm
ETA's Best links of 2024 Relinking some Links links
6 months ago
Open Culture
The Mushroom Color Atlas: An Interactive Web Site Lets You Explore the Incredible Spectrum of Colors... Enter the Mushroom Color Atlas, and you can discover the “beautiful and subtle colors derived from...
7 months ago
52
7 months ago
Enter the Mushroom Color Atlas, and you can discover the “beautiful and subtle colors derived from dyeing with mushrooms.” Featuring 825 colors, each associated with different types of mushrooms, the interactive atlas lets you appreciate the broad spectrum of colors latent in the...
Open Culture
Hear Newly Rediscovered Music by Erik Satie on the 100th Anniversary of His Death https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kuFyuH6tvOjqf-ugVZ1RXulJtFUqnDPz0Video can’t be loaded...
5 days ago
6
5 days ago
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kuFyuH6tvOjqf-ugVZ1RXulJtFUqnDPz0Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Satie: Discoveries (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kuFyuH6tvOjqf-ugVZ1RXulJtFUqnDPz0) If asked to name our favorite French composer...
Seth's Blog
Boyle’s Law There’s no such thing as work life balance. There’s simply life. And you spend part of your life at...
a year ago
34
a year ago
There’s no such thing as work life balance. There’s simply life. And you spend part of your life at work. One way to change the pressure of work is to expand or contract the size of the container that holds it. It’s a trap to embrace a productivity shortcut that isn’t a shortcut...
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...
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
What to do with firm footing If we’ve got tenure, a lifetime appointment or simply a really secure gig, what should we do with...
a year ago
70
a year ago
If we’ve got tenure, a lifetime appointment or simply a really secure gig, what should we do with it? One option is to race to the bottom, to chase short-term self-focused outcomes and to see how much we can get away with. (Probably, quite a bit). The other is to take this rare...
Open Culture
Eno: The New “Generative Documentary” on Brian Eno That’s Never the Same Movie Twice Brian Eno once wrote that “it’s possible that our grandchildren will look at us in wonder and say,...
11 months ago
56
11 months ago
Brian Eno once wrote that “it’s possible that our grandchildren will look at us in wonder and say, ‘You mean you used to listen to to exactly the same thing over and over again?’ ” That speculation comes from an essay on what he calls “generative music,” which is automatically...
Seth's Blog
The sixty-day staircase In the moment, it’s really difficult. L’espirit descalier means, “the spirit of the staircase.” That...
a year ago
39
a year ago
In the moment, it’s really difficult. L’espirit descalier means, “the spirit of the staircase.” That thing you wished you had a said just a moment ago, the bon mot or the clever riposte. It only comes to us as we’re walking away. But this sort of quick comment is good for the...
John Reynolds -...
at☉m at☉m
a year ago
Seth's Blog
The grid of inquiry Expertise and firmly held beliefs don’t always go together. Here’s a simple XY grid to help us...
a year ago
38
a year ago
Expertise and firmly held beliefs don’t always go together. Here’s a simple XY grid to help us choose where to sit at whatever table we’re invited to: Plenty of well-trained professionals have earned the right to have strongly held beliefs. These convictions save them time and...
Seth's Blog
Getting precise about tolerance Tolerance is an engineering term. When the parts of a car are made to a low tolerance, that means...
4 months ago
35
4 months ago
Tolerance is an engineering term. When the parts of a car are made to a low tolerance, that means that they fit perfectly. A modern Lexus is a better car than a 1976 Nova because relentless improvement means that the parts are more exact. Tolerance is a design term. When a system...
Seth's Blog
The Cliffs Notes paradox For a decade, Cliffs Notes were the bestselling section of the bookstore. They were a simple way for...
over a year ago
112
over a year ago
For a decade, Cliffs Notes were the bestselling section of the bookstore. They were a simple way for any high school student to get insight, examples and answers about the books they were assigned and read (or didn’t read). When Cliffs published a list of their thirty bestselling...
Seth's Blog
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...
Neocha – Culture &...
Functional Necessities
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Productivity week: Bonus In an economy built on skill, knowledge, and attitude, the single most powerful way to improve your...
a year ago
33
a year ago
In an economy built on skill, knowledge, and attitude, the single most powerful way to improve your productivity is to learn something. You put in the effort once and it pays off for decades. There are more ways for an adult to learn now than at any time in our history, and all...
Seth's Blog
The amateur presenter Not “amateur” as in the unprepared professional. Amateur as in the passionate individual, untrained...
a year ago
22
a year ago
Not “amateur” as in the unprepared professional. Amateur as in the passionate individual, untrained but with something to say. If you’re called on to give a talk or presentation, the biggest trap to avoid is the most common: Decide that you need to be just like a professional...
Seth's Blog
But what do they say at the meeting? This is the way to understand business-to-business selling. After you’ve left with the purchase...
2 weeks ago
8
2 weeks ago
This is the way to understand business-to-business selling. After you’ve left with the purchase order, what does the buyer tell the boss? What does the boss tell the investors or the press? This helps decode why giant companies like Google or Facebook buy a company or don’t. It...
Seth's Blog
Conversations, an early review… (and the free class) “I have trained companies to treat people better, and SONG is the guidebook I wished I had when...
over a year ago
82
over a year ago
“I have trained companies to treat people better, and SONG is the guidebook I wished I had when doing this work. Now, I will now give it to the enlightened and brutes alike, with a recommendation to take immediate action.  Seth Godin has been carefully documenting the end of the...
Handprinted - Blog
Kathryn Desforges: Meet The Maker I'm Kathryn Desforges, a Devon-born, Yorkshire-based artist with a passion for printmaking, process,...
5 months ago
55
5 months ago
I'm Kathryn Desforges, a Devon-born, Yorkshire-based artist with a passion for printmaking, process, and material experimentation. I specialise in etching, lithography and woodcut, and alongside my studio practice, my career as a printmaking technician and tutor intertwines with...
The Great Discontent...
Yashas Mitta Yashas is a creative director and ambitious connector. He was also a self-described outsider for...
a year ago
7
a year ago
Yashas is a creative director and ambitious connector. He was also a self-described outsider for much of his life, and his path from Bangalore, India to New York City has been a winding one driven by sheer stubbornness and a keen instinct for creating community wherever he goes....
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #129 Supersonic Boom, DeepSeek, Science Corp, Heart Allografts, New Space, Meter
5 months ago
Open Culture
A Short Visual History of America, According to the Irreverent Comic Artist R. Crumb As a founder of the “underground comix” movement in the 1960s, R. Crumb is either revered as a...
8 months ago
54
8 months ago
As a founder of the “underground comix” movement in the 1960s, R. Crumb is either revered as a pioneering satirist of American culture and its excesses or reviled as a juvenile purveyor of painfully outmoded sexist and racist stereotypes. Crumb doesn’t apologize. He keeps...
Seth's Blog
“Please create more tension” This rarely comes up in focus group data. It doesn’t come up when a school talks to students, or a...
8 months ago
35
8 months ago
This rarely comes up in focus group data. It doesn’t come up when a school talks to students, or a conductor asks the orchestra. It doesn’t come up when the gym owner surveys potential members or when a chef or playwright thinks about building something new. But of course, that’s...
Open Culture
The Only Painting van Gogh Ever Sold: Discover The Red Vineyard (1888) It may have crossed your mind, while beholding paintings of Vincent van Gogh, that you’d like to own...
3 days ago
5
3 days ago
It may have crossed your mind, while beholding paintings of Vincent van Gogh, that you’d like to own one yourself someday. If so, you’ll have to get in line with more than a few billionaires, and even they may never see one go up on the auction block. This would probably come as...
Seth's Blog
Input choice is easily taken for granted We can give instructions to a fellow human by: Most people develop voiceboxes and limbs and facial...
a year ago
22
a year ago
We can give instructions to a fellow human by: Most people develop voiceboxes and limbs and facial expressions that make any of these usable. Computers, over the decades, have had to have them engineered. In 1983, Dan Lovy built a parser for the adventure games I was marketing at...
Seth's Blog
How, why and hyperbole There are three trends in copywriting that have been so overused they should now be avoided. The...
11 months ago
62
11 months ago
There are three trends in copywriting that have been so overused they should now be avoided. The first two: Headlines with “why” for articles that don’t actually explain why. Headlines with “how” that don’t really teach you how. Explaining why is difficult, which is where the...
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...
Seth's Blog
Bongo is here And you can be the first on your block to play it. It’s free. Click here to see today’s game. Over...
7 months ago
49
7 months ago
And you can be the first on your block to play it. It’s free. Click here to see today’s game. Over the next week, I’m going to do a few bonus posts to explain how we thought about the creation and game design and marketing of this new project. The last eighteen months of...
cabel.com
The Snacks & Cereals of 2024 Welcome to 2025. The vibes are a little heavy, so, I’m trying very hard to focus on the things I can...
5 months ago
47
5 months ago
Welcome to 2025. The vibes are a little heavy, so, I’m trying very hard to focus on the things I can control — and yes, that includes remembering to share things that delight me like the latest #new snacks and cereals I find at the grocery store!! Yeah. It’s an age-old, very-odd...
Seth's Blog
All species are invasive species Human beings as we know them have only been around for 70,000 years or so. Honeybees got to North...
a year ago
23
a year ago
Human beings as we know them have only been around for 70,000 years or so. Honeybees got to North America around the time Columbus did. And the same is true for technologies and companies. Western Union was an interloper, telegrams were the scary new tech that was going to change...
Seth's Blog
Who owns your words? There are many ways to ask and answer this question. Authorship used to be rare, but now, all of us...
7 months ago
54
7 months ago
There are many ways to ask and answer this question. Authorship used to be rare, but now, all of us write something. If you’re putting your words on a social media platform, you might be surprised to discover that they could disappear at any moment. Some platforms acknowledge...
Open Culture
Bertrand Russell’s 10 Commandments for Living in a Healthy Democracy Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons Bertrand Russell saw the history of civilization as...
7 months ago
45
7 months ago
Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons Bertrand Russell saw the history of civilization as being shaped by an unfortunate oscillation between two opposing evils: tyranny and anarchy, each of which contains the seed of the other. The best course for steering clear of...
Seth's Blog
Can’t wait The urgent problem might actually benefit from a short cooling-off period. But important challenges...
over a year ago
79
over a year ago
The urgent problem might actually benefit from a short cooling-off period. But important challenges can’t wait. Today is a good day to remember that better is possible, and that we shouldn’t wait for the problem to become easy or fade away. Better begins with each of us, but it...
Seth's Blog
Waves and tides It’s easy to be distracted by the wave that’s crashing on the shore. On the other hand, the tide is...
3 months ago
31
3 months ago
It’s easy to be distracted by the wave that’s crashing on the shore. On the other hand, the tide is inexorable. It’s the long-term trend, the one that is quietly happening, over time. Sometimes, a big wave comes along and we lose our focus. It’s urgent. But expecting and working...
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
Umberto Eco’s List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism Creative Commons image by Rob Bogaerts, via the National Archives in Holland One of the key...
8 months ago
83
8 months ago
Creative Commons image by Rob Bogaerts, via the National Archives in Holland One of the key questions facing both journalists and loyal oppositions these days is how do we stay honest as euphemisms and trivializations take over the discourse? Can we use words like “fascism,” for...
Seth's Blog
Market insulation It’s possible that your day will be more enjoyable if you are insulated from the market. If you have...
a year ago
48
a year ago
It’s possible that your day will be more enjoyable if you are insulated from the market. If you have a boss who has a boss… If you don’t have to review the sales numbers for the products you created or edited… If you have raised a ton of venture investment… If you are embracing...
Seth's Blog
Decisions and choices Decisions are easy, choices are hard. A good decision is our best analysis of the facts, options and...
5 months ago
46
5 months ago
Decisions are easy, choices are hard. A good decision is our best analysis of the facts, options and risks. If it’s too close to call, flip a coin, because it’s too close to call. On the other hand, a choice involves understanding our priorities, evaluating our preference for...
Seth's Blog
This time it’s personal My new book is urgent and it’s personal. Some readers have told me that it’s also their favorite. It...
over a year ago
35
over a year ago
My new book is urgent and it’s personal. Some readers have told me that it’s also their favorite. It opens the door to a better way to work and to find meaning in how we spend our days. I’ve done dozens of podcasts talking about it, but when I talk about it, it’s not nearly […]
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Duncan Tattersall I’m an artist and maker from southern Scotland, designing and hand printing bespoke textiles for...
a year ago
67
a year ago
I’m an artist and maker from southern Scotland, designing and hand printing bespoke textiles for interiors. My work focuses on the relationship between pattern & place; all of my designs are inspired by a particular location and aim to interpret the story of their surroundings....
Seth's Blog
What do you need more of? If our day (and our work) would get better if we had more: …we know where to get it. If not, then...
3 weeks ago
11
3 weeks ago
If our day (and our work) would get better if we had more: …we know where to get it. If not, then why are we spending our magical attention there?
Anarchy Unfolds
To change everything, start anywhere Letters to an anarchist - Part 2
7 months ago
Open Culture
Marvin Gaye’s Classic Vocals on ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’: The A Cappella Version It’s hard to believe, but Marvin Gaye’s classic 1967 recording of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”...
2 months ago
6
2 months ago
It’s hard to believe, but Marvin Gaye’s classic 1967 recording of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” was originally rejected by his record label. The song, about a man’s grief over hearing rumors of his lover’s infidelity, was written by the legendary Motown Records producer...
Open Culture
The Very First Coloring Book, The Little Folks’ Painting Book (Circa 1879) Funny how not that long ago coloring books were considered the exclusive domain of children. How...
a week ago
9
a week ago
Funny how not that long ago coloring books were considered the exclusive domain of children. How times have changed. If you are the sort of adult who unwinds with a big box of Crayolas and pages of mandalas or outlines of Ryan Gosling, you owe a debt of gratitude to the...
Seth's Blog
PW 2: Productivity in community We need you. But only if you need us. Purple.space is six months old, and there are about a thousand...
a year ago
39
a year ago
We need you. But only if you need us. Purple.space is six months old, and there are about a thousand of us now. It was an experiment, now it’s a useful tool. The initiative hat is often ill-fitting. We rush to take it off and get back to doing chores. And that’s why a community...
Seth's Blog
Appropriate tension Growth usually feels risky. The feeling is a protection mechanism, a way to avoid failure or even...
a year ago
22
a year ago
Growth usually feels risky. The feeling is a protection mechanism, a way to avoid failure or even the fear of failure. Of course, risk also feels risky (or at least it should). Differentiating between the two is difficult, which is why finding institutions, methods or coaches...
Seth's Blog
Patience It’s worth the most when it’s the most difficult to find.
a year ago
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
Watch the Opening Credits of an Imaginary 70s Cop Show Starring Samuel Beckett Samuel Beckett: avant-garde dramatist, brooding Nobel Prize winner, poet, and…gritty television...
9 months ago
81
9 months ago
Samuel Beckett: avant-garde dramatist, brooding Nobel Prize winner, poet, and…gritty television detective? Sadly, no, but he had the makings of a great one, at least as cut together by playwright Danny Thompson, cofounder of Chicago’s Theater Oobleck. Some 35 years after...
cabel.com
Firehouse Five and the Cinderella Surprise My goal was to preserve some never-before-heard recordings of an incredible Dixieland jazz band made...
a year ago
28
a year ago
My goal was to preserve some never-before-heard recordings of an incredible Dixieland jazz band made up of mostly Disney employees, the Firehouse Five Plus Two. But along the way, I accidentally discovered an incredible lost song that was cut from Walt Disney’s Cinderella. And...
On the Arts
What is the Demoscene? An Interview with Filipe Cruz on the Influential but Obscure Art Form
a year ago
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Sue Lewry How and where did you learn to print? A decade ago, when I first stepped into a print workshop, I...
a year ago
81
a year ago
How and where did you learn to print? A decade ago, when I first stepped into a print workshop, I met print technician and artist India Ritchie, who taught me various printmaking methods while studying at Arts University Plymouth. India taught me intaglio, relief, and screen...
Seth's Blog
“What’s next?” The way we think about our priorities makes a huge difference. Leaders of every stripe make one...
over a year ago
62
over a year ago
The way we think about our priorities makes a huge difference. Leaders of every stripe make one thing more than any other: decisions. In any environment with constraints (which is, actually, any environment), the decisions about time and resources–about what to do next–change...
Open Culture
How to Evade Taxes in Ancient Rome: A 1,900-Year-Old Papyrus Reveals an Ancient Tax Evasion Scheme It was surely not a coincidence that the New York Times published its story on the trial of a...
2 months ago
28
2 months ago
It was surely not a coincidence that the New York Times published its story on the trial of a certain Gadalias and Saulos this past Monday, April 14th. The defendants, as their names suggest, did not live in modernity: the papyrus documenting their legal troubles dates to the...
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
Nice bike A well-designed bicycle is efficient, inexpensive and delightful. If you use your bike on the right...
a year ago
36
a year ago
A well-designed bicycle is efficient, inexpensive and delightful. If you use your bike on the right paths, with appropriate goals, it can deliver exactly what you need, while also allowing you to go at your own pace, see what’s going on around you and feel grounded. Until, of...
Seth's Blog
“I don’t learn that way” If you’re sitting on the dock, watching the swim class without getting wet, it’s more accurate to...
a year ago
86
a year ago
If you’re sitting on the dock, watching the swim class without getting wet, it’s more accurate to say, “I’m just watching.” There are plenty of theories on how different people learn. Online, we’re in the middle of the biggest learning experiment in history, with countless...
Seth's Blog
Good-boss friendly Workers have rarely gotten the long end of the stick. The seduction of “do what you’re told and...
a month ago
16
a month ago
Workers have rarely gotten the long end of the stick. The seduction of “do what you’re told and you’ll win valuable prizes” often doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, and so it’s not surprising that many people are skeptical about delivering something extra–work is called work for a...
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...
Open Culture
Watch the Very First YouTube Video, “Me at the Zoo,” Now 20 Years Old Given the dominance YouTube has achieved over large swathes of world culture, we’d all expect to...
a week ago
6
a week ago
Given the dominance YouTube has achieved over large swathes of world culture, we’d all expect to remember the first video we watched there. Yet many or most of us don’t: rather, we simply realized, one day in the mid-to-late two-thousands, that we’d developed a daily YouTube...
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...
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
The gratuitous use of plastic At the dawn of the plastic age, it was a cheap substitute. The word “plasticky” is not a compliment....
a year ago
23
a year ago
At the dawn of the plastic age, it was a cheap substitute. The word “plasticky” is not a compliment. Over time, the plastics industry developed new finishes, colors and most of all, cultural impact, and extra (wasted) plastic packaging was seen first as convenient, then as a sign...
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
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...
Open Culture
The BBC Creates Step-by-Step Instructions for Knitting the Iconic Dr. Who Scarf: A Document from the... When Jon Pertwee reincarnated into Tom Baker in 1974, the Fourth Doctor of the popular sci-fi show...
7 months ago
30
7 months ago
When Jon Pertwee reincarnated into Tom Baker in 1974, the Fourth Doctor of the popular sci-fi show Doctor Who ditched the foppish look of velvet jackets and frilly shirts, and went for the “Romantic adventurer” style, with floppy felt hat, long overcoats and, most iconically, his...
Open Culture
How Rome Began: The History As Told by Ancient Historians Much attention has been paid to the fall of the Roman Empire, by everyone from august historians...
11 months ago
59
11 months ago
Much attention has been paid to the fall of the Roman Empire, by everyone from august historians like Edward Gibbon to modern-day observers wringing their hands over the fate of the United States of America. But as every Rome enthusiast knows, that long collapse constitutes just...
Open Culture
How the BIC Cristal Ballpoint Pen Became the Most Successful Product in History If you want to see a tour de force of modern technology and design, there’s no need to visit a...
3 weeks ago
11
3 weeks ago
If you want to see a tour de force of modern technology and design, there’s no need to visit a Silicon Valley showroom. Just feel around your desk for a few moments, and sooner or later you’ll lay a hand on it: the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen, which is described in the Primal Space...
Stat Significant
Which Movies Do People Love to Hate? A Statistical Analysis Which films and actors are famous for being bad?
3 months ago
Blog - Mac Pierce
Loading, please wait... Starting the 1A2A3D project. Starting out on a project looking at the first amendment, second amendment, and 3-D printing.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Learning in August What better time? An hour a day for a month and you can learn a skill you’ll have forever. Beach...
11 months ago
64
11 months ago
What better time? An hour a day for a month and you can learn a skill you’ll have forever. Beach reads are a fine way to chill out, but a month spent to learn a skill is a fine way to take advantage of a quiet time. My brand new course on Strategy is now […]
Seth's Blog
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...
Open Culture
The “Dark Relics” of Christianity: Preserved Skulls, Blood & Other Grim Artifacts Christianity often manifests in popular culture through celebrations like Christmas and Easter, or...
a month ago
16
a month ago
Christianity often manifests in popular culture through celebrations like Christmas and Easter, or icons like lambs and fish. Less often do you see it associated with vials of blood and disembodied heads. Yet as the new Hochelaga video above reveals, the most famed Christian...
Open Culture
Watch The Cure Perform a Three-Hour Concert in London, Celebrating the Release of Their New Album httpv://www.youtube.com/live/_aWDlaxvEZo Last Friday, The Cure celebrated the release of their new...
8 months ago
52
8 months ago
httpv://www.youtube.com/live/_aWDlaxvEZo Last Friday, The Cure celebrated the release of their new album, Songs of a Lost World, with a three-hour set at the Troxy in London. The band kicked off the show by performing all eight tracks from the album, before then playing another...
Not Boring by Packy...
Most Human Wins A Strategy Memo for Humans, 2025 and Beyond
5 months ago
Open Culture
The Illustrated Version of “Alice’s Restaurant”: Watch Arlo Guthrie’s Thanksgiving Counterculture... Alice’s Restaurant. It’s now a Thanksgiving classic, and something of a tradition around...
7 months ago
82
7 months ago
Alice’s Restaurant. It’s now a Thanksgiving classic, and something of a tradition around here. Recorded in 1967, the 18+ minute counterculture song recounts Arlo Guthrie’s real encounter with the law, starting on Thanksgiving Day 1965. As the long song unfolds, we hear all about...
Open Culture
Artificial Intelligence & Drones Uncover 303 New Nazca Lines in Peru If you visit one tourist site in Peru, it will almost certainly be the ruined Incan city of Machu...
9 months ago
59
9 months ago
If you visit one tourist site in Peru, it will almost certainly be the ruined Incan city of Machu Picchu. If you visit another, it’ll probably be the Nazca Desert, home to many large-scale geoglyphs made by pre-Inca peoples between 500 BC and 500 AD. Many of these “Nazca lines”...
Seth's Blog
Can you draw it on a graph? Explain it with quadrants? Translate it into Spanish? It’s easy to memorize a few words that purport...
12 months ago
49
12 months ago
Explain it with quadrants? Translate it into Spanish? It’s easy to memorize a few words that purport to explain something, but all they do is relabel it. If you truly understand something, you can use different modalities to help someone else understand it. The magic of a good...
Seth's Blog
The magic of the commons Sheep are not like ideas. 200 years ago, William Foster Lloyd began pointing out that if land is...
5 months ago
41
5 months ago
Sheep are not like ideas. 200 years ago, William Foster Lloyd began pointing out that if land is shared, ranchers will all have an incentive to overgraze their sheep–if they don’t, the thinking goes, the others will. Each farmer expands until the commons is ruined. And this...
Open Culture
Marie Curie Invented Mobile X‑Ray Units to Help Save Wounded Soldiers in World War I A hundred years ago, Mobile X‑Ray Units were a brand new innovation, and a godsend for soldiers...
3 weeks ago
8
3 weeks ago
A hundred years ago, Mobile X‑Ray Units were a brand new innovation, and a godsend for soldiers wounded on the front in WW1. Prior to the advent of this technology, field surgeons racing to save lives operated blindly, often causing even more injury as they groped for bullets and...
Seth's Blog
Fooling ourselves It’s tempting to believe that we’re not easy to fool. Not by a magician, a politician or a banker....
a year ago
27
a year ago
It’s tempting to believe that we’re not easy to fool. Not by a magician, a politician or a banker. Other folks might be easily duped by a spammer or a hustler, but not us. And yet, no one fools you more than you. When you look in the mirror, do you see what others see, […]
Open Culture
How Carl Jung Inspired the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous There may be as many doors into Alcoholics Anonymous in the 21st century as there are people who...
a year ago
75
a year ago
There may be as many doors into Alcoholics Anonymous in the 21st century as there are people who walk through them—from every world religion to no religion. The “international mutual-aid fellowship” has had “a significant and long-term effect on the culture of the United States,”...
Open Culture
Isaac Asimov Predicts the Future of Online Education in 1988–and It’s Now Coming True “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Though that line probably originated...
a year ago
45
a year ago
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Though that line probably originated with  a Canadian novelist called Grant Allen, it’s long been popularly attributed to his more colorful nineteenth-century contemporary Mark Twain. It isn’t hard to understand why it...
Seth's Blog
Kinds of power There’s the James Bond villian sort of power, based on division, dominance and destruction. This is...
8 months ago
62
8 months ago
There’s the James Bond villian sort of power, based on division, dominance and destruction. This is the short-term power of bullies, trauma and mobs. And then there’s a more resilient form of power. This is power based on connection, discussion and metrics. A power based in...
Seth's Blog
Twelve days until the first worldwide strategy meetup There are now 280 cities being organized. You can find the list and all the details by clicking...
8 months ago
56
8 months ago
There are now 280 cities being organized. You can find the list and all the details by clicking here. It’s free, and it works better when you become a part of it. Find the others. Connect, inspire and lead. It’s a great excuse to organize some friends and colleagues and have a...
Open Culture
Behold the Codex Gigas (aka “Devil’s Bible”), the Largest Medieval Manuscript in the World Bargain with the devil and you may wind up with a golden fiddle, supernatural guitar-playing...
a year ago
139
a year ago
Bargain with the devil and you may wind up with a golden fiddle, supernatural guitar-playing ability, or a room full of gleaming alchemized straw. Whoops, we misattributed that last one. It’s actually Rumpelstiltskin’s doing, but the by-morning-or-else deadline that drives the...
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...
The Great Discontent...
Brad Montague Brad Montague is an illustrator, speaker, picture book author, video creator, and all-around maker....
10 months ago
10
10 months ago
Brad Montague is an illustrator, speaker, picture book author, video creator, and all-around maker. He’s a self-proclaimed dreamer and doer. Above all, he’s a storyteller, “working to create a better world for kids with kids” through Montague Workshop, the creative studio he runs...
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...
Open Culture
How Well Does Medieval Armor Actually Stand Up to Medieval Arrows?: A Historical Re-Creation Lets... The popular image of the medieval suit of armor looks formidable enough that any of us could be...
a year ago
84
a year ago
The popular image of the medieval suit of armor looks formidable enough that any of us could be forgiven for assuming that, with its steel-plated protection, we’d emerge from even the most harrowing battle without a scratch. Yet if we really found ourselves transported to, say,...
Blog - Mac Pierce
USB C to 12vDC Adaptors for Camera gear Making converters to power all of my camera accessories off of USB-C
over a year ago
Open Culture
Patti Smith Reads Her Final Letter to Robert Mapplethorpe, Calling Him “the Most Beautiful Work of... If you go to hear Patti Smith in concert, you expect her to sing “Beneath the Southern Cross,”...
a year ago
67
a year ago
If you go to hear Patti Smith in concert, you expect her to sing “Beneath the Southern Cross,” “Because the Night,” and almost certainly “People Have the Power,” the hit single from Dream of Life. Like her 1975 debut Horses, that album had a cover photo by Robert...
Open Culture
Revisit Episodes of Liquid Television, MTV’s 90s Showcase of Funny, Irreverent & Bizarre Animation MTV stands for Music Television, and when the network launched in 1981, its almost entirely music...
9 months ago
73
9 months ago
MTV stands for Music Television, and when the network launched in 1981, its almost entirely music video-based programming was true to its name. Within a decade, however, its mandate had widened to the point that it had become the natural home for practically any exciting...
Seth's Blog
Happiness can often be traded for money Most of us know what enough happiness feels like. But some people are stuck in an endless cycle of...
a year ago
26
a year ago
Most of us know what enough happiness feels like. But some people are stuck in an endless cycle of seeking more money. That’s a bad trade. Because after a certain threshold, it’s hard for more money to buy you more happiness. And the trap is that trying ends up costing you both.
Seth's Blog
Dumbing it down There’s a lot of pressure to make things dumber. Better to make it dumb than to have someone simply...
7 months ago
43
7 months ago
There’s a lot of pressure to make things dumber. Better to make it dumb than to have someone simply walk away, apparently. With so much to consume, and an unlimited amount to learn, there’s a race to make knowledge into a checklist item. Freon gas! Large language model!...
Not Boring by Packy...
Primer: From Software to Schools Watch now (47 mins) | To fix the school system, build schools
4 months ago
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
Asking for directions It hadn’t happened in such a long time that I hesitated to respond. As I was walking through town, a...
3 months ago
22
3 months ago
It hadn’t happened in such a long time that I hesitated to respond. As I was walking through town, a driver pulled up, rolled down his window and said, “is this the way to Irvington?” We now take for granted that we’re unlikely to ever again be in a car and not know where we […]
Open Culture
The Olympics in the 2020s Versus 1912: See Side-by-Side Comparisons of the Athletes’ Performance... The Olympic Games have their origins in antiquity, but their modern revival has also been going on...
11 months ago
53
11 months ago
The Olympic Games have their origins in antiquity, but their modern revival has also been going on longer than any of us has been here. Even the fifth Summer Olympics, which took place in Stockholm in 1912, has passed out of living memory. But thanks to the technology of the...
Open Culture
Discover Hannah Arendt’s Syllabus for Her 1974 Course on “Thinking” If you’ve read one work of Hannah Arendt’s, it’s probably Eichmann in Jerusalem, her account of the...
7 months ago
52
7 months ago
If you’ve read one work of Hannah Arendt’s, it’s probably Eichmann in Jerusalem, her account of the trial of the eponymous Nazi official — and the source of her much-quoted phrase “the banality of evil.” That book came out in 1963, at which time Arendt still had a dozen...
John Reynolds -...
Mammoth Life - Lights Out Music Video Title: Lights OutArtist: Mammoth LifeYear: 2014 --
over a year ago
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...
Seth's Blog
Inverting the vex Life can be irritating. And sometimes, we can make a choice. The thing that’s vexing you: is it a...
a year ago
48
a year ago
Life can be irritating. And sometimes, we can make a choice. The thing that’s vexing you: is it a situation or a problem? Problems have solutions. If we care enough, we can find a way to solve a problem, but it might cost more money, require more effort or involve more risk than...
Marian's Blog
Quadcopter Lightpainting Die Fotos wurden mit einem beleuchteten Quadrocopter, einem Stativ und 15 Sekunden Belichtung...
over a year ago
18
over a year ago
Die Fotos wurden mit einem beleuchteten Quadrocopter, einem Stativ und 15 Sekunden Belichtung aufgenommen. Bei diesen Fotos stimmte die Einstellung noch nicht, sodass sie zu dunkel sind: ...
Blog - Mac Pierce
Readymade Thermal Obfuscation - A few quick tests with a consumer product. Using the Ikea FREKVENS Raincoat to hide from thermal imaging.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Some simple rules for source control Collaborating on documents and projects has never been easier, which is why we screw it up so often....
8 months ago
67
8 months ago
Collaborating on documents and projects has never been easier, which is why we screw it up so often. Sharing and interacting with intent will save you heartache and wasted time. Some things to consider: Naming: Begin by naming your file with a digit and concept and a date....
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: 2023 Round Up! What a fantastic array of makers we've had featured on our Meet the Maker blog this year. We've put...
a year ago
87
a year ago
What a fantastic array of makers we've had featured on our Meet the Maker blog this year. We've put together a round up for you with all of the wonderful advice our makers have given for creatives at any stage of their creative practice. Pop your feet up, grab yourself a nice...