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Open Culture
The Cleanest Recordings of 1920s Louis Armstrong Songs You Will Ever Hear On Youtube, jazz enthusiast Jonathan Holmes declares: “I can guarantee this is the cleanest sounding...
a month ago
13
a month ago
On Youtube, jazz enthusiast Jonathan Holmes declares: “I can guarantee this is the cleanest sounding Louis Armstrong record you’ll ever hear! With the original transfer supplied by Nick Dellow, here is the mother record which was shipped by Okeh to Germany for their Odeon...
Seth's Blog
Bottom of the funnel It’s easy to get focused on the public-facing mouth of the funnel. More followers. More impressions....
a year ago
101
a year ago
It’s easy to get focused on the public-facing mouth of the funnel. More followers. More impressions. More buzz, hype, promotion. Get the word out. Just about all the time people who call themselves “marketers” spend is on this. Don’t worry about what happens later, just pour more...
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
21
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.
Seth's Blog
Unfettered That’s unlikely. You’re rarely going to get the freedom and resources to do your best work...
over a year ago
97
over a year ago
That’s unlikely. You’re rarely going to get the freedom and resources to do your best work unfettered. The hard part (and the opportunity) is to figure out how to get comfortable with fettered. Because fettered is what’s on offer. Boundaries and scarcity aren’t simply...
Open Culture
Stephen King Names His Five Favorite Works by Stephen King Stephen King has no doubt forgotten writing more books than most of us will ever publish. But even...
a year ago
47
a year ago
Stephen King has no doubt forgotten writing more books than most of us will ever publish. But even now, in his prolific “late career,” if you ask him to name his own most favored works, he can do it without hesitation. Stephen Colbert tried that out a few years ago on The Late...
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
Choose your customers …choose your future. It’s an odd way to think about your project, your job, your startup, but...
a year ago
30
a year ago
…choose your future. It’s an odd way to think about your project, your job, your startup, but there’s little that matters more. There are two key elements: At one extreme is the first few years of Google’s growth. The salesforce didn’t matter–the customers showed up on their own,...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #137 Mitochondria, Image Generation, Nobels, Vast, Common Sense, AI Lifeguards, Tina He
3 months ago
The Last...
Hunger Games Catching Fire: Badass Body Count sorry old man, I have a dress fitting to go to Number of people killed: 15 Number of...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
sorry old man, I have a dress fitting to go to Number of people killed: 15 Number of people Katniss kills: 1 Number of times she is saved by someone else: 6 Number of times she saves someone else: 0 But boy oh boy, wasn't she spectacular at practice, 9 targets in 30...
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
26
over a year ago
TLDR; Hi! C4DLive is happening this week! Already! Watch my talk at noon PDT on Thursday, April 23! Ask questions! Buy Cinema 4D, Get Red Giant Complete for 50% Off Red Giant Complete is free for students and teachers TGNTR; If it weren’t for COVID-19, the newly-combined...
Seth's Blog
The NSE confusions “Nobody wants this” is unlikely. “Somebody will like this” is almost certainly true. “Everyone needs...
3 months ago
25
3 months ago
“Nobody wants this” is unlikely. “Somebody will like this” is almost certainly true. “Everyone needs this” is a trap. The work begins with finding the right somebodies, while ignoring the imaginary everyone. Scale is rarely the first signal of important work.
Seth's Blog
Other people’s problems It’s surprisingly easy to be generous and find solutions to our friend’s problems. Much easier than...
a year ago
37
a year ago
It’s surprisingly easy to be generous and find solutions to our friend’s problems. Much easier than it is to do it for ourselves. Why? There are two useful reasons, I think. FIRST, because we’re unaware of all the real and imaginary boundaries our friends have set up. If it were...
Seth's Blog
The inevitable meeting When the person you could have been meets the person you are becoming, is it going to be a cause for...
8 months ago
51
8 months ago
When the person you could have been meets the person you are becoming, is it going to be a cause for celebration or heartbreak? This is something we must work on right now, and tomorrow, and every single day until the meeting happens.
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
20
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...
Open Culture
The Cramps Play a Mental Health Hospital in Napa, California in 1978: The Punkest of Punk Concerts “We’re The Cramps, and we’re from New York City, and we drove 3,000 miles to play for you...
11 months ago
60
11 months ago
“We’re The Cramps, and we’re from New York City, and we drove 3,000 miles to play for you people.” So begins one of the oddest but also the punkest of punk rock concerts in history, as The Cramps play for a crowd at a state mental hospital in Napa, California. The date was June...
Seth's Blog
What does the world owe us? This question is a trap. It’s based on scarcity and entitlement, and most of all, the world isn’t...
a year ago
91
a year ago
This question is a trap. It’s based on scarcity and entitlement, and most of all, the world isn’t listening. When more and more people focus on this question, it simply pushes us apart. On the other hand, “what do I owe the world?” opens the door for endless opportunity. When...
Seth's Blog
Cats and dogs Does your brand have a personality? When people expect you to act a certain way, you have a brand....
a year ago
93
a year ago
Does your brand have a personality? When people expect you to act a certain way, you have a brand. And that expectation is worth understanding. Can you help us understand whether you’re a cat or a dog in the way you react, respond, delight or sneak around? And if you’re a dog,...
Blog - Mac Pierce
Fort Emplacements and FDM: making Castle Doctrine How I made Castle Doctrine, a 1:1 scale fully 3D-Printed American Revolutionary War era cannon.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Customer satisfaction and tipping In North America, tipping is an unfair system built into the status quo by law. Restaurants aren’t...
a year ago
36
a year ago
In North America, tipping is an unfair system built into the status quo by law. Restaurants aren’t allowed to easily spread tips around, and as a result, they tend to to exacerbate many of the inequities in our culture at the same time that they make it hard to count on a fair...
Infinite Scroll
Infinite Scroll on Offline with Jon Favreau A chat about online media ecosystems
7 months ago
John Reynolds -...
2024.04.05 2024.04.05
2 months ago
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...
6 days ago
4
6 days 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...
Open Culture
The Hand: An Anti-Totalitarian Animation, Banned for Two Decades & Now Considered One of the... For obvious reasons, most art produced under oppressive regimes comes off as painstakingly...
8 months ago
54
8 months ago
For obvious reasons, most art produced under oppressive regimes comes off as painstakingly inoffensive. For equally obvious reasons, the rare works that criticize the regime tend to do so rather obliquely. This wasn’t so much the case with The Hand, the most famous short by Czech...
Anarchy Unfolds
Is Sexual Orientation Obsolete? Not yet, but maybe it can (and should) be soon
11 months ago
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
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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
Hunter S. Thompson’s Harrowing, Chemical-Filled Daily Routine E. Jean Carroll’s 1993 memoir of Hunter S. Thompson opens like this: I have heard the biographers of...
a year ago
113
a year ago
E. Jean Carroll’s 1993 memoir of Hunter S. Thompson opens like this: I have heard the biographers of Harry S. Truman, Catherine the Great, etc., etc., say they would give anything if their subjects were alive so they could ask them some questions. I, on the other hand, would give...
Stat Significant
Why Do People Like True Crime? A Statistical Analysis Exploring the appeal of true crime podcasts and docuseries.
11 months ago
Seth's Blog
The perfect conditions Somewhere, there is the ideal soil for growing mangoes. Or the best possible wave for surfing. Or...
a year ago
26
a year ago
Somewhere, there is the ideal soil for growing mangoes. Or the best possible wave for surfing. Or the most romantic sunset for a proposal. But it’s not right here and it’s not right now. Our success has a lot to do with how we dance with conditions that aren’t quite perfect.
Seth's Blog
Patterns and chaos Finding a pattern that explains events that seem like chaos is a breakthrough. It offers us...
11 months ago
66
11 months ago
Finding a pattern that explains events that seem like chaos is a breakthrough. It offers us understanding and a lever we can use to make an impact. Sometimes, though, the breakthrough lies in understanding that there is no pattern, simply unpredictable noise. We need effort to...
Seth's Blog
Working with problems Situations have no solution, they’re not problems, they’re simply the way it is. Problems are...
5 months ago
44
5 months ago
Situations have no solution, they’re not problems, they’re simply the way it is. Problems are distinguished by the fact that they have solutions. But that doesn’t mean that the solution is obvious, easy or convenient. If the problem is important enough, we should pick the best...
Handprinted - Blog
Drypoint with Aluminium Plates Drypoint is an intaglio printmaking method that involves scratching an image into a plate with a...
over a year ago
58
over a year ago
Drypoint is an intaglio printmaking method that involves scratching an image into a plate with a pointed tool. These lines create a burr that holds ink, meaning that the print reveals the drawing. Drypoint is an easy technique to get to grips with and is a great method if you...
Open Culture
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Explained in One of the Earliest Science Films Ever Made (1923) Albert Einstein developed his theory of special relativity in 1905, and then mentally mapped out his...
a year ago
86
a year ago
Albert Einstein developed his theory of special relativity in 1905, and then mentally mapped out his theory of general relativity between 1907 and 1915. For years to come, the rest of the world would try to catch up with Einstein, trying to understand the gist, let alone the full...
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
29
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...
Neocha – Culture &...
Peace, Love, & Ass
a year ago
Open Culture
How Rasputin Inspired the “Fictitious Persons” Disclaimer Commonly Seen in Movies “This is a work of fiction,” declares the disclaimer we’ve all noticed during the end credits of...
7 months ago
57
7 months ago
“This is a work of fiction,” declares the disclaimer we’ve all noticed during the end credits of movies. “Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.” In most cases, this may seem so trivial that it hardly merits a mention, but the...
Seth's Blog
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...
Seth's Blog
Trading trust The Brookings Institution did a fascinating survey series over the last five years. I have two...
a year ago
35
a year ago
The Brookings Institution did a fascinating survey series over the last five years. I have two takeways from this: The first is that focused and persistent propaganda is able to shift public opinion about institutions they don’t have direct interaction with. The more important...
Open Culture
A Playlist of the 3,300 Best Films & Documentaries on Youtube, Including Works by Hitchcock,... ?si=yCx1pqpcATHND90L Once upon a time, the most convenient means of discovering movies was cable...
a year ago
35
a year ago
?si=yCx1pqpcATHND90L Once upon a time, the most convenient means of discovering movies was cable television. This held especially true for those of us who happened to be adolescents on a break from school, ready and willing morning, midday, or night to sit through the...
Seth's Blog
The expanding frontier of ignorance Some fields of endeavor continue to narrow down the unknown, in search of the recipe, the efficient...
a year ago
28
a year ago
Some fields of endeavor continue to narrow down the unknown, in search of the recipe, the efficient method of industry. And others live on Feynman’s expanding frontier of ignorance, where each closed door leads to several newly opened ones. That’s a fundamental choice in our...
Open Culture
Is Reality Real?: 8 Scientists Explain Whether We Can Ever Know What Objectively Exists Ask aloud whether reality is real, and you’re liable to be regarded as never truly having left the...
a year ago
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a year ago
Ask aloud whether reality is real, and you’re liable to be regarded as never truly having left the freshman dorm. But that question has received, and continues to receive, consideration from actual scientists. The Big Think video above assembles seven of them to explain how they...
Blog - Mac Pierce
10 Billion Minus 1 - Making a 10 digit 7 segment display for Lovepop The process and steps of making a multi-digit display.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Two kinds of creative feedback If you’re the client or the boss, it’s possible that someone is going to create creative work for...
4 months ago
35
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...
Seth's Blog
Invite: Behind-the-scenes webinar for the new book In two weeks, I’ll be hosting a live webinar about my new book, answering questions and connecting...
over a year ago
48
over a year ago
In two weeks, I’ll be hosting a live webinar about my new book, answering questions and connecting people to get serious in discussing the new way of work. The details are here. I hope you can make it. It’s possible that I’ve now written more bestselling business titles than any...
Infinite Scroll
There is No Plan. They're Just Morons. Trump doesn't have complex trade theories. He's just an idiot.
2 months ago
Open Culture
How Las Vegas’ Sphere Actually Works: A Looks Inside the New $2.3 Billion Arena If the United States of America is the Roman empire of our time, surely it must have an equivalent...
a year ago
57
a year ago
If the United States of America is the Roman empire of our time, surely it must have an equivalent of the Colosseum. A year ago, you could’ve heard a wide variety of speculations as to what structure that could possibly be. Today, many of us would simply respond with “the...
Seth's Blog
The ledge Drowning is devastating, a tragic and painful way to go. So much so that feeling like we’re drowning...
9 months ago
63
9 months ago
Drowning is devastating, a tragic and painful way to go. So much so that feeling like we’re drowning is a trigger, an overwhelming emotion that causes us to grasp, struggle and leave our best self behind. It’s easy to experience this even when we’re out of the water. When the...
Open Culture
Sci-Fi Author J.G. Ballard Predicts the Rise of Social Media (1977) Say you were a fan of Steven Spielberg’s moving coming-of-age drama Empire of the Sun, set in a...
a year ago
54
a year ago
Say you were a fan of Steven Spielberg’s moving coming-of-age drama Empire of the Sun, set in a Japanese internment camp during World War II and starring a young Christian Bale. Say you read the autobiographical novel on which that film is based, written by one J.G. Ballard. Say...
Seth's Blog
Hobby mindset You might be fortunate enough to have a hobby. Something you are focused on and passionate about....
2 months ago
23
2 months ago
You might be fortunate enough to have a hobby. Something you are focused on and passionate about. You might read the journals, develop your skills, collect, connect with others in the field, and commit to getting better at it… Time spent on a hobby feels like time well spent....
Seth's Blog
More vs. better If every building in the shopping district in a big city was owned by one landlord, rents would go...
a year ago
23
a year ago
If every building in the shopping district in a big city was owned by one landlord, rents would go up. So would the prices of everything sold. The landlord would keep a significant percentage of each store’s profits and innovation would suffer as well. Google’s monopoly is real....
Seth's Blog
Commonplace technology Not all tech is new tech. The ballpoint pen was a revelation, and a bit controversial. Now, it’s...
a year ago
23
a year ago
Not all tech is new tech. The ballpoint pen was a revelation, and a bit controversial. Now, it’s disposable and obvious. Different industries go through tech spurts. My desk is covered with items I use every day (a mouse, headphones, a solid-state drive, transparent tape, and...
Open Culture
When the CIA Studied Psychic Techniques to Alter Human Consciousness & Unlock Time Travel: Discover... By now, it’s widely known that the Central Intelligence Agency ran a decades-long program of...
a year ago
107
a year ago
By now, it’s widely known that the Central Intelligence Agency ran a decades-long program of experiments involving LSD and other psychoactive drugs called MKUltra from the nineteen-fifties to the seventies. As one might suspect, that wasn’t the only research project into the...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Nick Morley (with giveaway!) Nick Morley, aka Linocutboy, is an artist, illustrator, author and educator specialising in linocut....
over a year ago
83
over a year ago
Nick Morley, aka Linocutboy, is an artist, illustrator, author and educator specialising in linocut. His prints have been bought by people all over the world and his illustrations have appeared on book covers and in magazines. Nick teaches regular linocut workshops at Hello Print...
Open Culture
Read the Original 32-Page Program for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) One of the very first feature-length sci-fi films ever made, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis took a daring...
2 weeks ago
10
2 weeks ago
One of the very first feature-length sci-fi films ever made, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis took a daring visual approach for its time, incorporating Bauhaus and Futurist influences in thrillingly designed sets and costumes. Lang’s visual language resonated strongly in later decades....
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
53
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...
Anarchy Unfolds
The rich don't have authority On the myth of power and money
5 months ago
Seth's Blog
Analyzing the last move When the deal falls apart, or the team loses the game, or a partnership hits the rocks, it’s easy to...
a year ago
32
a year ago
When the deal falls apart, or the team loses the game, or a partnership hits the rocks, it’s easy to focus our energy on what just happened. “What if they had called a different play?” This overlooks the real issue. It’s the first move, or the fifth, that led to this problem, not...
Seth's Blog
Adjacent but not relevant There’s a sale on band saw blades, including a really good deal on one that fits the saw you owned...
10 months ago
61
10 months ago
There’s a sale on band saw blades, including a really good deal on one that fits the saw you owned years ago. The folks who live next door to the house you used to live in are having a raucous party. A guy with a name just like yours wins the lottery… These adjacencies can […]
Seth's Blog
Listening to organizational decline Great companies and teams often get stale and then fade away. Here’s what we hear as it happens:...
6 months ago
58
6 months ago
Great companies and teams often get stale and then fade away. Here’s what we hear as it happens: “I’m way too important to listen to customers. Send them to the call center.” “It wasn’t a bad idea when we implemented it, so it’s not a bad idea now.” “My boss won’t let me.” “The...
Anarchy Unfolds
Food Waste is Bad Actually How we frame the problem makes all the difference
6 months ago
Marian's Blog
Work in progress: Location based online game This is a game prototype I’m currently working on. The game is played online, on a real world map...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
This is a game prototype I’m currently working on. The game is played online, on a real world map and the location of the player is also the location ingame, just like in Ingress. I know that making an online game like this is an ambitious goal and it will probably never be...
Seth's Blog
Infinity is not a number Little kids get confused about this… just add a few more to a very big number, and you have...
a month ago
20
a month ago
Little kids get confused about this… just add a few more to a very big number, and you have infinity. Actually, infinity is a feeling and a concept built on the presumption that it can never be reached. In a metrics-driven world, infinity is a dangerous thing to wish for, because...
Seth's Blog
Manipulation, indoctrination and addiction They’re often related. It’s not unusual for someone to have more experience or knowledge than we do....
a year ago
31
a year ago
They’re often related. It’s not unusual for someone to have more experience or knowledge than we do. If they use that knowledge to their benefit, not ours, they might be manipulating us. If we knew what they knew, we wouldn’t have gone along. This is the difference between a...
Open Culture
An Introduction to The Babylonian Map of the World–the Oldest Known Map of the World Taking a first glance at the Babylonian Map of the World, few of us could recognize it for what it...
10 months ago
43
10 months ago
Taking a first glance at the Babylonian Map of the World, few of us could recognize it for what it is. But then again, few of us are anything like the British Museum Middle East department curator Irving Finkel, whose vast knowledge (and ability to share it compellingly) have...
Seth's Blog
Three things about innovation New approaches will never be embraced by everyone at first. If you need unanimous consent, you’re...
a year ago
65
a year ago
New approaches will never be embraced by everyone at first. If you need unanimous consent, you’re not going to move forward. And it’s not convenient. If it were, someone would have done it already. Finally, it’s not sure to work. If you need any or all three of these things for...
Seth's Blog
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
57
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
The Secret Link Between Jazz and Physics: How Einstein & Coltrane Shared Improvisation and Intuition... Scientists need hobbies. The grueling work of navigating complex theory and the politics of academia...
a month ago
20
a month ago
Scientists need hobbies. The grueling work of navigating complex theory and the politics of academia can get to a person, even one as laid back as Brown University professor and astrophysicist Stephon Alexander. So Alexander plays the saxophone, though at this point it may not be...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #125 Commonwealth Fusion, Off-grid Solar Microgrids, HORNET, Astranis , Technology Brothers
6 months ago
Seth's Blog
On to the next thing Vitally important, rarely taught, easily messed up. In order to go onto the next thing, which we all...
over a year ago
129
over a year ago
Vitally important, rarely taught, easily messed up. In order to go onto the next thing, which we all do (unless you’re still wearing pajamas with feet and taking ballet lessons), we need to walk away from the last thing. Wrap it up, learn from it, leave it in good hands. And we...
Open Culture
T. S. Eliot’s Classic Modernist Poem The Waste Land Gets Adapted into Comic-Book Form The phrase “April is the cruelest month” was first printed more than 100 years ago, and it’s been in...
8 months ago
66
8 months ago
The phrase “April is the cruelest month” was first printed more than 100 years ago, and it’s been in common circulation almost as long. One can easily know it without having the faintest idea of its source, let alone its meaning. This is not, of course, to call T. S. Eliot’s The...
Seth's Blog
Learning from the Amazon gift card snafu Millions of people got this email last night: It’s legitimate, but it’s a mistake. A mistake...
a year ago
59
a year ago
Millions of people got this email last night: It’s legitimate, but it’s a mistake. A mistake because: We can learn a lot about what not to do from this. First, if you make a mistake by email, fix it. Fix it by email AND fix it on your site. Let everyone who got the wrong […]
Seth's Blog
The value of artifacts An artifact is an object that holds or signifies an idea. A book on paper is an artifact: it’s the...
5 months ago
46
5 months ago
An artifact is an object that holds or signifies an idea. A book on paper is an artifact: it’s the object plus the words. Now that you can get the words in many other ways, the value of the book is changed. A wedding ring is an artifact. If lost, it has sentimental value far […]
escape the algorithm
Befriending neighbors and beneighboring friends The Casement Window Theory of community building
11 months ago
Seth's Blog
Hiding the ‘aha’ The most effective persuasion happens when we persuade ourselves. The purpose of the memo or the...
a year ago
31
a year ago
The most effective persuasion happens when we persuade ourselves. The purpose of the memo or the table or the graph or the presentation is to create the conditions for someone to make up their own minds. Because it’s almost impossible to make up their mind for them. The aha is...
Seth's Blog
The name doesn’t matter (that much) Busy people in important organizations waste a lot of time naming things. It could be that once a...
3 months ago
31
3 months ago
Busy people in important organizations waste a lot of time naming things. It could be that once a name is good enough, you’re done. That’s certainly true for the logo. Nike is hard to pronounce. Starbucks is named after an obscure character in a mostly unreadable book. Apple is...
Seth's Blog
Are you pitching or are you asking? There are two easy ways to tell: First, if you have a script or a highlighted goal in mind, you’re...
a year ago
87
a year ago
There are two easy ways to tell: First, if you have a script or a highlighted goal in mind, you’re pitching. You’re simply asking questions to create connection, tension or forward motion. Second, if you’re willing to learn and change your point of view as a result of the...
Seth's Blog
Projects left undone What’s the attainable, practical and generous thing you haven’t done yet? What will it take for it...
a month ago
12
a month ago
What’s the attainable, practical and generous thing you haven’t done yet? What will it take for it to become a priority?
Seth's Blog
Self restaint vs systemic restraint It’s not hypocritical to help yourself at a buffet at the same time you counsel the owner of the...
over a year ago
84
over a year ago
It’s not hypocritical to help yourself at a buffet at the same time you counsel the owner of the restaurant to limit the number of trips that people take so that the restaurant can become sustainable. It’s possible to argue for systemic changes to cultural systems while also...
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
71
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...
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
53
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...
escape the algorithm
So you want to escape the algorithm A primer
5 months ago
Seth's Blog
Taxonomy as a service When the truck makes a delivery at the nearby True Value hardware store, Danny needs to figure out...
6 months ago
54
6 months ago
When the truck makes a delivery at the nearby True Value hardware store, Danny needs to figure out which shelf to put it on. Should the extension cords go next to the hoses? After all, they both do the same thing, one with electricity and one with water… The purpose of putting...
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
Discovery and invention Isaac Newton didn’t invent gravity. It was there all along. He simply named and explained it. The...
9 months ago
69
9 months ago
Isaac Newton didn’t invent gravity. It was there all along. He simply named and explained it. The same is true for planets, continents and obscure species. They’re discovered, not invented. Michelangelo talked about removing all the parts of the marble that weren’t the statue on...
Seth's Blog
Captives of memetic desire How much of what we want, really want, is due to the ideas that culture has given us, and how much...
over a year ago
79
over a year ago
How much of what we want, really want, is due to the ideas that culture has given us, and how much is truly what we need? If memetic desire isn’t making us happy, perhaps we can find some new ideas.
Seth's Blog
Trusting AI For generations, humans have been entrusting their lives to computers. Air Traffic Control,...
5 months ago
47
5 months ago
For generations, humans have been entrusting their lives to computers. Air Traffic Control, statistical analysis of bridge resilience, bar codes for drug delivery, even the way stop lights are controlled. But computers aren’t the same as the LLMs that run on them. Claude.ai is my...
Seth's Blog
Important change is systems change Willpower is overrated. If you want to eat healthier, don’t work hard to avoid stopping at the...
11 months ago
43
11 months ago
Willpower is overrated. If you want to eat healthier, don’t work hard to avoid stopping at the cookie jar when you walk into the kitchen. Get rid of the cookie jar. Systems are long-lasting, widespread and resilient. We can push back on them with effort, but over time, the system...
Open Culture
The Writer Who Directed, The Director Who Wrote: Every Frame a Painting Explores the Genius of Billy... When the acclaimed cinema video-essay channel Every Frame a Painting made its comeback this past...
8 months ago
51
8 months ago
When the acclaimed cinema video-essay channel Every Frame a Painting made its comeback this past summer, its creators Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos took a close look at the “sustained two-shot,” which captures a stretch of dialogue between two characters without the interference of...
Open Culture
Explore and Download 14,000+ Woodcuts from Antwerp’s Plantin-Moretus Museum Online Archive We appreciate illuminated manuscripts and historical books here on Open Culture, adhere though we do...
7 months ago
35
7 months ago
We appreciate illuminated manuscripts and historical books here on Open Culture, adhere though we do to a much more restrained aesthetic style in our own texts. But that’s not to deny the temptation to start this paragraph with one of those oversized initial letters that grew...
Seth's Blog
The obligation of “none of the above” As we continue to face difficult choices and work to make things better, it’s quite likely that the...
over a year ago
82
over a year ago
As we continue to face difficult choices and work to make things better, it’s quite likely that the alternatives being presented aren’t ideal or even appealing. Many organizations and communities are stuck because “none of the above” is the majority’s opinion, or perhaps the...
Handprinted - Blog
Monotype with Natural Materials Like monoprint, a monotype is a print that is one of a kind but does not use a matrix like a cut...
7 months ago
71
7 months ago
Like monoprint, a monotype is a print that is one of a kind but does not use a matrix like a cut block or plate. For this project we're using this simple technique to produce beautifully delicate prints using natural materials and found objects. You can also combine this with...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Cal Russell I'm an artist living in Edinburgh working mainly in papercutting and linocut printmaking. I studied...
over a year ago
49
over a year ago
I'm an artist living in Edinburgh working mainly in papercutting and linocut printmaking. I studied Illustration at Falmouth School of Art and did a Masters in Contemporary Art at the Edinburgh College of Art. I mostly work independently and sell my prints and originals online or...
Seth's Blog
I’ve been doing it wrong all along This is one of the great benefits of learning. It’s also a common challenge. When we get better at...
a year ago
30
a year ago
This is one of the great benefits of learning. It’s also a common challenge. When we get better at something, it is preceded by a moment of incompetence. In that moment, we’re not exactly sure how to do it better, but we realize that the way we’d been doing it wasn’t nearly as...
Seth's Blog
Books (and more) Brad Feld has been contributing to and leading the tech community for more than thirty years. His...
3 weeks ago
8
3 weeks ago
Brad Feld has been contributing to and leading the tech community for more than thirty years. His books have always been inspiring and useful, but his new book takes it to a higher level. Adam Becker has written two books that I recently devoured. The first is philosophy, history...
Seth's Blog
Foundering or floundering? Floundering is flopping around and making little progress. A Dutch word for getting mired and lost....
8 months ago
63
8 months ago
Floundering is flopping around and making little progress. A Dutch word for getting mired and lost. Foundering is what we call it when the ship goes down. It’s an ancient French word based on bottom. Too often, in our desperate attempt to not founder, we flounder. Better, I...
Seth's Blog
No thank you Failing to acknowledge a favor or a courtesy is a triple mistake, and it’s becoming more common....
a year ago
22
a year ago
Failing to acknowledge a favor or a courtesy is a triple mistake, and it’s becoming more common. ChatGPT is now promoting the idea that it can write a thank you note for you, and a text is a lot easier than a handwritten note, and yet, the level of ‘thank you’ seems to be...
Seth's Blog
Getting AI to do your work That’s the first step, certainly. If you don’t, your boss will. The second step is to take the time...
9 months ago
58
9 months ago
That’s the first step, certainly. If you don’t, your boss will. The second step is to take the time you’ve freed up and do work that the AI can’t do.
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
17
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...
John Reynolds -...
2024.04.11-13 2024.04.11-13
2 months ago
Seth's Blog
The long-range forecast keeps shifting Exactly. That’s why it’s a forecast, not an accurate account of what’s going to happen in the...
a year ago
27
a year ago
Exactly. That’s why it’s a forecast, not an accurate account of what’s going to happen in the future. This seems axiomatic, but our desire for certainty keeps letting us down. The shifting of forecasts is evidence that they’re merely forecasts.
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #131 KM3NeT, PAC-MANN, Cost Physics, IVAS, QuEra
4 months ago
Seth's Blog
The A.R.E. skills matter more than ever Perhaps this is what your team needs from you: Agreeableness is not the same as agreeing. In fact,...
over a year ago
62
over a year ago
Perhaps this is what your team needs from you: Agreeableness is not the same as agreeing. In fact, they have little in common. Finding someone who’s only job is to agree with everything that is said is easy. On the other hand, agreeableness is the skill of having a contrary...
Seth's Blog
Choosing your problems Perhaps you only acknowledge and focus on problems where you know and are comfortable with the...
over a year ago
86
over a year ago
Perhaps you only acknowledge and focus on problems where you know and are comfortable with the appropriate response. Denying the existence of the other ones is easier than dealing with them. Or it might be that you only choose to see the problems that are actually situations,...
Seth's Blog
Doing presentations virtually A few years ago, I posted about the hardware setup you can use to look better and feel better when...
over a year ago
35
over a year ago
A few years ago, I posted about the hardware setup you can use to look better and feel better when working in a distributed organization. Since then, I’ve tried many hacks for how to integrate Keynote presentations into this environment. I used some fancy software that was...
Open Culture
William S. Burroughs’ Scathing “Thanksgiving Prayer,” Shot by Gus Van Sant “Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986” first appeared in print in Tornado Alley, a chapbook published by...
7 months ago
42
7 months ago
“Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986” first appeared in print in Tornado Alley, a chapbook published by William S. Burroughs in 1989. Two years later, Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, My Own Private Idaho, Milk) shot a montage that brought the poem to film, making it at least the...
Seth's Blog
The next one When asked what his favorite composition was, Duke Ellington said, “the next one.” This is the...
a year ago
22
a year ago
When asked what his favorite composition was, Duke Ellington said, “the next one.” This is the essence of the artistic process. When we’re in the liminal space between now and what is about to come, we’re fully alive.
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Matt Hooper My name is Matt Hooper and I’m a relief printmaker working from my rather compact studio I built in...
8 months ago
71
8 months ago
My name is Matt Hooper and I’m a relief printmaker working from my rather compact studio I built in the garden of my home in a town just outside Leeds. I’m a self taught artist and printmaker, ironically having being in the print industry for 32 years. I left school at 16 with no...
Seth's Blog
Thoughts on the manual We have more ways to offer instructions than ever before, but it’s not obvious that we’re getting...
a year ago
26
a year ago
We have more ways to offer instructions than ever before, but it’s not obvious that we’re getting better at it. Not just the operator’s manual, but every way we have to teach and offer instructions… Some (uncategorized) things to consider: The first manual I created, in 1983, was...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
How does it feel to make generative art? I asked other generative artists how the process feels to them
over a year ago
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
13
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...
Seth's Blog
The interaction cascade Walk into an office, and the person behind the desk begins an interaction. You respond (or react)....
8 months ago
55
8 months ago
Walk into an office, and the person behind the desk begins an interaction. You respond (or react). They respond (or react) in turn. Answer the phone. Caller ID tells you who it is–are you smiling? How much enthusiasm or disdain or annoyance or delight comes through? The caller...
Seth's Blog
The sad compromise of “sponsored results” Google made a fortune and honed sponsored search results into an art form. The theory is that people...
10 months ago
45
10 months ago
Google made a fortune and honed sponsored search results into an art form. The theory is that people who want the traffic the most will pay for the clicks, and of course, if the advertisers don’t have something you ultimately want, they’ll just waste their money. Let the market...
Seth's Blog
Significant work is a vote When we show up to bring humanity to work, we’re making a choice. It involves risk and effort and...
a year ago
20
a year ago
When we show up to bring humanity to work, we’re making a choice. It involves risk and effort and emotional labor. We’re here to make a change happen, and we’re giving something to make that happen. So it’s a vote. A vote for the customer we seek to serve. A vote for the boss and...
Stat Significant
Who's the Greatest Actor in Movie History? A Statistical Analysis Who's the greatest movie actor of all time, and why?
10 months ago
Seth's Blog
Are you doing what you said you wanted to do? If you want to be a poet, write poetry. Every day. Show us your work. If you want to do improv,...
a year ago
23
a year ago
If you want to be a poet, write poetry. Every day. Show us your work. If you want to do improv, start a troupe. Don’t wait to get picked. If you want to help animals, don’t wait for vet school. Volunteer at an animal shelter right now. If you want to write a screenplay, write […]
Seth's Blog
A treaty Successful treaties calm things down and let us get back to what’s really important. Sometimes, the...
over a year ago
85
over a year ago
Successful treaties calm things down and let us get back to what’s really important. Sometimes, the fight becomes the entire point. Not surprisingly, when we’re busy fighting a war in our head about a previous injustice or slight, we can effectively consummate a treaty without...
Seth's Blog
Education is free, learning is expensive That’s a complete reversal of how it used to be. Colleges used to be measured by how many books they...
4 days ago
4
4 days ago
That’s a complete reversal of how it used to be. Colleges used to be measured by how many books they had in the library. Access to courses was restricted. If knowledge was power, controlling access was essential. They even call it the ‘admissions office.’ Part of the status that...
Neocha – Culture &...
Deep Baby Sleep Realm
over a year ago
escape the algorithm
Gift interfaces, an interview, and how you found me Some updates on things that have happened and that are coming in the escape the algorithm cinematic...
7 months ago
Seth's Blog
The positive auction In 2023, I developed a new idea that transforms an old way of doing commerce. In traditional...
a year ago
34
a year ago
In 2023, I developed a new idea that transforms an old way of doing commerce. In traditional auctions, there are rounds of bidding and the high bidder pays to get the prize. The last bid is the amount paid, and no one else is charged anything. This is an interesting ‘game’ in...
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
46
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...
Open Culture
A Close Look at Beowulf-Era Helmets & Swords, Courtesy of the British Museum Even if a student assigned Beowulf is, at first, dismayed by its language, that same student may...
a year ago
82
a year ago
Even if a student assigned Beowulf is, at first, dismayed by its language, that same student may well be captivated by its setting. While that mythical but somehow both gloriously and dankly realistic realm of kings and dragons, mead halls and bog monsters may feel familiar to...
Stat Significant
How Are Hit Songs Rediscovered Decades Later? A Statistical Analysis How does music undergo a cultural revival long after its original release?
10 months ago
Seth's Blog
Opening the pod bay door A brand new episode of Akimbo this week, all about artificial intelligence. Part one of of two on...
over a year ago
80
over a year ago
A brand new episode of Akimbo this week, all about artificial intelligence. Part one of of two on mediocrity and the choices we’re going to need to make. And, a while in the making, an experimental AI chat bot that has been trained on all 5,000,000 words of this blog. You can...
cabel.com
Marching Age This is a short story about something delightful. In 2014, I did a bunch of music for my friends...
a year ago
20
a year ago
This is a short story about something delightful. In 2014, I did a bunch of music for my friends Neven Mrgan and Matt Comi who were making an incredible iOS game called Space Age. I had never written that much music in my life, and it was incredibly fun for me in every way. (You...
Seth's Blog
The Mississippi River paradox There’s no water in that river that was there ten years ago. The boundaries have shifted in that...
11 months ago
45
11 months ago
There’s no water in that river that was there ten years ago. The boundaries have shifted in that time as well, there’s no riverbank that’s exactly where it was. And the silt and the fish have all moved too. So, what’s “the Mississippi River”? It’s a label, a placeholder, and a...
Open Culture
The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse: Rick Beato Explains Earlier this month, a North Carolina man was charged with generating songs using an...
9 months ago
46
9 months ago
Earlier this month, a North Carolina man was charged with generating songs using an artificial-intelligence system and configuring bots to stream them automatically, thus racking up some $10 million in illegal royalties. Though that amount no doubt startles many of us, in this...
John Reynolds -...
at☉m at☉m
a year ago
Seth's Blog
It could have easily gone the other way It could have been way better. It could have been far worse. It’s easy to imagine that outcomes are...
a year ago
24
a year ago
It could have been way better. It could have been far worse. It’s easy to imagine that outcomes are inevitable, but they’re not. Was it your fault, or was it luck (good or bad)? If our story of the past is filled with second guesses, shame or blame, it can carry forward. Or...
Seth's Blog
Taken for granted A poignant definition of civilization is all the conveniences, courtesies, standards, insulation and...
9 months ago
60
9 months ago
A poignant definition of civilization is all the conveniences, courtesies, standards, insulation and tools that we hardly notice now but that we would miss if they were gone.
Open Culture
RIP David Sanborn: See Him Play Alongside Miles Davis, Randy Newman, Sun Ra, Leonard Cohen and... It’s late in the evening of Saturday, October 28th, 1989. You flip on the television and the...
a year ago
112
a year ago
It’s late in the evening of Saturday, October 28th, 1989. You flip on the television and the saxophonist David Sanborn appears onscreen, instrument in hand, introducing the eclectic blues icon Taj Mahal, who in turn declares his intent to play a number with “rural humor” and...
Seth's Blog
Early next week… It’s going to get busy around here. I wanted to share some upcoming events (online and in person) so...
8 months ago
56
8 months ago
It’s going to get busy around here. I wanted to share some upcoming events (online and in person) so you can plan ahead… there are five more for the end of the week, but here we go: Linda Rottenberg is joining me on LinkedIn on Monday. She’s built an extraordinary organization...
Anarchy Unfolds
3 Pieces for Rethinking Identity Politics Mental health, neurodivergence, orientation, and the path ahead
8 months ago
Seth's Blog
They will lose your data The rules are pretty consistent: We’re all creators now. Podcasting, videoing, photographing,...
over a year ago
81
over a year ago
The rules are pretty consistent: We’re all creators now. Podcasting, videoing, photographing, spreadsheeting… and we’re building a foundation of valuable data as we go. The software companies that produce the tools we use push their engineers in many ways, but not to create...
Seth's Blog
The first nine minutes Mixing up a batch of homemade vegan marshmallow Fluff® is an exercise in patience. For the first...
a year ago
51
a year ago
Mixing up a batch of homemade vegan marshmallow Fluff® is an exercise in patience. For the first nine minutes of the ten minutes it takes in the mixer, not much happens. And then, it transforms into something fluffy and delightful. Without the recipe, it’s unlikely that most...
Seth's Blog
Wanting and getting Modern marketing culture is designed to amplify our desires. To turn faint wants into desperate...
6 months ago
61
6 months ago
Modern marketing culture is designed to amplify our desires. To turn faint wants into desperate needs. As a result, we’re intimately familiar with what we want. And we strive to get it. The problem with getting what you want is that now you have a hole, because you don’t want...
Seth's Blog
The Pizza Principle Good pizza is rare, even though the method to create it is well known. Any efforts to make it more...
a year ago
31
a year ago
Good pizza is rare, even though the method to create it is well known. Any efforts to make it more convenient, cheaper or easier will almost always make it worse. If you think this post is about pizza, I’m afraid that we’re already stuck.
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Jennie Ing Describe your printmaking process. I make linocut prints by the reduction method. This is where all...
a year ago
31
a year ago
Describe your printmaking process. I make linocut prints by the reduction method. This is where all the colours come from the same piece of lino with the successive cutting away of the lino block and printing a new colour over the top of the last. The edition size has to be...
Haterade
Turkey Bacon for Teetotalers Get organized this New Year by mechanically separating your meats.
5 months ago
Open Culture
How Man Ray Reinvented Himself & Created One of the Most Iconic Works of Surrealist Photography It would surprise none of us to encounter a young artist looking to cast off his past and make his...
8 months ago
42
8 months ago
It would surprise none of us to encounter a young artist looking to cast off his past and make his mark on the culture in a place like Williamsburg. But in the case of Man Ray, Williamsburg was his past. One must remember that the Brooklyn of today bears little resemblance to the...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Jenny O'Leary Hi, my name is Jenny O’Leary and I am a textile artist and tutor living in Shropshire. I work with...
11 months ago
85
11 months ago
Hi, my name is Jenny O’Leary and I am a textile artist and tutor living in Shropshire. I work with batik (hot wax resist), mainly on tissue paper - combining it with bleach, ink and dyes. I sometimes stitch to create beautiful surfaces and textures. Collage and layering are an...
Open Culture
Thousands of Pablo Picasso’s Works Now Available in a New Digital Archive If you want to immerse yourself in the world of Pablo Picasso, you might start at the Museo Picasso...
a year ago
57
a year ago
If you want to immerse yourself in the world of Pablo Picasso, you might start at the Museo Picasso Málaga, located in the artist’s Spanish birthplace. But to understand how his work developed throughout his life, you’ll have to get out of Spain — which is just what Picasso did...
Open Culture
Medieval Cats Behaving Badly: Kitties That Left Paw Prints … and Peed … on 15th Century Manuscripts “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” –Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808–90) When...
a year ago
54
a year ago
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” –Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808–90) When Emir O. Filipovic, a medievalist at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, visited the State Archives of Dubrovnik, he stumbled upon something that will hardly surprise...
Seth's Blog
The rock star conundrum Forty years ago, the royalty of rock spent the night in a studio to record one of the...
a year ago
34
a year ago
Forty years ago, the royalty of rock spent the night in a studio to record one of the fastest-selling singles of all time. The documentary of the event is just okay, but it’s fascinating in how it shows us just how deep imposter syndrome lies. Only a few stars seemed at all...
Seth's Blog
When the sun is shining Our job as professionals is to show up and do the work. Not simply respond to incoming or do the...
over a year ago
98
over a year ago
Our job as professionals is to show up and do the work. Not simply respond to incoming or do the chores, but to create and innovate. And yet, some days feel more conducive than others. There are moments when it simply flows. When the surf’s up, cancel everything else. Don’t waste...
escape the algorithm
For WIRED: Google's relentless search for answers I wouldn’t ordinarily email you twice in one week, but I have an essay in WIRED today about Google,...
a year ago
19
a year ago
I wouldn’t ordinarily email you twice in one week, but I have an essay in WIRED today about Google, its philosophy of information retrieval, and how its Search history may be a premonition of the future that generative AI is leading us towards.
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
63
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 […]
Open Culture
Meet Madame Inès Decourcelle, One of the Very First Female Taxi Drivers in Paris (Circa 1908) If you can read this, you almost certainly know the French word for a professional automobile...
11 months ago
50
11 months ago
If you can read this, you almost certainly know the French word for a professional automobile driver. That’s because we use the same word in English: chauffeur. French nouns, unlike English ones, come in masculine and feminine varieties, and that -eur ending unmistakably...
Open Culture
Discover Paul Éluard and Max Ernst’s Still-Bizarre Proto-Surrealist Book Les Malheurs des immortels... When the names of French poet Paul Éluard and German artist Max Ernst arise, one subject always...
7 months ago
56
7 months ago
When the names of French poet Paul Éluard and German artist Max Ernst arise, one subject always follows: that of their years-long ménage à trois — or rather, “marriage à trois,” as a New York Times article by Annette Grant once put it. It started in 1921, Grant writes, when the...
Seth's Blog
The defensive arrogance of TL;DR Every since there has been high school, there has been the instinct to read the Cliffs Notes. The...
a year ago
51
a year ago
Every since there has been high school, there has been the instinct to read the Cliffs Notes. The internet took this idea, added a gratuitous semicolon and perfected Too Long; Didn’t Read. This is the mistakenly proud assertion that we are far too busy and too important to read...
Seth's Blog
Time well spent Doing what? When we choose which job to apply for, what career to commit to, which business to...
4 months ago
36
4 months ago
Doing what? When we choose which job to apply for, what career to commit to, which business to start, it might be worth a moment (or a few moments) to get at the heart of what a day well spent produces. What’s it for? Here are a few to get you started: It’s hard to […]
Open Culture
Orson Welles Narrates Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner in an Experimental Film Featuring the... Around here we subscribe to the theory that there’s no such thing as too much Orson Welles. In years...
9 months ago
61
9 months ago
Around here we subscribe to the theory that there’s no such thing as too much Orson Welles. In years past, we gave you Welles narrating Plato’s Cave Allegory and Kafka’s “Before the Law,” and, before that, the Welles-narrated parable Freedom River, and the list goes on. Now, we...
Anarchy Unfolds
The big picture, AI, chemophobia, rocket mass heaters Green Gatherings #1
9 months ago
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
20
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...
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
38
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...
Open Culture
George Harrison Explains Why Everyone Should Play the Ukulele George Harrison loved the ukulele, and really, what’s not to love? For its dainty size, the uke can...
8 months ago
59
8 months ago
George Harrison loved the ukulele, and really, what’s not to love? For its dainty size, the uke can make a powerfully cheerful sound, and it’s an instrument both beginners and expert players can learn and easily carry around. As Harrison’s old friend Joe Brown remarked, “You can...
Seth's Blog
Speed, creativity and AI A little faster is a market advantage. A step change in speed changes the market entirely. Fedex was...
7 months ago
48
7 months ago
A little faster is a market advantage. A step change in speed changes the market entirely. Fedex was faster mail. It allowed them to grow and profit. Email, on the other hand, completely changed communication. In the discussions of AI, most people are failing to consider the step...
Seth's Blog
Regressing to the mean all by yourself “The mean” is the average. Another word for “mediocre.” When an organization gets big enough, by...
a year ago
43
a year ago
“The mean” is the average. Another word for “mediocre.” When an organization gets big enough, by definition, it’s the average. When you have enough customers, they represent the population as a whole. If you find yourself seeking to serve the largest possible number of people,...
Seth's Blog
The new way of work Amazon is the last one. They are probably the last huge company where hundreds of thousands of...
over a year ago
79
over a year ago
Amazon is the last one. They are probably the last huge company where hundreds of thousands of people will be surveilled, measured and ordered to follow the rule book. The pandemic didn’t create distributed work, the laptop did. Human interaction is critical, but the office isn’t...
Seth's Blog
March is strategy month January feels like the start of the year, but there’s always a hangover from the holidays. In the...
4 months ago
28
4 months ago
January feels like the start of the year, but there’s always a hangover from the holidays. In the northern Hemisphere, February is dark and dreary and we’re mostly hunkering down waiting for the short month to end. But March? Around the world, March can be a chance to get down to...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Generating The Alphabet My current generative artwork-in-progress includes text, but I don’t want to use a font. In browser...
a year ago
24
a year ago
My current generative artwork-in-progress includes text, but I don’t want to use a font. In browser based art work, using a “web safe” font could produce inconsistent results, while including a font file would mean a large file size. Additionally, I don’t want a visual element of...
Seth's Blog
Chasing cool The cool thing is always a little out of reach. And for most of us, once we get it, it’s not seen as...
a year ago
26
a year ago
The cool thing is always a little out of reach. And for most of us, once we get it, it’s not seen as cool any more. This is not an accident. One definition of cool are things that are just out of reach.
Handprinted - Blog
Prepping your Plate for Etching For a successful etch, there is a little bit of care and attention you need to give to your metal...
a year ago
35
a year ago
For a successful etch, there is a little bit of care and attention you need to give to your metal plate first. There are surface impurities and grease pockets within the metal that will need to be removed before coating your plate with grounds. This blog is part of a series...
Seth's Blog
Walking the city, walking the world Last week, I passed 800 people as I walked my way through New York. I decided to look at the folks I...
a year ago
26
a year ago
Last week, I passed 800 people as I walked my way through New York. I decided to look at the folks I was walking near. Of those 800 people, not one was as conventionally attractive as a movie star. Few looked like the images I saw on the billboards I passed. Most wouldn’t be cast...
Seth's Blog
Modern apologies The AI driven voice mail system said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand you.” Of course, there is no...
9 months ago
62
9 months ago
The AI driven voice mail system said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand you.” Of course, there is no “I” and by most definitions of sorry, it’s not. But it made me feel better. The overworked and slightly bitter front desk person who was the frontline flotsam in a poorly designed...
Seth's Blog
Our homunculus is showing The little person at the control panel, the one who sees what the retina produces, the one who...
over a year ago
85
over a year ago
The little person at the control panel, the one who sees what the retina produces, the one who decides, the one who speaks up… (This is the dualist solution to the free will problem–yes, I have a physical body, they say, but I also have a little human inside of me that gets to...
Seth's Blog
Grab and go Every retailer knows that the items that sell the best are at eye level or at the cash register....
3 weeks ago
10
3 weeks ago
Every retailer knows that the items that sell the best are at eye level or at the cash register. Some people are hungry, rushed, distracted and lazy. If you want to reach them (us), you need to make it convenient. The lesson is simple: We can market to ourselves the same way...
Seth's Blog
Checking all the boxes The simplest way forward is to see which boxes your target market has and then check all of them....
5 months ago
54
5 months ago
The simplest way forward is to see which boxes your target market has and then check all of them. Unfortunately #1: The audience doesn’t publish their actual list of boxes, they conceal many of them. Unfortunately #2: They don’t all have the same boxes. Unfortunately #3: If it...
Stat Significant
Which Movies Have "Aged Poorly"? A Statistical Analysis Which films have not stood the test of time?
2 months ago
Open Culture
16th-Century Japanese Historians Describe the Oddness of Meeting the First Europeans They Ever Saw Go to Japan today, and the country will present you with plenty of opportunities to buy pan, tabako,...
a year ago
51
a year ago
Go to Japan today, and the country will present you with plenty of opportunities to buy pan, tabako, and tempura. These products themselves — bread, cigarettes, and deep-fried seafood or vegetables — will be familiar enough. Even the words that refer to them may have a...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Fiona Black My name is Fiona Black and I am an artist, folk musician, writer, history geek and lover of stories....
a year ago
90
a year ago
My name is Fiona Black and I am an artist, folk musician, writer, history geek and lover of stories. Home for me is the Highland village of Evanton, just north of Inverness on the shore of the Cromarty Firth. I am happy to have returned to live and create in the Highlands, and I...
Seth's Blog
On burning bridges Building a bridge is far more difficult than maintaining one. While it’s tempting to imagine that...
3 weeks ago
9
3 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.
Seth's Blog
“For what purposes will it be useful?” In 1840, at the dawn of the information age, the king of Sardinia asked Charles Babbage what nearly...
a year ago
29
a year ago
In 1840, at the dawn of the information age, the king of Sardinia asked Charles Babbage what nearly instant messaging like the telegraph could possibly be good for. Twenty years later, it was obvious. When I first saw Prodigy in 1986, I saw that the consumer internet would have...
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
32
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
Hōshi: A Short Documentary on the 1300-Year-Old Hotel Run by the Same Japanese Family for 46... Hōshi, a traditional Japanese inn in Komatsu, Japan, holds the distinction of being the second...
2 months ago
35
2 months ago
Hōshi, a traditional Japanese inn in Komatsu, Japan, holds the distinction of being the second oldest hotel in the world—and “the oldest still running family business in the world.” Built in 718 AD, Hōshi has been operated by the same family for 46 consecutive generations. Count...
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
59
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
Deadlines and tailgaters If the ferry is leaving in fifteen minutes, do you drive faster than normal to get to the dock on...
a year ago
27
a year ago
If the ferry is leaving in fifteen minutes, do you drive faster than normal to get to the dock on time? If someone is driving close behind you and pressuring you to turn when you don’t feel safe, are you more likely to go for it? We can do our work as fast as makes […]
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Idiot Plots Plus! Gavin's podcast, morning routines, and a good chickpea post
3 months ago
Seth's Blog
Closed/open I’m told that the hardest part of being a teaching golf pro isn’t helping adult golfers develop a...
a year ago
18
a year ago
I’m told that the hardest part of being a teaching golf pro isn’t helping adult golfers develop a good swing. It’s getting them to stop using a bad one. Our position feels so fragile, we hold on very tightly. Competence, status and connection are fleeting yet hard-won. We can...
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...
2 weeks ago
10
2 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
The unwritten rules get written …when someone decides to selfishly push. There’s an assumption of civility and fairness in all of...
over a year ago
65
over a year ago
…when someone decides to selfishly push. There’s an assumption of civility and fairness in all of our interactions. When a harsh competitor unilaterally breaks unwritten rules (because it’s “not technically against the rules”) the community then writes down a new rule. The best...
escape the algorithm
Is Substack exaggerating its network effects? The data tells the story writers want to hear... but is it true?
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Hard to predict The outcome of our work can be easy or difficult to predict. It’s not hard to determine if a bridge...
a week ago
6
a week ago
The outcome of our work can be easy or difficult to predict. It’s not hard to determine if a bridge is going to fall down or if code is going to compile. The scientific method and statistics do a great job of helping us foresee some dynamic events. On the other hand, it’s almost...
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
137
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...
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...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: MintFlamingo Hi - I’m Alex! I’m a freelance graphic designer by day, and a self-taught linocut printmaker by...
over a year ago
46
over a year ago
Hi - I’m Alex! I’m a freelance graphic designer by day, and a self-taught linocut printmaker by night. Although my day job is ‘creative’ I think I really fell in love with making/designing my own linocut prints as it allows me to create whatever I like, without being restricted...
Seth's Blog
Brighten up a room (just by leaving it) Moving into your kid’s college dorm isn’t going to make the experience better...
10 months ago
54
10 months ago
(just by leaving it) Moving into your kid’s college dorm isn’t going to make the experience better for anyone. A smart founder leaves her company in a moment when it actually does better without her. The expectation that secession is failure causes a lot of damage. If you really...
Prolost
M1 Max MacBook Pro Long-term Report The 2021 MacBook Pro alongside the cable-management fail of my iMac Pro Back in October when I got a...
over a year ago
28
over a year ago
The 2021 MacBook Pro alongside the cable-management fail of my iMac Pro Back in October when I got a chance to use a pre-release 14″ MacBook Pro with M1 Max processor, I openly questioned whether this laptop could replace my venerable iMac Pro. Four months later, I’m back with an...
Seth's Blog
Worthless noise isn’t information Data becomes information when at least one of two related things are true: If you’re not getting one...
a month ago
11
a month ago
Data becomes information when at least one of two related things are true: If you’re not getting one of these things, then the data is simply noise. A distraction that wastes our time and confuses us. Breaking news is up to the recipient.
Open Culture
David Bowie’s Fashionable Mug Shot From His 1976 Marijuana Bust David Bowie always managed to look cool, even when he was being booked for a felony. In early 1976,...
9 months ago
42
9 months ago
David Bowie always managed to look cool, even when he was being booked for a felony. In early 1976, Bowie was on his “Isolar” tour, performing as the Thin White Duke, a persona he would describe as “a very Aryan fascist type — a would-be romantic with no emotions at all.” Bowie...
Open Culture
Stanford Continuing Studies Offering an Online Course Exploring the Music of the Grateful Dead Image via Wikimedia Commons A quick heads up: On October 3rd, Stanford Continuing Studies will kick...
9 months ago
38
9 months ago
Image via Wikimedia Commons A quick heads up: On October 3rd, Stanford Continuing Studies will kick off an 8‑week online course called Did It Matter? Does It Now? The Music and Culture of the Grateful Dead. Led by David Gans (author of Playing in the Band: An Oral and Visual...
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
Naming is part of marketing A name is a hook for us to hang a story on. We need to begin with empathy and a useful story… useful...
a year ago
42
a year ago
A name is a hook for us to hang a story on. We need to begin with empathy and a useful story… useful to the people who want to believe it, spread it, and use it to accomplish their goals. But then, the story needs firm footing and a way to stick with us. Patagonia […]
Seth's Blog
Willfully uninformed Access to information used to be scarce. We ranked college libraries on how many books they had, and...
a year ago
40
a year ago
Access to information used to be scarce. We ranked college libraries on how many books they had, and time at the microfilm reader was booked in advance. Today, if there’s something I don’t know, it’s almost certainly because I haven’t cared enough to find out. I don’t understand...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: MAGA's Civil War The MAGA Civil War and a recap of recaps
6 months ago
Open Culture
Behold a Creative Animation of the Bayeux Tapestry In previous centuries, unless you were a member of the nobility, a wealthy religious order, or a...
9 months ago
57
9 months ago
In previous centuries, unless you were a member of the nobility, a wealthy religious order, or a merchant guild, your chances of spending any significant amount of time with a Medieval tapestry were slim. Though “much production was relatively coarse, intended for decorative...
Open Culture
Watch the Performance of a Mozart Composition That Had Been Lost for Centuries For most musicians, a long-lost song written in their teenage years would be of interest only to...
9 months ago
46
9 months ago
For most musicians, a long-lost song written in their teenage years would be of interest only to serious fans — and even then, probably more for biographical reasons than as a standalone piece of work. But that’s hardly the case for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was composing...
Seth's Blog
Comfort and convenience For the last thirty years, the easiest shortcut has been convenience. If a marketer or a politician...
a year ago
70
a year ago
For the last thirty years, the easiest shortcut has been convenience. If a marketer or a politician or an institution wants to gain acceptance, make it convenient. Tim Wu has pointed out that we’ll trade almost anything to save a few moments of hassle or thought. But that doesn’t...
Open Culture
Twin Peaks Actually Explained: A 4‑Hour Video Essay Demystifies It All I don’t know about you, but my YouTube algorithms can act like a nagging friend, suggesting a video...
8 months ago
59
8 months ago
I don’t know about you, but my YouTube algorithms can act like a nagging friend, suggesting a video for days until I finally give in. Such was the case with this video essay with the tantalizing title: “Twin Peaks ACTUALLY EXPLAINED (No, Really)”. First of all, before, during,...
Seth's Blog
If they know, they should tell us Asymmetrical information creates real problems. And fixing the flow of useful proxies benefits both...
6 months ago
77
6 months ago
Asymmetrical information creates real problems. And fixing the flow of useful proxies benefits both sides. Cigarette companies knew a great deal about the addictions they were causing and the illnesses that resulted. If the public had known, they would have made different...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Striking Out General strikes, Opinion Blunders, and Yassified Shrek
4 months ago
Seth's Blog
Are you weather? The thunderstorm doesn’t know we exist. Rain dances and wishes are ineffective at bringing or...
a year ago
95
a year ago
The thunderstorm doesn’t know we exist. Rain dances and wishes are ineffective at bringing or preventing a storm, because it isn’t caused by our actions. Metaphorical weather is tempting to mistake as a response. When someone cuts us off in traffic or doesn’t engage with us the...
Seth's Blog
The ghost in the machine “The computer wants you to click this button.” “It thinks you asked for something else.” “He’s mad...
over a year ago
86
over a year ago
“The computer wants you to click this button.” “It thinks you asked for something else.” “He’s mad at you.” Thousands of generations ago, we evolved our way into a magnificent hack. It turns out that we can more safely navigate the world by imagining that other people have a...
Seth's Blog
Searching for stars It’s easy to imagine that talent is a magical gift, and that we’ll know it when see it (and that you...
7 months ago
50
7 months ago
It’s easy to imagine that talent is a magical gift, and that we’ll know it when see it (and that you have it or you don’t). And yet, over the years, Star Search has rejected each of these musicians, picking someone else to win the competition: One could argue that they’re simply...
Seth's Blog
To be in charge Every system, every bureaucracy and every organization creates boundaries. Sooner or later, we say,...
4 months ago
34
4 months ago
Every system, every bureaucracy and every organization creates boundaries. Sooner or later, we say, “I’d love to fix this, but I’m not in charge of that.” Perhaps, though, we’ve been conditioned to say this even when it’s not true. Because being in charge means being responsible,...
Seth's Blog
Five lessons from week one of This is Strategy Once you decide to write a book about strategy, it raises the bar for having a strategy for the...
8 months ago
53
8 months ago
Once you decide to write a book about strategy, it raises the bar for having a strategy for the launch. People generally focus far too much on the launch of a project. Rocketships need a perfect launch, because just about everything after the launch is simply ballistic. But most...
Open Culture
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...
3 weeks ago
11
3 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...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #140 K2-18b, o3 and o4-mini, Parkinson’s Research, GLP-1 Pill, Precision, Neuroscience, Abundance...
2 months ago
Seth's Blog
Here to please Please who? If you’re on a social media network, are you seeking to optimize for the algorithm, the...
a week ago
9
a week ago
Please who? If you’re on a social media network, are you seeking to optimize for the algorithm, the owners of the tech stock or your personal goals? If you’re publishing a book, are you working for the book or is the book working for you? You might be able to get the folks in the...
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
33
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...
Handprinted - Blog
Batik on Paper Batik is a fun, dynamic way of creating bold and beautiful designs on cloth but did you know batik...
12 months ago
100
12 months ago
Batik is a fun, dynamic way of creating bold and beautiful designs on cloth but did you know batik can be made on paper too? We used some Tej Prakrtika paper (as well as testing some others) to create a colourful, abstract batik.  You'll find lots more batik projects here. Begin...
Seth's Blog
The blank page Sometimes, we’re so afraid of creation that we don’t even leave blank pages around. If your...
a year ago
64
a year ago
Sometimes, we’re so afraid of creation that we don’t even leave blank pages around. If your workspace has a hole exactly the size of a creative idea in it, you’re more likely to fill the hole. When we decrease the number of steps to begin creating, and increase the expectation...
Seth's Blog
Who do you want to become? Emotional enrollment is at the heart of performance, learning and connection. A coach can quickly...
9 months ago
41
9 months ago
Emotional enrollment is at the heart of performance, learning and connection. A coach can quickly tell when someone is committed to changing their approach in order to change the outcome–it’s easy to tell this person apart from someone who simply wants what they’re already doing...
Open Culture
Hear What Shakespeare Sounded Like in the Original Pronunciation What did Shakespeare’s English sound like to Shakespeare? To his audience? And how can we know such...
3 weeks ago
11
3 weeks ago
What did Shakespeare’s English sound like to Shakespeare? To his audience? And how can we know such a thing as the phonetic character of the language spoken 400 years ago? These questions and more are addressed in the video above, which profiles a very popular experiment at...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: YouTube's AI Problem Plus! Vibe Shift Reversal and Dr Pepper Guy
2 months ago
Open Culture
The World’s Oldest Homework: A Look at Babylonian Math Homework from 4,000 Years Ago Homework has lately become unfashionable, at least according to what I’ve heard from teachers in...
a month ago
9
a month ago
Homework has lately become unfashionable, at least according to what I’ve heard from teachers in certain parts of the United States. That may complicate various fairly long-standing educational practices, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect an absolute drop in standards and...
Seth's Blog
Customer math for a new business How much does it cost to get a new customer? How much do you make from every interaction with that...
a year ago
45
a year ago
How much does it cost to get a new customer? How much do you make from every interaction with that customer? How long does the customer stick around? How many new customers will existing customers bring you over time?
Haterade
How to Garnish Instructions on making (and becoming) a Silly Goose
a year ago
Infinite Scroll
The Weak Men of MAGA How Weak Men create Hard Times
a month ago
Neocha – Culture &...
The Photography of Shin Noguchi
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Seriously One way to deal with a changing world and new problems is to take yourself very seriously, others...
a month ago
7
a month ago
One way to deal with a changing world and new problems is to take yourself very seriously, others not so much. The other way is to take the situation quite seriously, but perhaps not focus so much on taking ourselves seriously. As Ani DiFranco points out, rock musicians take...
Open Culture
How Scientists Recreated Ancient Egypt’s Long-Lost Pigment, “Egyptian Blue” Photo courtesy of Washington State University. It’s become fashionable, in recent years, to observe...
a week ago
5
a week ago
Photo courtesy of Washington State University. It’s become fashionable, in recent years, to observe that we live in an increasingly beige-and-gray world from which all color is being drained. Whether or not that’s really the case, all of us still enjoy easy access to a range of...
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
47
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...
Haterade
Turns Out, Nobody Needs A Restaurant Critic The Haterade diss track
a year ago
Seth's Blog
ChatGPT for you AI is a mystery. To many, it’s a threat. It turns out that understanding a mystery not only makes it...
a year ago
31
a year ago
AI is a mystery. To many, it’s a threat. It turns out that understanding a mystery not only makes it feel less like a threat, it gives us the confidence to make it into something better. I use ChatGPT4 just about every day, and I’m often surprised at how frequently it surprises...
Stat Significant
Is Music Stardom in Decline? A Statistical Analysis Is music stardom dying?
7 months ago
Seth's Blog
Who is undermining your brand? There’s a high-end grocer in a very expensive neighborhood of New York–and they focus all of their...
over a year ago
41
over a year ago
There’s a high-end grocer in a very expensive neighborhood of New York–and they focus all of their energy on Italian food. Everything is imported, and they spend a lot of time and money earning the premium they charge for an authentic Italian shopping experience. And then a lazy...
Open Culture
Download Issues of “Weird Tales” (1923–1954): The Pioneering Pulp Horror Magazine Features Original... We live in an era of genre. Browse through TV shows of the last decade to see what I mean: Horror,...
a year ago
72
a year ago
We live in an era of genre. Browse through TV shows of the last decade to see what I mean: Horror, sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes, futuristic dystopias…. Take a casual glance at the burgeoning global film franchises or merchandising empires. Where in earlier decades, horror and...
Seth's Blog
Complaints The best way to complain is to make things better. Complaining can be a form of intimacy. It’s a...
6 months ago
73
6 months ago
The best way to complain is to make things better. Complaining can be a form of intimacy. It’s a useful way to explain our behavior. And best of all, it gives us a way to communicate as we work to create community action. The rest sort of complaint requires generosity and...
Open Culture
Hear the World’s Oldest Instrument, the “Neanderthal Flute,” Dating Back Over 43,000 Years Several years ago, we brought you a transcription and a couple of audio interpretations of the...
5 days ago
5
5 days ago
Several years ago, we brought you a transcription and a couple of audio interpretations of the oldest known song in the world, discovered in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit and dating back to the 14th century B.C.E.. Likely performed on an instrument resembling an ancient lyre,...
Seth's Blog
Inconvenient! That’s great news. The thing you need, the road ahead, the element that will transform your...
over a year ago
41
over a year ago
That’s great news. The thing you need, the road ahead, the element that will transform your project–it appears to be inconvenient. That’s terrific, because it means that most other people can’t be bothered. It’s valuable because the very inconvenience of it makes it scarce. The...
Open Culture
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...
Seth's Blog
Hope and expectations They’re not the same thing. Hope can fuel us. Hope can be refilled. Hope opens the door to...
a year ago
32
a year ago
They’re not the same thing. Hope can fuel us. Hope can be refilled. Hope opens the door to possibility. Expectations, on the other hand, are a trap. They make us brittle and lead to disappointment. When we raise our hopes and lower our expectations, we establish a resilient way...
Rectangle
The first rectangle And the first of many
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Get/Want/Have To Get to, want to and have to are an endless braid. How much of our time do we spend on each? Have to...
over a year ago
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 Jenga situation When an organization first sets out to have an impact, it discovers that it has no customers, no...
a year ago
26
a year ago
When an organization first sets out to have an impact, it discovers that it has no customers, no clients, no constituents. So it shows up, it makes an offer and it listens. The early days are exciting. Customers are seen and heard and served. Variations are created and value is...
Seth's Blog
Every tactic… Has a strategy behind it. Often unsaid, undiscussed and hidden. It’s easier to simply play with the...
2 months ago
8
2 months ago
Has a strategy behind it. Often unsaid, undiscussed and hidden. It’s easier to simply play with the tactic of the moment. Tell me what your tactic is trying to accomplish and I’ll be halfway to understanding what your strategy is. But it makes a lot more sense to announce your...
Prolost
Visual Effects Compositing in Adobe After Effects: My IBC 2019 Talk Adobe graciously invited me to speak at their IBC 2019 booth about visual effects compositing in...
over a year ago
27
over a year ago
Adobe graciously invited me to speak at their IBC 2019 booth about visual effects compositing in After Effects — something I’ve been doing against all advice for many (many!) years. You can watch the entire talk here:
Seth's Blog
Two kinds of instructions The more common, easier to execute sort: Instructions to remind people who already know what to do,...
3 months ago
25
3 months ago
The more common, easier to execute sort: Instructions to remind people who already know what to do, what to do. The more essential and harder to create kind: Instructions for people who don’t know what to do. It’s a mistake to assume that just because you know all the steps, the...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Jenny McCabe I am printmaker based up north in Lancaster. I currently work mainly with intaglio printmaking...
over a year ago
61
over a year ago
I am printmaker based up north in Lancaster. I currently work mainly with intaglio printmaking methods, preferring metal plate etchings and card Collagraph constructed plates. I have been making printed items for many years including printed textiles and writing books about...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: FamousAdolf My name is Adolf, like the famous one. I was born in Barcelona 37 years ago and I spent my childhood...
over a year ago
81
over a year ago
My name is Adolf, like the famous one. I was born in Barcelona 37 years ago and I spent my childhood watching TV and eating lots of bread and chocolate. When I got older I got a degree in Advertising and Public Relations that I never really used. I worked as a Graphic Designer in...
Seth's Blog
Kinds of power There’s the James Bond villian sort of power, based on division, dominance and destruction. This is...
7 months ago
61
7 months ago
There’s the James Bond villian sort of power, based on division, dominance and destruction. This is the short-term power of bullies, trauma and mobs. And then there’s a more resilient form of power. This is power based on connection, discussion and metrics. A power based in...
Handprinted - Blog
Using Schmincke Water-Based Inks to Create a Jigsaw Linocut We love the range of colours that are available in Schmincke water-based inks. We’re creating a...
over a year ago
82
over a year ago
We love the range of colours that are available in Schmincke water-based inks. We’re creating a jigsaw linocut to allow us to use multiple colours of Schmincke ink in just one block! We are using Easy Carve Blue as it’s soft to cut up with a scalpel, making it ideal for a jigsaw...
Seth's Blog
The lens or the problem? We often see problems through the lens that we’re used to using. The banker sees a solution around...
over a year ago
71
over a year ago
We often see problems through the lens that we’re used to using. The banker sees a solution around money, the activist might see an opportunity for social justice. The technologist figures that a computer and more data might help, and the bureaucrat is looking for a system to put...
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
32
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...
Open Culture
Oh My God! Winston Churchill Received the First Ever Letter Containing “O.M.G.” (1917) Winston Churchill is one of those preposterously outsized historical figures who seemed to be in the...
a year ago
64
a year ago
Winston Churchill is one of those preposterously outsized historical figures who seemed to be in the middle of every major event. Even before, as Prime Minister, he steeled the resolve of his people and faced down the Third Reich juggernaut; even before he loudly warned of the...
Seth's Blog
Default to surrender AI chatbots highight a challenge that is worth understanding. It applies to customer service,...
a year ago
32
a year ago
AI chatbots highight a challenge that is worth understanding. It applies to customer service, bureaucracies and teachers as well… If you ask an AI a question and it’s not confident in the answer, it should say, “I’m not sure.” That could be followed up with, “do you want me to...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Rosie Mclay I'm Rosie, a 32 year old female artist who is mostly from Bristol but can't decide whether to live...
2 months ago
15
2 months ago
I'm Rosie, a 32 year old female artist who is mostly from Bristol but can't decide whether to live in Bristol or the Welsh borders so is a bit all over the place. I've been a full time artist for eight years, mostly making art about our relationship to mortality and nature by...
Handprinted - Blog
Using Pearl Ex Metallic Pigments to Enhance Linocuts Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments are metallic pigments that can be mixed into printing inks, acrylics,...
a year ago
89
a year ago
Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments are metallic pigments that can be mixed into printing inks, acrylics, oils, encaustics and loads more. As printmakers we were keen to see how they could be used in various printmaking applications, starting with linocut.    We began by mixing Apple...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Elon's Endgame Plus! Livestreamers in jail, confused Catholics, and the Immigrant Song
7 months ago
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
57
6 months ago
Like all good metaphors, it might be practical too. Your ‘shoes’ are the point of greatest leverage. The spot where you have traction and engage with the world most directly. For a freelancer, it might be the way you engage with customers, or your software tools. It might be the...
Seth's Blog
The B2B questions Questions people ask themselves when looking at a web page aimed at businesses (B2B). They are...
a year ago
41
a year ago
Questions people ask themselves when looking at a web page aimed at businesses (B2B). They are rhetorical, but should give you a place to begin: Is it my job to deal with this? Who sent me here? Will this advance my project? Will it help me get ahead if I take action? If I ignore...
Seth's Blog
The absence of proof Belief makes us human. Belief is our tool to dance with a possible future, confront our fears, and...
a year ago
24
a year ago
Belief makes us human. Belief is our tool to dance with a possible future, confront our fears, and build community. Our personal taste and our preferences belong to us as well, helping us believe in ourselves. For millennia, belief thrived in most parts of our lives. We didn’t...
Seth's Blog
Goals and expectations [a note to a frustrated friend, just starting out on a long career] There are three reasons that our...
a year ago
21
a year ago
[a note to a frustrated friend, just starting out on a long career] There are three reasons that our goals might not be achieved. In order of palatability, they are: Perhaps the goals are too lofty, too based on chance, unlikely for anyone to achieve, surrounded by barriers that...
Open Culture
Tracking Pianist Yuja Wang’s Heartbeats During Her Marathon Rachmaninoff Performance The Carnegie Hall YouTube Channel sets the scene: On January 28, 2023, pianist Yuja Wang joined The...
a year ago
54
a year ago
The Carnegie Hall YouTube Channel sets the scene: On January 28, 2023, pianist Yuja Wang joined The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Carnegie Hall for a once-in-a-lifetime, all-Rachmaninoff marathon that featured the composer’s four piano concertos...
Seth's Blog
What’s a “techie”? A friend’s email said, “I know many of my readers aren’t techies and you’re thinking of putting this...
over a year ago
93
over a year ago
A friend’s email said, “I know many of my readers aren’t techies and you’re thinking of putting this newsletter aside…” We should get clear about what we’re talking about when we say “techie.” I’m going to argue that involves a combination of two things: But someone who says,...
Seth's Blog
Empathy at a distance … is almost as difficult as empathy up close. That person that’s not like you, from way over there,...
9 months ago
53
9 months ago
… is almost as difficult as empathy up close. That person that’s not like you, from way over there, the one that’s on the other team–it’s hard to imagine what they’re dealing with. They don’t believe what you believe, they haven’t experienced what you’ve experienced. And the...
escape the algorithm
Artisinal white noise Shhhhhhhh
a year ago
Seth's Blog
The big sort The phone book was a groundbreaking innovation. For the first time, you could actually look up the...
3 months ago
24
3 months ago
The phone book was a groundbreaking innovation. For the first time, you could actually look up the person you were seeking to reach. At about the same time, the department store arrived. You could actually have a shot at finding what you were hoping to buy. TV Guide was, at one...
Seth's Blog
Halfway projects Half a canoe is worth less than no canoe at all. On the other hand, eating half a pear is much...
4 months ago
31
4 months ago
Half a canoe is worth less than no canoe at all. On the other hand, eating half a pear is much better than not having one. You might get 85% of the value from only part of the pear. Some projects only benefit us when they’re finished all the way. Knowing this in advance is […]
Handprinted - Blog
Glossary of Printmaking Terminology Scroll through the list below to find definitions and explanations of common printmaking...
over a year ago
83
over a year ago
Scroll through the list below to find definitions and explanations of common printmaking terms: Acid-free – refers to papers that are made with an alkaline pulp, usually with calcium carbonate added. Acids contribute to the deterioration of paper and therefore of prints. Aisuki –...
Seth's Blog
The worst person on our team A common shortcut to cultural divisiveness is to find the single worst person in a different group...
a year ago
24
a year ago
A common shortcut to cultural divisiveness is to find the single worst person in a different group and highlight and attack their behavior. By making it clear and obvious that this is what THEY (the plural) want and who THEY are, it’s easy to walk away from a larger we. Their...
Seth's Blog
The strategy sessions I’m workshopping a new book. For the last few months, I’ve been feverishly writing a book about...
a year ago
102
a year ago
I’m workshopping a new book. For the last few months, I’ve been feverishly writing a book about strategy. Strategy for individuals, small organizations and large ones as well. Strategy for someone seeking to make a difference, and strategy for people who do projects. Starting...
Anarchy Unfolds
Met Gala meets Hunger Games #Blockout and beyond
a year 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...
Seth's Blog
Getting clear about brand value Consulting firms rank brands on value. Marketers promise to increase it. But brand value has little...
5 months ago
143
5 months ago
Consulting firms rank brands on value. Marketers promise to increase it. But brand value has little to do with whether a company is famous or even profitable. The accurate measure of brand value is the premium that consumers will spend over the generic. What time, money or risk...
Seth's Blog
Ecosystems come and go Your project doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Your company wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the customers,...
2 weeks ago
10
2 weeks ago
Your project doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Your company wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the customers, competitors, marketplaces, systems and tech that make it all work. I used to make almanacs. Long, detailed, fact-checked reference books that might save a trip to the library....
Open Culture
Monty Python’s Michael Palin Presents His Favorite Painting, J. M. W. Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed Of all the English comedians to have attained worldwide fame over the past half-century, Sir Michael...
a year ago
59
a year ago
Of all the English comedians to have attained worldwide fame over the past half-century, Sir Michael Palin may be the most English of them all. It thus comes as no surprise that the National Gallery would ring him up and invite him to make a video about his favorite painting, nor...
Seth's Blog
What’s for breakfast? Peter Drucker didn’t say “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but reality rarely gets in the way...
5 months ago
39
5 months ago
Peter Drucker didn’t say “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but reality rarely gets in the way of a good quote. But what does it mean? I think what ‘not Drucker’ meant was that MBA tactics will always be subverted by the power of systems, and that systems disguise themselves...
Seth's Blog
Choosing your pacemaker Roger Bannister ran a four-minute mile by having a relay race of pace runners next to him. If he...
over a year ago
70
over a year ago
Roger Bannister ran a four-minute mile by having a relay race of pace runners next to him. If he could keep up with his pacer, he’d finish the run in record time. If you work in an office where people are regularly shipping breakthrough work, it’s likely your work will ship as...
Stat Significant
The Rise and (Overstated) Fall of Radio. A Statistical Analysis Examining radio's rapid adoption and surprising cultural endurance.
6 months ago
Seth's Blog
Getting to no “Yes” is magical. It brings possibility and forward motion. But it’s almost impossible without “no”...
a year ago
20
a year ago
“Yes” is magical. It brings possibility and forward motion. But it’s almost impossible without “no” and no can be just as frightening. First, there’s the no of “I can’t go for that.” The no of refusing to race to the bottom, the no of avoiding the selfish hustle, the no of...
Seth's Blog
At all costs Principles have a priority. Isaac Asimov’s three rules of robotics were: First LawA robot may not...
7 months ago
56
7 months ago
Principles have a priority. Isaac Asimov’s three rules of robotics were: First LawA robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second LawA robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would...
Haterade
Cooking with Dom DeLuise The dream of the ‘90s is alive and portly
2 months ago
Seth's Blog
The price of salt Salt is essentially free. A bag of salted nuts is the same price (or less) as an unsalted one. But...
over a year ago
95
over a year ago
Salt is essentially free. A bag of salted nuts is the same price (or less) as an unsalted one. But salt used to be expensive. Truly expensive, like gold. We keep seeing the deflation of things we were sure would remain expensive. Computer chips, disk storage and now, content....
Seth's Blog
Unintended consequences …are still consequences. We’re all participants in the systems around us, and complicit in their...
9 months ago
65
9 months ago
…are still consequences. We’re all participants in the systems around us, and complicit in their consequences even if we didn’t intend them. First, we need to see the systems, and then we have the opportunity to work to change them.
Seth's Blog
Thoughts on audiobooks I’m listening more than reading these days, and I find that a good audiobook can make a real impact...
8 months ago
68
8 months ago
I’m listening more than reading these days, and I find that a good audiobook can make a real impact on the way I absorb and learn from a book. It’s a once in a century sort of shift in this medium. My new book is now available in audio. It’s not on Audible, at least […]
Seth's Blog
Simple and painless productivity On the factory floor, productivity increases are relentlessly implemented, often without regard for...
2 months ago
27
2 months ago
On the factory floor, productivity increases are relentlessly implemented, often without regard for worker satisfaction. For people working with a laptop, though, they are often seen as optional lifestyle choices instead of ways to significantly boost how much we can get done–and...
Seth's Blog
“Be yourself” Really? Which self? The self you were when you were two years old, almost out of diapers? The self...
3 months ago
20
3 months ago
Really? Which self? The self you were when you were two years old, almost out of diapers? The self you were when you were screaming with the fans at the big game? The self you were after a long night? How about this: Become the self you’d be proud to be. Hang out with people […]
Infinite Scroll
The Unbearable Cynicism of Trump 2.0 Who cares, nothing matters, cry about it
5 months ago
Seth's Blog
But it’s included… Perhaps your wedding package includes a cake. It’s paid for, better eat it. Even if you’re allergic...
over a year ago
45
over a year ago
Perhaps your wedding package includes a cake. It’s paid for, better eat it. Even if you’re allergic to wheat. Perhaps the amusement park includes as many rides as you like, even if you’re feeling sick or have had quite enough for today. The thing about included is that it’s free....
Seth's Blog
Hobson’s choice …is no choice at all. The stable owner gets to pick which horse you get. Take it or leave it. Some...
over a year ago
47
over a year ago
…is no choice at all. The stable owner gets to pick which horse you get. Take it or leave it. Some people prefer this. It means that we’re off the hook and not responsible. It relieves us of the emotional labor of choice. Let someone else worry about it… And so we give up our […]
Open Culture
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
52
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
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
53
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...
Infinite Scroll
Internet Book Club: Careless People Incuriosity, carelessness, and the current political moment
2 months ago
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...
Open Culture
Iconic Animator Chuck Jones Creates an Oscar-Winning Animation About the Virtues of Universal Health... While our country looks like it might be coming apart at the seams, it’s good to revisit, every once...
21 hours ago
1
21 hours ago
While our country looks like it might be coming apart at the seams, it’s good to revisit, every once in a while, moments when it did work. And that’s not so that we can feel nostalgic about a lost time, but so that we can remind ourselves how, given the right conditions, things...
Open Culture
The Best Photographer You’ve Never Heard Of: An Introduction to Tseng Kwong Chi Once, the United States was known for sending forth the world’s most complained-about international...
3 months ago
26
3 months ago
Once, the United States was known for sending forth the world’s most complained-about international tourists; today, that dubious distinction arguably belongs to China. But it wasn’t so long ago that the Chinese tourist was a practically unheard-of phenomenon, especially in the...
Open Culture
Watch the Original Nosferatu, the Classic German Expressionist Vampire Film, Before the New Remake... F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, far and away the most influential early vampire movie, came out 102 years...
7 months ago
66
7 months ago
F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, far and away the most influential early vampire movie, came out 102 years ago. For about ten of those years, Robert Eggers has been trying to remake it. He wouldn’t be the first: Werner Herzog cast Klaus Kinski as the blood-sucking aristocrat at the...
Anarchy Unfolds
The Weariness of Work Why I've been away; why I'm anti-work as well as pro-labor
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Becoming intentional about virtual meetings A manual I recently read listed the “cons” of having a meeting virtually: To be accurate, every one...
a year ago
31
a year ago
A manual I recently read listed the “cons” of having a meeting virtually: To be accurate, every one of these points should have “so far” added. The videogame market is far bigger than the box office of Hollywood films. The people who play video games at home for hours at a time...
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...
5 months ago
48
5 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 […]
Seth's Blog
Ice sculpture There are very few activities that are fully reversible. Ice sculpture might be one of them. Once...
7 months ago
44
7 months ago
There are very few activities that are fully reversible. Ice sculpture might be one of them. Once the ice melts, all the effort and information is lost, and refreezing lets you begin again with a new, fresh block of ice. Of course, it’s not completely gone. The thing you made...
Open Culture
The Roman Colosseum Deconstructed: 3D Animation Reveals the Hidden Technology That Powered Rome’s... Most tourists in Rome put the Colosseum at the top of their to-see list. (My own sister-in-law, soon...
2 months ago
35
2 months ago
Most tourists in Rome put the Colosseum at the top of their to-see list. (My own sister-in-law, soon to head out on her Italian honeymoon, plans to head to that storied ruin more or less straight from the airport.) Even those with no particular interest in ancient Roman...
Seth's Blog
Shields up Years and years ago, I helped the Weekly World News make a book. While their periodical was weekly,...
over a year ago
76
over a year ago
Years and years ago, I helped the Weekly World News make a book. While their periodical was weekly, it certainly wasn’t news. They were just four people in a small office in Florida. They gleefully made stuff up every week. They had a few filing cabinets of stock photos, and they...
Seth's Blog
Birthing tech No one knows the name of the maternity nurse who helped with the delivery of Marie Curie or...
3 months ago
25
3 months ago
No one knows the name of the maternity nurse who helped with the delivery of Marie Curie or Esperanza Spaulding. You might grow up to be a genius, but the team that helped your mom give birth don’t have to be geniuses–they simply have to be pretty good at their craft. The same is...
escape the algorithm
The New Turing Test Changing the AI conversation
a year ago
Seth's Blog
The lonely zone For many, the goal is to be the deciding vote, the donation that gets a cause over the goal, the...
over a year ago
78
over a year ago
For many, the goal is to be the deciding vote, the donation that gets a cause over the goal, the person who counts. And often, we enjoy piling on. Once the cause or fashion or tech is clearly working, it’s easy and fun to say “me too.” More rare, more vulnerable and more...
Open Culture
Albert Einstein’s Grades: A Fascinating Look at His Report Cards Albert Einstein was a precocious child. At the age of twelve, he followed his own line of reasoning...
4 weeks ago
8
4 weeks ago
Albert Einstein was a precocious child. At the age of twelve, he followed his own line of reasoning to find a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. At thirteen he read Kant, just for the fun of it. And before he was fifteen he had taught himself differential and integral calculus....
Haterade
I Regret to Announce that I Cannot Stop Eating the Shaq Gummies I have the blood sugar of a very large, very tall man.
5 months ago
Infinite Scroll
JOB - A theatrical review A Broadway play about Content Moderation
8 months ago