Open Culture
Moebius Gives 18 Wisdom-Filled Tips to Aspiring Artists
Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, was a comic book artist who combined blinding speed with boundless...
3 months ago
Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, was a comic book artist who combined blinding speed with boundless imagination. He shaped the look of Alien, Empire Strikes Back and The Fifth Element. He reimagined the Silver Surfer for Stan Lee. And he is an acknowledged influence on everyone from...
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...
a month 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
Indifferent overhead
Every business and individual has overhead. The bills we have to pay and the costs we incur that...
8 months ago
Every business and individual has overhead. The bills we have to pay and the costs we incur that aren’t directly related to our income. You pay them whether or not you’re busy. But there are two kinds of overhead, worth differentiating: Different overhead … the investments that...
On the Arts
What does Wabi-Sabi really mean?
Explaining an often misunderstood idea in Japanese aesthetics.
a year ago
Explaining an often misunderstood idea in Japanese aesthetics.
Seth's Blog
Is it a skill?
If so, it might be worth learning. If so, it might pay to let someone who has learned it take care...
a year ago
If so, it might be worth learning. If so, it might pay to let someone who has learned it take care of it. Coding is a skill. But it’s not clear that the person who knows how to code should be doing your design. Teaching is a skill. But simply because someone is good at […]
Open Culture
Ancient Egyptian Pyramids May Have Been Built with Water: A New Study Explore the Use of Hydraulic...
Image by Charles Sharp, via Wikimedia Commons The compelling but less-than-straightforward question...
4 months ago
Image by Charles Sharp, via Wikimedia Commons The compelling but less-than-straightforward question of how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids has inspired all manner of theory and speculation, grounded to varying degrees in physical reality. Sheer manpower must have played...
Seth's Blog
Easy/lazy tech journalism
Choose either one: When a new technology comes out, review it breathlessly. Explain without nuance...
10 months ago
Choose either one: When a new technology comes out, review it breathlessly. Explain without nuance or caution how it will instantly change the world. Go into the details of this first instantiation of it and assume it will never change, it’s done, here we go. When a new...
Seth's Blog
The question book
In the old days, companies had a suggestion box. It was immortalized in cartoons, but the idea that...
10 months ago
In the old days, companies had a suggestion box. It was immortalized in cartoons, but the idea that an employee could anonymously submit a suggestion to make things better is a first step in engagement. Some companies took this much further and paid employees for suggestions that...
Open Culture
Watch 70+ Classic Literary Films Free Online: The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Gulliver’s Travels, Jane...
The term gaslight has gained so much traction in popular discourse so recently that you’d swear it...
a month ago
The term gaslight has gained so much traction in popular discourse so recently that you’d swear it was coined around 2010. In fact, that particular usage goes at least as far back as 1938, when British novelist and playwright Patrick Hamilton wrote a stage thriller about a...
Seth's Blog
Explaining yourself
The only reason we need to go into detail about our resume, the details of our new idea or the...
9 months ago
The only reason we need to go into detail about our resume, the details of our new idea or the features of a product is to cause action to happen. And action is the result of tension, status or affiliation, and these are based on trust. There are many ways to build that trust,...
Open Culture
Ancient Greek Armor Gets Tested in an 11-Hour Battle Simulation Inspired by the Iliad
By Greek law, every male citizen over the age of eighteen must spend from nine months to a year in...
7 months ago
By Greek law, every male citizen over the age of eighteen must spend from nine months to a year in the Hellenic Armed Forces. As in every country with such a policy of mandatory conscription, this is surely not a prospect relished by most conscripts-to-be. But then, it can’t be...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Elon's Endgame
Plus! Livestreamers in jail, confused Catholics, and the Immigrant Song
a month ago
Plus! Livestreamers in jail, confused Catholics, and the Immigrant Song
Seth's Blog
Ride your own bike
I was happily pedaling along on the rail trail when three spandex speedsters blew by me on their...
a year ago
I was happily pedaling along on the rail trail when three spandex speedsters blew by me on their handmade carbon bikes. For a moment, I was disheartened. What’s the point–they’re speedy, I’m not. Then I realize that it’s not a bike race, it’s a bike ride. There is no winning,...
Seth's Blog
Secret recipes
“You can try this at home…” But you probably won’t. The secret recipe isn’t the reason Coke is...
a week ago
“You can try this at home…” But you probably won’t. The secret recipe isn’t the reason Coke is successful. And the recipe for KFC isn’t much of a recipe at all. The secret way you do the thing isn’t what keeps your clients coming back. It’s the part you do in public that matters.
Seth's Blog
Banana Equivalents
Bananas are (slightly) radioactive. The banana equivalent dose (BED) is a measurement of radiation....
3 months ago
Bananas are (slightly) radioactive. The banana equivalent dose (BED) is a measurement of radiation. It’s definitely not enough to hurt you. When we think about risk, the BED is a useful way to find perspective. Is the exposure this new thing will cause on the order of a banana?...
Seth's Blog
Write for someone
It’s so tempting to write for everyone. But everyone isn’t going to read your work, someone is. Can...
4 months ago
It’s so tempting to write for everyone. But everyone isn’t going to read your work, someone is. Can you tell me who? Precisely? What did they believe before they encountered your work? What do they want, what do they fear? What has moved them to action in the past? Name the...
Seth's Blog
Confused about good
How often do we assume that popular things are good, and that good things become popular? If your...
2 months ago
How often do we assume that popular things are good, and that good things become popular? If your work doesn’t catch on, does that mean it wasn’t good? In almost every field, people with insight, taste and experience admire and emulate good things that aren’t popular, and are...
Marian's Blog
Visualizing 150000 butterflies from the Natural History Museum
Click here for the interactive visualization.
The Natural History Museum in London has a data portal...
over a year ago
Click here for the interactive visualization.
The Natural History Museum in London has a data portal in which they provide digital records for many of their specimens.
Some of these records have images.
I recently learned how to use machine learning tools such as convolutional...
Seth's Blog
Making change happen
One way to do it is to get people to want what you want. The other way is to help them get what they...
a year ago
One way to do it is to get people to want what you want. The other way is to help them get what they want in a way that gets you what you want. They’re not the same. Changing what someone wants is very different from helping them see the story and the path that […]
Open Culture
B.B. King Changes a Broken Guitar String Mid-Song at Farm Aid, and Doesn’t Miss a Beat (1985)
The scene is Farm Aid, 1985, attended by a crowd of 80,000 people. The song is “How Blue Can You...
2 months ago
The scene is Farm Aid, 1985, attended by a crowd of 80,000 people. The song is “How Blue Can You Get.” And the key moment comes at the 3:10 mark, when the blues legend B.B. King breaks a guitar string, then manages to replace it before the song finishes minutes later. All the...
Open Culture
37 Hitchcock Cameo Appearances Over 50 Years: All in One Video
Early in his career, Alfred Hitchcock began making small appearances in his own films. The cameos...
5 months ago
Early in his career, Alfred Hitchcock began making small appearances in his own films. The cameos sometimes lasted just a few brief seconds, and sometimes a little while longer. Either way, they became a signature of Hitchcock’s filmmaking, and fans made a sport of seeing whether...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Using ChatGPT to implement Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings
Sol LeWitt‘s Wall Drawings aren’t actually drawings but, rather,
instructions for drawings. I...
a year ago
Sol LeWitt‘s Wall Drawings aren’t actually drawings but, rather,
instructions for drawings. I asked ChatGPT to implement them in p5js
Seth's Blog
Kinds of courage
Courage is a generous act that involves risk. It’s not courageous to hang out with friends and make...
9 months ago
Courage is a generous act that involves risk. It’s not courageous to hang out with friends and make a crank phone call. The risk involved might be actual risk (it took courage to go to the moon) or it might feel risky (raising your hand at a meeting to ask a useful question...
Seth's Blog
The page-a-day calendar
Time passes. And humans have always kept track. Distribution and technology combined to create a few...
5 months ago
Time passes. And humans have always kept track. Distribution and technology combined to create a few decades where the tear off daily calendar was nearly ubiquitous (read on for details on my new one, a collaboration with Debbie Millman). First, the industry needed to efficiently...
Seth's Blog
PW 5: Measuring the right thing
Last in the series… Most of us were indoctrinated to believe that completing chores is the...
12 months ago
Last in the series… Most of us were indoctrinated to believe that completing chores is the appropriate measure of productivity. “I did all my homework.” Doing all your homework is a measure for industrial bosses. But what, precisely, did your homework ever do for you? The actual...
Seth's Blog
The obligations of the Town Hall
A few hundred years ago, small towns in New England embraced the idea of the town hall. Citizens (at...
7 months ago
A few hundred years ago, small towns in New England embraced the idea of the town hall. Citizens (at the time, just the white men) came together and worked through the town’s agenda. Each person could speak, each person could vote, it was direct and sometimes effective. Part of...
Open Culture
Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments for Living Virtuously (1930)
Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons Bertrand Russell may have lived his long life...
a month ago
Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons Bertrand Russell may have lived his long life concerned with big topics in logic, mathematics, politics, and society, but that didn’t keep him from thinking seriously about how to handle his own day-to-day relationships. That hardly...
Seth's Blog
Confusion and certainty
When facing a complex problem, it’s easy to become confused. Lately, it’s become socially acceptable...
a year ago
When facing a complex problem, it’s easy to become confused. Lately, it’s become socially acceptable to express your confusion with certainty. Untrained in the field, make a pronouncement that makes it clear that you have not just an understanding of what’s going on, but also...
escape the algorithm
ETA's Best links of 2024
Relinking some Links links
a week ago
Relinking some Links links
Seth's Blog
Is it possible to care at scale?
After 25 years, I stopped using a certain credit card for business. It was easily millions of...
a year ago
After 25 years, I stopped using a certain credit card for business. It was easily millions of dollars worth of transactions over that period. Did anyone at the company notice? Did anyone care? I still remember losing a client in 1987. Small organizations pay attention and care...
On the Arts
The Meaning of Melancholy
An Interview with Hans Maes
a year ago
An Interview with Hans Maes
Stat Significant
Unpacking Vinyl's Remarkable Revival: A Statistical Analysis
The fall and rise of vinyl and record stores.
3 months ago
The fall and rise of vinyl and record stores.
Handprinted - Blog
Inking Methods for Etching
Once you've made an etching plate, you may be ready to print an edition - or you might want to proof...
a month ago
Once you've made an etching plate, you may be ready to print an edition - or you might want to proof it to decide on further edits. Taking a print is the only way you’ll be able to see how your plate is progressing.
This blog is part of a series featuring tips and techniques to...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Jo Muriel
Describe your printmaking process.
My prints are all one of a kind, mixed-media studies which...
a year ago
Describe your printmaking process.
My prints are all one of a kind, mixed-media studies which combine gestural marks and mainly abstract shape formations. Sometimes, I include figurative elements, sometimes not. I’m mainly concerned with conveying instinctive reactions to natural...
Handprinted - Blog
Printing with Heat Stamps
If you haven’t tried printing with Heat Stamps yet, this is your new project. It’s really quick to...
a year ago
If you haven’t tried printing with Heat Stamps yet, this is your new project. It’s really quick to create a unique block that can be reused again and again to create different textures and patterns.
All you need is a heat gun and a variety of objects and surfaces to create your...
Open Culture
Hear the Song Written on a Sinner’s Buttock in Hieronymus Bosch’s Painting The Garden of Earthly...
There’s something unusually exciting about finding a hidden or discreetly placed element in a...
7 months ago
There’s something unusually exciting about finding a hidden or discreetly placed element in a well-known painting. I can only imagine the thrill of the physician who first noticed the curious presence of a human brain in Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam: God, his retinue of...
Seth's Blog
The generosity of concealment
Human beings never reveal all of our emotions. We don’t simply blurt out the first thing that pops...
a year ago
Human beings never reveal all of our emotions. We don’t simply blurt out the first thing that pops into our head in a meeting, or insult someone upon meeting them. We’re able to give people the benefit of the doubt (which requires doubt before we can offer the benefit) and to...
Seth's Blog
Out of control
It’s negative when we say that someone is out of control. They’ve lost their self-restraint, and...
9 months ago
It’s negative when we say that someone is out of control. They’ve lost their self-restraint, and they’re doing things that they’ll regret later. And it’s honest when we acknowledge that just about everything is out of our control. We can work to influence it, we can practice...
Seth's Blog
The freedom loop
We spend almost no time teaching toddlers about freedom. Instead, the lessons we teach (and learn)...
a year ago
We spend almost no time teaching toddlers about freedom. Instead, the lessons we teach (and learn) for our entire lives are about responsibility. It’s easy to teach freedom, but important to teach responsibility. Because if you get the responsibility taken care of, often the...
Seth's Blog
Purchase decisions
All purchases involve a decision. Yes or no, this or that, now or later… But it’s helpful to realize...
9 months ago
All purchases involve a decision. Yes or no, this or that, now or later… But it’s helpful to realize that all decisions involve a purchase. When we decide to spend time or take a risk or make a commitment, our brains act in a way very similar to how we choose to make a purchase....
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...
7 months 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
Mediocre tools
Lousy tools are dangerous. They endanger our safety (physical or emotional) and undermine our work....
2 weeks ago
Lousy tools are dangerous. They endanger our safety (physical or emotional) and undermine our work. Lousy tools are pretty easy to avoid, because they reveal themselves whenever we use them. Great tools are magical. They multiply our effort, amplify the quality of our work and...
Blog - Mac Pierce
Bits and bobs, some of the small projects I've been working on.
Rounding up a few smaller projects I’ve been working on here and there.
over a year ago
Rounding up a few smaller projects I’ve been working on here and there.
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Nick Morley (with giveaway!)
Nick Morley, aka Linocutboy, is an artist, illustrator, author and educator specialising in linocut....
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
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...
6 months 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...
Open Culture
Explore an Online Archive of 2,100+ Rare Illustrations from Charles Dickens’ Novels
As Christmastime approaches, few novelists come to mind as readily as Charles Dickens. This owes...
a month ago
As Christmastime approaches, few novelists come to mind as readily as Charles Dickens. This owes mainly, of course, to A Christmas Carol, and even more so to its many adaptations, most of which draw inspiration from not just its text but also its illustrations. That 1843 novella...
Handprinted - Blog
Sue Brown Paper Lithography Book Review
Our good friend Sue Brown has recently released her new book Paper Lithography! In this step-by-step...
a year ago
Our good friend Sue Brown has recently released her new book Paper Lithography! In this step-by-step guide Sue takes us through the process of making paper lithography prints using the humble photocopy as your plate.
Paper lithography is a quick and straightforward process that...
Seth's Blog
And then that happened
The world changes and we have a choice: • Fight hard to keep it the way it was. • Notice what...
a year ago
The world changes and we have a choice: • Fight hard to keep it the way it was. • Notice what happened and then decide to do something with that insight. Thirty years ago, AOL was my company’s biggest client. They charged users $3 an hour to use their precursor to the internet,...
Seth's Blog
Nice bike
A well-designed bicycle is efficient, inexpensive and delightful. If you use your bike on the right...
a year ago
A well-designed bicycle is efficient, inexpensive and delightful. If you use your bike on the right paths, with appropriate goals, it can deliver exactly what you need, while also allowing you to go at your own pace, see what’s going on around you and feel grounded. Until, of...
Open Culture
Nick Cave Narrates an Animated Film about the Cat Piano, the Twisted 18th Century Musical Instrument...
What do you imagine when you hear the phrase “cat piano”? Some kind of whimsical furry beast with...
5 months ago
What do you imagine when you hear the phrase “cat piano”? Some kind of whimsical furry beast with black and white keys for teeth, maybe? A relative of My Neighbor Totoro’s cat bus? Or maybe you picture a piano that contains several caged cats who shriek along an entire scale when...
Seth's Blog
The run-on sentence
Periods were an extraordinary invention. It took thousands of years of writing before we settled on...
2 months ago
Periods were an extraordinary invention. It took thousands of years of writing before we settled on this simple convention. The most direct way to improve your writing is to make your sentences shorter. I was reading a magazine article yesterday and was rapidly losing interest....
Open Culture
Aldous Huxley Explains How Man Became “the Victim of His Own Technology” (1961)
Just a couple of days ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted out a video promoting, “the new iPad Pro: the...
7 months ago
Just a couple of days ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted out a video promoting, “the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created.” The response has been overwhelming, and overwhelmingly negative: for many viewers, the ad’s imagery of a hydraulic press crushing a heap of...
On the Arts
What are Liminal Spaces? And why are they so popular?
“Liminal spaces” have become trendy in recent years, especially on TikTok, Tumblr, and YouTube. But...
a year ago
“Liminal spaces” have become trendy in recent years, especially on TikTok, Tumblr, and YouTube. But what makes a space liminal? And why are they so popular lately?
Seth's Blog
Skipping the good days
Part of the luxury of living near the ocean or the mountains is that you can be picky. If the surf...
a year ago
Part of the luxury of living near the ocean or the mountains is that you can be picky. If the surf or the powder isn’t great, leave it for the tourists. Good is insufficient, wait for the great moments… When we’re young, or the project is going really well, it’s easy to waste the...
Seth's Blog
The good news
What if there were a pipeline into your day, a series of emails or posts or feeds that had nothing...
a year ago
What if there were a pipeline into your day, a series of emails or posts or feeds that had nothing but nice things, positive feedback and encouragement coming your way? Amazingly, you could build something like that in just a few minutes and have it forever. If the bad news...
Seth's Blog
Listening to organizational decline
Great companies and teams often get stale and then fade away. Here’s what we hear as it happens:...
3 weeks 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...
Open Culture
Buckminster Fuller’s Map of the World: The Innovation That Revolutionized Map Design (1943)
In 2017, we brought you news of a world map purportedly more accurate than any to date, designed by...
4 months ago
In 2017, we brought you news of a world map purportedly more accurate than any to date, designed by Japanese architect and artist Hajime Narukawa. The map, called the AuthaGraph, updates a centuries-old method of turning the globe into a flat surface by first converting it to a...
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...
7 months 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
The low-stakes argument
It’s tempting and fun to argue about the logo. About the way the toilet paper is hung. About how to...
a year ago
It’s tempting and fun to argue about the logo. About the way the toilet paper is hung. About how to load the trunk of the car. These sorts of arguments work precisely because they don’t matter. At all. And they distract us from the incredibly difficult work of discussing the...
Open Culture
Andy Warhol’s One Minute of Professional Wrestling Fame (1985)
Andy Warhol did for art what the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) did for wrestling. He made it a...
2 months ago
Andy Warhol did for art what the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) did for wrestling. He made it a spectacle. He made it something the “everyman” could enjoy. He infused it with celebrity. And, some would say, he cheapened it too. Looking back, it makes perfect sense that Warhol...
Seth's Blog
Play fair & work hard
Two of the building blocks of a resilient society. And the opposite of the lazy shortcut. The...
7 months ago
Two of the building blocks of a resilient society. And the opposite of the lazy shortcut. The meanings of both clauses change over time… Play fair: Work hard: Social media and politics have done a great job of celebrating people who seek selfish shortcuts, simply because it’s...
Seth's Blog
Redundancy has a half-life
At first, this stop sign sign makes a lot of sense: Lives are at stake. Break the rhythm, turn...
11 months ago
At first, this stop sign sign makes a lot of sense: Lives are at stake. Break the rhythm, turn something ignored into something noticed. The challenge with “highlighting” is that it fades. When everything is in all caps, nothing is. Exclamation points are like salt. When people...
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...
6 months 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...
Open Culture
Face to Face with Carl Jung: ‘Man Cannot Stand a Meaningless Life’ (1959)
Carl Gustav Jung, founder of analytic psychology and explorer of the collective unconscious, was...
5 months ago
Carl Gustav Jung, founder of analytic psychology and explorer of the collective unconscious, was born on July 26, 1875 in the village of Kesswil, in the Thurgau canton of Switzerland. Above, we present a fascinating 39-minute interview of Jung by John Freeman for the BBC program...
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...
2 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...
Seth's Blog
A finite ordered set of interesting objects
The alphabet is one. 26 letters, no more. One order, that’s it. The Beatles are another. John, Paul,...
a year ago
The alphabet is one. 26 letters, no more. One order, that’s it. The Beatles are another. John, Paul, George and then Ringo. The Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, The Supremes. The astrological zodiac gets us to twelve, but I’m having a really difficult time finding a memorable...
Seth's Blog
Where does your mind go when it wanders?
My friend Jason points out that this might be where your heart is. What would have to change for you...
a year ago
My friend Jason points out that this might be where your heart is. What would have to change for you to actually follow the wandering and make it real? Or for your mind to choose to wander somewhere else? Somewhere you’re already going.
Seth's Blog
Cheating at golf
Someone who cheats at a friendly game of golf when nothing much is at stake–how can you possibly...
a year ago
Someone who cheats at a friendly game of golf when nothing much is at stake–how can you possibly trust them with something important? And yet, organizations and individuals “cheat at golf” all the time. They put clever clauses in the fine print. Spam a media list. Conceal the...
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,...
4 months ago
Marcel Duchamp didn’t sign his name on a urinal for lack of ability to create “real” art. In fact, as explained by gallerist-Youtuber James Payne in the new Great Art Explained video above, Duchamp’s grandfather was an artist, as were three of his siblings; he himself attained...
Seth's Blog
The useful agreement
Contrary to expectations, written contracts don’t have to be adversarial. In fact, the effective...
a year ago
Contrary to expectations, written contracts don’t have to be adversarial. In fact, the effective ones rarely are. When you hand someone a release, a royalty agreement or even a partnership document, it pays to point out the gnarly parts, the controversial bits and the ones that...
Open Culture
Mary Tyler Moore Accidentally Nails a Perfect Pool Shot on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1962)
Let’s rewind the videotape and revisit a classic moment in The Dick Van Dyke Show. In the 1962...
a month ago
Let’s rewind the videotape and revisit a classic moment in The Dick Van Dyke Show. In the 1962 episode called “Hustling the Hustler,” Mary Tyler Moore (as Laura Petrie) plays pool and sinks three balls in a single shot. The original plan was to splice in footage of a professional...
Seth's Blog
On the dot
Hardy came home from school and proudly showed his mom the cheap plastic trinkets he had earned that...
a year ago
Hardy came home from school and proudly showed his mom the cheap plastic trinkets he had earned that day. “I stood quietly on the dot and so I got some tickets. And if I stand on the dot quietly tomorrow, I can get some more prizes!” First grade! That’s one way to indoctrinate...
The Great Discontent...
Taekyeom Lee
Taekyeom Lee is a graphic designer with an artist’s sensibility. As a researcher, educator, and...
a year ago
Taekyeom Lee is a graphic designer with an artist’s sensibility. As a researcher, educator, and maker — born and raised in South Korea, now living and teaching in Madison, Wisconsin he works in the space where tactility and technology meet, combining ancient materials and...
Seth's Blog
Hiring for stuck
Once an organization figures out a successful model, it begins to grow. And when it grows, it needs...
3 months ago
Once an organization figures out a successful model, it begins to grow. And when it grows, it needs more staff. And they often hire for specific tasks and the skills that go with them. They need a person who will reliably and obediently deliver what they need right now. And...
Stat Significant
The Rise of Nicole Kidman, Pop Culture Folk Hero: A Statistical Analysis
Charting Nicole Kidman's recent career renaissance and rejection of industry norms.
a month ago
Charting Nicole Kidman's recent career renaissance and rejection of industry norms.
Seth's Blog
Creating value as an entrepreneur
If you’ve borrowed money or sold shares, you’ll need to build something that’s worth more than your...
a year ago
If you’ve borrowed money or sold shares, you’ll need to build something that’s worth more than your labor. Here are some key pillars where value lives: Customer tractionPermissionDistributionThe network effectSmallest viable audience Customer traction is the big one. Every day,...
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
[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
Read 20 Short Stories From Nobel Prize-Winning Writer Alice Munro (RIP) Free Online
Note: Back in 2013, when Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature, we published a post...
7 months ago
Note: Back in 2013, when Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature, we published a post featuring 20 short stories written by Munro. Today, with the sad news that Alice Munro has passed away, at the age of 92, we’re bringing the original post (from October 10, 2013) back to...
Seth's Blog
Coercion
One way to look at power is “you get to tell people what to do.” But an alternative is that the most...
11 months ago
One way to look at power is “you get to tell people what to do.” But an alternative is that the most powerful institutions, brands and people are the ones who are in alignment with their audience. Trust and the benefit of the doubt are more powerful and resilient than command and...
Seth's Blog
It’s simple (it’s complicated)
It’s simple: This surgery will fix your problem and you’ll be better. It’s complicated: Changes in...
a year ago
It’s simple: This surgery will fix your problem and you’ll be better. It’s complicated: Changes in lifestyle, diet and attitude will, over time, help you feel better. Or… Our enemies are bad, and we’re good. Vote for me. The world is a big place that is filled with nuance,...
Open Culture
The 63 Cuisines of China Explained in 40 Minutes: A Complete Primer
Wherever in the world you grew up, you probably grew up with an inaccurate idea of Chinese food. For...
4 weeks ago
Wherever in the world you grew up, you probably grew up with an inaccurate idea of Chinese food. For Americans, it can come as a shock to hear that such familiar dishes as chop suey and General Tso’s chicken are unknown in China itself. By the same token, almost every country in...
Seth's Blog
Dumbing it down
There’s a lot of pressure to make things dumber. Better to make it dumb than to have someone simply...
a month ago
There’s a lot of pressure to make things dumber. Better to make it dumb than to have someone simply walk away, apparently. With so much to consume, and an unlimited amount to learn, there’s a race to make knowledge into a checklist item. Freon gas! Large language model!...
Seth's Blog
Feeding the algorithm
The marketing consultant told the client that they have to post three times a day on LinkedIn. “It...
4 months ago
The marketing consultant told the client that they have to post three times a day on LinkedIn. “It doesn’t matter if it’s good.” The SEO consultant explained that the website had to be loaded with keywords, and that a big budget needed to be set aside to develop inbound links....
Seth's Blog
A branding exercise
My friend’s organization is working with a branding studio to think about how they appear to people...
5 months ago
My friend’s organization is working with a branding studio to think about how they appear to people who don’t know them well. This is sometimes called ‘rebranding.’ What is almost always done in practice is actually better referred to as re-logo-ing. A brand is not a logo. A...
Seth's Blog
Should we assume rational goodwill?
There’s often a choice between following the cultural dictates of a given group or seeking out...
a year ago
There’s often a choice between following the cultural dictates of a given group or seeking out demonstrable facts and the scientific method. Which do you expect most people would choose? Which would you choose? When we revert to a testable analysis of what works, we’re relying on...
Seth's Blog
Full circle with myopia
In 1983, an old article from the Harvard Business Review changed my life. In 1960, Ted Levitt, a...
2 months ago
In 1983, an old article from the Harvard Business Review changed my life. In 1960, Ted Levitt, a professor at HBS, wrote the most popular article in the Review’s history. Called Marketing Myopia, it described a different way of thinking about change and marketing. I was a (very)...
Seth's Blog
Books and more, winter 2024
They’re a gift that lasts forever, because your friend will remember what they learned and how they...
a month ago
They’re a gift that lasts forever, because your friend will remember what they learned and how they felt… and they can keep it on their bookshelf or hard drive as a reminder in case they forget… Amazon chose This is Strategy for a Kindle deal today. It’s only $4. Also, the...
Open Culture
The Medieval Masterpiece, the Book of Kells, Is Now Digitized and Available Online
If you know nothing else about medieval European illuminated manuscripts, you surely know the Book...
3 months ago
If you know nothing else about medieval European illuminated manuscripts, you surely know the Book of Kells. “One of Ireland’s greatest cultural treasures” comments Medievalists.net, “it is set apart from other manuscripts of the same period by the quality of its artwork and the...
Handprinted - Blog
Separating Your Colour Layers for CMYK Screen Printing
CMYK screen printing is a great way of bringing both your photographic and coloured art images to...
4 months ago
CMYK screen printing is a great way of bringing both your photographic and coloured art images to life through colour separation. This is achieved by layering four colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) on top of each other using only 4 screens.
Photoshop plays a key role in...
Open Culture
Roger Federer’s Dartmouth Commencement Address: “Effortless Is a Myth” & Other Life Lessons from...
In 2006, David Foster Wallace published a piece in the New York Times Magazine headlined “Roger...
6 months ago
In 2006, David Foster Wallace published a piece in the New York Times Magazine headlined “Roger Federer as Religious Experience.” Even then, he could declare Federer, “at 25, the best tennis player currently alive. Maybe the best ever.” Much had already been written about “his...
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
…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,...
Open Culture
How Sci-Fi Writers Isaac Asimov & Robert Heinlein Contributed to the War Effort During World War II
Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague De Camp at the Navy Yard in 1944 Robert Heinlein was...
6 months ago
Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague De Camp at the Navy Yard in 1944 Robert Heinlein was born in 1907, which put him on the mature side by the time of the United States’ entry into World War II. Isaac Asimov, his younger colleague in science fiction, was born in 1920 (or...
Seth's Blog
Semantic algebra
Doing math problems in your head is a skill. No one is born knowing the answer to, “You have 35...
7 months ago
Doing math problems in your head is a skill. No one is born knowing the answer to, “You have 35 coins in nickels and quarters. They add up to $4.15. How many quarters do you have?” but we can learn. And some people find it easier than others, but yes, we can learn. The same […]
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...
7 months 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...
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...
2 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...
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...
9 months 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
Giving up vs. quitting
Shrug your shoulders, care less, phone it in. One software company I used to depend on has sort of...
5 months ago
Shrug your shoulders, care less, phone it in. One software company I used to depend on has sort of given up. They have plenty of cash in the bank, but they simply stopped trying. You can feel it in their updates, their customer service, their approach to the future. Giving up is...
Seth's Blog
Multiple choice
“None of the above” is often the best option. We’re regularly confronted with multiple-choice...
4 months ago
“None of the above” is often the best option. We’re regularly confronted with multiple-choice questions. The foundation is already established, the options are already limited, do you want this or that? But the real questions lie in the assumptions that happened before you were...
Seth's Blog
Graceful
Long after people forget the details, they’ll remember your kindness. There are many forms of...
10 months ago
Long after people forget the details, they’ll remember your kindness. There are many forms of hospitality, but resilience, goodwill and gratitude are often the ones that matter. PS here’s a short ebook I published almost a decade ago.
Seth's Blog
The simple word replacement for connection
What do we say when a customer or colleague says, “thank you”? For a long time, it was “you’re...
a year ago
What do we say when a customer or colleague says, “thank you”? For a long time, it was “you’re welcome.” This indicates that you put in some effort and you’re willing to do it again on request. Recently “no problem” has become more common. This implies that the effort could have...
Seth's Blog
Market pressure
Every competitor faces pressure, and it varies by industry, consumer/investor segment and geography....
8 months ago
Every competitor faces pressure, and it varies by industry, consumer/investor segment and geography. This applies to services, products, ideas, organizations, jobs… whenever there’s a choice and a market. The pressure might push you to be: But it’s also possible to choose a...
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
I asked other generative artists how the process feels to them
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...
4 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...
Seth's Blog
Different kinds of people
It’s a tempting shortcut. Different kinds of people prefer pop tarts to pizza, or prefer expensive...
a year ago
It’s a tempting shortcut. Different kinds of people prefer pop tarts to pizza, or prefer expensive wine to beer, or prefer amusement parks to bowling. Except everyone is the same and everyone is different. What’s actually useful is to realize that in this moment, under these...
Seth's Blog
But it matters a lot to them…
To get to the Kebab House Cafe, you’ll need to drive past a dozen fast food restaurants, restaurants...
a year ago
To get to the Kebab House Cafe, you’ll need to drive past a dozen fast food restaurants, restaurants you can find off just about any interstate. It’s certainly less convenient to go a few blocks off the beaten path, but the food and service and vibe might be worth it. The thing...
Seth's Blog
The half-life of magic
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke Try to...
8 months ago
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke Try to imagine the you of twenty years ago holding a Rabbit R1, or using a cell phone or being able to listen to every song, ever recorded, for just a few dollars a month. We don’t just take...
Blog - Mac Pierce
Readymade Thermal Obfuscation - A few quick tests with a consumer product.
Using the Ikea FREKVENS Raincoat to hide from thermal imaging.
over a year ago
Using the Ikea FREKVENS Raincoat to hide from thermal imaging.
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Rachel Snowdon
Hello! I’m Rachel Snowdon of Rachel Snowdon Studio, a London-born relief printmaker and illustrator...
3 months ago
Hello! I’m Rachel Snowdon of Rachel Snowdon Studio, a London-born relief printmaker and illustrator who has been based in West Devon since 2009.
Describe your printmaking process.
Having recently introduced more colour into my designs, multi-block lino printing is probably...
Seth's Blog
Better than Google
I haven’t done a Google search in months. Perplexity is more powerful, more pleasant and more...
6 months ago
I haven’t done a Google search in months. Perplexity is more powerful, more pleasant and more effective. Instead of being corrupted by invasive ads, surveillance and sneaky dark patterns, it presents you with a simple, footnoted explanation of exactly what you’re looking for....
Open Culture
How Editing Saved Ferris Bueller’s Day Off & Made It a Classic
“In our salad days, we are ripe for a particular movie that will linger, deathlessly, long after the...
4 months ago
“In our salad days, we are ripe for a particular movie that will linger, deathlessly, long after the greenness has gone,” writes the New Yorker’s Anthony Lane in a recent piece on movies in the eighties. “When a friend turned to me after the first twenty minutes of Ferris...
Seth's Blog
Student coach
Big football at colleges in the US costs more than $5 billion a year. And none of these programs has...
5 months ago
Big football at colleges in the US costs more than $5 billion a year. And none of these programs has a student acting as a coach. The same analysis, at a much smaller scale, applies to school theater directors and producers, conductors of the jazz band or orchestra and even the...
Open Culture
Behold James Sowerby’s Strikingly Illustrated New Elucidation of Colours (1809)
James Sowerby was an artist dedicated to the natural world. It thus comes as no surprise that he was...
5 months ago
James Sowerby was an artist dedicated to the natural world. It thus comes as no surprise that he was also enormously interested in color, especially given the era in which he lived. Born in 1757, he made his professional start as a painter of flowers: a viable career path in...
Seth's Blog
On to the next thing
Vitally important, rarely taught, easily messed up. In order to go onto the next thing, which we all...
a year ago
Vitally important, rarely taught, easily messed up. In order to go onto the next thing, which we all do (unless you’re still wearing pajamas with feet and taking ballet lessons), we need to walk away from the last thing. Wrap it up, learn from it, leave it in good hands. And we...
Seth's Blog
Choosing your pacemaker
Roger Bannister ran a four-minute mile by having a relay race of pace runners next to him. If he...
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...
Open Culture
Browse 64 Years of RadioShack Catalogs Free Online … and Revisit the History of American Consumer...
“I bet RadioShack was great once,” writes former employee Jon Bois in a much-circulated 2014 piece...
4 months ago
“I bet RadioShack was great once,” writes former employee Jon Bois in a much-circulated 2014 piece for SB Nation. “I can’t look through their decades-old catalogs and come away with any other impression. They sold giant walnut-wood speakers I’d kill to have today. They sold...
Open Culture
High-Tech Analysis of Ancient Scroll Reveals Plato’s Burial Site and Final Hours
Even if you can name only one ancient Greek, you can name Plato. You can also probably say at least...
8 months ago
Even if you can name only one ancient Greek, you can name Plato. You can also probably say at least a little about him, if only some of the things humanity has known since antiquity. Until recently, of course, that qualification would have been redundant. But now, thanks to an...
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...
2 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...
Seth's Blog
The braid out of balance
There are three strands, present for most everyone: Power (sometimes seen as status, or the...
a year ago
There are three strands, present for most everyone: Power (sometimes seen as status, or the appearance of status) Safety (survival and peace of mind) Meaning (hope and the path forward) The changes in our media structure, public health and economy have pushed some people to...
Open Culture
Watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the Influential German Expressionist Horror Film (1920)
In early 1920, posters began appearing all over Berlin with a hypnotic spiral and the mysterious...
2 months ago
In early 1920, posters began appearing all over Berlin with a hypnotic spiral and the mysterious command Du musst Caligari werden — “You must become Caligari.” The posters were part of an innovative advertising campaign for an upcoming movie by Robert Wiene called The Cabinet of...
Anarchy Unfolds
Pride, noise, and fear
Sleep deprivation is a social justice and public health issue
3 months ago
Sleep deprivation is a social justice and public health issue
Marian's Blog
LED Matrix Software
I wrote two programs that run on my LED matrix. They have different approaches and different...
over a year ago
I wrote two programs that run on my LED matrix. They have different approaches and different aims. This post describes one of them.
The app offers a web interface where users can write simple programs that are then compiled and started instantly from the website. The concept is...
Open Culture
Unlock AI’s Potential in Your Work and Daily Life: Take a Popular Course from Google
Generative AI is rapidly becoming an essential tool for streamlining work and solving complex...
a month ago
Generative AI is rapidly becoming an essential tool for streamlining work and solving complex challenges. However, knowing how to use GenAI effectively isn’t always obvious. That’s where Google Prompting Essentials comes in. This course will teach you to write clear and specific...
Seth's Blog
Project management
A project is a promise. It’s about coordinating unknowable future events to deliver something of...
a year ago
A project is a promise. It’s about coordinating unknowable future events to deliver something of value. Showing up on time for a meeting is a project (airlines! traffic! weather!) and so is building a skyscraper. That next podcast you’re going to publish is a project, and so is...
Seth's Blog
Pleasant
We often use words like “beautiful” or “stunning” or “perfect” when we actually mean “popular” or...
a year ago
We often use words like “beautiful” or “stunning” or “perfect” when we actually mean “popular” or “pleasant.” Every day is beautiful in its own way. But the weather yesterday was pleasant. Hit songs are hits. But they’re rarely perfect. I’m a big fan of pleasant. And I often like...
The Last...
Real Men Want To Drink Guinness, But Don't Expect Them To Pay For It
the reason the bubbles go down is because of the drag created by the bubbles rising up the center. ...
over a year ago
the reason the bubbles go down is because of the drag created by the bubbles rising up the center.
yeah, like a metaphor.
"The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character."
Yeah, we're sheep. Message received. That wasn't the message? Are you...
Open Culture
This 392-Year-Old Bonsai Tree Survived the Hiroshima Atomic Blast & Still Flourishes Today: The...
Image by Sage Ross, via Wikimedia Commons The beautiful bonsai tree pictured above–let’s call it the...
7 months ago
Image by Sage Ross, via Wikimedia Commons The beautiful bonsai tree pictured above–let’s call it the Yamaki Pine Bonsai–began its journey through the world back in 1625. That’s when the Yamaki family first began to train the tree, working patiently, generation after generation,...
Open Culture
What is Electronic Music?: Pioneering Electronic Musician Daphne Oram Explains (1969)
Survey the British public about the most important institution to arise in their country after World...
4 months ago
Survey the British public about the most important institution to arise in their country after World War II, and a lot of respondents are going to say the National Health Service. But keep asking around, and you’ll sooner or later encounter a few serious electronic-music...
Seth's Blog
New decisions based on new information
More than ever, we’re pushed to have certainty. Strong opinions, tightly held and loudly proclaimed....
a year ago
More than ever, we’re pushed to have certainty. Strong opinions, tightly held and loudly proclaimed. And then, when reality intervenes, it can be stressful. The software stack, business model, career, candidate, policy, or even the social network habits that we had as part of our...
Seth's Blog
Curation (vs the road to junk)
The independent bookstore down the street is carefully curated. Each book takes up the spot that a...
9 months ago
The independent bookstore down the street is carefully curated. Each book takes up the spot that a different book could inhabit, so the owner makes sure that there’s a great reason a title is included. Amazon, on the other hand, has no shelf space problem, and the Kindle...
Seth's Blog
Foundering or floundering?
Floundering is flopping around and making little progress. A Dutch word for getting mired and lost....
2 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...
Open Culture
Bukowski Reads Bukowski: Watch a 1975 Documentary Featuring Charles Bukowski at the Height of His...
In 1973, Richard Davies directed Bukowski, a documentary that TV Guide described as a “cinema-verite...
8 months ago
In 1973, Richard Davies directed Bukowski, a documentary that TV Guide described as a “cinema-verite portrait of Los Angeles poet Charles Bukowski.” The film finds Bukowski, then 53 years old, “enjoying his first major success,” and “the camera captures his reminiscences … as he...
Marian's Blog
Designing a Lego orrery
I've always been a fan of the Lego Technic series, especially those models that have gears and...
7 months ago
I've always been a fan of the Lego Technic series, especially those models that have gears and cranks and moving parts.
But it seems that Lego is shifting the focus of the Technic series away from functional models, so I had to take matters into my own hands.
I think an orrery is...
escape the algorithm
Befriending neighbors and beneighboring friends
The Casement Window Theory of community building
5 months ago
The Casement Window Theory of community building
Anarchy Unfolds
To change everything, start anywhere
Letters to an anarchist - Part 2
a month ago
Letters to an anarchist - Part 2
Seth's Blog
Appropriate tension
Growth usually feels risky. The feeling is a protection mechanism, a way to avoid failure or even...
a year ago
Growth usually feels risky. The feeling is a protection mechanism, a way to avoid failure or even the fear of failure. Of course, risk also feels risky (or at least it should). Differentiating between the two is difficult, which is why finding institutions, methods or coaches...
On the Arts
The Sea Has Always Looked the Same
A View of the Ocean as a Connection to the Past
a year ago
A View of the Ocean as a Connection to the Past
Handprinted - Blog
Blind Embossing with Lino
Blind embossing is a beautiful way in which to add light and shadow to your prints. Embossing adds...
9 months ago
Blind embossing is a beautiful way in which to add light and shadow to your prints. Embossing adds subtle texture and interest. Emboss prints ‘blind’ (without ink) or combine with inked lino for a complex final print.
Prepare the design. These white pencils are brilliant for...
Seth's Blog
The problem with ‘very’
It’s a lazy amplifier. “Very” can modify almost any adjective, but it might not deliver our intended...
2 months ago
It’s a lazy amplifier. “Very” can modify almost any adjective, but it might not deliver our intended message. Putting it in front of a positive like “charming” or “kind” or “generous” can make it clear that we mean what we said, but more so. But, placed in front of a description...
Seth's Blog
Peak infrastructure
Community resources are easy to take for granted. Unevenly distributed, they’re the sort of thing we...
10 months ago
Community resources are easy to take for granted. Unevenly distributed, they’re the sort of thing we miss only when they’re gone. Invisible things are easy to ignore. I was stunned to see a sign in Connecticut that listed the names of dozens of highway workers who had been killed...
Open Culture
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...
7 months ago
It’s late in the evening of Saturday, October 28th, 1989. You flip on the television and the saxophonist David Sanborn appears onscreen, instrument in hand, introducing the eclectic blues icon Taj Mahal, who in turn declares his intent to play a number with “rural humor” and...
Open Culture
The Long Game of Creativity: If You Haven’t Created a Masterpiece at 30, You’re Not a Failure
Orson Welles directed the greatest movie ever made, Citizen Kane, at age 25, with only a limited...
5 months ago
Orson Welles directed the greatest movie ever made, Citizen Kane, at age 25, with only a limited knowledge of the medium. When Paul McCartney was 25, he, along with his fellow Beatles, released the era-defining album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. By age 29, Pablo Picasso...
Open Culture
Kurt Vonnegut’s Lost Board Game Is Finally for Sale
Kurt Vonnegut’s life was not without its ironies. Fighting in World War II, that descendant of a...
2 months ago
Kurt Vonnegut’s life was not without its ironies. Fighting in World War II, that descendant of a long line of German immigrants in the United States found himself imprisoned in Dresden just when it was devastated by Allied firebombing. To understand the relevance of this...
Open Culture
How the 18th-Century French Media Stoked a Werewolf Panic
If you’ve studied French (or, indeed, been French) in the past couple of decades, you may well have...
6 months ago
If you’ve studied French (or, indeed, been French) in the past couple of decades, you may well have played the card game Les Loups-garous de Thiercelieux. Known in English as The Werewolves of Millers Hollow, it casts its players as hunters, thieves, seers, and other types of...
Seth's Blog
The thing about decay
One reason we have so much trouble fixing chronic degenerative conditions is that we need to remove...
a year ago
One reason we have so much trouble fixing chronic degenerative conditions is that we need to remove elements before we can start building new functions. If we simply put effort on top of a shaky foundation, it’ll all be wasted. The best way forward might be to take a few steps...
Open Culture
How 2001: A Space Odyssey Became “the Hardest Film Kubrick Ever Made”
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has been praised in all manner of terms since it came out...
4 months ago
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has been praised in all manner of terms since it came out more than half a century ago. An early advertising campaign, tapping into the enthusiasm of the contemporary counterculture, called it “the ultimate trip”; in the equivalently trendy...
Seth's Blog
A transformative summer
Living indoors, connected to a screen, it’s easy for the months and years to blur together. The...
10 months ago
Living indoors, connected to a screen, it’s easy for the months and years to blur together. The seasons used to matter more. But for young adults, they still do. Transitions are built around the seasons, and the headlong rush to a career is still sometimes interrupted by months...
Infinite Scroll
Why You Should Read Web Fiction
A beginner's guide to an underappreciated format
a month ago
A beginner's guide to an underappreciated format
Open Culture
Launch Your Project Management Career with Google’s AI-Enhanced Professional Certificate
?si=TMflasoogRfSD14h Back in 2021, Google released a series of certificate programs, including one...
2 months ago
?si=TMflasoogRfSD14h Back in 2021, Google released a series of certificate programs, including one focused on Project Management. Designed to give students “an immersive understanding of the practices and skills needed to succeed in an entry-level project management role,” the...
Anarchy Unfolds
One Year on Substack
Writing the upside-down, plus Pride Myths & Recs
6 months ago
Writing the upside-down, plus Pride Myths & Recs
Open Culture
Jerry Seinfeld Delivers Commencement Address at Duke University: You Will Need Humor to Get Through...
This weekend, Jerry Seinfeld gave the commencement speech at Duke University and offered the...
7 months ago
This weekend, Jerry Seinfeld gave the commencement speech at Duke University and offered the graduates his three keys to life: 1. bust your ass, 2. pay attention, and 3. fall in love. Then, 10 minutes later, he added essentially a fourth key to life: “Do not lose your sense of...
Open Culture
Buckminster Fuller Tells the World “Everything He Knows” in a 42-Hour Lecture Series (1975)
History seems to have settled Buckminster Fuller’s reputation as a man ahead of his time. He...
5 months ago
History seems to have settled Buckminster Fuller’s reputation as a man ahead of his time. He inspires short, witty popular videos like YouTuber Joe Scott’s “The Man Who Saw The Future,” and the ongoing legacy of the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI), who note that “Fuller’s...
Open Culture
George Orwell Reviews Mein Kampf: “He Envisages a Horrible Brainless Empire” (1940)
Christopher Hitchens once wrote that there were three major issues of the twentieth century —...
4 months ago
Christopher Hitchens once wrote that there were three major issues of the twentieth century — imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism — and George Orwell proved to be right about all of them. Orwell displays his remarkable foresight in a fascinating book review, published in March...
Seth's Blog
“Ready” vs. “Done”
Ready means that time is up, spec is met and the user can engage. Done might mean that you believe...
6 months ago
Ready means that time is up, spec is met and the user can engage. Done might mean that you believe it’s perfect and cannot be improved. We’ll settle for ready. In fact, meeting spec means we’re not settling. It’s just what you promised.
Open Culture
A Digital Archive Features Hundreds of Audio Cassette Tape Designs, from the 1960s to the 1990s
Audio cassette tapes first appeared on the market in the early nineteen-sixties, but it would take...
4 months ago
Audio cassette tapes first appeared on the market in the early nineteen-sixties, but it would take about a decade before they came to dominate it. And when they did, they’d changed the lives of many a music-lover by having made it possible not just to listen to their albums of...
Seth's Blog
Twelve days until the first worldwide strategy meetup
There are now 280 cities being organized. You can find the list and all the details by clicking...
2 months ago
There are now 280 cities being organized. You can find the list and all the details by clicking here. It’s free, and it works better when you become a part of it. Find the others. Connect, inspire and lead. It’s a great excuse to organize some friends and colleagues and have a...
Seth's Blog
Thinking about jobs
Since I was born, the planet has invented 6 billion jobs. Technology is said to threaten the...
a month ago
Since I was born, the planet has invented 6 billion jobs. Technology is said to threaten the replacement of human labor, yet, somehow we’ve found useful activities for a rapidly growing population. Coordinated without a coordinator, people go to work each day, often doing...
Handprinted - Blog
Drypoint - Which plate is right for my project?
Drypoint is a fantastic intaglio technique as it requires limited equipment to create a plate. It's...
7 months ago
Drypoint is a fantastic intaglio technique as it requires limited equipment to create a plate. It's a great way of creating a printed drawing and is one of the printmaking techniques where the positive mark is the one that prints (unlike relief printing for example). There are...
Seth's Blog
The empathy of useful feedback
When a friend shows you work in progress, your best contribution is to imagine the point of view and...
a year ago
When a friend shows you work in progress, your best contribution is to imagine the point of view and preferences of the person it is being created for. “I don’t like it,” isn’t useful, because it’s not for you. “I could imagine that someone who wants x, y or z would be looking...
Seth's Blog
Doing it step by step
I was surprised to discover that for many AI questions, if you add, “please figure this out step by...
5 months ago
I was surprised to discover that for many AI questions, if you add, “please figure this out step by step,” the AI will provide a dramatically more accurate and useful answer. This works on simple questions like, “how many times does the letter ‘r’ appear in the word ‘strawberry'”...
Seth's Blog
Sharp tools
Professional woodworkers rarely have to be reminded to sharpen their tools. Of course they know...
3 months ago
Professional woodworkers rarely have to be reminded to sharpen their tools. Of course they know this. The rest of us, on the other hand, regularly use digital tools we don’t understand, don’t maintain and haven’t optimized. Sometimes, our lack of care in the choice and use of...
Seth's Blog
If it’s all in bold
Then none of it is in bold.
a year ago
Then none of it is in bold.
Open Culture
Hear Edgar Allan Poe’s Horror Stories Read by Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, James Earl Jones,...
Here on Halloween of 2024, we have a greater variety of scary stories — and arguably, a much scarier...
2 months ago
Here on Halloween of 2024, we have a greater variety of scary stories — and arguably, a much scarier variety of scarier stories — to choose from than ever before. But whatever their relevance to the specific lives we may live and the specific dreads we may feel today, how many...
Seth's Blog
Holding on for dear life
That’s a cliche from the movies. Dangling from a railroad bridge, only determination and firm grip...
9 months ago
That’s a cliche from the movies. Dangling from a railroad bridge, only determination and firm grip can save the hero. In our modern world, we often end up holding on to ideas, to grievances or to our view of the world. Ironically, the harder we hold on to the things we’re hiding...
Open Culture
Watch Philosophy Lectures That Became a Hit During COVID by Professor Michael Sugrue (RIP): From...
If we ask which philosophy professor has made the greatest impact in this decade, there’s a solid...
7 months ago
If we ask which philosophy professor has made the greatest impact in this decade, there’s a solid case to be made for the late Michael Sugrue. Yet in the nearly four-decade-long career that followed his studies at the University of Chicago under Allan Bloom (author of The Closing...
Infinite Scroll
Infinite Scroll on Offline with Jon Favreau
A chat about online media ecosystems
a month ago
A chat about online media ecosystems
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Frankie Brown
I’m an illustrator and printmaker based in Portsmouth, Hampshire. I’m inspired by nostalgic...
a year ago
I’m an illustrator and printmaker based in Portsmouth, Hampshire. I’m inspired by nostalgic storybooks and I love to create whimsical hand-printed illustrations.
I also work part-time at Handprinted; looking after the studio, liaising with tutors, teaching some Fab Fridays,...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker - Angela Hall
My name is Angela Hall, I’m an artist and silkscreen printer based in North Yorkshire, and I have...
9 months ago
My name is Angela Hall, I’m an artist and silkscreen printer based in North Yorkshire, and I have been making and selling my limited-edition prints for the last 5 years from my studio, specialised print events and regional galleries.
My creative journey started with a degree in...
Seth's Blog
Jevons paradox is not surprising
When a resource can be used more efficiently, we end up using more of the thing, not less. So, when...
9 months ago
When a resource can be used more efficiently, we end up using more of the thing, not less. So, when cars get better gas mileage, people drive more, and consumption can actually go up. When AI learns to write computer code, the demand for programmers goes up, because more...
Seth's Blog
Retreat!
We’ve managed to lionize, celebrate and elevate the mindset of “CHARGE!” Even when better judgment...
5 months ago
We’ve managed to lionize, celebrate and elevate the mindset of “CHARGE!” Even when better judgment and experience would indicate that we’re often more likely to succeed with a strategic re-evaluation of the situation. Making a new decision based on new information isn’t weakness....
Seth's Blog
The defensive arrogance of TL;DR
Every since there has been high school, there has been the instinct to read the Cliffs Notes. The...
8 months 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...
Open Culture
Jimi Hendrix Opens for The Monkees on a 1967 Tour; Then Flips Off the Crowd and Quits
It’s easy to dismiss The Monkees. Critics and listeners have been doing it since the sixties,...
5 months ago
It’s easy to dismiss The Monkees. Critics and listeners have been doing it since the sixties, although the band has also come in for its share of reappraisals, particularly for their psych-rock album Head. (That’s the soundtrack from the 1968 Jack Nicholson-directed art film of...
Seth's Blog
Toward better
In our work to make things better, it’s easy to overlook two things: The best way to make things...
a month ago
In our work to make things better, it’s easy to overlook two things: The best way to make things better is to begin. Create the conditions for others to join you. Persist.
Handprinted - Blog
Spooktacular Screen Printing Projects!
Get into the spooky spirit with a Halloween screen printing project! Create t-shirts, tote bags, and...
2 months ago
Get into the spooky spirit with a Halloween screen printing project! Create t-shirts, tote bags, and poster prints that’re hauntingly fun and frightfully easy!
Party Prints - Speedball Night Glo Acrylic Ink on Paper!
If you’re a Halloween lover this project is for you! Using...
Open Culture
Behold a Digital Restoration of 655 Plates of Roses & Lilies by Pierre-Joseph Redouté: The Greatest...
Pierre-Joseph Redouté made his name by painting flowers, an achievement impossible without a...
a month ago
Pierre-Joseph Redouté made his name by painting flowers, an achievement impossible without a meticulousness that exceeds all bounds of normality. He published his three-volume collection Les Roses and his eight-volume collection Les Liliacées between 1802 and 1824, and a glance...
Seth's Blog
Writing your book
I spent time this week with two authors who are showing up to share their lives, their insights, and...
a year ago
I spent time this week with two authors who are showing up to share their lives, their insights, and their generosity in the form of books. A good book will change the reader, but it makes an even bigger impact on the author. Here’s a classic episode of Akimbo. Book publishing...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Distributing Randomness
A good pseudorandom number generator gives an even distribution of results
from 0 to 1 but...
over a year ago
A good pseudorandom number generator gives an even distribution of results
from 0 to 1 but sometimes in generative art we might want something
different.
Seth's Blog
The seduction of grad school
For a certain cohort of high-performing students at famous colleges, graduate school feels...
a year ago
For a certain cohort of high-performing students at famous colleges, graduate school feels irresistible. If you’re good at school, the challenge and offer of law school, med school or a famous business school means you get to do more of what you’re good at. You’re offered a...
Seth's Blog
The list of compromises
All the no-compromise solutions have failed. If there was a way to solve our problem without giving...
a year ago
All the no-compromise solutions have failed. If there was a way to solve our problem without giving something up, we would have done that already. So, if a persistent problem important, the question is not: Should we compromise or not? The question is: Which changes are we going...
Open Culture
Hear 2.5 Hours of the Classical Music in Haruki Murakami’s Novels: Liszt, Beethoven, Janáček, and...
Haruki Murakami’s hit novel 1Q84 features a memorable scene in a taxicab on a gridlocked freeway...
2 months ago
Haruki Murakami’s hit novel 1Q84 features a memorable scene in a taxicab on a gridlocked freeway whose radio is playing Leoš Janáček’s Sinfonietta. “It is, as the book suggests, truly the worst possible music for a traffic jam,” writes Sam Anderson in a New York Times Magazine...
Seth's Blog
A thoughtful review
Thanks to Francis Wade for emailing me this review of THIS IS STRATEGY. Francis works in strategy,...
a month ago
Thanks to Francis Wade for emailing me this review of THIS IS STRATEGY. Francis works in strategy, and I’m so delighted the book resonated the way it did. Case: You are a corporate strategic planner – someone immersed in defining a future for your organization. But lately, you...
The Last...
No Self-Respecting Woman Would Go Out Without Make Up
For some reason, one of the most emailed articles from the NYT was an article about whether women...
over a year ago
For some reason, one of the most emailed articles from the NYT was an article about whether women should or should not wear make up. "New York Times? Sounds progressive." Yes.
Seven
people were asked their opinion in a column called "Room For Debate,"
liars, there was no...
Seth's Blog
We probably can’t buy our way out of it
That’s what we usually try to do. When technology, comfort, convenience, efficiency and price line...
a year ago
That’s what we usually try to do. When technology, comfort, convenience, efficiency and price line up, the market takes care of itself. On the other hand, seatbelts would never have happened if they weren’t required. But pizza grew to dominate our diets with no centralized...
Open Culture
How Ancient Romans Traveled Without Maps
In an age when many of us could hardly make our way to an unfamiliar grocery store without relying...
a month ago
In an age when many of us could hardly make our way to an unfamiliar grocery store without relying on a GPS navigation system, we might well wonder how the Romans could establish and sustain their mighty empire without so much as a proper map. That’s the question addressed by the...
Seth's Blog
How to buy a lottery ticket
There are lots of cultural lotteries around us. The next pop song, the book that everyone is talking...
a month ago
There are lots of cultural lotteries around us. The next pop song, the book that everyone is talking about, the blog post or video that goes viral… it even applies to who gets into a famous college or is selected by the AI screening for a good job. The usual advice is: Fit in....
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
TLDR;
Hi!
C4DLive is happening this week! Already!
Watch my talk at noon PDT on Thursday, April 23! Ask questions!
Buy Cinema 4D, Get Red Giant Complete for 50% Off
Red Giant Complete is free for students and teachers
TGNTR;
If it weren’t for COVID-19, the newly-combined...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Fabiola Knowles
Originally from Sicily, I grew up in Australia; however, having settled in the UK in 1996, it has...
5 months ago
Originally from Sicily, I grew up in Australia; however, having settled in the UK in 1996, it has been my home for the largest part of my life. I love the outdoors and I am drawn to open landscapes with big skies.
I am an artist working mainly with various forms of printmaking. I...
Seth's Blog
A treaty
Successful treaties calm things down and let us get back to what’s really important. Sometimes, the...
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...
Open Culture
Carl Jung Offers an Introduction to His Psychological Thought in a 3‑Hour Interview (1957)
In the 1950s, it was fashionable to drop Freud’s name — often as not in pseudo-intellectual sex...
5 months ago
In the 1950s, it was fashionable to drop Freud’s name — often as not in pseudo-intellectual sex jokes. Freud’s preoccupations had as much to do with his fame as the actual practice of psychotherapy, and it was assumed — and still is to a great degree — that Freud had “won” the...
Seth's Blog
What are the stakes?
How big a swing do we need to make it feel like it matters? At the casino, some folks play with $5...
10 months ago
How big a swing do we need to make it feel like it matters? At the casino, some folks play with $5 chips, some with $100 chips. Do the high rollers have more fun? Are they more engaged? It’s natural to imagine that bigger swings matter more. That a bigger audience means our...
Stat Significant
Who's the Greatest Actor in Movie History? A Statistical Analysis
Who's the greatest movie actor of all time, and why?
4 months ago
Who's the greatest movie actor of all time, and why?
Seth's Blog
Looking for a handle
What if your boots don’t have any straps? Bootstrapping is logically impossible. You can’t pick...
11 months ago
What if your boots don’t have any straps? Bootstrapping is logically impossible. You can’t pick yourself up into the air by lifting on your boots, no matter how hard you try, because gravity isn’t just a good idea, it’s the law. But it’s significantly more difficult if your boots...
The Great Discontent...
Sofía Gallisá Muriente
Emergence Issue: TGD’s fifth issue features a dynamic group of 15 creators who are deeply committed...
over a year ago
Emergence Issue: TGD’s fifth issue features a dynamic group of 15 creators who are deeply committed to addressing systematic challenges in their communities through creativity and emerging ideologies. Buy Now Can you share a little bit about where and how you grew up and what...
Seth's Blog
She’s here!
Some restaurants keep a photo of the local reviewer in the kitchen. The thinking is that if someone...
8 months ago
Some restaurants keep a photo of the local reviewer in the kitchen. The thinking is that if someone notices she’s in the building, everyone can up their game. And some musicians wait eagerly for A&R person to be in the crowd. If they really kill it tonight, a record deal might...
Seth's Blog
The lazy jugglers
The best jugglers don’t seem to be trying very hard. That’s because they understand what the work...
6 months ago
The best jugglers don’t seem to be trying very hard. That’s because they understand what the work involves, and they don’t confuse effort with results. Some approaches to keep in mind: Focus on the work at hand Don’t take on more than you can handle Establish a spec, and ignore...
Stat Significant
Why Do People Like True Crime? A Statistical Analysis
Exploring the appeal of true crime podcasts and docuseries.
5 months ago
Exploring the appeal of true crime podcasts and docuseries.
Seth's Blog
Valuable contributions
We actually don’t really know. Netflix just released their first-ever detailed analysis of how many...
a year ago
We actually don’t really know. Netflix just released their first-ever detailed analysis of how many hours of engagement the top 15,000+ most watched shows on the network received over a six month period. Here’s the file. Who won? That question is actually the lesson here. The...
Open Culture
Hear Flannery O’Connor Read “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (1959)
Flannery O’Connor was a Southern writer who, as Joyce Carol Oates once said, had less in common with...
8 months ago
Flannery O’Connor was a Southern writer who, as Joyce Carol Oates once said, had less in common with Faulkner than with Kafka and Kierkegaard. Isolated by poor health and consumed by her fervent Catholic faith, O’Connor created works of moral fiction that, according to Oates,...
Open Culture
“The Virtues of Coffee” Explained in 1690 Ad: The Cure for Lethargy, Scurvy, Dropsy, Gout & More
According to many historians, the English Enlightenment may never have happened were it not for...
7 months ago
According to many historians, the English Enlightenment may never have happened were it not for coffeehouses, the public sphere where poets, critics, philosophers, legal minds, and other intellectual gadflies regularly met to chatter about the pressing concerns of the day. And...
Seth's Blog
It’s Mac Day (#40)
A lot shifted when the Apple Macintosh was introduced, and it wasn’t about the RAM, the chips or the...
11 months ago
A lot shifted when the Apple Macintosh was introduced, and it wasn’t about the RAM, the chips or the processor speed. Our world changed forty years ago today. Marketing, technology, commerce, luxury brands, communities, communication and our expectations for how we might spend...
Open Culture
The Big Map of Who Lived When Shows Which Cultural Figures Walked the Earth at the Same Time: From...
We could call the time in which we live the “Information Age.” Or we could describe it more vividly...
3 months ago
We could call the time in which we live the “Information Age.” Or we could describe it more vividly as the era of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart, Beyoncé and Bob Dylan. Whatever you think of the work of any of...
Seth's Blog
The weird math of halfway
6 times 1/2 doesn’t equal 3. It equals zero. We’re tempted to do a little less than we need to....
10 months ago
6 times 1/2 doesn’t equal 3. It equals zero. We’re tempted to do a little less than we need to. Perhaps we’re busy, with too many options. Perhaps it’s resistance, pushing us to hold a little bit back. Whatever the reason, when we show up just a little, we get zero credit. The...
Seth's Blog
But it’s included…
Perhaps your wedding package includes a cake. It’s paid for, better eat it. Even if you’re allergic...
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
Optimized or maximized?
Engineers can optimize a bridge. There are some bridge designs that satisfy aesthetic, financial,...
11 months ago
Engineers can optimize a bridge. There are some bridge designs that satisfy aesthetic, financial, durability, safety and efficiency needs better than others. The work of optimization is finding the best set of tradeoffs. Maximization, on the other hand, seeks the solution that...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Meaningful Nonsense: How I generate sentences
I’m coding a system in JavaScript that generates sentences of “meaningful nonsense”. Here are some...
7 months ago
I’m coding a system in JavaScript that generates sentences of “meaningful nonsense”. Here are some examples.
I set off on this path because I’m working on a series of generative diagrams and I wanted them to have titles. Immediately I was drawn in by the effect of the diagrams...
Seth's Blog
Non-fatal errors
Most of our errors are in this category. Yesterday, The New York Times sent this newsletter to a...
9 months ago
Most of our errors are in this category. Yesterday, The New York Times sent this newsletter to a million people or so: I’m sure it wasn’t the best part of the day (or the week) for whoever messed up, but I also know that it had little impact on anything that matters. Being...
Open Culture
Do All Roads Lead to Philosophy on Wikipedia?: They Do About 97.3% of the Time
Pull up the Wikipedia page for Mariya Takeuchi’s “Plastic Love,” the 1984 single now known for...
3 months ago
Pull up the Wikipedia page for Mariya Takeuchi’s “Plastic Love,” the 1984 single now known for re-popularizing the genre of Japanese “city pop.” Then click the first of its links (not related to the language of the article itself), which leads to Takeuchi’s own page. If you keep...
Seth's Blog
Wild Hope Now: The power of books for causes
Non-profits and charities depend on the emotional and financial support of their backers. And that...
a year ago
Non-profits and charities depend on the emotional and financial support of their backers. And that support is always based on a story. A story of possibility, of justice, of community. They serve to right wrongs, to fix problems, to shine a light and to make things better. I’ve...
Seth's Blog
At all costs
Principles have a priority. Isaac Asimov’s three rules of robotics were: First LawA robot may not...
2 months ago
Principles have a priority. Isaac Asimov’s three rules of robotics were: First LawA robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second LawA robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would...
Open Culture
Harvard Removes the Human Skin Binding from a Book in Its Collection Since 1934
In June of 2014, Harvard University’s Houghton Library put up a blog post titled “Caveat Lecter,”...
6 months ago
In June of 2014, Harvard University’s Houghton Library put up a blog post titled “Caveat Lecter,” announcing “good news for fans of anthropodermic bibliopegy, bibliomaniacs, and cannibals alike.” The occasion was the scientific determination that a book in the Houghton’s...
escape the algorithm
Close reading the trees
How competitive Google Street Viewing makes the world feel seen
10 months ago
How competitive Google Street Viewing makes the world feel seen
Seth's Blog
The Pinocchio protocol
He had a hard time lying because his nose got longer every time he did. Gas-powered leaf blowers...
6 months ago
He had a hard time lying because his nose got longer every time he did. Gas-powered leaf blowers would disappear if the smoke they belched out was black instead of invisible. And few people would start smoking if the deposits on their lungs ended up on their face instead. We’re...
Handprinted - Blog
Using Pearl Ex Metallic Pigments to Enhance Screen Prints
Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments are metallic pigments that can be mixed into printing inks, acrylics,...
7 months 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. We've tested them for relief printing and had some...
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
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...
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....
6 months ago
My name is Fiona Black and I am an artist, folk musician, writer, history geek and lover of stories. Home for me is the Highland village of Evanton, just north of Inverness on the shore of the Cromarty Firth. I am happy to have returned to live and create in the Highlands, and I...
Seth's Blog
The Coney Island problem
Disney theme parks created more than 20 billion dollars in revenue last year. Coney Island, not so...
6 months ago
Disney theme parks created more than 20 billion dollars in revenue last year. Coney Island, not so much. Coney Island is dozens of small honky tonk vendors and attractions, an ecosystem, not a corporation. Independent local stores got hammered by the more organized stores in the...
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...
2 months ago
As a founder of the “underground comix” movement in the 1960s, R. Crumb is either revered as a pioneering satirist of American culture and its excesses or reviled as a juvenile purveyor of painfully outmoded sexist and racist stereotypes. Crumb doesn’t apologize. He keeps...
Seth's Blog
Pet quirks
Peeves make lousy pets. They undermine us and put us on edge. But quirks? Little eccentricities we...
7 months ago
Peeves make lousy pets. They undermine us and put us on edge. But quirks? Little eccentricities we see in the world that offer a cost-free smile. Habits or interactions that always make us a little lighter on our feet and open the door to better… They’re easy to find, not hard to...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Suckered Yet Again
Influencer boxing, BlueSky winning, and incredible calendar confessions
a month ago
Influencer boxing, BlueSky winning, and incredible calendar confessions
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
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
Now in Spanish
The Carbon Almanac is now available in Spanish. For free. Free to download, free to share and free...
a year ago
The Carbon Almanac is now available in Spanish. For free. Free to download, free to share and free to print a copy at home. While the book has been traditionally published around the world (in Italian, Czech, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Dutch), no Spanish-language publisher was...
Open Culture
Death: A Free Online Philosophy Course from Yale Helps You Grapple with the Inescapable
It pays to think intelligently about the inevitable. And this course taught by Yale professor Shelly...
3 months ago
It pays to think intelligently about the inevitable. And this course taught by Yale professor Shelly Kagan does just that, taking a rich, philosophical look at death. Here’s how the course description reads: There is one thing I can be sure of: I am going to die. But what am I to...
Seth's Blog
Sincerity is expected
Well, not always. That’s why it’s so important. We don’t expect an actor to tell the truth. That’s...
a month ago
Well, not always. That’s why it’s so important. We don’t expect an actor to tell the truth. That’s their job. Musicians and other performers are playing a role. And social niceties encourage us to put on a smile and share appreciation, even in situations where it might not be...
Seth's Blog
The gap between impossible and normal
It keeps getting shorter and shorter. This video couldn’t have been made, at any price, 18 months...
a year ago
It keeps getting shorter and shorter. This video couldn’t have been made, at any price, 18 months ago. 18 weeks ago, it would have required a thousand hours of work. Now, here it is. This impossible is going to happen faster and faster and faster.
Seth's Blog
The length trick
It’s possible that the memo or video is simply too long. A 14 minute video explaining how to have a...
a year ago
It’s possible that the memo or video is simply too long. A 14 minute video explaining how to have a 10 minute brainstorming meeting might benefit from some editing. But it might be that your instruction manual would benefit from some more photos and better in depth explanation....
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Dead CEOs and Conservative Progressives
Plus! Hawk Tuah crypto scandal, gift guide season, and a good Spotify Wrapped
3 weeks ago
Plus! Hawk Tuah crypto scandal, gift guide season, and a good Spotify Wrapped
Anarchy Unfolds
May all roads lead to solarpunk
Letters to an anarchist - Part 8
a month ago
Letters to an anarchist - Part 8
Seth's Blog
In and out
Lots of organizations (and individuals) have plans and processes for getting the word out. In fact,...
a year ago
Lots of organizations (and individuals) have plans and processes for getting the word out. In fact, we spend trillions of dollars doing so. Do you have a plan for getting the word in? Is it simply random chance that some ideas get to you and your team, that cultural and technical...
Seth's Blog
When the sun is shining
Our job as professionals is to show up and do the work. Not simply respond to incoming or do the...
a year ago
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...
Ian Betteridge
Weeknote, Sunday 8th December 2024
This time of year, work becomes a tension between two opposing forces: the inevitable winding down...
3 weeks ago
This time of year, work becomes a tension between two opposing forces: the inevitable winding down of the year, as fewer projects appear and people begin to drift away, and the equally inevitable rush to get whatever remains to be done. It’s a tension that keeps me awake at night...
Anarchy Unfolds
March '24 Myths & Recs
Sleep deprivation, Kim Petras, the Anthropocene, and more
9 months ago
Sleep deprivation, Kim Petras, the Anthropocene, and more
escape the algorithm
Is Substack exaggerating its network effects?
The data tells the story writers want to hear... but is it true?
11 months ago
The data tells the story writers want to hear... but is it true?
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Rach Lloyd
Hello, my name is Rach and I'm a printmaker from Shropshire. I go by the name Rach Lloyd Press, and...
3 months ago
Hello, my name is Rach and I'm a printmaker from Shropshire. I go by the name Rach Lloyd Press, and pride myself on making all of my print-runs and editions in very small numbers, so people can own a unique piece of artwork at an affordable price.
I am a multidisciplinary artist,...
Seth's Blog
Late-stage technocrats
Water flows downhill, and tech solves the easy problems first. After the launch of Amazon and...
a year ago
Water flows downhill, and tech solves the easy problems first. After the launch of Amazon and Google, when smartphones reached critical mass, an easy problem to solve involved bridging information with stuff. So you could use your phone to summon a car, a case of beer, a dog...
Seth's Blog
What’s new at purple.space?
There are now 1,000 of us in this online community that’s not a social network. Proudly a millionth...
a year ago
There are now 1,000 of us in this online community that’s not a social network. Proudly a millionth the size of some other online experiences. It includes the original Creative’s Workshop, with hundreds of people working through it, side by side. And just added, access to the...
Seth's Blog
Is it a t-shirt brand?
Not all projects become t-shirt brands, nor should they. The risk is in thinking you’re building one...
a year ago
Not all projects become t-shirt brands, nor should they. The risk is in thinking you’re building one when you’re not. T-shirt worthy brands are a very small subset of the whole. The question is: Would your customers want to wear your logo on a t-shirt? Why? If you’re creating...
Infinite Scroll
How Gay Marriage Ruined Democratic Activism
The end of Moral Triumphalism
a month ago
The end of Moral Triumphalism
Seth's Blog
Sufficient resolution
Robert Johnson is known as the king of the Delta blues. One reason is that his small output was...
a year ago
Robert Johnson is known as the king of the Delta blues. One reason is that his small output was brilliant. The other, bigger reason is that the recordings that remain of his short life are among the earliest that sound good… most audio recordings from before 1936 sound antique...
Infinite Scroll
Worst Tweets 2024 - Preliminary Rounds
Vote on which bad takes will make the 2024 bracket!
3 weeks ago
Vote on which bad takes will make the 2024 bracket!
Open Culture
Learn Data Analytics & AI with Google, and Fast-Track Your Career
?si=azZbGLEr_9EFWypL We’re living in the age of data and artificial intelligence (AI). Every second,...
2 months ago
?si=azZbGLEr_9EFWypL We’re living in the age of data and artificial intelligence (AI). Every second, vast amounts of data are being generated, processed, and analyzed. And increasingly AI plays a central role in how that data gets managed. For companies, governments, and...
Anarchy Unfolds
Is Sexual Orientation Obsolete?
Not yet, but maybe it can (and should) be soon
5 months ago
Not yet, but maybe it can (and should) be soon
Seth's Blog
Leprechauns
Is there a rainbow underneath your pot of gold? Sometimes, we get it backwards.
6 months ago
Is there a rainbow underneath your pot of gold? Sometimes, we get it backwards.
Ian Betteridge
Ten Blue Links, “ignoring the election” edition
1. UK university fees going up (but not by enough to make the system work) For those of you not in...
a month ago
1. UK university fees going up (but not by enough to make the system work) For those of you not in the UK, the British system of university funding is a weird mash-mash of different stuff, cobbled together from the mistakes made by successive governments. When I was young, the...
Open Culture
Watch The Idea, the First Animated Film to Deal with Big, Philosophical Ideas (1932)
A vague sense of disquiet settled over Europe in the period between World War I and World War II. As...
3 months ago
A vague sense of disquiet settled over Europe in the period between World War I and World War II. As the slow burn of militant ultranationalism mingled with jingoist populism, authoritarian leaders and fascist factions found mounting support among a citizenry hungry for...
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
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 […]
Anarchy Unfolds
Paths to peace
Letters to an anarchist - Part 4
a month ago
Letters to an anarchist - Part 4
Stat Significant
The Fall and Rise of Nicolas Cage: A Statistical Analysis
Nicolas Cage: A Data Story
4 months ago
Nicolas Cage: A Data Story
Marian's Blog
Lego Part Designer
I made a web app that lets you design your own Lego Technic parts and save them as printable STL...
over a year ago
I made a web app that lets you design your own Lego Technic parts and save them as printable STL files.
You can check it out here.
I got the idea for this project when I was building with Lego parts and wondered how many of the common parts can be described with a simple rule...
Open Culture
Richard Feynman Creates a Simple Method for Telling Science From Pseudoscience (1966)
Photo by Tamiko Thiel via Wikimedia Commons How can we know whether a claim someone makes is...
4 months ago
Photo by Tamiko Thiel via Wikimedia Commons How can we know whether a claim someone makes is scientific or not? The question is of the utmost consequence, as we are surrounded on all sides by claims that sound credible, that use the language of science—and often do so in attempts...
Stat Significant
How Streaming Elevated (and Ruined) Documentaries: A Statistical Analysis
Unpacking streaming's embrace and erosion of non-fiction storytelling.
2 months ago
Unpacking streaming's embrace and erosion of non-fiction storytelling.
Seth's Blog
The problems with flat out
The desire for 11 is proof that we often want to go all the way to ten. While 11 is silly, there is...
a year ago
The desire for 11 is proof that we often want to go all the way to ten. While 11 is silly, there is a lot of pressure to give our all. But there are problems. The first is that if you try to sprint an entire marathon, you’ll hurt yourself. Systems can be stressed for […]
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...
5 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...
Open Culture
David Lynch Releases on YouTube Interview Project: 121 Stories of Real America Recorded on a...
Take a sufficiently long road trip across America, and you’re bound to encounter something or...
2 months ago
Take a sufficiently long road trip across America, and you’re bound to encounter something or someone Lynchian. Whether or not that idea lay behind Interview Project, the undertaking had the endorsement of David Lynch himself. Not coincidentally, it was conceived by his son...
Seth's Blog
Thoughts on audiobooks
I’m listening more than reading these days, and I find that a good audiobook can make a real impact...
2 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 […]
Handprinted - Blog
Making an Aluminium Plate Etching
We recently covered in our blog how to make marks on etching plates using tools and resists. Now...
4 months ago
We recently covered in our blog how to make marks on etching plates using tools and resists. Now we’re going to put together what we’ve learnt to create a print!
This blog is part of a series featuring tips and techniques to get you started with aluminium or zinc plate etching....
Open Culture
Get $160 Off a Year of Coursera Plus & Gain Unlimited Access to Courses in Data Analytics,...
A heads-up on a Black Friday special: Between today and December 2, 2024, Coursera is offering a 40%...
a month ago
A heads-up on a Black Friday special: Between today and December 2, 2024, Coursera is offering a 40% discount on its annual subscription plan called “Coursera Plus.” Normally priced at $399, Coursera Plus (now available for $239.40) gives you access to 7,000+ courses for one...
Infinite Scroll
Worst Tweets of 2024 - Dishonorable Mentions
All of the most horrifying posts on Twitter that didn't make the final bracket
2 weeks ago
All of the most horrifying posts on Twitter that didn't make the final bracket
Seth's Blog
The long walk
Before buying a house, it makes sense to spend a day on foot, walking around the neighborhood....
a month ago
Before buying a house, it makes sense to spend a day on foot, walking around the neighborhood. You’ll notice things you might have missed in a car. Before starting a business, spend a few shifts working the cash register at a similar establishment. And before going into...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Coding my Handwriting
Coding my handwriting in Javascript - how I did it and what I’m doing with
it.
7 months ago
Coding my handwriting in Javascript - how I did it and what I’m doing with
it.
Open Culture
Watch Tom Waits For No One, the Pioneering Animated Music Video from 1979
Tom Waits For No One, above, is surely the only film in history to have won an Oscar for Scientific...
6 months ago
Tom Waits For No One, above, is surely the only film in history to have won an Oscar for Scientific and Technical Achievement for its creator and a first place award at the Hollywood Erotic Film and Video Festival. Director John Lamb and his partner, Bruce Lyon also deserve...
Open Culture
Steven Spielberg Calls Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange “the First Punk Rock Movie Ever Made”
Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick are two of the first directors whose names young cinephiles get...
8 months ago
Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick are two of the first directors whose names young cinephiles get to know. They’re also names between which quite a few of those young cinephiles draw a battle line: you may have enjoyed films by both of these auteurs, but ultimately, you’re...
Seth's Blog
A really good reason
Do you see the defaults? The question, “What are things like around here?” has two possible answers....
3 months ago
Do you see the defaults? The question, “What are things like around here?” has two possible answers. When a new idea or opportunity arrives, your organization says yes, unless there’s a really good reason to say no. Or your organization says no, unless someone makes a powerful...
Stat Significant
Who's the Worst Actor in Movie History? A Statistical Analysis
Who's the worst actor of all time, and why?
3 months ago
Who's the worst actor of all time, and why?
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
Exactly. That’s why it’s a forecast, not an accurate account of what’s going to happen in the future. This seems axiomatic, but our desire for certainty keeps letting us down. The shifting of forecasts is evidence that they’re merely forecasts.
Open Culture
Why You Can Never Tune a Piano
Grab a cup of coffee, put on your thinking cap, and start working through this video from Minute...
3 months ago
Grab a cup of coffee, put on your thinking cap, and start working through this video from Minute Physics, which explains why guitars, violins and other instruments can be tuned to a tee. But when it comes to pianos, it’s an entirely different story, a mathematical impossibility....
Seth's Blog
Dreams and roadblocks
The first step is to imagine what the people you serve want and care about it. The second is to...
a year ago
The first step is to imagine what the people you serve want and care about it. The second is to figure out why they don’t have it yet. If you can help people get to where they seek to go, when they’re ready to get there, the stuff called marketing gets significantly easier.
Seth's Blog
The nature of traps
Our culture is filled with man-made traps, situations worth avoiding. They have three elements:...
a month ago
Our culture is filled with man-made traps, situations worth avoiding. They have three elements: Because of the third element, the organizer or beneficiaries of a trap can spend time and money to make it ever more seductive and to conceal the nature of what you’re actually signing...
Open Culture
The Story of Fascism: Rick Steves’ Documentary Helps Us Learn from the Painful Lessons of the 20th...
From Rick Steves comes a thought-provoking documentary that revisits the rise of fascism in Europe,...
2 months ago
From Rick Steves comes a thought-provoking documentary that revisits the rise of fascism in Europe, reminding us of how charismatic figures like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler came to power by promising to create a better future for their frustrated, economically depressed...
Open Culture
Scientists Discover that Ancient Egyptians Drank Hallucinogenic Cocktails from 2,300 Year-Old Mug
Bes mug by USF Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx) on Sketchfab If ZZ Top have a favorite...
a month ago
Bes mug by USF Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx) on Sketchfab If ZZ Top have a favorite ancient Egyptian deity, that deity is surely Bes, whom the New York Times’ Alexander Nazaryan quotes curator and scholar Branko van Oppen de Ruiter as calling “a beer drinker and a...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Cal Russell
I'm an artist living in Edinburgh working mainly in papercutting and linocut printmaking. I studied...
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...
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...
6 months ago
The Carnegie Hall YouTube Channel sets the scene: On January 28, 2023, pianist Yuja Wang joined The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Carnegie Hall for a once-in-a-lifetime, all-Rachmaninoff marathon that featured the composer’s four piano concertos...
Stat Significant
The Rise of Faith-Based Films: A Statistical Analysis
The economics and origins of the faith-based film industry.
3 months ago
The economics and origins of the faith-based film industry.
Open Culture
Umberto Eco’s List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism
Creative Commons image by Rob Bogaerts, via the National Archives in Holland One of the key...
2 months ago
Creative Commons image by Rob Bogaerts, via the National Archives in Holland One of the key questions facing both journalists and loyal oppositions these days is how do we stay honest as euphemisms and trivializations take over the discourse? Can we use words like “fascism,” for...
Seth's Blog
Small doses
If you go to a health food store and buy some pills with selenium, colloidal silver or other...
a year ago
If you go to a health food store and buy some pills with selenium, colloidal silver or other mysterious substances in them, it’s possible that they’ll make you feel a bit better. On the other hand, if you take a large dose, you’ll get sick or possibly die. In very small doses,...
Open Culture
How Henri Matisse Scandalized the Art Establishment with His Daring Use of Color
Even those of us not particularly well-versed in art history have heard of a painting style called...
3 months ago
Even those of us not particularly well-versed in art history have heard of a painting style called fauvism — and probably have never considered what it has to do with fauve, the French word for a wild beast. In fact, the two have everything to do with one another, at least in the...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Robin Mackenzie
I am Robin Mackenzie, a Wood Engraver and Lino Cutter based in Dorset. I create limited edition...
a year ago
I am Robin Mackenzie, a Wood Engraver and Lino Cutter based in Dorset. I create limited edition relief prints using a combination of hand printing and an Albion printing press. My work explores the British coast and countryside. Beginning with walks and research trips I seek...
Open Culture
Join Us on Bluesky. We Will Have Fun Together
There’s an eXodus taking place, and millions are finding a new home on Bluesky. In recent days, the...
a month ago
There’s an eXodus taking place, and millions are finding a new home on Bluesky. In recent days, the decentralized social media platform has been gaining 10,000 new users every 10–15 minutes, or about 1 million new users per day. Open Culture is already there, sharing the cultural...
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...
5 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
Jack Kerouac’s Hand-Drawn Cover for On the Road (1952)
This falls under the category, “If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.” In 1950,...
4 months ago
This falls under the category, “If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.” In 1950, when Jack Kerouac released his first novel, The Town and the City, he was less than impressed by the book cover produced by his publisher, Harcourt Brace. (Click here to see why.) So,...
Seth's Blog
Who owns your words?
There are many ways to ask and answer this question. Authorship used to be rare, but now, all of us...
a month ago
There are many ways to ask and answer this question. Authorship used to be rare, but now, all of us write something. If you’re putting your words on a social media platform, you might be surprised to discover that they could disappear at any moment. Some platforms acknowledge...
Seth's Blog
Patience
It’s worth the most when it’s the most difficult to find.
a year ago
It’s worth the most when it’s the most difficult to find.
Seth's Blog
Anonymity and Bugs Bunny
I came across this (ironically) anonymous quote recently: “The offline world is full of sticks, but...
4 months ago
I came across this (ironically) anonymous quote recently: “The offline world is full of sticks, but the internet only has carrots.” When we come together in groups, it can bring out the best in people. When those groups are anonymous, porous and transient, though, the opposite...
Handprinted - Blog
The Endless Possibilities of a Square Block Repeat
Using a simple square block can create a myriad of possibilities of pattern.
We have used Speedy...
a year ago
Using a simple square block can create a myriad of possibilities of pattern.
We have used Speedy Carve and Versafine inks for this project.
Cut a square from the Speedy Carve using a scalpel.
Draw a quarter circle curve on the block using a pencil. Above the curve draw some...
Stat Significant
How Long Does Music Stardom Last? A Statistical Analysis
When do music stars achieve fame, and how long does fame typically last?
5 months ago
When do music stars achieve fame, and how long does fame typically last?
Seth's Blog
Wanting and getting
Modern marketing culture is designed to amplify our desires. To turn faint wants into desperate...
3 weeks 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 coming ubiquity
The fuss about AI might be mis-focused. It’s easy to point to a computer-created essay, song or...
a year ago
The fuss about AI might be mis-focused. It’s easy to point to a computer-created essay, song or illustration and find the defects or errors. Given hard work by 1,000 trained people, it’s likely that a human could make something more useful or inspired than a computer could. But...
Seth's Blog
The landlord and the creative coach
The conflict is real. “Jean-Michel [Basquiat] called,” Mr. Warhol wrote in his diary on Sept. 5,...
4 months ago
The conflict is real. “Jean-Michel [Basquiat] called,” Mr. Warhol wrote in his diary on Sept. 5, 1983. “He’s afraid he’s just going to be a flash in the pan. And I told him not to worry, that he wouldn’t be. But then I got scared because he’s rented our building on Great Jones...
Seth's Blog
Projects and the red zone
Many projects are never finished. There are countless broken and not-quite-fixed cars in garages....
a year ago
Many projects are never finished. There are countless broken and not-quite-fixed cars in garages. There are crafts projects, massive redevelopments and everything in between. They sit unfinished because of bad planning, lack of resources, and most of all, a lack of resolve and...
escape the algorithm
Foreskin’s Comment
What a Billie Eilish Youtube comment diarist can teach us about forging meaningful online rituals
a year ago
What a Billie Eilish Youtube comment diarist can teach us about forging meaningful online rituals
Marian's Blog
Infinite procedurally generated city with the Wave Function Collapse algorithm
This is a game where you walk through an infinite city that is procedurally generated as you...
over a year ago
This is a game where you walk through an infinite city that is procedurally generated as you walk.
It is generated from a set of blocks with the Wave Function Collapse algorithm.
You can download a playable build of the game on itch.io and you can get the source code on...
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...
a month 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...
Open Culture
Discover Hannah Arendt’s Syllabus for Her 1974 Course on “Thinking”
If you’ve read one work of Hannah Arendt’s, it’s probably Eichmann in Jerusalem, her account of the...
a month ago
If you’ve read one work of Hannah Arendt’s, it’s probably Eichmann in Jerusalem, her account of the trial of the eponymous Nazi official — and the source of her much-quoted phrase “the banality of evil.” That book came out in 1963, at which time Arendt still had a dozen...
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....
8 months 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
Survivor bias and the mistake of stability
An asteroid has never destroyed the Earth, therefore an asteroid never will. This brand has been...
a year ago
An asteroid has never destroyed the Earth, therefore an asteroid never will. This brand has been involved in scandals before, and it has always come back stronger, so there’s nothing to worry about. There have been technology changes before, but we’ve always managed to find...
Open Culture
Enter a Huge Archive of Amazing Stories, the World’s First Science Fiction Magazine, Launched in...
If you haven’t heard of Hugo Gernsback, you’ve surely heard of the Hugo Award. Next to the Nebula,...
6 months ago
If you haven’t heard of Hugo Gernsback, you’ve surely heard of the Hugo Award. Next to the Nebula, it’s the most prestigious of science fiction prizes, bringing together in its ranks of winners such venerable authors as Ursula K. Le Guin, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Neil...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Hazel McNab
Hi I’m Hazel, I live in Cornwall. I moved down just before Covid, very lucky me! And spent lockdown...
a year ago
Hi I’m Hazel, I live in Cornwall. I moved down just before Covid, very lucky me! And spent lockdown cutting Cornish Landscapes and really getting into my printing. My background is Fashion and Textiles, St Martins School of Art and I think my love of pattern shows in my...
Open Culture
Behold the Kräuterbuch, a Lavishly Illustrated Guide to Plants and Herbs from 1462
When Konrad von Megenberg published his Buch der Natur in the mid-fourteenth century, he won the...
5 months ago
When Konrad von Megenberg published his Buch der Natur in the mid-fourteenth century, he won the distinction of having assembled the very first natural history in German. More than half a millennium later, the book still fascinates — not least for its depictions of cats,...
Open Culture
14 Self-Portraits by Pablo Picasso Show the Evolution of His Style: See Self-Portraits Moving from...
15 years old (1896) It’s possible to look at Pablo Picasso’s many formal experiments and periodic...
a month ago
15 years old (1896) It’s possible to look at Pablo Picasso’s many formal experiments and periodic shifts of style as a kind of self-portraiture, an exercise in shifting consciousness and trying on of new aesthetic identities. The Spanish modernist made a career of sweeping...
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