Seth's Blog
Can you draw it on a graph?
Explain it with quadrants? Translate it into Spanish? It’s easy to memorize a few words that purport...
5 months ago
Explain it with quadrants? Translate it into Spanish? It’s easy to memorize a few words that purport to explain something, but all they do is relabel it. If you truly understand something, you can use different modalities to help someone else understand it. The magic of a good...
Seth's Blog
The friendly professional
Friendly doesn’t mean saying ‘yes’ all the time, or changing every policy, or giving up our...
a year ago
Friendly doesn’t mean saying ‘yes’ all the time, or changing every policy, or giving up our principles. Friendly is how it feels, not what it does.
Seth's Blog
Peer support
Treasure it when you find it. Offer it when you can. One of the greatest joys of being an author is...
a year ago
Treasure it when you find it. Offer it when you can. One of the greatest joys of being an author is the other authors. The game theory would indicate that authors are competitors–there are a scarce number of publishers, of bookshelf slots, of readers. But, being the only author...
Prolost
VFX Suite 1.5
Today Red Giant released the first major update to the VFX Suite we introduced last year.
Lens...
over a year ago
Today Red Giant released the first major update to the VFX Suite we introduced last year.
Lens Distortion Matcher
A brand-new effect, Lens Distortion Matcher makes it ridiculously easy to profile the distortion of any lens, and either remove it, or build a VFX workflow around it...
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...
On the Arts
The Vertical Beauty of Hong Kong
An Interview with Photographer Romain Jacquet Lagrèze
a year ago
An Interview with Photographer Romain Jacquet Lagrèze
Seth's Blog
Avoid false proxies
They’re toxic, wasteful and a tempting trap. It’s one of the most important topics in my new book....
a year ago
They’re toxic, wasteful and a tempting trap. It’s one of the most important topics in my new book. (And here’s a new podcast on it). We need proxies. You’re not allowed to read the book before you buy it or taste the ketchup before you leave the store. We rely on labels and...
escape the algorithm
Artisinal white noise
Shhhhhhhh
7 months ago
Open Culture
How Upside-Down Models Revolutionized Architecture, Making Possible St. Paul’s Cathedral, Sagrada...
For 142 years now, Sagrada Família has been growing toward the sky. Or at least that’s what it seems...
a month ago
For 142 years now, Sagrada Família has been growing toward the sky. Or at least that’s what it seems to be doing, as its ongoing construction realizes ever more fully a host of forms that look and feel not quite of this earth. It makes a kind of sense to learn that, in designing...
Open Culture
Behold a Creative Animation of the Bayeux Tapestry
In previous centuries, unless you were a member of the nobility, a wealthy religious order, or a...
3 months ago
In previous centuries, unless you were a member of the nobility, a wealthy religious order, or a merchant guild, your chances of spending any significant amount of time with a Medieval tapestry were slim. Though “much production was relatively coarse, intended for decorative...
Seth's Blog
Promises and our best
There is a significant difference between, “I promise,” and “I’ll do my best.” Promises are...
a month ago
There is a significant difference between, “I promise,” and “I’ll do my best.” Promises are difficult to keep and ought to be offered with that in mind. Doing our best is assumed.
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...
Marian's Blog
LED Matrix Materials Guide
I built an LED matrix out of 256 WS2812 LEDs. This post will describe which materials I used and...
over a year ago
I built an LED matrix out of 256 WS2812 LEDs. This post will describe which materials I used and which I tried with no success so you don’t have to.
Case
For the case, I used a custom made photo frame. The main purpose of the case is to look good, which is...
Seth's Blog
Infamy
We’ve gotten so hung up on famous that it’s easy to forget that there are two kinds of renown. Being...
4 months ago
We’ve gotten so hung up on famous that it’s easy to forget that there are two kinds of renown. Being known for lowering the standards of discourse, cheating, or whining is a choice, but why would you trade your reputation to become infamous?
Seth's Blog
Emotional labor and its consequences
Forty years ago, Arlie Russell Hochschild wrote about emotional labor. The work that frontline...
a year ago
Forty years ago, Arlie Russell Hochschild wrote about emotional labor. The work that frontline employees had to do (especially women) in managing and expressing emotions as part of their job. She talked about how exhausting it was for flight attendants to show up with a smile,...
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...
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...
4 months ago
What do you imagine when you hear the phrase “cat piano”? Some kind of whimsical furry beast with black and white keys for teeth, maybe? A relative of My Neighbor Totoro’s cat bus? Or maybe you picture a piano that contains several caged cats who shriek along an entire scale when...
Open Culture
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...
a month 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
99 vs 0
If you get a 99% quality haircut or a 99% close-to-perfect meal, it’s better than good. On the other...
a year ago
If you get a 99% quality haircut or a 99% close-to-perfect meal, it’s better than good. On the other hand, if the scrub nurse only does a 99% job of disinfecting the tools in the operating room, you’re still going to die of an infection. Some projects respond very well to...
The Great Discontent...
Giorgia Lupi
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 speak a little bit about where you grew up and how that place...
Open Culture
The World’s First Medieval Electronic Instrument: The EP-1320 Lets You Play the Sounds of...
At this time of the year, the Swedish island of Gotland puts on Medeltidsveckan, or “Medieval Week,”...
4 months ago
At this time of the year, the Swedish island of Gotland puts on Medeltidsveckan, or “Medieval Week,” the country’s largest historical festival. According to its official About page, it offers its visitors the chance to “watch knights on horseback, drink something cold, take a...
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
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...
Handprinted - Blog
Using Hawthorn Process Colours
We've been stocking Hawthorn Stay Open Inks for 6 years now! These inks are oil based inks and work...
a year ago
We've been stocking Hawthorn Stay Open Inks for 6 years now! These inks are oil based inks and work beautifully for relief printing. We have a fantastic range of colours including the process range. Process colours are inks specially formulated to create a full spectrum of...
Open Culture
Andy Warhol Hosts Frank Zappa on His Cable TV Show, and Later Recalls, “I Hated Him More Than Ever”...
Had Andy Warhol lived to see the internet–especially social networking–he would have loved it,...
5 months ago
Had Andy Warhol lived to see the internet–especially social networking–he would have loved it, though it may not have loved him. Though Warhol did see the very beginnings of the PC revolution, and made computer art near the end of his life on a Commodore Amiga 1000, he was mostly...
Seth's Blog
Heavy Lemon Tuna
It’s easy to smirk at the ridiculous images one can make in twenty seconds with AI. People used to...
a year ago
It’s easy to smirk at the ridiculous images one can make in twenty seconds with AI. People used to smirk at photographs in the 1800s. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” is no longer a useful thing to say. Truth is real, photos are not.
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...
Seth's Blog
2 + 2
Arguments about taste are more common than ever before. The long tail makes it easy to find what you...
7 months ago
Arguments about taste are more common than ever before. The long tail makes it easy to find what you like, and to talk about what you don’t. There’s no accounting for taste, and that’s a good thing. Because taste is useful. Flopping the toilet paper under or over the roll,...
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
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....
The Great Discontent...
The Legacy of Corita Kent
Corita Kent was an artist with an innovative approach to design and education. She worked in the...
over a year ago
Corita Kent was an artist with an innovative approach to design and education. She worked in the Immaculate Heart College Art Department, above, c. 1955. (Photo/Fred Swartz, courtesy of the Corita Art Center) “Sometimes you can take the whole of the world in, and sometimes you...
Open Culture
Édouard Manet Illustrates Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, in a French Edition Translated by Stephane...
Edgar Allan Poe achieved almost instant fame during his lifetime after the publication of The...
2 weeks ago
Edgar Allan Poe achieved almost instant fame during his lifetime after the publication of The Raven (1845), but he never felt that he received the recognition he deserved. In some respects, he was right. He was, after all, paid only nine dollars for the poem, and he struggled...
Seth's Blog
Redefining a profession
Pharmacists used to mix chemicals by hand to create prescriptions. Opticians used to grind lenses...
3 months ago
Pharmacists used to mix chemicals by hand to create prescriptions. Opticians used to grind lenses from scratch. Lawyers used to start with an empty page. Graphic designers needed to know how to draw. All of these jobs are still important. None of them are the same as they were...
Seth's Blog
The unaware snoop
Here’s a breakthrough that’s about to happen somewhere: A GPT that reads every email that anyone in...
a year ago
Here’s a breakthrough that’s about to happen somewhere: A GPT that reads every email that anyone in your organization has ever sent and makes it easy to ask it questions about what the entire organization knows. A person could probably not find the time, bandwidth or privacy...
Open Culture
Watch the Original Nosferatu, the Classic German Expressionist Vampire Film, Before the New Remake...
F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, far and away the most influential early vampire movie, came out 102 years...
a month ago
F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, far and away the most influential early vampire movie, came out 102 years ago. For about ten of those years, Robert Eggers has been trying to remake it. He wouldn’t be the first: Werner Herzog cast Klaus Kinski as the blood-sucking aristocrat at the...
Open Culture
Watch Fantasmagorie, the World’s First Animated Cartoon (1908)
Trying to describe the plot of Fantasmagorie, the world’s first animated cartoon, is a folly akin to...
3 months ago
Trying to describe the plot of Fantasmagorie, the world’s first animated cartoon, is a folly akin to putting last night’s dream into words: I was dressed as a clown and then I was in a theater, except I was also hiding under this lady’s hat, and the guy behind us was plucking out...
Seth's Blog
Commonplace technology
Not all tech is new tech. The ballpoint pen was a revelation, and a bit controversial. Now, it’s...
a year ago
Not all tech is new tech. The ballpoint pen was a revelation, and a bit controversial. Now, it’s disposable and obvious. Different industries go through tech spurts. My desk is covered with items I use every day (a mouse, headphones, a solid-state drive, transparent tape, and...
Open Culture
Get Unlimited Access to Courses & Certificates: Coursera Is Offering 40% (or $159) Off of Coursera...
A heads up on a deal: Between today and June 23, 2024, Coursera is offering a 40% discount on its...
6 months ago
A heads up on a deal: Between today and June 23, 2024, Coursera is offering a 40% discount on its annual subscription plan called “Coursera Plus.” Normally priced at $399, Coursera Plus (now available for $239.40) gives you access to 7,000+ courses for one all-inclusive...
Seth's Blog
What are you thinking about?
A philosopher can spend a month, a year or a career thinking about one knotty problem. Making...
4 months ago
A philosopher can spend a month, a year or a career thinking about one knotty problem. Making assertions, testing theories, understanding how others are thinking about it as well. But this exercise shouldn’t be reserved for academics. What are you working on? When will you change...
Seth's Blog
Unintended consequences
…are still consequences. We’re all participants in the systems around us, and complicit in their...
2 months ago
…are still consequences. We’re all participants in the systems around us, and complicit in their consequences even if we didn’t intend them. First, we need to see the systems, and then we have the opportunity to work to change them.
Seth's Blog
Are you pitching or are you asking?
There are two easy ways to tell: First, if you have a script or a highlighted goal in mind, you’re...
6 months ago
There are two easy ways to tell: First, if you have a script or a highlighted goal in mind, you’re pitching. You’re simply asking questions to create connection, tension or forward motion. Second, if you’re willing to learn and change your point of view as a result of the...
Seth's Blog
Confusion about performance
The thing that your product or service delivers could be called performance, and it’s made of two...
a year ago
The thing that your product or service delivers could be called performance, and it’s made of two components: –The story and expectations and cultural impact of what you do (the story). –The deliverables that are objectively measured (the spec). It helps to have both. Many...
Marian's Blog
Agent V – Global Game Jam 2018 Project
This year I participated in my first game jam, the Global Game Jam 2018. With a team of artists,...
over a year ago
This year I participated in my first game jam, the Global Game Jam 2018. With a team of artists, programmers and a sound designer, we made a video game within 48 hours. You play the game as a virus that infiltrates a company’s headquarters. The virus can not move on its own, it...
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...
Stat Significant
How Long Does Music Stardom Last? A Statistical Analysis
When do music stars achieve fame, and how long does fame typically last?
4 months ago
When do music stars achieve fame, and how long does fame typically last?
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...
a month 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...
Open Culture
Behold the First American Board Game, Travellers’ Tour Through the United States (1822)
Asked to name a classic American board game, most of us would first think of Monopoly, whose imagery...
3 months ago
Asked to name a classic American board game, most of us would first think of Monopoly, whose imagery and verbiage — Park Place, Rich Uncle Pennybags, “Do not pass go” — has worked its way deep into the culture since Parker Brothers brought it to market in 1935. Despite that, it...
Seth's Blog
Two kinds of salad
A useful metaphor for freelancers and small businesses. Every good restaurant should have two...
a year ago
A useful metaphor for freelancers and small businesses. Every good restaurant should have two different salads on the menu. The boring salad is the regular kind. It’s there for people who know that they want a reliable, repeatable, unremarkable salad. It’s the safe part of a safe...
Open Culture
Watch the Opening Credits of an Imaginary 70s Cop Show Starring Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett: avant-garde dramatist, brooding Nobel Prize winner, poet, and…gritty television...
3 months ago
Samuel Beckett: avant-garde dramatist, brooding Nobel Prize winner, poet, and…gritty television detective? Sadly, no, but he had the makings of a great one, at least as cut together by playwright Danny Thompson, cofounder of Chicago’s Theater Oobleck. Some 35 years after...
Open Culture
How Well Does Medieval Armor Actually Stand Up to Medieval Arrows?: A Historical Re-Creation Lets...
The popular image of the medieval suit of armor looks formidable enough that any of us could be...
6 months ago
The popular image of the medieval suit of armor looks formidable enough that any of us could be forgiven for assuming that, with its steel-plated protection, we’d emerge from even the most harrowing battle without a scratch. Yet if we really found ourselves transported to, say,...
Blog - Mac Pierce
p5.js on Squarespace - The Basics
A quick guide on how to get p5.js guides working on Squarespace.
over a year ago
A quick guide on how to get p5.js guides working on Squarespace.
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...
2 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...
Open Culture
How Audrey Hepburn Risked Death to Help the Dutch Resistance in World War II
Audrey Hepburn may not have had the most prolific Hollywood career, but a fair few of her characters...
3 months ago
Audrey Hepburn may not have had the most prolific Hollywood career, but a fair few of her characters still feel today like roles she was born to play. Perhaps the same could have been true of the part of Anne Frank, had she not refused to take it up. When Anne’s father Otto Frank...
Seth's Blog
A small shopping list (floss and more)
Here are some books and household items that I wanted to share. I’m mostly into audiobooks these...
a year ago
Here are some books and household items that I wanted to share. I’m mostly into audiobooks these days–a good narrator combined with a good author is pretty rare and wonderful… It turns out that a breakthrough rice cooker is a bargain, even if it seems expensive at first. The...
Seth's Blog
What sort of bicycle?
While it’s likely that you own a bike, you probably don’t have a front-wheel recumbent bicycle in...
a year ago
While it’s likely that you own a bike, you probably don’t have a front-wheel recumbent bicycle in your garage. Even though it’s more efficient, more comfortable and often faster. How did that happen? In 1933, a twenty-year old speed record was broken by a racer on a recumbent...
Open Culture
How Magician David Copperfield Made the Statue of Liberty Disappear (1983)
In April, 1983, 50 million television viewers watched the illusionist David Copperfield make the...
a month ago
In April, 1983, 50 million television viewers watched the illusionist David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear, straight into thin air. If you’re north of 50, you perhaps remember the spectacle. How did he do it? 40 years later, the YouTube channel Mind Blown Magic...
Seth's Blog
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Among the top 500 grossing Hollywood movies of all time, this movie is the most profitable in return...
a year ago
Among the top 500 grossing Hollywood movies of all time, this movie is the most profitable in return on investment. And among all Hollywood movies in the top 1,500 at the box office, Paranormal Activity is far and away the highest return, outperforming almost any investment the...
Seth's Blog
Evenly distributed
For the first time, the only time, everyone on Earth was in the same boat at the same time. We’ve...
a year ago
For the first time, the only time, everyone on Earth was in the same boat at the same time. We’ve long been divided by privilege, by caste, by accidents of birth or by organized hierarchies. Sure, there have been events that struck us all at once. Landing on the moon caused us...
Open Culture
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
The slog, the hobby and the quest
Here’s a simple XY grid to help you think about your next project, freelance career or startup: All...
a year ago
Here’s a simple XY grid to help you think about your next project, freelance career or startup: All too common are ‘fun’ businesses where someone finds a hobby they like and tries to turn it into a gig. While the work may be fun, the uphill grind of this sort of project is...
Marian's Blog
3D printed model of my neighborhood
I 3D printed a model of the street where I live. This post will explain how I prepared the data for...
over a year ago
I 3D printed a model of the street where I live. This post will explain how I prepared the data for it.
Update: I have now automated the entire process and published my code. You can find it here.
I worked with aerial Lidar data that is provided by the state I live in to download...
Seth's Blog
The A.R.E. skills matter more than ever
Perhaps this is what your team needs from you: Agreeableness is not the same as agreeing. In fact,...
a year ago
Perhaps this is what your team needs from you: Agreeableness is not the same as agreeing. In fact, they have little in common. Finding someone who’s only job is to agree with everything that is said is easy. On the other hand, agreeableness is the skill of having a contrary...
Anarchy Unfolds
Straight Talk About Being Gay
Transcending orientation helps straight men and boys too
4 months ago
Transcending orientation helps straight men and boys too
Seth's Blog
Later or now?
When we feel like doing something selfish, indulgent, hurtful or short-term, we can simply decide to...
9 months ago
When we feel like doing something selfish, indulgent, hurtful or short-term, we can simply decide to do it later. And when it occurs to us that we might be able to make a useful contribution or do something important, perhaps we could do it now.
Seth's Blog
Leverage is brittle
Debt is a financial miracle. If you buy a property for 20% down, with the bank financing the rest,...
a year ago
Debt is a financial miracle. If you buy a property for 20% down, with the bank financing the rest, and it goes up in value by just 10%, your profit is 50%. (I’ll wait while you do the math.) If you have a factory and can buy a machine that increases productivity, the money you...
Open Culture
George Harrison Explains Why Everyone Should Play the Ukulele
George Harrison loved the ukulele, and really, what’s not to love? For its dainty size, the uke can...
2 months ago
George Harrison loved the ukulele, and really, what’s not to love? For its dainty size, the uke can make a powerfully cheerful sound, and it’s an instrument both beginners and expert players can learn and easily carry around. As Harrison’s old friend Joe Brown remarked, “You can...
Seth's Blog
Communications hygiene (and the demise of texting)
Attention is scarce. Decisions are difficult. Searching takes effort. For thirty years, texting has...
11 months ago
Attention is scarce. Decisions are difficult. Searching takes effort. For thirty years, texting has been a powerful medium. It’s the thing that vibrates in our pocket. It promises something urgent, and a reply that’s demanded equally urgently. “I’m running ten minutes late,” is a...
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...
Stat Significant
Does 'Avatar' Have No Cultural Footprint? A Statistical Analysis
Investigating claims of Avatar's cultural irrelevance.
2 months ago
Investigating claims of Avatar's cultural irrelevance.
Open Culture
Johnny Cash & The Clash’s Joe Strummer Sing Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” (2002)
In 1958, Merle Haggard saw Johnny Cash play in San Quentin, and went on to sing honest country songs...
2 months ago
In 1958, Merle Haggard saw Johnny Cash play in San Quentin, and went on to sing honest country songs for country outlaws. In 1982, future Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello saw Joe Strummer play with The Clash in Chicago and went on to play angry righteous rock for...
Open Culture
David Bowie’s 100 Must Read Books
Image by Avro, via Wikimedia Commons In 2013, the curators of the touring museum exhibit “David...
3 months ago
Image by Avro, via Wikimedia Commons In 2013, the curators of the touring museum exhibit “David Bowie Is” released a list of David Bowie’s 100 favorite reads, providing us with deeper insights into his literary tastes. Covering fiction and non-fiction, the list spans six decades,...
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,...
a month 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...
Seth's Blog
Falling behind
We’re not in races very often. Usually, what we’re doing is more like a walkathon, or perhaps, a...
a year ago
We’re not in races very often. Usually, what we’re doing is more like a walkathon, or perhaps, a hike. And yet, we’ve been pushed to believe that the only performance that matters is a scarcity-based victory. They close the parkway near my house on Sundays. As people pedal along,...
Seth's Blog
The leap
In action movies, there’s a lot of leaping. Brave shifts in which the hero gets from here to there,...
9 months ago
In action movies, there’s a lot of leaping. Brave shifts in which the hero gets from here to there, all at once. It’s easy to imagine that sudden leaps are how we make our impact. This is blog post #9000 (give or take). When did the leap happen? It wasn’t an external leap. The...
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
Seth's Blog
The clamp and the mallet
While building a project, I found that a key part was stuck. I tapped it with a mallet, then harder,...
a year ago
While building a project, I found that a key part was stuck. I tapped it with a mallet, then harder, and eventually whacked at it. No luck. Then I got smart and put three clamps around the part, gently turning each one, increasing the pressure, until it simply popped out....
Seth's Blog
Hiding the ‘aha’
The most effective persuasion happens when we persuade ourselves. The purpose of the memo or the...
9 months ago
The most effective persuasion happens when we persuade ourselves. The purpose of the memo or the table or the graph or the presentation is to create the conditions for someone to make up their own minds. Because it’s almost impossible to make up their mind for them. The aha is...
Seth's Blog
Fingerprints
If a jacket is made by Patagonia or a piece of hardware is made by Teenage Engineering, you can...
7 months ago
If a jacket is made by Patagonia or a piece of hardware is made by Teenage Engineering, you can probably tell who made it the first time you see it, even without a logo. A painting by Sonia Delaunay doesn’t need to be signed to know who it’s by. On the other hand, AppleTV streams...
Seth's Blog
(Free) subscription drive
Every four years, give or take, I make a big but cheap ask: Consider subscribing to this blog. If...
9 months ago
Every four years, give or take, I make a big but cheap ask: Consider subscribing to this blog. If you’re already a subscriber, please ask five colleagues or friends to subscribe. It’s free. You can subscribe by email by putting your email address in the little box. Click below if...
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
The paradox of brittle
Optimizing a device or system means squeezing every drop of productivity out of it. In the...
2 months ago
Optimizing a device or system means squeezing every drop of productivity out of it. In the short-run, optimization works as long as the world stays the same. We can optimize a device to work at capacity. However, something working at capacity blows up if you step on the gas when...
Seth's Blog
The 2 x 4 lessons
You’ll need two 8-foot boards and six five-gallon buckets. Each board is a standard 2 x 4, about two...
a year ago
You’ll need two 8-foot boards and six five-gallon buckets. Each board is a standard 2 x 4, about two inches by four inches in size. And the bucket is about two feet deep. The first lesson is simple: Put the board on the floor and have a colleague walk from one end to the other....
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...
Open Culture
Bertrand Russell’s 10 Commandments for Living in a Healthy Democracy
Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons Bertrand Russell saw the history of civilization as...
a month ago
Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons Bertrand Russell saw the history of civilization as being shaped by an unfortunate oscillation between two opposing evils: tyranny and anarchy, each of which contains the seed of the other. The best course for steering clear of...
Prolost
Apple’s “Let Loose” iPad Event was Shot on iPhone — With Panavision Lenses
Still from Apple’s “Let Loose” video.
Apple unveiled their new line of iPads yesterday in a...
7 months ago
Still from Apple’s “Let Loose” video.
Apple unveiled their new line of iPads yesterday in a pre-recorded video titled “Let Loose.” As with the previous “Scary Fast” MacBook Pro launch video, “Let Loose” ends with a tag proclaiming “Shot on iPhone” — this time adding “Edited on...
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.
Open Culture
A 6‑Step Guide to Zen Buddhism, Presented by Psychiatrist-Zen Master Robert Waldinger
Robert Waldinger works as a part-time professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, but he also...
7 months ago
Robert Waldinger works as a part-time professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, but he also describes himself as a “Zen master.” This may strike some listeners as a presumptuous claim, but he has indeed been officially accepted as a rōshi in two different Zen lineages in...
Seth's Blog
Judgment
AI pushes us to do what we actually get paid to do: make decisions. Craft used to drive our hours or...
a year ago
AI pushes us to do what we actually get paid to do: make decisions. Craft used to drive our hours or even days. Get the pen lines just right. Source the Letraset. Get your instrument in tune. Sweat the details, because the details are everything. Now, I can choose from 1,000...
Seth's Blog
For customers vs to customers
In the life of every enterprise, the moment arises when a choice has to be made: Are you here for...
a year ago
In the life of every enterprise, the moment arises when a choice has to be made: Are you here for your customers, to give them what they seek, or are you trying to do something to your customers, to squeeze out extra income? This doesn’t mean that the only path is to keep...
Handprinted - Blog
Drypoint with Aluminium Plates
Drypoint is an intaglio printmaking method that involves scratching an image into a plate with a...
a year ago
Drypoint is an intaglio printmaking method that involves scratching an image into a plate with a pointed tool. These lines create a burr that holds ink, meaning that the print reveals the drawing.
Drypoint is an easy technique to get to grips with and is a great method if you...
Open Culture
Hear the Very First Adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 in a Radio Play Starring David Niven (1949)
Since George Orwell published his landmark political fable 1984, each generation has found ample...
4 months ago
Since George Orwell published his landmark political fable 1984, each generation has found ample reason to make reference to the grim near-future envisioned by the novel. Whether Orwell had some prophetic vision or was simply a very astute reader of the institutions of his...
Open Culture
Martin Scorsese Plays Vincent Van Gogh in a Short, Surreal Film by Akira Kurosawa
The idea of the auteur director has been a controversial one at times given the sheer number of...
5 months ago
The idea of the auteur director has been a controversial one at times given the sheer number of people required at every stage to produce a film. But it hangs together for me when you look at the films of say, Martin Scorsese or Akira Kurosawa, both directors with very...
Open Culture
Discover Paul Éluard and Max Ernst’s Still-Bizarre Proto-Surrealist Book Les Malheurs des immortels...
When the names of French poet Paul Éluard and German artist Max Ernst arise, one subject always...
a month ago
When the names of French poet Paul Éluard and German artist Max Ernst arise, one subject always follows: that of their years-long ménage à trois — or rather, “marriage à trois,” as a New York Times article by Annette Grant once put it. It started in 1921, Grant writes, when the...
Seth's Blog
Rituals
The things we do each day, every day, often arrive without intent. By the time we realize that...
a year ago
The things we do each day, every day, often arrive without intent. By the time we realize that they’re now habits, these random behaviors have already become part of how we define ourselves and the time we spend. Bringing intent to our rituals gives us the chance to rewire our...
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
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...
6 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...
Seth's Blog
When in doubt, look for the fear
When someone acts in a surprising way, we can begin to understand by wondering what they might be...
a year ago
When someone acts in a surprising way, we can begin to understand by wondering what they might be afraid of.
Seth's Blog
Responsibility and blame
It’s tempting to hand it to other people. If someone else takes the blame, if they accept the...
8 months ago
It’s tempting to hand it to other people. If someone else takes the blame, if they accept the responsibility, then we get satisfaction and we’re off the hook. Alas, this doesn’t work unless the others do the taking and do the accepting. Which is unlikely. We’re giving power to...
Blog - Mac Pierce
The Opt-Out Cap, detailed assembly with photos.
How to assemble the Opt-Out Cap, a tool for facial recognition obfuscation.
over a year ago
How to assemble the Opt-Out Cap, a tool for facial recognition obfuscation.
Seth's Blog
Defending the apostrophe
Does it need defending? The sign on some bushes near a park in my town says, Beware: Bee’s. A local...
a year ago
Does it need defending? The sign on some bushes near a park in my town says, Beware: Bee’s. A local merchant adds a note to some receipts that says, Your awesome. It’s tempting to speak up and point out that the sky comma is showing up where it shouldn’t. And missing when it...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: 2023 Round Up!
What a fantastic array of makers we've had featured on our Meet the Maker blog this year. We've put...
a year ago
What a fantastic array of makers we've had featured on our Meet the Maker blog this year. We've put together a round up for you with all of the wonderful advice our makers have given for creatives at any stage of their creative practice.
Pop your feet up, grab yourself a nice...
Open Culture
The Doctor Who Theme Reimagined as a Jacques Brel-esque Jazz Tune
?si=tyjBCsSNLIAgh7SM Written by Ron Grainer, and then famously arranged and recorded by Delia...
2 months ago
?si=tyjBCsSNLIAgh7SM Written by Ron Grainer, and then famously arranged and recorded by Delia Derbyshire in 1963, the Doctor Who theme song has been adapted and covered many times, and even referenced by Pink Floyd. In the hands of comedian Bill Bailey, the song comes out a...
Open Culture
Jimi Hendrix Unplugged: Two Great Recordings of Hendrix Playing Acoustic Guitar
As a young guitar player, perhaps no one inspired me as much as Jimi Hendrix, though I never dreamed...
5 months ago
As a young guitar player, perhaps no one inspired me as much as Jimi Hendrix, though I never dreamed I’d attain even a fraction of his skill. But what attracted me to him was his near-total lack of formality—he didn’t read music, wasn’t trained in any classical sense, played an...
Seth's Blog
Throwing shade or throwing light?
One takes a little more effort than the other. While throwing shade might be more fun, it eventually...
a year ago
One takes a little more effort than the other. While throwing shade might be more fun, it eventually runs out of energy. It’s designed to end conversations, not start them, to intimidate, not encourage. Turning on lights helps everyone.
Seth's Blog
Podcasts, international covers and more
I just received copies of the new reprints of four of my books in the UK: I’m really pleased at how...
9 months ago
I just received copies of the new reprints of four of my books in the UK: I’m really pleased at how the books have stayed relevant and also delighted at what a good job the publisher did with the reissues. Also, the Italian version of This is Marketing just went back for its 14th...
Infinite Scroll
On Consumption vs Production
How to improve yourself and be happier, online or offline
a month ago
How to improve yourself and be happier, online or offline
Seth's Blog
Discovery and invention
Isaac Newton didn’t invent gravity. It was there all along. He simply named and explained it. The...
2 months ago
Isaac Newton didn’t invent gravity. It was there all along. He simply named and explained it. The same is true for planets, continents and obscure species. They’re discovered, not invented. Michelangelo talked about removing all the parts of the marble that weren’t the statue on...
Open Culture
The Final Days of Leo Tolstoy Captured in Rare Footage from 1910
114 years ago today (November 20, 1910), Leo Tolstoy—the author who gave us two major Russian...
a month ago
114 years ago today (November 20, 1910), Leo Tolstoy—the author who gave us two major Russian classics Anna Karenina and War & Peace—died at Astapovo, a small, remote train station in the heart of Russia. Pneumonia was the official cause. His death came just weeks after Tolstoy,...
Open Culture
The Writer Who Directed, The Director Who Wrote: Every Frame a Painting Explores the Genius of Billy...
When the acclaimed cinema video-essay channel Every Frame a Painting made its comeback this past...
2 months ago
When the acclaimed cinema video-essay channel Every Frame a Painting made its comeback this past summer, its creators Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos took a close look at the “sustained two-shot,” which captures a stretch of dialogue between two characters without the interference of...
Open Culture
Public.Work: A Smoothly Searchable Archive of 100,000+ “Copyright-Free” Images
We live in an age, we’re often told, when our ability to conjure up an image is limited only by our...
4 months ago
We live in an age, we’re often told, when our ability to conjure up an image is limited only by our imagination. These days, this notion tends to refer to artificial intelligence-powered systems that generate visual material from text prompts, like DALL‑E and the many others that...
Seth's Blog
Did you see it in the theater?
We’re in the middle of a huge and unusual shift. The magazine publisher acted like the best sales...
6 months ago
We’re in the middle of a huge and unusual shift. The magazine publisher acted like the best sales were newsstand sales, even though the profit came from subscriptions and most people simply visited the website. Book publishers and editors seem to focus on selling copies on paper,...
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
True/useful
Here’s a simple grid that might change the way you think about internal stories: When we believe in...
a year ago
Here’s a simple grid that might change the way you think about internal stories: When we believe in something that’s useful but not true, it can serve a helpful purpose. The tooth fairy, perhaps. When we act on something that’s useful and also true, we’ve found a resilient path...
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...
6 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...
Seth's Blog
Just looking
Lots of people go to the beach but very few get in the water. 3,000 students go to the football game...
a year ago
Lots of people go to the beach but very few get in the water. 3,000 students go to the football game to watch 20 of their peers play. And we go to a conference to meet people and connect, and then spend most of our time hoping someone else will see us and care enough […]
Seth's Blog
Hungry (vs. not full)
If consumption is the point (the engine of the economy, the focus of our marketing, the driver of...
5 months ago
If consumption is the point (the engine of the economy, the focus of our marketing, the driver of our status) then it’s easy to get confused about the difference between something that’s nearly empty (and must be refilled to ensure we keep going) and something that’s not quite...
Open Culture
Carl Jung Psychoanalyzes Hitler: “He’s the Unconscious of 78 Million Germans.” “Without the German...
Were you to google “Carl Jung and Nazism”—and I’m not suggesting that you do—you would find yourself...
a month ago
Were you to google “Carl Jung and Nazism”—and I’m not suggesting that you do—you would find yourself hip-deep in the charges that Jung was an anti-Semite and a Nazi sympathizer. Many sites condemn or exonerate him; many others celebrate him as a blood and soil Aryan hero. It can...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
What is Generative Art?
Randomness, rules and natural systems. Some non-restrictive definitions and
an exploration of the...
over a year ago
Randomness, rules and natural systems. Some non-restrictive definitions and
an exploration of the form.
Blog - Mac Pierce
10 Billion Minus 1 - Making a 10 digit 7 segment display for Lovepop
The process and steps of making a multi-digit display.
over a year ago
The process and steps of making a multi-digit display.
Seth's Blog
Are you doing what you said you wanted to do?
If you want to be a poet, write poetry. Every day. Show us your work. If you want to do improv,...
a year ago
If you want to be a poet, write poetry. Every day. Show us your work. If you want to do improv, start a troupe. Don’t wait to get picked. If you want to help animals, don’t wait for vet school. Volunteer at an animal shelter right now. If you want to write a screenplay, write […]
Seth's Blog
Glib
One of the valid complaints about some AI systems is that they make stuff up, with confidence, and...
5 months ago
One of the valid complaints about some AI systems is that they make stuff up, with confidence, and without sourcing, and then argue when challenged. Unsurprisingly, this sounds a lot like people. We often end up with what we are willing to tolerate. Show your work and ask for...
Seth's Blog
Default to surrender
AI chatbots highight a challenge that is worth understanding. It applies to customer service,...
9 months ago
AI chatbots highight a challenge that is worth understanding. It applies to customer service, bureaucracies and teachers as well… If you ask an AI a question and it’s not confident in the answer, it should say, “I’m not sure.” That could be followed up with, “do you want me to...
Open Culture
Take a Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, the Mansion That Has Appeared in Blade Runner, Twin...
There are more than a few of us who’d enjoy the opportunity to live in a house that appears in Blade...
2 months ago
There are more than a few of us who’d enjoy the opportunity to live in a house that appears in Blade Runner; there are rather few of us who would value that opportunity at $23 million, the asking price given in the 2019 Architectural Digest video on Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1924...
Seth's Blog
Explaining it to a kid
It can be difficult. Explaining atoms or molecules, or decision making, or what you do at your job…...
a year ago
It can be difficult. Explaining atoms or molecules, or decision making, or what you do at your job… The reason that it’s difficult is that in order to explain something, we need to really understand it first. Not simply be able to do the task or ace the test. But understand. And...
Seth's Blog
The paradigm flip
Paradigm shifts are appealing but rarely well executed. A paradigm is our mental model of the world....
a year ago
Paradigm shifts are appealing but rarely well executed. A paradigm is our mental model of the world. We’re surrounded by people who share a similar model, and as long as the model is working, we live our lives without thinking much about it. If you lived in a space station, the...
Open Culture
Hear the Isolated Vocals of Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush in “Don’t Give Up”: The Power of Perseverance
Just by chance, could you use a song about perseverance and overcoming adversity? Something to give...
a month ago
Just by chance, could you use a song about perseverance and overcoming adversity? Something to give you a little encouragement and reassurance? Then we submit to you “Don’t Give Up,” featuring the isolated vocals of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. When he released the song on his...
Seth's Blog
Digital prepwork
It’s so tempting to simply begin painting a wall. After all, it’s pretty easy to lay down paint. But...
a year ago
It’s so tempting to simply begin painting a wall. After all, it’s pretty easy to lay down paint. But it turns out that masking and dropcloths, painstakingly put into place, save many hours compared to cleaning up a mess afterward. The same is true for what happens when we have a...
Marian's Blog
Procedural pixelart generator
I made a procedural pixelart generator that is inspired by the art style of the upcoming space...
over a year ago
I made a procedural pixelart generator that is inspired by the art style of the upcoming space adventure game No Man’s Sky.
Check it out and generate your own pixelart:
https://marian42.github.io/proceduralart/
The art generator is written in javascript and uses noise functions...
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
“For what purposes will it be useful?”
In 1840, at the dawn of the information age, the king of Sardinia asked Charles Babbage what nearly...
9 months ago
In 1840, at the dawn of the information age, the king of Sardinia asked Charles Babbage what nearly instant messaging like the telegraph could possibly be good for. Twenty years later, it was obvious. When I first saw Prodigy in 1986, I saw that the consumer internet would have...
Seth's Blog
Getting the word out
“How do you get the word out?” I’ve heard this from presidential candidates, from small business...
8 months ago
“How do you get the word out?” I’ve heard this from presidential candidates, from small business leaders and nonprofits as well. It’s easy to believe that the goal of marketing is to shout, hype, hustle and otherwise promote. It’s tempting to focus on your story as the top of the...
Seth's Blog
“What should I do now?”
We’ve forgotten how often society had an answer for that question. Perhaps our shift away from a...
a month ago
We’ve forgotten how often society had an answer for that question. Perhaps our shift away from a dictated answer not only gives us freedom, it also creates ennui and fear. The culture of a generation or two ago told you where to study, what to study, how to cut your hair, what to...
Open Culture
Pink Floyd Plays in Venice on a Massive Floating Stage in 1989; Forces the Mayor & City Council to...
When Roger Waters left Pink Floyd after 1983’s The Final Cut, the remaining members had good reason...
8 months ago
When Roger Waters left Pink Floyd after 1983’s The Final Cut, the remaining members had good reason to assume the band was truly, as Waters proclaimed, “a spent force.” After releasing solo projects in the next few years, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright soon...
Seth's Blog
Signal and noise
If the signal is very weak and the noise is large, it’s easy to imagine that there’s no signal at...
a year ago
If the signal is very weak and the noise is large, it’s easy to imagine that there’s no signal at all. AI and computers can be used as lenses now, which means we can strip away the noise and see things that we certainly didn’t expect. Dina Katabi at MIT can point a radio antenna...
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.
Seth's Blog
Tricked (again)
If you knew then what you know now, would you have made the same decision? In the last fifty years,...
a year ago
If you knew then what you know now, would you have made the same decision? In the last fifty years, more than 25,000,000 Americans have died prematurely due to cigarette smoking. Worldwide, it’s significantly higher. That’s fifty times as many U.S. citizens as died in World War...
Seth's Blog
All species are invasive species
Human beings as we know them have only been around for 70,000 years or so. Honeybees got to North...
a year ago
Human beings as we know them have only been around for 70,000 years or so. Honeybees got to North America around the time Columbus did. And the same is true for technologies and companies. Western Union was an interloper, telegrams were the scary new tech that was going to change...
Stat Significant
Unpacking the Rise of Fan Fiction: From 'Star Trek' to 'Twilight'—A Statistical Analysis
An exploration of modern fan fiction and the unique demography of its participants.
2 weeks ago
An exploration of modern fan fiction and the unique demography of its participants.
On the Arts
Link List: 20 Articles + Websites About the Arts
A wide-ranging collection of links on ballet, ugly architecture, Soviet Control rooms, Hokusai, and...
a year ago
A wide-ranging collection of links on ballet, ugly architecture, Soviet Control rooms, Hokusai, and nifty CSS tools.
Handprinted - Blog
Making a Multi-Block Linocut
A multi-block linocut uses more than one piece of lino to create a layered image. Usually, each...
a year ago
A multi-block linocut uses more than one piece of lino to create a layered image. Usually, each block is inked with a separate colour. Where the colours overlap, another colour can be achieved.
Multi-block linocuts allow you to partially print an edition and create complete...
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
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,...
Seth's Blog
Remarkable pronouncements
The scientific rule of thumb is simple: When you make a bold claim, you need significant research to...
a year ago
The scientific rule of thumb is simple: When you make a bold claim, you need significant research to back it up. Telling us that eating vegetables is healthy can be justified by a fairly simple high school science paper. But if you want to claim that the moon is made of celery...
Seth's Blog
Celebrating the thousand with a special package
[Lots of links in this post… US offer is here, international is here.] Ideas travel horizontally....
3 months ago
[Lots of links in this post… US offer is here, international is here.] Ideas travel horizontally. Not from the creator to the audience as much as from one person to another. It’s easy to misunderstand the insight of Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans. Decades ago he argued that the...
Marian's Blog
Game prototypes
I’d like to share two game prototypes I made a few years ago. The first one is based on Tetris:
...
over a year ago
I’d like to share two game prototypes I made a few years ago. The first one is based on Tetris:
It was written in C++ with bare-bones OpenGL. Once you press shift, the game enters a “fast mode”, where the down button takes a piece all the way down and if you...
Seth's Blog
Three sheet metaphors
Here’s a large blue bedsheet, queen sized. If we’re going to pull it taut, it will take the...
a year ago
Here’s a large blue bedsheet, queen sized. If we’re going to pull it taut, it will take the coordinated effort of eight people, each pulling just the right amount, from each corner and edge. If we’re going to billow it up and down, like a parachute, we’re going to need those...
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...
Stat Significant
Why Do People Like True Crime? A Statistical Analysis
Exploring the appeal of true crime podcasts and docuseries.
4 months ago
Exploring the appeal of true crime podcasts and docuseries.
The Great Discontent...
Beatie Wolfe
Beatie Wolfe has beamed her music into space, been appointed a UN role model for innovation, and...
a year ago
Beatie Wolfe has beamed her music into space, been appointed a UN role model for innovation, and pioneered new formats for art that bridge the physical and digital. Wolfe's latest projects include a visualization of 800,000 years worth of climate data, a collective postcard art...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
A strange kind of physical reality
A long-form generative art project coming to fxhash in partnership with FAB DAO on 11th Jan 2024....
11 months ago
A long-form generative art project coming to fxhash in partnership with FAB DAO on 11th Jan 2024.
This series is inspired, in the abstract, by the images I visualise when reading about quantum theory. Particularly thoughts of particles spreading out as waves and then collapsing...
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...
a month 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
The hubris of creativity
Where’s your permit? Who said you could try to solve this problem? I don’t get it… That’s too...
6 months ago
Where’s your permit? Who said you could try to solve this problem? I don’t get it… That’s too original. It’s not original enough. You missed a comma. That’s not funny. That’s been done before. That’s never been done before. It’s not your best work. None of us are authorized to...
Open Culture
William S. Burroughs’ Scathing “Thanksgiving Prayer,” Shot by Gus Van Sant
“Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986” first appeared in print in Tornado Alley, a chapbook published by...
3 weeks ago
“Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986” first appeared in print in Tornado Alley, a chapbook published by William S. Burroughs in 1989. Two years later, Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, My Own Private Idaho, Milk) shot a montage that brought the poem to film, making it at least the...
Seth's Blog
The perfect conditions
Somewhere, there is the ideal soil for growing mangoes. Or the best possible wave for surfing. Or...
a year ago
Somewhere, there is the ideal soil for growing mangoes. Or the best possible wave for surfing. Or the most romantic sunset for a proposal. But it’s not right here and it’s not right now. Our success has a lot to do with how we dance with conditions that aren’t quite perfect.
Marian's Blog
Adversarial Generation of Continuous Implicit Shape Representations
This article provides an overview of the paper "Adversarial Generation of Continuous Implicit Shape...
over a year ago
This article provides an overview of the paper "Adversarial Generation of Continuous Implicit Shape Representations", which I co-authored with Matthias Fey.
While the paper focuses on the theoretical aspects, I'll provide a higher level explanation and and some visualizations...
Seth's Blog
The first nine minutes
Mixing up a batch of homemade vegan marshmallow Fluff® is an exercise in patience. For the first...
a year ago
Mixing up a batch of homemade vegan marshmallow Fluff® is an exercise in patience. For the first nine minutes of the ten minutes it takes in the mixer, not much happens. And then, it transforms into something fluffy and delightful. Without the recipe, it’s unlikely that most...
Seth's Blog
The paradox of self skepticism
If we’re to publish, teach, invent, imagine or promote, we need the confidence to believe that we...
5 months ago
If we’re to publish, teach, invent, imagine or promote, we need the confidence to believe that we have something to offer. That we are, in some way, right. But the enterprise of rational thought is based on theories, tests and improvements. We can never be certain, all we have is...
Seth's Blog
Our homunculus is showing
The little person at the control panel, the one who sees what the retina produces, the one who...
a year ago
The little person at the control panel, the one who sees what the retina produces, the one who decides, the one who speaks up… (This is the dualist solution to the free will problem–yes, I have a physical body, they say, but I also have a little human inside of me that gets to...
Seth's Blog
The leaping curve
The learning curve is familiar to many people. It might be steep, but it’s continuous. Organizations...
a year ago
The learning curve is familiar to many people. It might be steep, but it’s continuous. Organizations (and people) work their way up it, one step at a time (it’s the black line in the graph below). But there’s rarely a continuous learning curve. Instead, it’s often interrupted by...
Seth's Blog
Study groups
If I had to choose one metric that would determine how well someone would do in law school, it...
a year ago
If I had to choose one metric that would determine how well someone would do in law school, it wouldn’t be the LSAT or another test. It would be whether or not they formed a study group, and who else was in it. Of course, the same is true for your project, or any sort […]
Infinite Scroll
Is a Progressive Joe Rogan Impossible?
Why the online environment has broken sharply to the right
a month ago
Why the online environment has broken sharply to the right
Seth's Blog
The lens or the problem?
We often see problems through the lens that we’re used to using. The banker sees a solution around...
a year ago
We often see problems through the lens that we’re used to using. The banker sees a solution around money, the activist might see an opportunity for social justice. The technologist figures that a computer and more data might help, and the bureaucrat is looking for a system to put...
Anarchy Unfolds
Paths to peace
Letters to an anarchist - Part 4
a month ago
Letters to an anarchist - Part 4
Open Culture
How Kodak Invented the Snapshot in the 1800s, Making It Possible for Everyone to Be a Photographer
We still occasionally speak of “Kodak moments,” making conscious or unconscious reference to the...
2 months ago
We still occasionally speak of “Kodak moments,” making conscious or unconscious reference to the slogan of the Eastman Kodak Company in the nineteen-eighties. Even by that time, Kodak had already been a going concern for nearly a century, furnishing photographers around the world...
Seth's Blog
Captives of memetic desire
How much of what we want, really want, is due to the ideas that culture has given us, and how much...
a year ago
How much of what we want, really want, is due to the ideas that culture has given us, and how much is truly what we need? If memetic desire isn’t making us happy, perhaps we can find some new ideas.
Seth's Blog
The good china
Once you use your plates every day, they cease to be the good china. Of course, the plates didn’t...
a year ago
Once you use your plates every day, they cease to be the good china. Of course, the plates didn’t change. Your story did. The way you treat them did. The same goes for the red carpet. If you roll it out for every visitor or every customer, it ceases to be red.
Seth's Blog
Learning in August
What better time? An hour a day for a month and you can learn a skill you’ll have forever. Beach...
4 months ago
What better time? An hour a day for a month and you can learn a skill you’ll have forever. Beach reads are a fine way to chill out, but a month spent to learn a skill is a fine way to take advantage of a quiet time. My brand new course on Strategy is now […]
Seth's Blog
Important change is systems change
Willpower is overrated. If you want to eat healthier, don’t work hard to avoid stopping at the...
4 months ago
Willpower is overrated. If you want to eat healthier, don’t work hard to avoid stopping at the cookie jar when you walk into the kitchen. Get rid of the cookie jar. Systems are long-lasting, widespread and resilient. We can push back on them with effort, but over time, the system...
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
Bambi Meets Godzilla: #38 on the List of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time (1969)
In 1994, Jerry Beck edited the book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation...
a month ago
In 1994, Jerry Beck edited the book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals, which challenged experts to create a ranking of the best short, cel animated cartoons ever made. To no one’s surprise, the experts chose 10 Warner Bros. animations crafted...
Seth's Blog
A good idea, well executed
Why isn’t this enough? There are plenty of good ideas, easy to learn from and copy. There are...
11 months ago
Why isn’t this enough? There are plenty of good ideas, easy to learn from and copy. There are countless projects, well executed, with the steps on display. Any entrepreneur could find a local business and bring a version of it from over here to over there. And a social change...
Seth's Blog
Your preference is not universal
You’re entitled to it, and we will do our best to help you find what you want. But it’s unlikely...
a year ago
You’re entitled to it, and we will do our best to help you find what you want. But it’s unlikely that what you want is what everyone wants. It’s hard to believe that there is only one appropriate standard for value, observance, speed or performance. The easiest way for us to help...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Olesya Dzhurayeva
I am Olesya Dzhurayeva, Ukrainian artist. I was born in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, but I...
5 months ago
I am Olesya Dzhurayeva, Ukrainian artist. I was born in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, but I moved to Ukraine as a child. Now I live in Kyiv. Despite the war, I am staying in Ukraine and continue to work.
I am an active member of the international printmaking community,...
On the Arts
Istanbul's Blue Tile Paradise
The Hidden Mosque of Rüstem Pasha
a year ago
The Hidden Mosque of Rüstem Pasha
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...
Seth's Blog
The magic of a page a day
In 1979, the page-a-day calendar was born. It’s basically a book on its side, but the user rips off...
a year ago
In 1979, the page-a-day calendar was born. It’s basically a book on its side, but the user rips off a page each day. My friend Michael Cader took this concept and ran with it, creating calendars that sold millions of copies. Of course, everyone knows what day it is, and if you...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: The Squirrel Gestapo
Dead Squirrels, Community Notes, and Good Frog Energy
a month ago
Dead Squirrels, Community Notes, and Good Frog Energy
Seth's Blog
Refusing the salon of the refused
This week is the 150th anniversary of the most important failed art exhibit of all time. It was...
8 months ago
This week is the 150th anniversary of the most important failed art exhibit of all time. It was organized by and featured artists who weren’t even among those that had a slot at the runner’s up exhibit for artists who weren’t featured in the real Salon in Paris. Manet didn’t have...
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 […]
Seth's Blog
The intentional stance
Dan Dennett explained that it began as a survival mechanism. It’s important to predict how someone...
6 months ago
Dan Dennett explained that it began as a survival mechanism. It’s important to predict how someone else is going to behave. That tiger might be a threat, that person from the next village might have something to offer. If we simply wait and see, we might encounter an unwelcome or...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Pia Bramley
I’m an artist, illustrator and printmaker. Having left London after a decade of city life I now live...
a year ago
I’m an artist, illustrator and printmaker. Having left London after a decade of city life I now live and work in The New Forest, squeezing in drawing and printing around caring for a three year old.
How and where did you learn to print?
I did my foundation at KIAD (formerly...
Seth's Blog
An overlooked and powerful editing tool
Consider building a word cloud of your writing. It might be all the text on your website, or the...
6 months ago
Consider building a word cloud of your writing. It might be all the text on your website, or the last 50 emails you sent. It might be your new book or the speech you’re going to give at Rice University. It only takes a few minutes. I use wordclouds.com because it’s easy and free....
cabel.com
The Forged Apple Employee Badge
Here’s a quick and cautionary tale. This eBay auction, spotted by Eric Vitiello, immediately caught...
7 months ago
Here’s a quick and cautionary tale. This eBay auction, spotted by Eric Vitiello, immediately caught my eye: Wow. Someone was selling Apple Employee #10’s employee badge?! What an incredible piece of Apple history! Sure, it’s not Steve Jobs’ badge (despite the auction title), but...
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
Destino: The Salvador Dalí — Disney Collaboration 57 Years in the Making
In 2003, Disney released a six minute animated short called Destino, finally bringing closure to a...
a month ago
In 2003, Disney released a six minute animated short called Destino, finally bringing closure to a project that began 57 years earlier. The story of Destino goes way back to 1946 when two very different cultural icons, Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí, decided to work together on a...
Seth's Blog
The steep part of the mountain
The end of the trail is usually difficult, but without the long and winding approach, there isn’t...
3 months ago
The end of the trail is usually difficult, but without the long and winding approach, there isn’t much of a mountain. The greatest hits reel and the stunning photographs leave out most of the hard work. There’s a lot to be said for showing up, one foot in front of the other. In...
Seth's Blog
Good businesses solve real problems
But not all real problems lead to good businesses. There are problems all around us. People need...
a year ago
But not all real problems lead to good businesses. There are problems all around us. People need housing, health care and food. They want delight, belonging and status. When a company shows up in the marketplace with a product or service that people eagerly choose to buy, it’s...
The Last...
How Does The Shutdown Relate To Me?
is Obama there?
Everyone knows ads are propaganda, but what happens
when you have an ad...
over a year ago
is Obama there?
Everyone knows ads are propaganda, but what happens
when you have an ad for propaganda? While
you sip your first Guinness and try to figure out why China's
government can only ever shut down once, you can ponder this ad:
The
only reason you...
Seth's Blog
Nihil hic deest
This page intentionally left blank has a long history. I thought it was an IBM thing from the 1960s,...
a year ago
This page intentionally left blank has a long history. I thought it was an IBM thing from the 1960s, but I was off by a thousand or more years. There are good reasons for a page to be blank. Folding signatures, printing processes, having chapters start on the right or the left…...
Blog - Mac Pierce
+ / - , Actualization
Reposting some writing I did a while back on the subject of how additive
manufacturing is...
over a year ago
Reposting some writing I did a while back on the subject of how additive
manufacturing is necessarily a destructive process.
On the Arts
Plastic palm trees and inflatable pineapples
An Interview with Max Ryynänen on the Tropical Kitsch
a year ago
An Interview with Max Ryynänen on the Tropical Kitsch
Open Culture
The Night When Luciano Pavarotti & James Brown Sang “It’s a Man’s World” Together (2002)
Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown are remembered as larger-than-life performers with an almost...
2 months ago
Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown are remembered as larger-than-life performers with an almost mythical-seeming presence and distinctiveness. But it wasn’t so very long ago that both of them were active — and even active onstage together. In the video above, the King of the High...
Stat Significant
Gender Representation in the Film Industry: A Statistical Analysis
Tracking the evolution of gender representation in acting, directing, and producing.
4 months ago
Tracking the evolution of gender representation in acting, directing, and producing.
Blog - Mac Pierce
Decreasing the F.Q. - A talk on Facial Recognition and the Opt Out Cap
Links to a talk I gave on the Opt-Out cap and the state of surveillance via
facial recognition.
over a year ago
Links to a talk I gave on the Opt-Out cap and the state of surveillance via
facial recognition.
Seth's Blog
Empathy at a distance
… is almost as difficult as empathy up close. That person that’s not like you, from way over there,...
3 months ago
… is almost as difficult as empathy up close. That person that’s not like you, from way over there, the one that’s on the other team–it’s hard to imagine what they’re dealing with. They don’t believe what you believe, they haven’t experienced what you’ve experienced. And the...
Seth's Blog
The sportscar quadrants
They apply to jobs, relationships, art projects and everything in between: The top right is the rare...
a year ago
They apply to jobs, relationships, art projects and everything in between: The top right is the rare one–a car that goes fast but doesn’t feel like it’s on the edge. The hot rod is a car that is actually pretty safe, precisely because it doesn’t feel that way. You don’t have to...
Seth's Blog
Living in hyperbole
In the pre-media world, we bumped into fables, or news from across the village, but mostly, our role...
a year ago
In the pre-media world, we bumped into fables, or news from across the village, but mostly, our role models and experiences were based on reality. Now, when it’s not unusual to spend eight hours a day surrounded by media fueled by greatest hits (worst offender, breaking news,...
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
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...
2 weeks 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...
Open Culture
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Is Now a Retro Video Game
The Rocky Horror Picture Show–it started first as a musical stage production in 1973, then became a...
2 months ago
The Rocky Horror Picture Show–it started first as a musical stage production in 1973, then became a cult classic film in 1975. Now, a half-century later, it gets reborn as a retro video game. Scheduled to be released by Halloween, the game features “8‑bit chiptune renditions of...
Open Culture
When Leonard Cohen Guest Starred on Miami Vice (1986)
Leonard Cohen was Canada’s answer to Bob Dylan. While best known perhaps as a singer-songwriter who...
2 months ago
Leonard Cohen was Canada’s answer to Bob Dylan. While best known perhaps as a singer-songwriter who penned the tune “Hallelujah” — which was covered by Jeff Buckley, John Cale and just about everyone else under the sun — he was also at varying points in his colorful life a poet,...
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
“No photos”
That’s what it said at the florist shop. I’m guessing because ‘taking’ a photo sometimes feels like...
a year ago
That’s what it said at the florist shop. I’m guessing because ‘taking’ a photo sometimes feels like a taking. The creativity, skill and effort that goes into making a distinctive arrangement might feel uncompensated when someone simply takes the work and posts it. This misses the...
Seth's Blog
The thought that counts
Well, maybe not. In 2024, worldwide gift card sales will pass a trillion dollars for the first time....
4 hours ago
Well, maybe not. In 2024, worldwide gift card sales will pass a trillion dollars for the first time. It’s a good grift. Surveys show that the buyer spends about 21% less per gift than they do when they actually buy something, while the recipients of the gift find themselves...
Handprinted - Blog
How to Design and Print a Half Drop Repeating Pattern
A half drop is a great way of creating a repeating pattern where the repeat is slightly obscured. It...
a year ago
A half drop is a great way of creating a repeating pattern where the repeat is slightly obscured. It can make for a less gridded-looking structure and add complexity to your design. Here's a simple, analogue way to make one.
Start by drawing around your block. We are...
Marian's Blog
Quadrocopter
Ich habe mir dieses Jahr den Traum erfüllt, einen selbst zusammengestellten Quadrocopter zu...
over a year ago
Ich habe mir dieses Jahr den Traum erfüllt, einen selbst zusammengestellten Quadrocopter zu bauen.
Investitionen
Für mich ist dieses Projekt bisher immer an zu hohen Kosten und mangelnden Informationen für Einsteiger gescheitert. Diese Probleme wurden zum Teil ausgeräumt durch...
Seth's Blog
The MVP and fear
The minimum viable product is a powerful way to find out if your solution is going to find a market....
a year ago
The minimum viable product is a powerful way to find out if your solution is going to find a market. Bean-to-bar chocolate in the US didn’t happen because someone raised millions of dollars, built a factory and got shelf space at the A&P. It happened because John Scharffenberger...
The Last...
The Maintenance Of Certification Exam As Fetish
no need to wait for the receipt
(I had reworked an old post for a psychiatry trade journal, which I...
over a year ago
no need to wait for the receipt
(I had reworked an old post for a psychiatry trade journal, which I would happily have linked you to, except that page 2 is behind a login wall. So here is the version I submitted before the editors edited it, slightly longer with more typos. I am...
Seth's Blog
The nuanced challenge of “The Regular Kind”
In a breakthrough study by Alex Berke at MIT, she and her team showed that labeling a menu item as...
a year ago
In a breakthrough study by Alex Berke at MIT, she and her team showed that labeling a menu item as vegan significantly decreased how many people would order it. In similar conditions, it turns out that more people choose exactly the same item if it doesn’t carry that label. One...
Handprinted - Blog
Using Schmincke Water-Based Inks to Create a Jigsaw Linocut
We love the range of colours that are available in Schmincke water-based inks. We’re creating a...
over a year ago
We love the range of colours that are available in Schmincke water-based inks. We’re creating a jigsaw linocut to allow us to use multiple colours of Schmincke ink in just one block!
We are using Easy Carve Blue as it’s soft to cut up with a scalpel, making it ideal for a jigsaw...
Open Culture
Coursera Offers $120 Off of Coursera Plus (Until September 30), Giving You Unlimited Access to...
A quick reminder: As the new school year gets underway, millions of students are heading back to...
3 months ago
A quick reminder: As the new school year gets underway, millions of students are heading back to classrooms. And you can too. From now until September 30, 2024, Coursera is offering a 30% discount on its annual subscription plan called “Coursera Plus.” Normally priced at $399,...
Seth's Blog
Getting it right the first time
How unlikely is this? The artist who paints a masterpiece, from scratch, without hesitation. The...
a year ago
How unlikely is this? The artist who paints a masterpiece, from scratch, without hesitation. The playwright who doesn’t need a workshop or a reading. The architect who designs a food hall that has a layout and vibe that works without one alteration… Evolution is powerful. It...
Seth's Blog
Population and big innovations
It’s tempting to embrace the meme that the best way for humans to solve the big problems in front of...
a year ago
It’s tempting to embrace the meme that the best way for humans to solve the big problems in front of us is to increase the population, perhaps dramatically. The thinking goes that people are the ones who can solve problems, and more people give us more problem-solvers. This...
escape the algorithm
love letters to places i'll never meet
a spooky digital seance
a year ago
Open Culture
An Introduction to the Astonishing Book of Kells, the Iconic Illuminated Manuscript
Whatever set of religious or cultural traditions you come from, you’ve probably seen a Celtic cross...
a month ago
Whatever set of religious or cultural traditions you come from, you’ve probably seen a Celtic cross before. Unlike a conventional cross, it has a circular ring, or “nimbus,” where its arms and stem intersect. The sole addition of that element gives it a highly distinctive look,...
Seth's Blog
“Won’t get fooled again”
Alas, we probably will. Recurring scams, hustles and deceptions work because we’re eager to be...
a month ago
Alas, we probably will. Recurring scams, hustles and deceptions work because we’re eager to be fooled by them. Vaporware, false deadlines, fake budgets, unrealistic promises and straight out con jobs persist because at some level, we demand them. Divisive arguments, mob...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Courtney Arnold
Hello! I’m Courtney, a printmaker specialising in linocut. I live in a little town on the edge of...
a month ago
Hello! I’m Courtney, a printmaker specialising in linocut. I live in a little town on the edge of Dartmoor, nestled between moorland, farmland and the exquisite River Dart.
The wonderful flora and fauna of these rugged and beautiful surroundings is my main inspiration. However,...
Anarchy Unfolds
Harris/Waltz, tenant unions, Bangladesh, UBI
Red Round-up #1
4 months ago
Seth's Blog
Omitting the herbs
Without salt, human beings don’t survive long. But it’s possible to eat for a month without tasting...
3 months ago
Without salt, human beings don’t survive long. But it’s possible to eat for a month without tasting an herb. The food will sustain you. Herbs are an expensive non-obvious addition, while also being a bargain if the goal is to create delight, interest or satisfaction. As we...
Seth's Blog
“What’s the catch?”
It’s an important question. Lots of opportunities come with one, and going in with your eyes open...
8 months ago
It’s an important question. Lots of opportunities come with one, and going in with your eyes open helps avoid problems later. Two challenges: Sometimes, a really good opportunity doesn’t actually have a catch. And spending a lot of time looking for one keeps us from the work we...
escape the algorithm
Gift interfaces, an interview, and how you found me
Some updates on things that have happened and that are coming in the escape the algorithm cinematic...
a month ago
Some updates on things that have happened and that are coming in the escape the algorithm cinematic universe:
Seth's Blog
How many sparks?
That’s the tempting question. How much hustle, hoopla and initiative do we need to get this idea...
a week ago
That’s the tempting question. How much hustle, hoopla and initiative do we need to get this idea ignited in the marketplace… But the much better question is: How much kindling do we have? Kindling doesn’t happen all at once. It’s the result of investments over time. We can earn...
Prolost
New Photography Shortcuts Using ToolBox Pro
My love affair with Apple’s Shortcuts took a bit of a hit during the transition to iOS 13, but my...
over a year ago
My love affair with Apple’s Shortcuts took a bit of a hit during the transition to iOS 13, but my fascination with this on-device development environment has been rekindled thanks to a new app called ToolBox Pro.
ToolBox Pro is a free iOS/iPadOS app that adds powerful new actions...
Infinite Scroll
Infinite Scroll on Offline with Jon Favreau
A chat about online media ecosystems
a month ago
A chat about online media ecosystems
escape the algorithm
I did retail theft at an Apple Store
I hope Jane Appleseed is okay
6 months ago
I hope Jane Appleseed is okay
Handprinted - Blog
Collagraph Printing
Collagraphy is a really versatile printing process in which a textured plate is inked up and put...
a year ago
Collagraphy is a really versatile printing process in which a textured plate is inked up and put through a press. Different textures hold varying amounts of ink and print different tones. Anything with a low relief texture can be stuck down and used: wallpaper, leaves, fabrics,...
Seth's Blog
Broken (and not worth fixing)
In one corner of the parking garage near my office, car satellite radio doesn’t work. This is...
a month ago
In one corner of the parking garage near my office, car satellite radio doesn’t work. This is clearly broken, but it’s also not a problem. Certainly not a problem worth anyone’s attention when there are so many other problems to be addressed. Problems, by definition, can be...
Seth's Blog
If it were really important…
Could we change our minds? When was the last time new information caused you to walk away from an...
a year ago
Could we change our minds? When was the last time new information caused you to walk away from an idea you were confident in? It gets harder and harder to do, and more and more important.
The Great Discontent...
Luke Zahm
“Everyone eats. There's so much beauty in realizing that humaneness and that oneness.” This is the...
9 months ago
“Everyone eats. There's so much beauty in realizing that humaneness and that oneness.” This is the ethos of Luke Zahm. The James Beard-nominated chef, host of the hit PBS show Wisconsin Foodie, and owner of the widely acclaimed Driftless Café in Viroqua, Wisconsin, believes food...
Seth's Blog
Avoiding the trap questions
A trick question is designed to fool us into proposing the wrong answer (example below). A trap...
5 months ago
A trick question is designed to fool us into proposing the wrong answer (example below). A trap question, on the other hand, stops the train completely. A trap question demands an answer, and the answer will paralyze us and keep us from the work at hand. “Yes, but how many...
Seth's Blog
Freedom of attitude
There are two franchised pack-and-ship shops about equidistant from my home. One has a 4.5 rating...
a year ago
There are two franchised pack-and-ship shops about equidistant from my home. One has a 4.5 rating and is reliably busy. The other has an astonishingly low 1.5 out of 5 rating. The physical plant is virtually identical, and the marketing and promo are the same. The only difference...
On the Arts
On the Arts: A Year-End Review
A brief guide to everything published this year.
a year ago
A brief guide to everything published this year.
Seth's Blog
Dancing for the early adopters
The traveling circus didn’t have to appeal to everyone. They rode into town with the elephants, the...
a year ago
The traveling circus didn’t have to appeal to everyone. They rode into town with the elephants, the bearded lady and the Tasmanian Devil, and the people who came, came. Once the folks who wanted excitement were exhausted, the circus left. The problem kicks in when the circus...
Open Culture
How Art Gets Stolen: What Happened to Egon Schiele’s Painting Boats Mirrored in the Water After Its...
George Clooney may be better regarded as an actor than as a director, but his occasional work in the...
2 months ago
George Clooney may be better regarded as an actor than as a director, but his occasional work in the latter capacity reveals an admirable interest in lesser-dramatized chapters of American history. His films have found their material in everything from the early years of the NFL...
Seth's Blog
Spam 3.0
Any fully open system of digital communication will corrode over time. Bad messages will crowd out...
6 months ago
Any fully open system of digital communication will corrode over time. Bad messages will crowd out the good ones. The new normal: Someone finds a database of every residential property, then another of cell phones. An AI is trained to call every homeowner, every day, asking if...
Seth's Blog
Clear ice
I love Zamboni machines. They’re ungainly, they’re slow but they’re also majestic. Like an elephant...
a month ago
I love Zamboni machines. They’re ungainly, they’re slow but they’re also majestic. Like an elephant for ice hockey. After each period, when the ice is chopped up by play, the Zamboni rolls out and leaves behind a sheet of perfect ice. Cold, smooth and untouched. It’s useful to...
Seth's Blog
The network scam
Lana Swartz coined this term in her breakthrough paper on crypto. A scam always involves a...
a year ago
Lana Swartz coined this term in her breakthrough paper on crypto. A scam always involves a transaction. In the traditional fraud, the scammer tells a lie and the buyer, either with or without diligence, believes it and loses everything. You buy the magic beans, but they don’t...
Seth's Blog
Overconfidence and AI
Human beings are often more effective when we’re a bit self-effacing. “I think,” “Perhaps,” or “I...
a year ago
Human beings are often more effective when we’re a bit self-effacing. “I think,” “Perhaps,” or “I might be missing something, but…” are fine ways to give our assertions a chance to be considered. The solar-powered LED calculator we used in school did no such thing. 6 x 7 is 42,...
Seth's Blog
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...
Seth's Blog
Variety and the long tail
In a We Are All Weird universe, there are two sorts of cultural disappointments. The first has been...
11 months ago
In a We Are All Weird universe, there are two sorts of cultural disappointments. The first has been around since the dawn of cable: We don’t all watch the same thing. We don’t all talk about it, hits aren’t really hits, not like they used to be. There’s no comparison in the reach...
Ian Betteridge
Ten Blue Links, “your time is up” edition
This week… But first, an announcement! TLDR: Over the holidays, I will be migrating this site from...
2 days ago
This week… But first, an announcement! TLDR: Over the holidays, I will be migrating this site from WordPress.com to Ghost. This may mean a little disruption, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum. Why am I doing this? I’ve been a paying customer of WordPress.com for my site...
Seth's Blog
Which agenda?
Every day matters. It seems like a waste to spend one as a to-do list item on someone else’s agenda....
11 months ago
Every day matters. It seems like a waste to spend one as a to-do list item on someone else’s agenda. It’s easy to become so focused on checking the boxes that we forget that there are people involved. Peers, colleagues and friends that with something human to offer, if we only...
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...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Playing dice: Randomness, determinism and the quantum world
What’s the difference between unexpected, random and chaotic? Does the
universe contain any truly...
over a year ago
What’s the difference between unexpected, random and chaotic? Does the
universe contain any truly random events, or is it operating like
clockwork, ticking from one event to the next?
Seth's Blog
Childish or childlike?
Childlike involves wonder. It’s the ability to see the world with fresh eyes and create magic....
a year ago
Childlike involves wonder. It’s the ability to see the world with fresh eyes and create magic. Childish, on the other hand, is living as if there are no consequences. Over time, we’ve gotten very good at meauring the long and short-term consequences of our actions. And good at...
Handprinted - Blog
Fabric Painting - which fabric paint is right for my project?
When it comes to painting onto fabric, there are a few differences to consider. Does the paint need...
6 months ago
When it comes to painting onto fabric, there are a few differences to consider. Does the paint need to be opaque? Can it be diluted? Would you like metallics? Aimee has tested three different fabric paints: Jacquard Textile Colour, Lumiere Metallic Paint and Handprinted Fabric...
Open Culture
Watch Animations Showing How Humans Migrated Across the World Over the Past 60,000 Years
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi. Attributed to various luminaries of antiquity, that saying (the...
7 months ago
Ex Africa semper aliquid novi. Attributed to various luminaries of antiquity, that saying (the probable inspiration for Isak Dinesen’s poem “Ex Africa,” itself the probable inspiration for her memoir Out of Africa, which in turn was loosely adapted into Sydney Pollack’s...
Infinite Scroll
Infinite Scroll x GiveDirectly
Read to the end for an AI cokehead
2 weeks ago
Read to the end for an AI cokehead
Seth's Blog
The sixty-day staircase
In the moment, it’s really difficult. L’espirit descalier means, “the spirit of the staircase.” That...
a year ago
In the moment, it’s really difficult. L’espirit descalier means, “the spirit of the staircase.” That thing you wished you had a said just a moment ago, the bon mot or the clever riposte. It only comes to us as we’re walking away. But this sort of quick comment is good for the...
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...
Handprinted - Blog
Glossary of Printmaking Terminology
Scroll through the list below to find definitions and explanations of common printmaking...
a year ago
Scroll through the list below to find definitions and explanations of common printmaking terms:
Acid-free – refers to papers that are made with an alkaline pulp, usually with calcium carbonate added. Acids contribute to the deterioration of paper and therefore of prints.
Aisuki –...
escape the algorithm
For WIRED: Google's relentless search for answers
I wouldn’t ordinarily email you twice in one week, but I have an essay in WIRED today about Google,...
a year ago
I wouldn’t ordinarily email you twice in one week, but I have an essay in WIRED today about Google, its philosophy of information retrieval, and how its Search history may be a premonition of the future that generative AI is leading us towards.
Seth's Blog
Trading trust
The Brookings Institution did a fascinating survey series over the last five years. I have two...
10 months ago
The Brookings Institution did a fascinating survey series over the last five years. I have two takeways from this: The first is that focused and persistent propaganda is able to shift public opinion about institutions they don’t have direct interaction with. The more important...
Seth's Blog
Little dents
Deciding to fix a big dent in a car isn’t perplexing. It’s an easy choice. There’s a huge dent, get...
2 months ago
Deciding to fix a big dent in a car isn’t perplexing. It’s an easy choice. There’s a huge dent, get it fixed. It’s the little dents that are a dilemma. But not fixing little dents means that pretty soon, we’re driving a car that we’re not happy with. Either that, or we define...
Seth's Blog
Rewrite for humans
My building had an elevator problem. The management company sent everyone this note: Please be...
12 months ago
My building had an elevator problem. The management company sent everyone this note: Please be advised we have been experiencing intermittent issues with the elevator. Our priority is your safety, and we are taking immediate action to address the situation. After a thorough...
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...
Seth's Blog
Doing presentations virtually
A few years ago, I posted about the hardware setup you can use to look better and feel better when...
a year ago
A few years ago, I posted about the hardware setup you can use to look better and feel better when working in a distributed organization. Since then, I’ve tried many hacks for how to integrate Keynote presentations into this environment. I used some fancy software that was...
Seth's Blog
Unaware
If you don’t realize that you have power, you might not be able to exercise it. The power to speak...
11 months ago
If you don’t realize that you have power, you might not be able to exercise it. The power to speak up, to participate, to invent, to lead, to encourage, to vote, to connect, to organize, to march, to write, to say ‘no’ or to say ‘yes’. It’s tempting to imagine we have less power...
Seth's Blog
The community orchestra
There are people who get paid to play the flute or bassoon. There are far more people who volunteer...
a year ago
There are people who get paid to play the flute or bassoon. There are far more people who volunteer to participate in a community orchestra. For many, rehearsals or performances are the high points of their day. The metaphor is powerful, because it teaches us that we all benefit...
Seth's Blog
Conversations, an early review… (and the free class)
“I have trained companies to treat people better, and SONG is the guidebook I wished I had when...
a year ago
“I have trained companies to treat people better, and SONG is the guidebook I wished I had when doing this work. Now, I will now give it to the enlightened and brutes alike, with a recommendation to take immediate action. Seth Godin has been carefully documenting the end of the...
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,...
4 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
Shields down
Michael Lopp helped coin an important term. When you’re a skilled craftsperson with high market...
9 months ago
Michael Lopp helped coin an important term. When you’re a skilled craftsperson with high market value, there may be recruiters knocking on your door. An employee who has ‘shields up’ doesn’t even bother to answer the door. When shields are down, you’re open to at least hearing...
Seth's Blog
The distribution of character
Along the way, we have been taught to associate character skills like honesty, rationality,...
5 months ago
Along the way, we have been taught to associate character skills like honesty, rationality, agreeableness, grit and care with surface metrics like wealth or power. That’s almost certainly incorrect. And if we make assumptions based on vague measures of class, we’re going to get...
Open Culture
James Joyce Picked Drunken Fights, Then Hid Behind Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway seemed to feud with most of the prominent male artists of his time, from Wallace...
6 months ago
Ernest Hemingway seemed to feud with most of the prominent male artists of his time, from Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot to F. Scott Fitzgerald. He had a “very strange relationship” with Orson Welles—the two came to blows at least once—and he reportedly slapped Max Eastman in the...
Seth's Blog
The lonely zone
For many, the goal is to be the deciding vote, the donation that gets a cause over the goal, the...
a year ago
For many, the goal is to be the deciding vote, the donation that gets a cause over the goal, the person who counts. And often, we enjoy piling on. Once the cause or fashion or tech is clearly working, it’s easy and fun to say “me too.” More rare, more vulnerable and more...
Open Culture
13 Experimental Animations of Osamu Tezuka, “the Godfather of Manga” (1964–1987)
If you enjoy modern Japanese animation, you can no doubt name several masterpieces of the form off...
3 months ago
If you enjoy modern Japanese animation, you can no doubt name several masterpieces of the form off the top of your head, whether acclaimed series like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop to the work of cinema auteurs like Satoshi Kon and Hayao Miyazaki. What may cross your...
Seth's Blog
The new way of work
Amazon is the last one. They are probably the last huge company where hundreds of thousands of...
a year ago
Amazon is the last one. They are probably the last huge company where hundreds of thousands of people will be surveilled, measured and ordered to follow the rule book. The pandemic didn’t create distributed work, the laptop did. Human interaction is critical, but the office isn’t...
Seth's Blog
The unwarranted smile
When we do something nice for someone, a ‘thank you’ and a smile is nice to receive. And, in many...
7 months ago
When we do something nice for someone, a ‘thank you’ and a smile is nice to receive. And, in many parts of human culture, it’s a bit expected. But when something goes wrong, if we drop a plate or miss a turn or make someone late, it’s particularly delightful and memorable if we...
Seth's Blog
Ideas shared are exponential
If everyone visits a factory and takes a sample, it goes out of business. But if everyone in the...
a year ago
If everyone visits a factory and takes a sample, it goes out of business. But if everyone in the community takes an idea, that idea goes up in value. The best marketing advice I have for someone writing a book is simple: Write a book that people want to share with others. And...
Open Culture
An Architect Breaks Down the 5 Most Common Styles of College Campus
Every now and again on social media, the observation circulates that Americans look back so fondly...
4 months ago
Every now and again on social media, the observation circulates that Americans look back so fondly on their college years because never again do they get to live in a well-designed walkable community. The organization of college campuses does much to shape that experience, but so...
Seth's Blog
The second mistake
That’s the avoidable one and the one that usually causes the real trouble. When the first mistake...
a year ago
That’s the avoidable one and the one that usually causes the real trouble. When the first mistake flusters us, breaks our rhythm or messes with our confidence, we’re far more likely to make the second one. It’s almost impossible to avoid making a mistake. But avoiding the second...
The Great Discontent...
Demar Matthews
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 How do you explain your work? I am specifically interested in...
Prolost
Red Giant & Maxon, Sitting in a Tree
Red Giant, where I’ve been Chief Creative Officer for a couple of years now, but making filmmaking...
over a year ago
Red Giant, where I’ve been Chief Creative Officer for a couple of years now, but making filmmaking tools for you for 17 years, is merging with Maxon, makers of Cinema 4D.
From the Red Giant blog:
Hi folks — by now you’ve probably heard the news that Maxon and Red Giant are...
Seth's Blog
When was the last time you used a compass?
How about an astrolabe? Or even a watch? Technology advances, and sooner or later, the old stuff...
a year ago
How about an astrolabe? Or even a watch? Technology advances, and sooner or later, the old stuff gets left behind. It’s easy to romanticize some of the classic devices that we built civilization on, and it’s worth remembering that the tech we’re wrestling with now will soon be...
Seth's Blog
A labor of love
That’s magical. To have the resources to expend labor on something that fills us with joy. If you’re...
3 months ago
That’s magical. To have the resources to expend labor on something that fills us with joy. If you’re lucky enough to encounter this, perhaps it makes sense not to confuse the issue by also trying to turn it into labor for maximum profit. When we focus on one, we often decrease...
Seth's Blog
A new cooperative workshop
My colleague Ava Morris is running her Song of Significance Workshop on Friday, October 6. It’s...
a year ago
My colleague Ava Morris is running her Song of Significance Workshop on Friday, October 6. It’s powerful, effective and personal. It runs worldwide, in Zoom, and it’s completely interactive–every participant participates. This will be the third session… the first two got rave...
Seth's Blog
In search of incompetence
Learning is about becoming incompetent on our way to getting better. If you’re not open to the...
9 months ago
Learning is about becoming incompetent on our way to getting better. If you’re not open to the tension that is caused by knowing you could do better, it’s unlikely you’re willing to do the work to get better. As you’re doing that work, there’s the satisfaction it brings, but also...
cabel.com
Thank Goodness I’ve Written Some Ad Music
This summer, a new video game came out that changed the way we think about comedy in games, becoming...
3 months ago
This summer, a new video game came out that changed the way we think about comedy in games, becoming an instant smash hit in the process. That’s right, I’m talking about Thank Goodness You’re Here! from Coal Supper. Ok, yeah, sure, I work for Panic and we published the game, so I...
Seth's Blog
Market insulation
It’s possible that your day will be more enjoyable if you are insulated from the market. If you have...
6 months ago
It’s possible that your day will be more enjoyable if you are insulated from the market. If you have a boss who has a boss… If you don’t have to review the sales numbers for the products you created or edited… If you have raised a ton of venture investment… If you are embracing...
Open Culture
Private Snafu: The World War II Propaganda Cartoons Created by Dr. Seuss, Frank Capra & Mel Blanc
Private Snafu was the U.S. Army’s worst soldier. He was sloppy, lazy and prone to shooting off his...
2 months ago
Private Snafu was the U.S. Army’s worst soldier. He was sloppy, lazy and prone to shooting off his mouth to Nazi agents. And he was hugely popular with his fellow GIs. Private Snafu was, of course, an animated cartoon character designed for the military recruits. He was an...
Open Culture
Watch Hardware Wars, the Original Star Wars Parody, in HD (1978)
This past May, YouTuber Jenny Nicholson set off waves of social-media discourse with “The...
5 months ago
This past May, YouTuber Jenny Nicholson set off waves of social-media discourse with “The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel,” a four-hour-long video critique of Disney’s hugely expensive, now-shuttered Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser in Orlando, Florida. Having gone...
Seth's Blog
Yes, but how does it work?
I worked with Arthur C. Clarke at the very beginning of my career. He’s most famous for saying, “Any...
2 months ago
I worked with Arthur C. Clarke at the very beginning of my career. He’s most famous for saying, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Magic isn’t such a bad thing. And we certainly have plenty of advanced technology around. Advanced in the sense...
Seth's Blog
The run-on sentence
Periods were an extraordinary invention. It took thousands of years of writing before we settled on...
a month 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
Is Andrew Huberman Ruining Your Morning Coffee Routine?
Andrew Huberman–the host of the influential Huberman Lab podcast–has gotten a lot of mileage out of...
3 months ago
Andrew Huberman–the host of the influential Huberman Lab podcast–has gotten a lot of mileage out of his recommended morning routine. His routine emphasizes the importance of getting sunlight within 30–60 minutes of waking; also engaging in light physical activity; hydrating well;...
Open Culture
Behold the Codex Gigas (aka “Devil’s Bible”), the Largest Medieval Manuscript in the World
Bargain with the devil and you may wind up with a golden fiddle, supernatural guitar-playing...
6 months ago
Bargain with the devil and you may wind up with a golden fiddle, supernatural guitar-playing ability, or a room full of gleaming alchemized straw. Whoops, we misattributed that last one. It’s actually Rumpelstiltskin’s doing, but the by-morning-or-else deadline that drives the...
Open Culture
Google Creates a Career Certificate That Prepares Students for Cybersecurity Jobs in 6 Months
In 2023, Google launched several online certificate programs designed to help students land an...
a month ago
In 2023, Google launched several online certificate programs designed to help students land an entry-level job, without necessarily having a college degree. This includes a certificate program focused on Cybersecurity, a field that stands poised to grow as companies become more...
Anarchy Unfolds
The hope of anarchy
Letters to an anarchist - Part 6
a month ago
Letters to an anarchist - Part 6
On the Arts
What is the Demoscene?
An Interview with Filipe Cruz on the Influential but Obscure Art Form
a year ago
An Interview with Filipe Cruz on the Influential but Obscure Art Form
Open Culture
Twin Peaks Actually Explained: A 4‑Hour Video Essay Demystifies It All
I don’t know about you, but my YouTube algorithms can act like a nagging friend, suggesting a video...
2 months ago
I don’t know about you, but my YouTube algorithms can act like a nagging friend, suggesting a video for days until I finally give in. Such was the case with this video essay with the tantalizing title: “Twin Peaks ACTUALLY EXPLAINED (No, Really)”. First of all, before, during,...
Seth's Blog
Dreams, plans and contradictions
Dreams are fine. And dreams involve contradictions. We want this AND that, but both can’t happen....
8 months ago
Dreams are fine. And dreams involve contradictions. We want this AND that, but both can’t happen. That’s what keeps them from being plans. Plans embrace boundaries and reality, they don’t ignore them. Plans thrive on scarcity and constraints. Plans are open for inspection, and a...
Open Culture
How a Steady Supply of Coffee Helped the Union Win the U.S. Civil War
Americans doing “e‑mail jobs” and working in the “laptop class” tend to make much of the quantity of...
5 months ago
Americans doing “e‑mail jobs” and working in the “laptop class” tend to make much of the quantity of coffee they require to keep going, or even to get started. In that sense alone, they have something in common with Civil War soldiers. “Union soldiers were given 36 pounds of...
escape the algorithm
Should this be a map or 500 maps?
500 priests, cartographic n00bism, and the limits of scale
6 months ago
500 priests, cartographic n00bism, and the limits of scale
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...
6 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
Take The Near Impossible Literacy Test Louisiana Used to Suppress the Black Vote (1964)
In William Faulkner’s 1938 novel The Unvanquished, the implacable Colonel Sartoris takes drastic...
2 months ago
In William Faulkner’s 1938 novel The Unvanquished, the implacable Colonel Sartoris takes drastic action to stop the election of a black Republican candidate to office after the Civil War, destroying the ballots of black voters and shooting two Northern carpetbaggers. While such...
Seth's Blog
Jump in the lake
The waters of Buck Lake are cool and clear and restorative. All summer, it’s tempting to go for a...
10 months ago
The waters of Buck Lake are cool and clear and restorative. All summer, it’s tempting to go for a swim. But it’s also a hassle. You need to change your clothes, find someone to guard, bring a towel and most of all, gasp at the transition when the cold water hits. And yet… no one...
Marian's Blog
Aquarium Innensicht mit Gopro
Wegen meinem Quadrocopter habe ich eine Gopro, die ja auch wasserfest ist. Da war es naheliegend,...
over a year ago
Wegen meinem Quadrocopter habe ich eine Gopro, die ja auch wasserfest ist. Da war es naheliegend, die mal im Aquarium auszuprobieren. Bei dem Aquarium stand einiges an Arbeit an, da das Glasbecken undicht war, und alles komplett ausgeräumt werden muss, um das Becken...
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...
6 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...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Curved Line Jellyfish
I had pictured something quite bold, graphical and geometric but I ended
with gradients and...
over a year ago
I had pictured something quite bold, graphical and geometric but I ended
with gradients and floatiness.
Seth's Blog
The magic of placebos
One of two things is true: A placebo is a force beyond understanding, one that is capable of...
a year ago
One of two things is true: A placebo is a force beyond understanding, one that is capable of disappearing when we do the appropriate double-blind tests and has mechanisms that defy our knowledge of the laws of physics. Or… A placebo is a prompt for our subconscious to do the hard...
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