Seth's Blog
Complex or complicated?
Complicated problems have a solution, and the solution can often be found by breaking the...
a year ago
Complicated problems have a solution, and the solution can often be found by breaking the complicated portions into smaller pieces. And complicated problems often have an emotional component, because there are parts of the problem we don’t want to look at closely, or deal with...
The Great Discontent...
Tony Whlgn®
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 Let’s start at the beginning—back to the environment where you grew up....
Open Culture
9‑Year-Old Edward Hopper Draws a Picture on the Back of His 3rd Grade Report Card
In a 2017 press release, the Edward Hopper House announced that it would receive over 1,000...
7 months ago
In a 2017 press release, the Edward Hopper House announced that it would receive over 1,000 artifacts and memorabilia documenting Edward Hopper’s family life and early years. The collection “consists of juvenilia and other materials from the formative years of Hopper’s life and...
Seth's Blog
The last little bit
Important hills usually get much steeper at the top. 99% of the training in competitive athletics is...
4 months ago
Important hills usually get much steeper at the top. 99% of the training in competitive athletics is devoted to the last 1% of performance. A tenth of a second. The same is true for squeezing the last bit of performance out of a car, a grape or a semiconductor. And healthcare,...
Seth's Blog
Coercion
One way to look at power is “you get to tell people what to do.” But an alternative is that the most...
11 months ago
One way to look at power is “you get to tell people what to do.” But an alternative is that the most powerful institutions, brands and people are the ones who are in alignment with their audience. Trust and the benefit of the doubt are more powerful and resilient than command and...
Seth's Blog
On to the next thing
Vitally important, rarely taught, easily messed up. In order to go onto the next thing, which we all...
a year ago
Vitally important, rarely taught, easily messed up. In order to go onto the next thing, which we all do (unless you’re still wearing pajamas with feet and taking ballet lessons), we need to walk away from the last thing. Wrap it up, learn from it, leave it in good hands. And we...
Seth's Blog
PW 5: Measuring the right thing
Last in the series… Most of us were indoctrinated to believe that completing chores is the...
11 months ago
Last in the series… Most of us were indoctrinated to believe that completing chores is the appropriate measure of productivity. “I did all my homework.” Doing all your homework is a measure for industrial bosses. But what, precisely, did your homework ever do for you? The actual...
Seth's Blog
The 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...
Open Culture
George Orwell Reviews Mein Kampf: “He Envisages a Horrible Brainless Empire” (1940)
Christopher Hitchens once wrote that there were three major issues of the twentieth century —...
4 months ago
Christopher Hitchens once wrote that there were three major issues of the twentieth century — imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism — and George Orwell proved to be right about all of them. Orwell displays his remarkable foresight in a fascinating book review, published in March...
Seth's Blog
Bullies
Bullies use intimidation and power to force others to act against their best interests. Bullies...
5 months ago
Bullies use intimidation and power to force others to act against their best interests. Bullies blame the victim, assuring everyone that they wouldn’t have to use force if people would simply go along with what they want. Effective bullies organize a small mob to enforce their...
Seth's Blog
What does the world owe us?
This question is a trap. It’s based on scarcity and entitlement, and most of all, the world isn’t...
6 months ago
This question is a trap. It’s based on scarcity and entitlement, and most of all, the world isn’t listening. When more and more people focus on this question, it simply pushes us apart. On the other hand, “what do I owe the world?” opens the door for endless opportunity. When...
Seth's Blog
More is More
More hope. More health. More security. More innovation. More breakthroughs. More connection. More...
a year ago
More hope. More health. More security. More innovation. More breakthroughs. More connection. More creation. More joy. The climate movement doesn’t have to be about asking individuals to bear the burden of systemic problems. It’s not about living with less. It’s about demanding...
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....
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
The missing file
It contained some of my best writing. Cogent, clear and powerful. I found it. It wasn’t nearly as...
4 months ago
It contained some of my best writing. Cogent, clear and powerful. I found it. It wasn’t nearly as good as I remembered. In fact, it was hardly useful. The opposite happens with the things we fear. When they show up, they’re likely to be a lot less fearsome than we imagined.
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...
Seth's Blog
Stumbling in the dark
Learning is complicated. While we’re doing it, it’s easy to imagine that those around us are...
11 months ago
Learning is complicated. While we’re doing it, it’s easy to imagine that those around us are completely sure of themselves, moving forward in a well-lit space. In fact, if you visit a growing company, a useful school or anywhere that growth is happening, you’ll quickly see that...
Stat Significant
How Streaming Elevated (and Ruined) Documentaries: A Statistical Analysis
Unpacking streaming's embrace and erosion of non-fiction storytelling.
2 months ago
Unpacking streaming's embrace and erosion of non-fiction storytelling.
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
Closed/open
I’m told that the hardest part of being a teaching golf pro isn’t helping adult golfers develop a...
a year ago
I’m told that the hardest part of being a teaching golf pro isn’t helping adult golfers develop a good swing. It’s getting them to stop using a bad one. Our position feels so fragile, we hold on very tightly. Competence, status and connection are fleeting yet hard-won. We can...
Seth's Blog
Leverage
It’s almost impossible to remove a screw with your bare hands, but easy with a screwdriver. The...
12 months ago
It’s almost impossible to remove a screw with your bare hands, but easy with a screwdriver. The handle might only add a little torque, but it’s more than enough. If someone is succeeding at something you find difficult, it might be because they realized they needed a screwdriver....
Seth's Blog
Working with problems
They’re everywhere we look. Here are a few thoughts on the ones that won’t go away: First, is it a...
a year ago
They’re everywhere we look. Here are a few thoughts on the ones that won’t go away: First, is it a problem or a situation? Problems, by definition, have solutions. You might not like the cost of the solution, the trade-offs it leads to, or the time and effort it takes, but...
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.
Open Culture
Watch the Performance of a Mozart Composition That Had Been Lost for Centuries
For most musicians, a long-lost song written in their teenage years would be of interest only to...
2 months ago
For most musicians, a long-lost song written in their teenage years would be of interest only to serious fans — and even then, probably more for biographical reasons than as a standalone piece of work. But that’s hardly the case for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was composing...
Seth's Blog
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...
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...
Seth's Blog
Should we assume rational goodwill?
There’s often a choice between following the cultural dictates of a given group or seeking out...
a year ago
There’s often a choice between following the cultural dictates of a given group or seeking out demonstrable facts and the scientific method. Which do you expect most people would choose? Which would you choose? When we revert to a testable analysis of what works, we’re relying on...
Seth's Blog
Meaningfully informed
Community requires individuals to have the option of speaking up. If we’re in this together, we...
5 months ago
Community requires individuals to have the option of speaking up. If we’re in this together, we ought to be able to chime in. But while every member of the community can speak out, the ones that are heard also have something useful to say. Being informed is a requirement to be...
Seth's Blog
Jevons paradox is not surprising
When a resource can be used more efficiently, we end up using more of the thing, not less. So, when...
8 months ago
When a resource can be used more efficiently, we end up using more of the thing, not less. So, when cars get better gas mileage, people drive more, and consumption can actually go up. When AI learns to write computer code, the demand for programmers goes up, because more...
Seth's Blog
Speed, creativity and AI
A little faster is a market advantage. A step change in speed changes the market entirely. Fedex was...
2 weeks ago
A little faster is a market advantage. A step change in speed changes the market entirely. Fedex was faster mail. It allowed them to grow and profit. Email, on the other hand, completely changed communication. In the discussions of AI, most people are failing to consider the step...
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...
Seth's Blog
The gratuitous use of plastic
At the dawn of the plastic age, it was a cheap substitute. The word “plasticky” is not a compliment....
a year ago
At the dawn of the plastic age, it was a cheap substitute. The word “plasticky” is not a compliment. Over time, the plastics industry developed new finishes, colors and most of all, cultural impact, and extra (wasted) plastic packaging was seen first as convenient, then as a sign...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: FamousAdolf
My name is Adolf, like the famous one. I was born in Barcelona 37 years ago and I spent my childhood...
over a year ago
My name is Adolf, like the famous one. I was born in Barcelona 37 years ago and I spent my childhood watching TV and eating lots of bread and chocolate. When I got older I got a degree in Advertising and Public Relations that I never really used. I worked as a Graphic Designer in...
Seth's Blog
Stopping a runaway train
It feels urgent because it is. But by the time the train is running away, it might be too late. The...
4 months ago
It feels urgent because it is. But by the time the train is running away, it might be too late. The better strategy is to not sign up for trains that are likely to run away. The first principle of risk reduction is to figure out if you can stop it later. If you can’t, […]
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...
Open Culture
Hunter S. Thompson’s Harrowing, Chemical-Filled Daily Routine
E. Jean Carroll’s 1993 memoir of Hunter S. Thompson opens like this: I have heard the biographers of...
6 months ago
E. Jean Carroll’s 1993 memoir of Hunter S. Thompson opens like this: I have heard the biographers of Harry S. Truman, Catherine the Great, etc., etc., say they would give anything if their subjects were alive so they could ask them some questions. I, on the other hand, would give...
Seth's Blog
Facing the future
The Tofflers explained that Future Shock kicks in when the world changes faster than we’re ready...
2 months ago
The Tofflers explained that Future Shock kicks in when the world changes faster than we’re ready for. We react instead of respond, and often shut down in the face of too much of the new. When our world changes (and it always does, more now than ever) we have four choices. And...
Seth's Blog
Chasing cool
The cool thing is always a little out of reach. And for most of us, once we get it, it’s not seen as...
a year ago
The cool thing is always a little out of reach. And for most of us, once we get it, it’s not seen as cool any more. This is not an accident. One definition of cool are things that are just out of reach.
Seth's Blog
Brakes and acceleration
Every driver benefits from good brakes. It makes driving safer. Only a few skilled drivers benefit...
a year ago
Every driver benefits from good brakes. It makes driving safer. Only a few skilled drivers benefit from better acceleration. Our habit is to compare top speed, horsepower, short-term returns and status. In every field, not just cars. But it probably pays to make sure that there...
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...
Marian's Blog
How to build a Lego Portal Gun
Resources:
Parts: list, Rebrickable CSV, Bricklink XML
Model: LDR, 3DS
Build this MOC on...
over a year ago
Resources:
Parts: list, Rebrickable CSV, Bricklink XML
Model: LDR, 3DS
Build this MOC on Rebrickable
Instructions:
...
Seth's Blog
Explaining yourself
The only reason we need to go into detail about our resume, the details of our new idea or the...
9 months ago
The only reason we need to go into detail about our resume, the details of our new idea or the features of a product is to cause action to happen. And action is the result of tension, status or affiliation, and these are based on trust. There are many ways to build that trust,...
Open Culture
How the 18th-Century French Media Stoked a Werewolf Panic
If you’ve studied French (or, indeed, been French) in the past couple of decades, you may well have...
6 months ago
If you’ve studied French (or, indeed, been French) in the past couple of decades, you may well have played the card game Les Loups-garous de Thiercelieux. Known in English as The Werewolves of Millers Hollow, it casts its players as hunters, thieves, seers, and other types of...
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
How Ancient Romans Traveled Without Maps
In an age when many of us could hardly make our way to an unfamiliar grocery store without relying...
a month ago
In an age when many of us could hardly make our way to an unfamiliar grocery store without relying on a GPS navigation system, we might well wonder how the Romans could establish and sustain their mighty empire without so much as a proper map. That’s the question addressed by the...
Seth's Blog
Reality as reassurance
Culture makes it tempting (and easy) to insulate ourselves from reality. Credit card debt is an...
a year ago
Culture makes it tempting (and easy) to insulate ourselves from reality. Credit card debt is an invisible burden, until it’s not. Ignoring the changes in our climate makes our days easier, but not our years. We can avoid the bank balance, not work on the annual budget and ignore...
Seth's Blog
“I didn’t get in”
There are two ways to process this: The selection committee saw me, understood me, and then decided...
11 months ago
There are two ways to process this: The selection committee saw me, understood me, and then decided to reject me. or The selection committee didn’t get what I had to offer. I wasn’t rejected, my application was. It’s not that I didn’t get in, it’s that they didn’t engage with the...
Handprinted - Blog
Inking Methods for Etching
Once you've made an etching plate, you may be ready to print an edition - or you might want to proof...
a month ago
Once you've made an etching plate, you may be ready to print an edition - or you might want to proof it to decide on further edits. Taking a print is the only way you’ll be able to see how your plate is progressing.
This blog is part of a series featuring tips and techniques to...
Open Culture
Aldous Huxley Explains How Man Became “the Victim of His Own Technology” (1961)
Just a couple of days ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted out a video promoting, “the new iPad Pro: the...
7 months ago
Just a couple of days ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted out a video promoting, “the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created.” The response has been overwhelming, and overwhelmingly negative: for many viewers, the ad’s imagery of a hydraulic press crushing a heap of...
Seth's Blog
“Please create more tension”
This rarely comes up in focus group data. It doesn’t come up when a school talks to students, or a...
2 months ago
This rarely comes up in focus group data. It doesn’t come up when a school talks to students, or a conductor asks the orchestra. It doesn’t come up when the gym owner surveys potential members or when a chef or playwright thinks about building something new. But of course, that’s...
Seth's Blog
Summarize this…
A great use of ChatGPT and other AI is to paste relevant text into the chat box and ask for a...
a year ago
A great use of ChatGPT and other AI is to paste relevant text into the chat box and ask for a summary. I did this with 300 suggestions that came via a Google form and it did the work better, faster and with more clarity (and less bias) than a person would. Often, we’re clouded...
Seth's Blog
The challenge of N + 1
“Just a little more,” might be a useful way to self motivate, until it isn’t. N + 1 pushes us to win...
7 months ago
“Just a little more,” might be a useful way to self motivate, until it isn’t. N + 1 pushes us to win every race, every argument, every bank balance competition. Sometimes this is simply a self challenge, not designed to hurt others, but the problem with never being satisfied is...
Open Culture
Ray Bradbury Explains Why Literature is the Safety Valve of Civilization (in Which Case We Need More...
Ray Bradbury had it all thought out. Behind his captivating works of science fiction, there were...
4 months ago
Ray Bradbury had it all thought out. Behind his captivating works of science fiction, there were subtle theories about what literature was meant to do. The retro clip above takes you back to the 1970s and it shows Bradbury giving a rather intriguing take on the role of literature...
Open Culture
An Oscar-Winning Animation of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” Painted on 29,000 Frames...
Ernest Hemingway’s romantic adventure of man and marlin, The Old Man and the Sea, has perhaps spent...
4 months ago
Ernest Hemingway’s romantic adventure of man and marlin, The Old Man and the Sea, has perhaps spent more time on high school freshman English reading lists than any other work of fiction, which might lead one to think of the novel as young adult fiction. But beyond the book’s...
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
Richard Feynman Creates a Simple Method for Telling Science From Pseudoscience (1966)
Photo by Tamiko Thiel via Wikimedia Commons How can we know whether a claim someone makes is...
3 months ago
Photo by Tamiko Thiel via Wikimedia Commons How can we know whether a claim someone makes is scientific or not? The question is of the utmost consequence, as we are surrounded on all sides by claims that sound credible, that use the language of science—and often do so in attempts...
Seth's Blog
Return on effort
It’s a pretty simple calculation. How much value per dollar does a freelancer produce for you?...
6 months ago
It’s a pretty simple calculation. How much value per dollar does a freelancer produce for you? What’s the psychic reward for the time you put into your favorite hobby? That machine that takes time and money to set up and run… what does it create when it’s operating? Not...
Seth's Blog
What are the stakes?
How big a swing do we need to make it feel like it matters? At the casino, some folks play with $5...
9 months ago
How big a swing do we need to make it feel like it matters? At the casino, some folks play with $5 chips, some with $100 chips. Do the high rollers have more fun? Are they more engaged? It’s natural to imagine that bigger swings matter more. That a bigger audience means our...
Open Culture
Behold the Oldest Written Text in the World: The Kish Tablet, Circa 3500 BC
Image by José-Manuel Benito, via Wikimedia Commons Some refer to the written Chinese language as...
a month ago
Image by José-Manuel Benito, via Wikimedia Commons Some refer to the written Chinese language as ideographic: that is, structured according to a system in which each symbol represents a particular idea or concept, whether abstract or concrete. That’s true of certain Chinese...
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...
Handprinted - Blog
Monotype with Natural Materials
Like monoprint, a monotype is a print that is one of a kind but does not use a matrix like a cut...
a month ago
Like monoprint, a monotype is a print that is one of a kind but does not use a matrix like a cut block or plate. For this project we're using this simple technique to produce beautifully delicate prints using natural materials and found objects. You can also combine this with...
Seth's Blog
A finite ordered set of interesting objects
The alphabet is one. 26 letters, no more. One order, that’s it. The Beatles are another. John, Paul,...
a year ago
The alphabet is one. 26 letters, no more. One order, that’s it. The Beatles are another. John, Paul, George and then Ringo. The Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, The Supremes. The astrological zodiac gets us to twelve, but I’m having a really difficult time finding a memorable...
Seth's Blog
The strategy sessions
I’m workshopping a new book. For the last few months, I’ve been feverishly writing a book about...
7 months ago
I’m workshopping a new book. For the last few months, I’ve been feverishly writing a book about strategy. Strategy for individuals, small organizations and large ones as well. Strategy for someone seeking to make a difference, and strategy for people who do projects. Starting...
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
“But what if I’m wrong?
If we’re going to come together and invest the time in conversation, in research or in analysis, we...
8 months ago
If we’re going to come together and invest the time in conversation, in research or in analysis, we should begin by understanding what would be required for you or I to change our minds. If you’re not willing to consider that you’re wrong, then, in the words of a Dan Dennett,...
Open Culture
Mark Twain & Helen Keller’s Special Friendship: He Treated Me Not as a Freak, But as a Person...
Sometimes it can seem as though the more we think we know a historical figure, the less we actually...
4 months ago
Sometimes it can seem as though the more we think we know a historical figure, the less we actually do. Helen Keller? We’ve all seen (or think we’ve seen) some version of The Miracle Worker, right?—even if we haven’t actually read Keller’s autobiography. And Mark Twain? He can...
On the Arts
How to Start Learning About Aesthetics
Three ways to improve your knowledge about aesthetics, art theory, and the philosophy of art.
a year ago
Three ways to improve your knowledge about aesthetics, art theory, and the philosophy of art.
Seth's Blog
The first person
“I” is first person. “You” is second person. “She” “They” “It” are all third person. So far, so...
a year ago
“I” is first person. “You” is second person. “She” “They” “It” are all third person. So far, so good. But how can ChatGPT use the word “I”? And when we talk about ChatGPT, is it “he” or “she” or “they” or “it”? Because anything that is an “it” shouldn’t be able to say “I”. We […]
Seth's Blog
Pet quirks
Peeves make lousy pets. They undermine us and put us on edge. But quirks? Little eccentricities we...
7 months ago
Peeves make lousy pets. They undermine us and put us on edge. But quirks? Little eccentricities we see in the world that offer a cost-free smile. Habits or interactions that always make us a little lighter on our feet and open the door to better… They’re easy to find, not hard to...
Open Culture
B.B. King Changes a Broken Guitar String Mid-Song at Farm Aid, and Doesn’t Miss a Beat (1985)
The scene is Farm Aid, 1985, attended by a crowd of 80,000 people. The song is “How Blue Can You...
a month ago
The scene is Farm Aid, 1985, attended by a crowd of 80,000 people. The song is “How Blue Can You Get.” And the key moment comes at the 3:10 mark, when the blues legend B.B. King breaks a guitar string, then manages to replace it before the song finishes minutes later. All the...
Seth's Blog
Two sides of “a big deal”
Many businesses thrive by helping people deal with projects that feel like they have high stakes. A...
a year ago
Many businesses thrive by helping people deal with projects that feel like they have high stakes. A kid’s first haircut, the offsite storage of data backup, an upcoming family reunion, a medical procedure or the inscription on a sentimental piece of jewelry or watch. But, if the...
Seth's Blog
Snowballs and avalanches
Residents leave a town because of a lack of services, which cuts the tax base, which leads to more...
2 months ago
Residents leave a town because of a lack of services, which cuts the tax base, which leads to more services lost, which leads to more residents leaving… A hip new brand attracts a few opinion leaders, who flash the logo, which attracts more hipsters, who then establish a status...
Seth's Blog
Big science
To win a Nobel prize a hundred years ago, you might only need a legal pad and a few pencils. Today,...
a year ago
To win a Nobel prize a hundred years ago, you might only need a legal pad and a few pencils. Today, it takes millions of dollars, scores of people and many years of effort. That’s because the most straightforward problems have been solved. One side effect of this inevitable shift...
Seth's Blog
Fooled
Now it’s a business model. People are regularly fooled by crypto scams, NFT hype, opioid felons,...
a year ago
Now it’s a business model. People are regularly fooled by crypto scams, NFT hype, opioid felons, algorithmic spam at scale, health claims, illogical political arguments, fundraising pitches, overnight shortcuts on the road to riches or happiness and MLM hustle. Your account has...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Meaningless
My ArtBlocks debut, releasing on 30th May 2023. Find out how the algorithm
works and explore some...
a year ago
My ArtBlocks debut, releasing on 30th May 2023. Find out how the algorithm
works and explore some conceptual thoughts.
Prolost
Introducing Prolost Beta
Prolost Beta is a new subscription offering on the Prolost Store. It's an occasional email from me...
over a year ago
Prolost Beta is a new subscription offering on the Prolost Store. It's an occasional email from me containing a download or a link to something cool I'm working on, that's not quite ready to become a product yet. Or maybe ever. This will most often be Lightroom presets or...
Seth's Blog
Tom Peters
Tom announced his retirement today, at 80 years old, after 45 years of Excellence and perhaps...
a year ago
Tom announced his retirement today, at 80 years old, after 45 years of Excellence and perhaps 10,000,000 miles flown. I remember a photo of him sleeping on a bench in an airport in Siberia. I remember him holding my young son just before we went on stage in Florida together...
Seth's Blog
The marketing department
That’s the first part of the confusion. It’s a group of people who can’t decide what the thing they...
8 months ago
That’s the first part of the confusion. It’s a group of people who can’t decide what the thing they do is supposed to be. Is it: Advertising Publicity Increasing retail distribution Direct and measured response SEO Making the logo pretty Wholesale and trade relationships...
Stat Significant
The Rise of Faith-Based Films: A Statistical Analysis
The economics and origins of the faith-based film industry.
2 months ago
The economics and origins of the faith-based film industry.
Open Culture
Thousands of Pablo Picasso’s Works Now Available in a New Digital Archive
If you want to immerse yourself in the world of Pablo Picasso, you might start at the Museo Picasso...
5 months ago
If you want to immerse yourself in the world of Pablo Picasso, you might start at the Museo Picasso Málaga, located in the artist’s Spanish birthplace. But to understand how his work developed throughout his life, you’ll have to get out of Spain — which is just what Picasso did...
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
The seduction of compliance
We can tell from the words. “I’m just doing my job.” “Will this be on the test?” “Don’t blame me.”...
a year ago
We can tell from the words. “I’m just doing my job.” “Will this be on the test?” “Don’t blame me.” “It’s what everyone else is wearing.” Keep your head down, do what you’re told, don’t stick your neck out, and most of all, pay attention to what everyone else is doing. All of this...
Seth's Blog
Project resistance
In Steven Pressfield’s classic The War of Art, he introduces the idea of Resistance. It’s the...
a year ago
In Steven Pressfield’s classic The War of Art, he introduces the idea of Resistance. It’s the internal force that keeps us from doing our most important creative work. If an instinct, a habit or a feeling gets in the way of the work, it’s Pressfield’s Resistance. Things we would...
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...
Seth's Blog
Abundance and ideas
A colleague got an angry note. It concluded with, “you should know better.” The transgression? The...
a year ago
A colleague got an angry note. It concluded with, “you should know better.” The transgression? The sender was offended that my friend had written a post about a concept she’s been developing for nearly a decade. Of course, no idea is unique, and the posted idea sort of rhymed...
Marian's Blog
BTduino documentation
The BTduino app sends data using the serial interface of a microcontroller and a bluetooth...
over a year ago
The BTduino app sends data using the serial interface of a microcontroller and a bluetooth connection. The concept of the protocol is to send all data in text form. Each set of data consists of the name and the value, seperated by a colon. This way of communication is not the...
Seth's Blog
Books don’t sell
That’s not true, actually. Books sell, but book doesn’t. The odds of a particular book selling a lot...
8 months ago
That’s not true, actually. Books sell, but book doesn’t. The odds of a particular book selling a lot of copies are close to zero. The truth of the long tail is that most titles are way out on the fringe. Now that book publishing is unleashed from retail distribution, the math is...
Seth's Blog
“I don’t like it”
Everyone is entitled to their own taste. But this isn’t the helpful answer to the question, “is this...
a year ago
Everyone is entitled to their own taste. But this isn’t the helpful answer to the question, “is this good?” Whether it suits your taste might be irrelevant. “It doesn’t resonate with me” is not the same as “No one will like this.” The professional understands that they need...
Open Culture
Spin the 17th-Century Death Roulette Wheel & Find Out What Would Have Killed You in 1665
A common historical misconception holds that, up until a few centuries ago, everyone died when they...
2 months ago
A common historical misconception holds that, up until a few centuries ago, everyone died when they were about 40. In fact, even in antiquity, one could well make it to what would be considered an advanced age today — assuming one survived the great mortal peril of childhood, and...
Anarchy Unfolds
To change everything, start anywhere
Letters to an anarchist - Part 2
a month ago
Letters to an anarchist - Part 2
Anarchy Unfolds
3 Pieces for Rethinking Identity Politics
Mental health, neurodivergence, orientation, and the path ahead
a month ago
Mental health, neurodivergence, orientation, and the path ahead
Seth's Blog
How to change the world
All successful cultural change (books, movies, public health), has a super-simple two-step loop:...
a year ago
All successful cultural change (books, movies, public health), has a super-simple two-step loop: AWARENESSTENSION–>Loop<– It’s easy to focus on awareness. Get the word out. Hype. Promo. I think that’s a mistake. Because awareness without tension is useless. The tension is like...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Duncan Tattersall
I’m an artist and maker from southern Scotland, designing and hand printing bespoke textiles for...
10 months ago
I’m an artist and maker from southern Scotland, designing and hand printing bespoke textiles for interiors. My work focuses on the relationship between pattern & place; all of my designs are inspired by a particular location and aim to interpret the story of their surroundings....
Seth's Blog
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...
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...
Open Culture
Watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the Influential German Expressionist Horror Film (1920)
In early 1920, posters began appearing all over Berlin with a hypnotic spiral and the mysterious...
a month ago
In early 1920, posters began appearing all over Berlin with a hypnotic spiral and the mysterious command Du musst Caligari werden — “You must become Caligari.” The posters were part of an innovative advertising campaign for an upcoming movie by Robert Wiene called The Cabinet of...
Seth's Blog
Take good notes
Facts are important, but facts don’t create learning. Stories do. A story fits into (and changes)...
a month ago
Facts are important, but facts don’t create learning. Stories do. A story fits into (and changes) our understanding of the world. Good teachers are storytellers, and storytellers are teachers. Notes, then, aren’t recitations of facts. They’re story prompts. A good note reminds...
Seth's Blog
By association
We’re busy, we’re confused and we’re always seeking a shortcut. If a company is hiring, the person...
9 months ago
We’re busy, we’re confused and we’re always seeking a shortcut. If a company is hiring, the person who worked at Google or Apple or Disney gets more of the benefit of the doubt. Even if all they did was bring coffee to someone. But, if that person was one of the hundreds laid off...
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 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
Better at being better
In most competitive markets, when an organization offers a new benefit, others will quickly move to...
a week ago
In most competitive markets, when an organization offers a new benefit, others will quickly move to match it. This means that it’s hard to justify the hard work of creating something better, because it’s just going to become a new standard. It doesn’t pay for a credit card...
Open Culture
Ancient Greek Armor Gets Tested in an 11-Hour Battle Simulation Inspired by the Iliad
By Greek law, every male citizen over the age of eighteen must spend from nine months to a year in...
6 months ago
By Greek law, every male citizen over the age of eighteen must spend from nine months to a year in the Hellenic Armed Forces. As in every country with such a policy of mandatory conscription, this is surely not a prospect relished by most conscripts-to-be. But then, it can’t be...
Open Culture
How Car Chase Scenes Have Evolved Over 100 Years: The Technology Behind Bullitt, The French...
For many a classic action-movie enthusiast, no car chase will ever top the one in Bullitt. The...
a month ago
For many a classic action-movie enthusiast, no car chase will ever top the one in Bullitt. The narrator of the Insider video above describes it as “the scene that set the standard for all modern car chases,” one made “iconic partly because of the characters, but also because of...
Seth's Blog
The convenience fee
Sometimes it’s obvious, like the $1 that you get charged for using an ATM or a credit card, and it’s...
a year ago
Sometimes it’s obvious, like the $1 that you get charged for using an ATM or a credit card, and it’s simply not worth the hassle to walk a few blocks. And sometimes it’s not, like the cost we all pay for the conveniently wrapped fruits or vegetables at the market–wrapped in...
Seth's Blog
Fire inspectors
Running into a burning building is heroic work. Keeping buildings from burning down in the first...
4 months ago
Running into a burning building is heroic work. Keeping buildings from burning down in the first place is actually just as important. And it scales more reliably.
Anarchy Unfolds
Food Waste is Bad Actually
How we frame the problem makes all the difference
2 weeks ago
How we frame the problem makes all the difference
Open Culture
Inside the Beautiful Home Frank Lloyd Wright Designed for His Son (1952)
Being Frank Lloyd Wright’s son surely came with its downsides. But one of the upsides — assuming you...
8 months ago
Being Frank Lloyd Wright’s son surely came with its downsides. But one of the upsides — assuming you could stay in the mercurial master’s good graces — was the possibility of his designing a house for you. Such was the fortune of his fourth child David Samuel Wright, a Phoenix...
Seth's Blog
Significant work is a vote
When we show up to bring humanity to work, we’re making a choice. It involves risk and effort and...
a year ago
When we show up to bring humanity to work, we’re making a choice. It involves risk and effort and emotional labor. We’re here to make a change happen, and we’re giving something to make that happen. So it’s a vote. A vote for the customer we seek to serve. A vote for the boss and...
Open Culture
Monty Python’s Michael Palin Presents His Favorite Painting, J. M. W. Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed
Of all the English comedians to have attained worldwide fame over the past half-century, Sir Michael...
7 months ago
Of all the English comedians to have attained worldwide fame over the past half-century, Sir Michael Palin may be the most English of them all. It thus comes as no surprise that the National Gallery would ring him up and invite him to make a video about his favorite painting, nor...
Open Culture
The Romans Stashed Hallucinogenic Seeds in a Vial Made From an Animal Bone
What’s popular in the metropolis sooner or later makes its way out into the provinces. This...
6 months ago
What’s popular in the metropolis sooner or later makes its way out into the provinces. This phenomenon has become more difficult to notice in recent years, not because it’s slowed down, but because it’s sped way up, owing to near-instantaneous cultural diffusion on the internet....
Seth's Blog
Out of control
It’s negative when we say that someone is out of control. They’ve lost their self-restraint, and...
9 months ago
It’s negative when we say that someone is out of control. They’ve lost their self-restraint, and they’re doing things that they’ll regret later. And it’s honest when we acknowledge that just about everything is out of our control. We can work to influence it, we can practice...
Seth's Blog
High fidelity
It might be the high fidelity of a good LP on a great turntable. It sounds just like the original...
a year ago
It might be the high fidelity of a good LP on a great turntable. It sounds just like the original recording. It might be the high fidelity of loyalty. No shopping around for a momentarily better deal. It might be the high fidelity of genre. This is just what you hoped it would...
Marian's Blog
Raspberry Pi Projekte
Was macht man eigentlich mit einem Raspberry Pi? Ich habe mir vor einem halben Jahr einen gekauft....
over a year ago
Was macht man eigentlich mit einem Raspberry Pi? Ich habe mir vor einem halben Jahr einen gekauft. Seitdem steht er hier auf meinem Schreibtisch und führt eine Reihe von Aufgaben aus. Hier eine Übersicht:
http-Server für einige Webseiten auf dem Pi und die Daten auf meiner...
Handprinted - Blog
How to Design and Print a Straight Repeating Pattern
Here’s an easy way to design a repeat pattern (without using a computer) and to block print it on to...
over a year ago
Here’s an easy way to design a repeat pattern (without using a computer) and to block print it on to fabric. We used MasterCut for our block because it’s an easy to cut stamping material that prints beautifully.
Draw around your block onto a piece of paper.
Draw part of your...
Open Culture
J. G. Ballard Demystifies Surrealist Paintings by Dalí, Magritte, de Chirico & More
Before his signature works like The Atrocity Exhibition, Crash, and High-Rise, J. G. Ballard...
4 months ago
Before his signature works like The Atrocity Exhibition, Crash, and High-Rise, J. G. Ballard published three apocalyptic novels, The Drowned World, The Burning World, and The Crystal World. Each of those books offers a different vision of large-scale environmental disaster, and...
Handprinted - Blog
Mark Marking - Using Etching Tools
When you’ve degreased and prepared your plate for etching, there are a variety of tools you can use...
a year ago
When you’ve degreased and prepared your plate for etching, there are a variety of tools you can use to mark into the surface. Any marks made into the surface of the grounds will expose your plate to the mordant. When etched, these marks will become sunken areas for ink to sit,...
Open Culture
Maurice Sendak’s First Published Illustrations: Discover His Drawings for a 1947 Popular Science...
McGraw-Hill/public domain; copy from the Niels Bohr Library & Archives Once upon a time, long before...
3 months ago
McGraw-Hill/public domain; copy from the Niels Bohr Library & Archives Once upon a time, long before Maurice Sendak illustrated Where The Wild Things Are (1963), he published, notes Ars Technica, “his first professional illustrations in a 1947 popular science book about nuclear...
Seth's Blog
Don’t know, don’t care
Clients and customers can be frustrating. Perhaps they don’t know what you know. Perhaps they don’t...
a year ago
Clients and customers can be frustrating. Perhaps they don’t know what you know. Perhaps they don’t care. It’s possible to educate and inspire. It might be more productive to find the few that want to go where you do.
Seth's Blog
The swag is here
To celebrate the new book, here are some limited edition swag options to benefit good causes and...
a year ago
To celebrate the new book, here are some limited edition swag options to benefit good causes and independent craftspeople. You can find them all at seths.store. I went to Brooklyn and worked with Dan at the Arm to create a set of five handmade letterpress posters. They’re 12...
Seth's Blog
Rethinking the Sports-Industrial Complex
School sports can have some valuable outputs: And yet, many schools act as if all they have is a...
a year ago
School sports can have some valuable outputs: And yet, many schools act as if all they have is a trophy shortage. They bench kids who might not (yet) have the physical attributes necessary to win, or they build huge stadiums, go on long road trips, berate students that make an...
Seth's Blog
Jargon comes and goes
Forty years ago in engineering class, it wasn’t unusual to talk about GIGO or FUBAR. These weren’t...
a year ago
Forty years ago in engineering class, it wasn’t unusual to talk about GIGO or FUBAR. These weren’t technical terms, they were mild complaints that signaled insider status and cultural cohesion. In a closed profession, like airplane pilots, the insider jargon lasts for...
The Great Discontent...
Sofía Gallisá Muriente
Emergence Issue: TGD’s fifth issue features a dynamic group of 15 creators who are deeply committed...
over a year ago
Emergence Issue: TGD’s fifth issue features a dynamic group of 15 creators who are deeply committed to addressing systematic challenges in their communities through creativity and emerging ideologies. Buy Now ¿Puedes compartir un poco sobre dónde y cómo creciste y qué influencia...
Seth's Blog
Possibility and opportunity
We have the chance to build something that creates connection and generates value. On the other...
a year ago
We have the chance to build something that creates connection and generates value. On the other hand, a system that diminishes agency and dignity is inherently unstable. When we seek to create scarcity and control and optimize output at the expense of our humanity, it may pay off...
Handprinted - Blog
Introduction to Linocut Tools
As printmakers, we know that having good tools can be a game changer when it comes to your...
10 months ago
As printmakers, we know that having good tools can be a game changer when it comes to your printmaking practice. There are lots of lino and wood cutting tools to choose from so read on for a breakdown of the different options available.
All our linocut tools can be found here.
We...
Seth's Blog
The hierarchy of insight
It looks like this: Which do we measure the most, spend the most obtaining and argue about most...
3 months ago
It looks like this: Which do we measure the most, spend the most obtaining and argue about most often? We might have it backwards. HT Russ Ackoff.
The Great Discontent...
Ophelia Chong
Ophelia Chong has had a long and storied career in photography, art, and creative direction that...
a year ago
Ophelia Chong has had a long and storied career in photography, art, and creative direction that spans from magazines and music labels to film festivals and book publishing. When a family member’s medicinal marijuana use inspired her to dip her toes into the world of weed, Chong...
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...
The Great Discontent...
Yashas Mitta
Yashas is a creative director and ambitious connector. He was also a self-described outsider for...
a year ago
Yashas is a creative director and ambitious connector. He was also a self-described outsider for much of his life, and his path from Bangalore, India to New York City has been a winding one driven by sheer stubbornness and a keen instinct for creating community wherever he goes....
Open Culture
Browse 64 Years of RadioShack Catalogs Free Online … and Revisit the History of American Consumer...
“I bet RadioShack was great once,” writes former employee Jon Bois in a much-circulated 2014 piece...
3 months ago
“I bet RadioShack was great once,” writes former employee Jon Bois in a much-circulated 2014 piece for SB Nation. “I can’t look through their decades-old catalogs and come away with any other impression. They sold giant walnut-wood speakers I’d kill to have today. They sold...
Open Culture
Oscar-Winning Director Frank Capra Made an Educational Science Film Warning of Climate Change in...
In 2015, we highlighted for you The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays, a largely-forgotten 1957...
5 months ago
In 2015, we highlighted for you The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays, a largely-forgotten 1957 educational science film. The production is notable partly because it was shot by Frank Capra, the influential director who had won not one, not two, but three Oscars for best director....
Open Culture
Watch The Cure Perform a Three-Hour Concert in London, Celebrating the Release of Their New Album
httpv://www.youtube.com/live/_aWDlaxvEZo Last Friday, The Cure celebrated the release of their new...
a month ago
httpv://www.youtube.com/live/_aWDlaxvEZo Last Friday, The Cure celebrated the release of their new album, Songs of a Lost World, with a three-hour set at the Troxy in London. The band kicked off the show by performing all eight tracks from the album, before then playing another...
Seth's Blog
Comfortable with the fuzziness
Atmospheric conditions on Earth limit visibility on a perfect day to less than 200 miles. Time works...
4 weeks ago
Atmospheric conditions on Earth limit visibility on a perfect day to less than 200 miles. Time works the same way. When we’re doing the same thing, in the same way, our perception of what will happen next can feel crystal clear. Plant some apple seeds in your backyard, and you’re...
Open Culture
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Perform a Rollicking Cover of the Mary Tyler Moore Theme Song (1996)
?si=Pblv5Tzpi_F-a6cu Originally written by Sonny Curtis and released in 1970, “Love Is All...
2 months ago
?si=Pblv5Tzpi_F-a6cu Originally written by Sonny Curtis and released in 1970, “Love Is All Around”–otherwise known as the Mary Tyler Moore theme song–has been covered by many acts: Sammy Davis Jr, Hüsker Dü, and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, to name a few. After releasing a studio...
Open Culture
Patti Smith Reads Her Final Letter to Robert Mapplethorpe, Calling Him “the Most Beautiful Work of...
If you go to hear Patti Smith in concert, you expect her to sing “Beneath the Southern Cross,”...
6 months ago
If you go to hear Patti Smith in concert, you expect her to sing “Beneath the Southern Cross,” “Because the Night,” and almost certainly “People Have the Power,” the hit single from Dream of Life. Like her 1975 debut Horses, that album had a cover photo by Robert...
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.
The Last...
Product Review: Panasonic PT AX200U (Hipsters On Food Stamps Part 3)
but how will you afford a steak?
Part 2 here
Three questions, open book:
1. Did Hipster...
over a year ago
but how will you afford a steak?
Part 2 here
Three questions, open book:
1. Did Hipster Gerry get his money's worth from the University of Chicago, either $100k in future income or knowledge? No.
2. Did society get their money's worth in sending him, i.e. by...
Seth's Blog
The low-stakes argument
It’s tempting and fun to argue about the logo. About the way the toilet paper is hung. About how to...
a year ago
It’s tempting and fun to argue about the logo. About the way the toilet paper is hung. About how to load the trunk of the car. These sorts of arguments work precisely because they don’t matter. At all. And they distract us from the incredibly difficult work of discussing the...
Seth's Blog
(Without the bad parts)
That makes it easy. “I’m in favor of unfiltered online commentary (without the misogyny, racism and...
a year ago
That makes it easy. “I’m in favor of unfiltered online commentary (without the misogyny, racism and mob manipulation.)” “I’d like to run a marathon (without getting tired).” “I’m in favor of strict copyright law (except for the endless © trolls and with just the right amount of...
Seth's Blog
Writing your book
I spent time this week with two authors who are showing up to share their lives, their insights, and...
a year ago
I spent time this week with two authors who are showing up to share their lives, their insights, and their generosity in the form of books. A good book will change the reader, but it makes an even bigger impact on the author. Here’s a classic episode of Akimbo. Book publishing...
Seth's Blog
The good news
What if there were a pipeline into your day, a series of emails or posts or feeds that had nothing...
a year ago
What if there were a pipeline into your day, a series of emails or posts or feeds that had nothing but nice things, positive feedback and encouragement coming your way? Amazingly, you could build something like that in just a few minutes and have it forever. If the bad news...
Seth's Blog
Long-term selfish
Everyone is selfish. We do things that increase our chances of survival, help us achieve our goals...
4 months ago
Everyone is selfish. We do things that increase our chances of survival, help us achieve our goals and give us a story we can tell ourselves about our role in the community. But short-term selfish is something we try to grow out of. Short-term selfish runs a red light because...
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
Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa Now Appears on Japanese Banknotes
If you’ve lived or traveled in Japan, you know full well how much of daily life in that...
5 months ago
If you’ve lived or traveled in Japan, you know full well how much of daily life in that cash-intensive society involves the use of thousand-yen bills. Once considered the equivalent of the American ten-spot, the yen’s lately having fallen to its lowest value in decades means that...
Seth's Blog
Can’t wait
The urgent problem might actually benefit from a short cooling-off period. But important challenges...
a year ago
The urgent problem might actually benefit from a short cooling-off period. But important challenges can’t wait. Today is a good day to remember that better is possible, and that we shouldn’t wait for the problem to become easy or fade away. Better begins with each of us, but it...
Open Culture
How Carl Jung Inspired the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous
There may be as many doors into Alcoholics Anonymous in the 21st century as there are people who...
6 months ago
There may be as many doors into Alcoholics Anonymous in the 21st century as there are people who walk through them—from every world religion to no religion. The “international mutual-aid fellowship” has had “a significant and long-term effect on the culture of the United States,”...
Seth's Blog
Comfort and convenience
For the last thirty years, the easiest shortcut has been convenience. If a marketer or a politician...
7 months ago
For the last thirty years, the easiest shortcut has been convenience. If a marketer or a politician or an institution wants to gain acceptance, make it convenient. Tim Wu has pointed out that we’ll trade almost anything to save a few moments of hassle or thought. But that doesn’t...
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...
Open Culture
Thomas Edison’s Recordings of Leo Tolstoy: Hear the Voice of the Great Russian Novelist
Born 196 years ago, Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s life (1828–1910) spanned a period of immense...
2 months ago
Born 196 years ago, Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s life (1828–1910) spanned a period of immense social, political, and technological change, paralleled in his own life by his radical shift from hedonistic nobleman to theologian, anarchist, and vegetarian pacifist. Though he did...
Seth's Blog
When did we lose consciousness?
In medical TV dramas, losing consciousness is something that happens suddenly and dramatically. We...
3 months ago
In medical TV dramas, losing consciousness is something that happens suddenly and dramatically. We can all tell… the body is still there, but the mind is gone, at least for now. Unfortunately, this happens in real life. At work. In our personal lives. For a few minutes or even a...
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
The Last...
Randi Zuckerberg Thinks We Should Untangle Our Wired Lives
how hard could it be, none of those circles are actually connected
Randi Zuckerberg is...
over a year ago
how hard could it be, none of those circles are actually connected
Randi Zuckerberg is CEO of Zuckerberg Media, which, according to its 10-K, is an iphone. If you have no idea who she is, and you shouldn't, then the answer to your one and only question is yes.
In her...
Seth's Blog
The challenge of nonprofit fundraising
When someone starts a business, they spend a bunch of time with a business plan, working to raise...
8 months ago
When someone starts a business, they spend a bunch of time with a business plan, working to raise funds and get it off the ground. After that, though, the purpose of the business is completely aligned with the idea of not running out of money. We run a business to make money, not...
Seth's Blog
The next one
When asked what his favorite composition was, Duke Ellington said, “the next one.” This is the...
a year ago
When asked what his favorite composition was, Duke Ellington said, “the next one.” This is the essence of the artistic process. When we’re in the liminal space between now and what is about to come, we’re fully alive.
Seth's Blog
Convenience and scams
The scam era is upon us. Aided by AI, borderless currency and the internet of things, there are more...
a year ago
The scam era is upon us. Aided by AI, borderless currency and the internet of things, there are more people than ever before making a living hustling to steal, impersonate, defraud and otherwise violate our trust. When the world was inconvenient, this was difficult. The banker...
Seth's Blog
Aerodynamic figureheads
That’s sort of an oxymoron. The original figureheads were carved into the bow of a ship. They exist...
5 months ago
That’s sort of an oxymoron. The original figureheads were carved into the bow of a ship. They exist to express the spirit of the boat and to demonstrate its power and resilience. Here’s an AI recreation of the most famous one: The sailors were wise enough to understand that the...
Infinite Scroll
Infinite Scroll Podcast: Worst Tweets ft. Andrew Heaton
It's possible that we might be too online
4 days ago
It's possible that we might be too online
Ian Betteridge
Weeknote, Sunday 10th November 2024
It’s been a while since I wrote a weeknote, although I’ve kept up with the other kinds of writing...
a month ago
It’s been a while since I wrote a weeknote, although I’ve kept up with the other kinds of writing that I do. But: I work now. I’m working at a small B2B publisher helping them sort out a few things. This was originally going to be an in-and-out job which would take nine months,...
Seth's Blog
PW 2: Productivity in community
We need you. But only if you need us. Purple.space is six months old, and there are about a thousand...
11 months ago
We need you. But only if you need us. Purple.space is six months old, and there are about a thousand of us now. It was an experiment, now it’s a useful tool. The initiative hat is often ill-fitting. We rush to take it off and get back to doing chores. And that’s why a community...
Open Culture
Isaac Asimov Predicts the Future of Online Education in 1988–and It’s Now Coming True
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Though that line probably originated...
7 months ago
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” Though that line probably originated with a Canadian novelist called Grant Allen, it’s long been popularly attributed to his more colorful nineteenth-century contemporary Mark Twain. It isn’t hard to understand why it...
Seth's Blog
Anti-smart
There’s a difference between intellectual and smart. A plumber is smart, they know how to do a...
a year ago
There’s a difference between intellectual and smart. A plumber is smart, they know how to do a skilled and effective job on the task at hand. Intellectualism isn’t about practical results, it’s a passion for exploring what others have said, though this approach is sometimes...
Open Culture
Google Launches a New Course Called “AI Essentials”: Learn How to Use Generative AI Tools to...
This week, Google announced the launch of Google AI Essentials, a new self-paced course designed to...
7 months ago
This week, Google announced the launch of Google AI Essentials, a new self-paced course designed to help people learn AI skills that can boost their productivity. Taught by Google’s AI experts, and assuming no prior knowledge of programming, the course ventures to show students...
Open Culture
How 2001: A Space Odyssey Became “the Hardest Film Kubrick Ever Made”
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has been praised in all manner of terms since it came out...
3 months ago
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has been praised in all manner of terms since it came out more than half a century ago. An early advertising campaign, tapping into the enthusiasm of the contemporary counterculture, called it “the ultimate trip”; in the equivalently trendy...
Seth's Blog
Discernment in creativity
The hard part isn’t good ideas. It never has been. The hard part is choosing. Ask GPT for ten...
a year ago
The hard part isn’t good ideas. It never has been. The hard part is choosing. Ask GPT for ten subtitles for your book, or sixteen ways to hold a surprise party, and you’ll be delighted at how useful they are. Ask Dreamstudio or Kittl for some logo designs, same thing. There is...
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
When the media is ready (Bongo part 2)
Media isn’t a magazine or a website. It’s a system. We can learn to see the system and contribute to...
a month ago
Media isn’t a magazine or a website. It’s a system. We can learn to see the system and contribute to it with leverage. There are three elements to consider in a media system that’s worth a professional creator’s time: Systems are changed by technology. When desktop publishing...
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
Avoid unnecessary amplifiers
This is extremely unique vs This is unique I’m very upset vs I’m upset and I love you a ton vs I...
a year ago
This is extremely unique vs This is unique I’m very upset vs I’m upset and I love you a ton vs I love you Sometimes, more words aren’t better.
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...
Seth's Blog
Elites (vs. elitism)
Tom Brady is an elite athlete. Few have even approached the stats he had playing football. And...
2 weeks ago
Tom Brady is an elite athlete. Few have even approached the stats he had playing football. And Catherine Walker, NSTA Science Teacher of the Year, is an elite, because her pedagogy and understanding give her the ability to create better outcomes for her students. There’s a...
Ian Betteridge
Weeknote, Sunday 15th December
a week ago
Open Culture
Carl Jung Offers an Introduction to His Psychological Thought in a 3‑Hour Interview (1957)
In the 1950s, it was fashionable to drop Freud’s name — often as not in pseudo-intellectual sex...
4 months ago
In the 1950s, it was fashionable to drop Freud’s name — often as not in pseudo-intellectual sex jokes. Freud’s preoccupations had as much to do with his fame as the actual practice of psychotherapy, and it was assumed — and still is to a great degree — that Freud had “won” the...
Seth's Blog
Consider the WordWindow
Computer adventure games were possible in the 1980s because of a bit of code called a ‘parser’. You...
a year ago
Computer adventure games were possible in the 1980s because of a bit of code called a ‘parser’. You could type, “pick up the axe” and the computer would understand the phrase and follow your commands. In italics, because it didn’t understand anything, it simple broke your...
Open Culture
Leonard Bernstein Introduces the Moog Synthesizer to the World in 1969, Playing an Electrified...
When Wendy Carlos released Switched-On Bach in 1968, her “greatest hits” compilation of the Baroque...
7 months ago
When Wendy Carlos released Switched-On Bach in 1968, her “greatest hits” compilation of the Baroque composer’s music, played entirely on the Moog analog synthesizer, the album became an immediate hit with both classical and pop audiences. Not only was it “acclaimed as real music...
Seth's Blog
In search of chatoyancy
A cat’s eye is smooth but doesn’t seem to be… there’s a mystery of depth. That illusion is called...
a year ago
A cat’s eye is smooth but doesn’t seem to be… there’s a mystery of depth. That illusion is called chatoyancy. The same is true for some sorts of woods (cedar is an exception). The digital age makes it more and more likely we’re experiencing things through a flat screen, and as a...
Open Culture
What Is Religion Actually For?: Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury Weigh In
In the nineteen-sixties, the music media encouraged the notion that a young rock-and-roll fan had to...
7 months ago
In the nineteen-sixties, the music media encouraged the notion that a young rock-and-roll fan had to side with either the Beatles or their rivals, the Rolling Stones. On some level, it must have made sense, given the growing aesthetic divide between the music the two world-famous...
Seth's Blog
Patterns and chaos
Finding a pattern that explains events that seem like chaos is a breakthrough. It offers us...
5 months ago
Finding a pattern that explains events that seem like chaos is a breakthrough. It offers us understanding and a lever we can use to make an impact. Sometimes, though, the breakthrough lies in understanding that there is no pattern, simply unpredictable noise. We need effort to...
Seth's Blog
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
Bitterness is consistent
It will never let you down. Bitterness is never-ending, impenetrable and refuses to negotiate. If...
a year ago
It will never let you down. Bitterness is never-ending, impenetrable and refuses to negotiate. If you give it a chance, it will persist. It lacks nuance or surprise. It’s simply a wall you can lean against, whenever you choose. Consistency is all it has to offer, actually.
Open Culture
The Radical Artistic & Philosophical World of William Blake: A Short Introduction
Over the years, we’ve featured the work of William Blake fairly often here on Open Culture: his own...
6 months ago
Over the years, we’ve featured the work of William Blake fairly often here on Open Culture: his own illuminated books; his illustrations for everything from the Divine Comedy to Mary Wollstonecraft’s Original Stories from Real Life to the Book of Job; pairs of Doc Martens made...
Seth's Blog
On reading it in a book
Mike Schur, co-creator of Parks and Recreation, said of his career, “This is not stuff you can read...
a year ago
Mike Schur, co-creator of Parks and Recreation, said of his career, “This is not stuff you can read in a book,” he said. “This is stuff that you have to experience.” I think it’s also useful to flip it around. There are things you will have trouble experiencing until you read...
Open Culture
The Fake Buildings of New York: What Happens Inside Their Mysterious Walls
You can’t go on a walk with a serious enthusiast of New York history without hearing the stories...
2 months ago
You can’t go on a walk with a serious enthusiast of New York history without hearing the stories behind at least a few notable, beautiful, or downright strange buildings. Yet most longtime New Yorkers, famed for tuning out their surroundings to better strive for their goals of...
Open Culture
Stanford Continuing Studies Offering an Online Course Exploring the Music of the Grateful Dead
Image via Wikimedia Commons A quick heads up: On October 3rd, Stanford Continuing Studies will kick...
3 months ago
Image via Wikimedia Commons A quick heads up: On October 3rd, Stanford Continuing Studies will kick off an 8‑week online course called Did It Matter? Does It Now? The Music and Culture of the Grateful Dead. Led by David Gans (author of Playing in the Band: An Oral and Visual...
Seth's Blog
Opening the pod bay door
A brand new episode of Akimbo this week, all about artificial intelligence. Part one of of two on...
a year ago
A brand new episode of Akimbo this week, all about artificial intelligence. Part one of of two on mediocrity and the choices we’re going to need to make. And, a while in the making, an experimental AI chat bot that has been trained on all 5,000,000 words of this blog. You can...
Open Culture
The Amazing Engineering of Roman Baths
Few depictions of ancient Roman life neglect to reference all the time ancient Romans spent at the...
6 months ago
Few depictions of ancient Roman life neglect to reference all the time ancient Romans spent at the baths. One gets the impression that their civilization was obsessed with cleanliness, in contrast to most of the societies found around the world at the time, but that turns out...
Open Culture
Michio Kaku Demystifies the God Equation: The Key to Understanding Everything
It speaks to the importance of discoveries in physics over the past few generations that even the...
3 months ago
It speaks to the importance of discoveries in physics over the past few generations that even the disinterested layman has heard of the field’s central challenge. In brief, there exist two separate systems: general relativity, which describes the physics of space, time, and...
The Great Discontent...
Schessa Garbutt
Schessa Garbutt is the founder of the Inglewood–based design studio, Firebrand. An educator,...
5 months ago
Schessa Garbutt is the founder of the Inglewood–based design studio, Firebrand. An educator, lecturer, and published essayist (see The Black Experience in Design anthology, a must-read). Garbutt works at the intersection of co-design practices and making huge, mind-bending ideas...
Seth's Blog
The reality of chasing pop
It’s tempting for a creator. To make a pop hit, a song or a book or a meme that becomes a popular...
a year ago
It’s tempting for a creator. To make a pop hit, a song or a book or a meme that becomes a popular idea and part of the culture. In our lifetimes, it’s become possible to imagine that you could even make a living creating pop. But pop is a harsh mistress, because pop means...
Marian's Blog
ESA ExoMars Rover 3D model
This is one of my first 3D modeling projects in Blender and my biggest 3D modeling project so...
over a year ago
This is one of my first 3D modeling projects in Blender and my biggest 3D modeling project so far.
It's a model of ESA's ExoMars rover.
You can have a closer look at the model on Sketchfab:
There is also a download option on Sketchfab so you can get the original .blend file and...
Seth's Blog
“What’s next?”
The way we think about our priorities makes a huge difference. Leaders of every stripe make one...
a year ago
The way we think about our priorities makes a huge difference. Leaders of every stripe make one thing more than any other: decisions. In any environment with constraints (which is, actually, any environment), the decisions about time and resources–about what to do next–change...
Open Culture
The Evolution of Cinema: Watch Nearly 140 Years of Film History Unfold in 80 Minutes
The video above from YouTuber Alex Day includes clips from about 500 movies, and you’ve almost...
a month ago
The video above from YouTuber Alex Day includes clips from about 500 movies, and you’ve almost certainly seen more than a few of them. Battleship Potemkin, Dumbo, Rear Window, Dr. No, The Godfather, E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Top Gun, Braveheart, Gladiator, Inception: we’re not...
Open Culture
Free: Download Over 33,000 Sounds from the BBC Sound Effects Archive
There may be a few young people in Britain today who recognize the name Ludwig Koch, but in the...
2 months ago
There may be a few young people in Britain today who recognize the name Ludwig Koch, but in the nineteen-forties, he constituted something of a cultural phenomenon unto himself. He “started recording sounds and voices in the 1880s when he was still a child” in his native Germany,...
Seth's Blog
When we get to where we’re going
…perhaps we should stop. Unless the going was the point.
a year ago
…perhaps we should stop. Unless the going was the point.
On the Arts
How to Write a Proper Haiku
A Starter's Guide to the Deceptively Simple Poetic Form
a year ago
A Starter's Guide to the Deceptively Simple Poetic Form
Marian's Blog
Quadrocopter Lichtsystem
Dies ist ein Arduinoprojekt, das vier RGB-LED-Streifen an den vier Armen des Quadrocopters...
over a year ago
Dies ist ein Arduinoprojekt, das vier RGB-LED-Streifen an den vier Armen des Quadrocopters ansteuert. Das Ziel war, bei möglichst geringen Materialkosten möglichst viele Möglichkeiten bei der Beleuchtung des Quadrocopters zu haben.
Verwendete Teile:
1m RGB-LED Streifen, jeweils...
Seth's Blog
Manipulation, indoctrination and addiction
They’re often related. It’s not unusual for someone to have more experience or knowledge than we do....
7 months ago
They’re often related. It’s not unusual for someone to have more experience or knowledge than we do. If they use that knowledge to their benefit, not ours, they might be manipulating us. If we knew what they knew, we wouldn’t have gone along. This is the difference between a...
Seth's Blog
Spire confusion
When architects show off their work, or propose a bold new building complex or even ask for a zoning...
10 months ago
When architects show off their work, or propose a bold new building complex or even ask for a zoning variance, the public sees the external photos. The tall spire, the innovative use of glass, the weird hole in the center of the building. And when a car company shows off a new...
Open Culture
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,...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Rosanna Morris
I am an illustrator and printmaker, working mainly with relief. I work from my large studio on the...
8 months ago
I am an illustrator and printmaker, working mainly with relief. I work from my large studio on the top floor of an creative warehouse in east Bristol. I also run a courses, workshops and printmaking events.
Describe your printmaking process.
I usually start with a pencil...
Blog - Mac Pierce
The Whys and Hows of the Opt-Out Cap.
Why I built the Opt-Out Cap cap, and how it all came together.
over a year ago
Why I built the Opt-Out Cap cap, and how it all came together.
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...
Seth's Blog
The inevitable meeting
When the person you could have been meets the person you are becoming, is it going to be a cause for...
2 months ago
When the person you could have been meets the person you are becoming, is it going to be a cause for celebration or heartbreak? This is something we must work on right now, and tomorrow, and every single day until the meeting happens.
Anarchy Unfolds
No Futures
We don't have to think of the children
7 months ago
We don't have to think of the children
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
Behold the Kräuterbuch, a Lavishly Illustrated Guide to Plants and Herbs from 1462
When Konrad von Megenberg published his Buch der Natur in the mid-fourteenth century, he won the...
4 months ago
When Konrad von Megenberg published his Buch der Natur in the mid-fourteenth century, he won the distinction of having assembled the very first natural history in German. More than half a millennium later, the book still fascinates — not least for its depictions of cats,...
Seth's Blog
When the sun is shining
Our job as professionals is to show up and do the work. Not simply respond to incoming or do the...
a year ago
Our job as professionals is to show up and do the work. Not simply respond to incoming or do the chores, but to create and innovate. And yet, some days feel more conducive than others. There are moments when it simply flows. When the surf’s up, cancel everything else. Don’t waste...
The Last...
Hunger Games Catching Fire: Badass Body Count
sorry old man, I have a dress fitting to go to
Number of people killed: 15
Number of...
over a year ago
sorry old man, I have a dress fitting to go to
Number of people killed: 15
Number of people Katniss kills: 1
Number of times she is saved by someone else: 6
Number of times she saves someone else: 0
But boy oh boy, wasn't she spectacular at practice, 9 targets in 30...
Seth's Blog
“I didn’t see you there”
Someone I’ve worked with over the years happened to be driving down my street. I called out and said...
a month ago
Someone I’ve worked with over the years happened to be driving down my street. I called out and said hello… They ignored me. So I repeated myself. “Oh,” they said, recognizing me. “It’s you.” We’re more likely to see, hear and care if the person over there is actually a person. A...
Seth's Blog
Customer service is a choice
It’s either part of your strategy or you’re paying for your mistake. 800 numbers changed the way...
11 months ago
It’s either part of your strategy or you’re paying for your mistake. 800 numbers changed the way large brands dealt with the public. Instantly, and for free, a consumer could contact a company about a product or service and they would work to make it right. It was more than...
Open Culture
Mythology Expert Reviews Depictions of Greek & Roman Myths in Popular Movies and TV Shows
It’s safe to say that we no longer believe in the gods of the ancient world — or rather, that most...
a month ago
It’s safe to say that we no longer believe in the gods of the ancient world — or rather, that most of us no longer believe in their literal existence, but some of us have faith in their box-office potential. This two-part video series from Vanity Fair examines a variety of movies...
Seth's Blog
Inconvenient!
That’s great news. The thing you need, the road ahead, the element that will transform your...
a year ago
That’s great news. The thing you need, the road ahead, the element that will transform your project–it appears to be inconvenient. That’s terrific, because it means that most other people can’t be bothered. It’s valuable because the very inconvenience of it makes it scarce. The...
Open Culture
The Big Map of Who Lived When Shows Which Cultural Figures Walked the Earth at the Same Time: From...
We could call the time in which we live the “Information Age.” Or we could describe it more vividly...
3 months ago
We could call the time in which we live the “Information Age.” Or we could describe it more vividly as the era of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart, Beyoncé and Bob Dylan. Whatever you think of the work of any of...
Seth's Blog
Adjacent but not relevant
There’s a sale on band saw blades, including a really good deal on one that fits the saw you owned...
4 months ago
There’s a sale on band saw blades, including a really good deal on one that fits the saw you owned years ago. The folks who live next door to the house you used to live in are having a raucous party. A guy with a name just like yours wins the lottery… These adjacencies can […]
The Last...
No Self-Respecting Woman Would Go Out Without Make Up
For some reason, one of the most emailed articles from the NYT was an article about whether women...
over a year ago
For some reason, one of the most emailed articles from the NYT was an article about whether women should or should not wear make up. "New York Times? Sounds progressive." Yes.
Seven
people were asked their opinion in a column called "Room For Debate,"
liars, there was no...
Seth's Blog
The new reality of old media
Cable TV was a perfect storm. The number of channels that needed old movies and TV series to fill...
5 months ago
Cable TV was a perfect storm. The number of channels that needed old movies and TV series to fill airtime almost exactly matched the number of worthwhile shows that were available. Which meant that A Wonderful Life, The Wizard of Oz, Seinfeld and MASH could be cornerstones of the...
Seth's Blog
New ways to codify purpose
And then what happens? Many small businesses start with generosity and good intent at their core....
a year ago
And then what happens? Many small businesses start with generosity and good intent at their core. But it’s a rough ride, and especially when outside funding is involved, it’s easy to get seduced by the bright lights of Milton Friedman and an obsession with short-term profits....
Marian's Blog
Lego Part Designer
I made a web app that lets you design your own Lego Technic parts and save them as printable STL...
over a year ago
I made a web app that lets you design your own Lego Technic parts and save them as printable STL files.
You can check it out here.
I got the idea for this project when I was building with Lego parts and wondered how many of the common parts can be described with a simple rule...
Seth's Blog
The Pizza Principle
Good pizza is rare, even though the method to create it is well known. Any efforts to make it more...
a year ago
Good pizza is rare, even though the method to create it is well known. Any efforts to make it more convenient, cheaper or easier will almost always make it worse. If you think this post is about pizza, I’m afraid that we’re already stuck.
The Last...
Who Bullies The Bullies?
but they're welcome to buy an iphone
Pacific Standard. Get it? It's like The Atlantic,...
over a year ago
but they're welcome to buy an iphone
Pacific Standard. Get it? It's like The Atlantic, but it's Pacific. Totally different. So unlike The Atlantic, it will "attack the conventional wisdom from a west coast perspective." That's a quote. "But didn't the editors come from...
Seth's Blog
“What will I tell my boss?”
If you can’t answer that six-word question, you’re selling a commodity. Organizations don’t buy...
6 months ago
If you can’t answer that six-word question, you’re selling a commodity. Organizations don’t buy things, people do. And people at companies aren’t spending their own money, so this is the only question on the table. A cogent story, based on affiliation and status, one that sees...
Open Culture
The Wisdom of Alan Watts in 4 Mind-Expanding Animations
Perhaps no single person did more to popularize Zen Buddhism in the West than Alan Watts. In a...
2 months ago
Perhaps no single person did more to popularize Zen Buddhism in the West than Alan Watts. In a sense, Watts prepared U.S. culture for more traditionally Zen teachers like Soto priest Suzuki Roshi, whose lineage continues today, but Watts did not consider himself a Zen Buddhist....
Seth's Blog
Chores
They’re essential. The house begins to stink if we don’t take out the garbage. But at work, while...
a year ago
They’re essential. The house begins to stink if we don’t take out the garbage. But at work, while they might be essential, they may not be important. At least, not important enough for us to spend a lot of focus on. Chores are: The bills have to get paid. But they might not have...
Handprinted - Blog
Mono Screen Printing Using a Guide
Mono screen printing is a great technique if you want to create beautiful painterly prints but...
a year ago
Mono screen printing is a great technique if you want to create beautiful painterly prints but achieve the flatness of a screen print. It allows you to incorporate multiple colours in one layer and play with brush strokes and mark making.
When working with this technique,...
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....
9 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...
Seth's Blog
Pique-a-boo
Marketers seek to make an impact, and that takes interest. Three ways to spell the key word: Peak...
a year ago
Marketers seek to make an impact, and that takes interest. Three ways to spell the key word: Peak interest can’t get any higher. It never happens at launch. It’s the result of cultural change and an idea moving through the population. Peek interest happens when there’s scarcity...
Seth's Blog
Make or buy?
If you’re a writer, it probably doesn’t pay to chop down trees and make your own paper, or even to...
10 months ago
If you’re a writer, it probably doesn’t pay to chop down trees and make your own paper, or even to set up a little machine shop to make your own pens. That’s pretty obvious. Should the smoothie shop make its own almond milk? It’s pretty clear that Starbucks should have a team of...
Seth's Blog
Ice sculpture
There are very few activities that are fully reversible. Ice sculpture might be one of them. Once...
a month ago
There are very few activities that are fully reversible. Ice sculpture might be one of them. Once the ice melts, all the effort and information is lost, and refreezing lets you begin again with a new, fresh block of ice. Of course, it’s not completely gone. The thing you made...
Seth's Blog
Delivering good taste
There are lots of books on creating cooking, photography, writing and music. But they can’t possibly...
a year ago
There are lots of books on creating cooking, photography, writing and music. But they can’t possibly help you do better until you see and taste and appreciate what you’re trying to create. If you think what you’re serving is good, but others don’t, more recipes aren’t going to...
Seth's Blog
The hard part first
If you’re trying to reduce risk, do the hard part first. That way, if it fails, you’ll have...
a year ago
If you’re trying to reduce risk, do the hard part first. That way, if it fails, you’ll have minimized your time and effort. On the other hand, if you’re looking for buy-in and commitment so you can through the hard part, do it last. People are terrible at ignoring sunk costs, and...
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
Checking the date
After 2022, it’s hard to tell for sure. And going forward, public life is going to be even more...
a year ago
After 2022, it’s hard to tell for sure. And going forward, public life is going to be even more rumor-driven than it is now. Any video, any voiceover, any photograph–we can’t be sure. If YouTube or the Wayback Machine shows us that it happened after 2022, bring some doubt. AI and...
Seth's Blog
There are no stupid mistakes
There are mistakes. These are moments when reality teaches us something. And there’s stupid. This is...
a year ago
There are mistakes. These are moments when reality teaches us something. And there’s stupid. This is what happens when we refuse to learn from our mistakes. “Don’t be stupid” is a fine mantra. It’s particularly apt when talking about cultural forces, political agendas and our...
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
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
Solving a 2,500-Year-Old Puzzle: How a Cambridge Student Cracked an Ancient Sanskrit Code
If you find yourself grappling with an intellectual problem that’s gone unsolved for millennia, try...
3 months ago
If you find yourself grappling with an intellectual problem that’s gone unsolved for millennia, try taking a few months off and spending them on activities like swimming and meditating. That very strategy worked for a Cambridge PhD student named Rishi Rajpopat, who, after a...
Seth's Blog
Getting to no
“Yes” is magical. It brings possibility and forward motion. But it’s almost impossible without “no”...
a year ago
“Yes” is magical. It brings possibility and forward motion. But it’s almost impossible without “no” and no can be just as frightening. First, there’s the no of “I can’t go for that.” The no of refusing to race to the bottom, the no of avoiding the selfish hustle, the no of...
Seth's Blog
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
Where does your mind go when it wanders?
My friend Jason points out that this might be where your heart is. What would have to change for you...
11 months ago
My friend Jason points out that this might be where your heart is. What would have to change for you to actually follow the wandering and make it real? Or for your mind to choose to wander somewhere else? Somewhere you’re already going.
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
Buckminster Fuller Tells the World “Everything He Knows” in a 42-Hour Lecture Series (1975)
History seems to have settled Buckminster Fuller’s reputation as a man ahead of his time. He...
5 months ago
History seems to have settled Buckminster Fuller’s reputation as a man ahead of his time. He inspires short, witty popular videos like YouTuber Joe Scott’s “The Man Who Saw The Future,” and the ongoing legacy of the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI), who note that “Fuller’s...
Blog - Mac Pierce
USB C to 12vDC Adaptors for Camera gear
Making converters to power all of my camera accessories off of USB-C
over a year ago
Making converters to power all of my camera accessories off of USB-C
Seth's Blog
The drift to normal
As an organization grows in scale, the idiosyncrasy and distinctiveness that was originally informed...
9 months ago
As an organization grows in scale, the idiosyncrasy and distinctiveness that was originally informed by the taste of the founders moves toward the mean. Over time, things get more average. That’s because each new customer, each new supplier and each new employee wants or needs...
Seth's Blog
ChatGPT is dumber than it looks
That’s not true for a screwdriver. Or a table saw or even a spatula. These are useful tools, but...
8 months ago
That’s not true for a screwdriver. Or a table saw or even a spatula. These are useful tools, but they don’t pretend to be well-informed or wise. They’re dumb, and they look dumb too. That’s one reason that tools are effective. We use them to leverage our effort, but we don’t...
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…...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Eternal September
Plus: A little TPOT and a very good Christmas song
a week ago
Plus: A little TPOT and a very good Christmas song
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,...
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...
Open Culture
Ernest Hemingway’s Favorite Hamburger Recipe
Image via Wikimedia Commons In 2013, the food writer Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan stumbled across an article...
5 months ago
Image via Wikimedia Commons In 2013, the food writer Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan stumbled across an article in the Boston Globe describing a trove of digitized documents from Ernest Hemingway’s home in Cuba that had been recently donated to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and...
Open Culture
Oh My God! Winston Churchill Received the First Ever Letter Containing “O.M.G.” (1917)
Winston Churchill is one of those preposterously outsized historical figures who seemed to be in the...
6 months ago
Winston Churchill is one of those preposterously outsized historical figures who seemed to be in the middle of every major event. Even before, as Prime Minister, he steeled the resolve of his people and faced down the Third Reich juggernaut; even before he loudly warned of the...
Seth's Blog
Consider switching sides
One of the spokespeople for the new milk marketing campaign confessed that she doesn’t really like...
a year ago
One of the spokespeople for the new milk marketing campaign confessed that she doesn’t really like drinking milk. Sales are way down, and an entire generation is drinking other beverages. Other than the people who are paid to sell or lobby for milk sales, few people are...
The Last...
Funeral
do you have a better system?
The funeral is attended by 30 people. It's a military...
over a year ago
do you have a better system?
The funeral is attended by 30 people. It's a military funeral because he was in Korea, and in the front chairs are his wife and two grown children, and they are quietly crying.
When it ends, people disperse hesitatingly, after all, they...
Seth's Blog
Who’s got the camera?
For years, I’ve been using this picture of Neil Armstrong when I tell the story of meeting him and...
a year ago
For years, I’ve been using this picture of Neil Armstrong when I tell the story of meeting him and hearing his talk at one of his last public appearances: I wasn’t there when this photo was taken, so I relied on a Google image search to find it: I compounded Google’s error....
Seth's Blog
The Hegelochus lesson
More than 2,000 years ago, an actor in Greece botched a line in a play. In an inflection error, he...
a year ago
More than 2,000 years ago, an actor in Greece botched a line in a play. In an inflection error, he said “weasel” when he meant to say “calm sea.” As a result, he was mocked by Sannyrion and then Aristophanes and others. He never worked again. The lesson might be that one innocent...
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...
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...
escape the algorithm
Folk search engines
Strategies better than plain Google.
10 months ago
Strategies better than plain Google.
Seth's Blog
Skipping the good days
Part of the luxury of living near the ocean or the mountains is that you can be picky. If the surf...
a year ago
Part of the luxury of living near the ocean or the mountains is that you can be picky. If the surf or the powder isn’t great, leave it for the tourists. Good is insufficient, wait for the great moments… When we’re young, or the project is going really well, it’s easy to waste the...
Open Culture
Discover the CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual: A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization...
I’ve always admired people who can successfully navigate what I refer to as “Kafka’s Castle,” a term...
a month ago
I’ve always admired people who can successfully navigate what I refer to as “Kafka’s Castle,” a term of dread for the many government and corporate agencies that have an inordinate amount of power over our permanent records, and that seem as inscrutable and chillingly absurd as...
Open Culture
See Albert Camus’ Historic Lecture, “The Human Crisis,” Performed by Actor Viggo Mortensen
Back in 2016, New York City staged a month-long festival celebrating Albert Camus’ historic visit to...
5 months ago
Back in 2016, New York City staged a month-long festival celebrating Albert Camus’ historic visit to NYC in 1946. One event in the festival featured actor Viggo Mortensen giving a reading of Camus’ lecture,“La Crise de l’homme” (“The Human Crisis”) at Columbia University–the very...
Infinite Scroll
Revolt and the Reversal of Trust
The digital roots of Trump's surprising youth popularity
a month ago
The digital roots of Trump's surprising youth popularity
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,...
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...
Seth's Blog
Small doses
If you go to a health food store and buy some pills with selenium, colloidal silver or other...
a year ago
If you go to a health food store and buy some pills with selenium, colloidal silver or other mysterious substances in them, it’s possible that they’ll make you feel a bit better. On the other hand, if you take a large dose, you’ll get sick or possibly die. In very small doses,...
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...
Handprinted - Blog
Testing your Copper Sulphate Solution
When you’ve mixed a fresh batch of copper sulphate mordant, or if you have an old batch that you...
a year ago
When you’ve mixed a fresh batch of copper sulphate mordant, or if you have an old batch that you haven’t used for a few months, it’s good practice to test the strength of your solution.
By creating some test strips for both line and tones, you’ll create yourself a reference point...
Seth's Blog
Widespread resistance
Steve Pressfield defines Resistance as the inertia, stories and excuses we manage to create to avoid...
a year ago
Steve Pressfield defines Resistance as the inertia, stories and excuses we manage to create to avoid powerful or creative work. Writer’s block, procrastination, overconfidence, or a belief in un-delivered talent are all symptoms of resistance. Knowing that it has a name helps us...
Seth's Blog
Decisions as effort
Why are we more likely to get tasks done than to take on new initiatives? Checking something off a...
2 months ago
Why are we more likely to get tasks done than to take on new initiatives? Checking something off a to-do list requires far less emotional energy than adding something to the list was in the first place. As is often the case, “resistance” is the answer. It’s easy to type a book,...
Open Culture
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 490,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use
Update: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has put online 492,000 high-resolution images of artistic...
a month ago
Update: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has put online 492,000 high-resolution images of artistic works. Even better, the museum has placed the vast majority of these images into the public domain, meaning they can be downloaded directly from the museum’s website for...
Seth's Blog
The status quo is very good…
at sticking around. In fact, that’s what it’s best at. New research shows that computers and robots...
a year ago
at sticking around. In fact, that’s what it’s best at. New research shows that computers and robots are now better at solving CAPTCHA puzzles than humans. This was inevitable. The interesting question is, “how long before they go away?” First, someone has to decide that it’s...
Seth's Blog
Now in Spanish
The Carbon Almanac is now available in Spanish. For free. Free to download, free to share and free...
a year ago
The Carbon Almanac is now available in Spanish. For free. Free to download, free to share and free to print a copy at home. While the book has been traditionally published around the world (in Italian, Czech, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Dutch), no Spanish-language publisher was...
Seth's Blog
Digital stocking stuffers (and the other kind)
Ever since O. Henry wrote about the Magi, it’s been pretty clear that gifts aren’t about the stuff...
a year ago
Ever since O. Henry wrote about the Magi, it’s been pretty clear that gifts aren’t about the stuff as much as they are the intent. Holidays where gifts are expected undermine this, because it’s hard to tell where obligation begins and intent fades away. One lightweight and quick...
Seth's Blog
The power of expectations
When we raise our expectations for a student, a friend or a co-worker, we open the door to...
a year ago
When we raise our expectations for a student, a friend or a co-worker, we open the door to possibility. We offer them dignity and a chance to grow. We are offering them trust. But if we become attached to those expectations, if the expectation unmet leads us to distress or...
Seth's Blog
Lost on purpose
…of course, if you’re lost on purpose, you’re not lost. Lost is only possible if you are fixed on...
a year ago
…of course, if you’re lost on purpose, you’re not lost. Lost is only possible if you are fixed on getting somewhere specific.
Seth's Blog
But what if we’re wrong?
Of course, we think we’re right. That’s why we’re sharing our opinion. But when there’s a...
a year ago
Of course, we think we’re right. That’s why we’re sharing our opinion. But when there’s a disagreement, or we’re predicting the future, it’s likely that someone will turn out to be incorrect. Sometimes, being wrong is a minor embarrassment, with very little real cost. And...
Seth's Blog
Pavlonian coincidence
There are two kinds of coincidences. The first is the one that we often talk about. It’s the...
a year ago
There are two kinds of coincidences. The first is the one that we often talk about. It’s the make-believe magic of two things occurring that we didn’t expect to occur. When you and your long-lost college roommate end up randomly sharing adjacent bowling lanes when you’re...
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...
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...
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
Complaints are a gift
It’s easy to see a complaint as simple whining, the narcissistic impatience of someone who has...
7 months ago
It’s easy to see a complaint as simple whining, the narcissistic impatience of someone who has enough insulation from the real world that they can share their dissatisfaction over just about anything. But a complaint unheard gives us no way to improve. In our current medical...
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...
Seth's Blog
The page-a-day calendar
Time passes. And humans have always kept track. Distribution and technology combined to create a few...
5 months ago
Time passes. And humans have always kept track. Distribution and technology combined to create a few decades where the tear off daily calendar was nearly ubiquitous (read on for details on my new one, a collaboration with Debbie Millman). First, the industry needed to efficiently...
Handprinted - Blog
Drypoint - Which plate is right for my project?
Drypoint is a fantastic intaglio technique as it requires limited equipment to create a plate. It's...
7 months ago
Drypoint is a fantastic intaglio technique as it requires limited equipment to create a plate. It's a great way of creating a printed drawing and is one of the printmaking techniques where the positive mark is the one that prints (unlike relief printing for example). There are...
Seth's Blog
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
Late-stage technocrats
Water flows downhill, and tech solves the easy problems first. After the launch of Amazon and...
a year ago
Water flows downhill, and tech solves the easy problems first. After the launch of Amazon and Google, when smartphones reached critical mass, an easy problem to solve involved bridging information with stuff. So you could use your phone to summon a car, a case of beer, a dog...
Handprinted - Blog
Sue Brown Paper Lithography Book Review
Our good friend Sue Brown has recently released her new book Paper Lithography! In this step-by-step...
a year ago
Our good friend Sue Brown has recently released her new book Paper Lithography! In this step-by-step guide Sue takes us through the process of making paper lithography prints using the humble photocopy as your plate.
Paper lithography is a quick and straightforward process that...
Seth's Blog
Out to get you
It’s easy to believe that in some moments, the world is out to get you. This is unlikely. The world...
11 months ago
It’s easy to believe that in some moments, the world is out to get you. This is unlikely. The world hardly knows you exist. There is injustice and trauma and systems of caste. There are tiny pockets of humanity that hold a grudge. But most of the time, in most situations, what...
Seth's Blog
Confusion and certainty
When facing a complex problem, it’s easy to become confused. Lately, it’s become socially acceptable...
a year ago
When facing a complex problem, it’s easy to become confused. Lately, it’s become socially acceptable to express your confusion with certainty. Untrained in the field, make a pronouncement that makes it clear that you have not just an understanding of what’s going on, but also...
Handprinted - Blog
Separating Your Colour Layers for CMYK Screen Printing
CMYK screen printing is a great way of bringing both your photographic and coloured art images to...
3 months ago
CMYK screen printing is a great way of bringing both your photographic and coloured art images to life through colour separation. This is achieved by layering four colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) on top of each other using only 4 screens.
Photoshop plays a key role in...
Seth's Blog
The Beatles and Taylor Swift
When we’re in the middle of a cultural swirl, it’s normal to believe that everyone else is too....
a year ago
When we’re in the middle of a cultural swirl, it’s normal to believe that everyone else is too. That’s part of the magic of a cultural swirl–it’s our friends, our work, our world. Most of these moments are actually tiny pockets. An episode of the much-talked-about TV show...
Seth's Blog
Conspicuous (non) consumption
One way to show status is by demonstrating how many resources you have. A bespoke suit, a huge...
a year ago
One way to show status is by demonstrating how many resources you have. A bespoke suit, a huge graduation party, a fancy building… A bully who physically intimidates or an angry driver who cuts you off in traffic are each working to show their status and strength. But it’s also...
Blog - Mac Pierce
Host Jumping, thinking about viruses and how they’re changing.
Thinking about the concepts and reasons behind the making of my work ‘Host
Jump’.
over a year ago
Thinking about the concepts and reasons behind the making of my work ‘Host
Jump’.
Seth's Blog
Full circle with myopia
In 1983, an old article from the Harvard Business Review changed my life. In 1960, Ted Levitt, a...
2 months ago
In 1983, an old article from the Harvard Business Review changed my life. In 1960, Ted Levitt, a professor at HBS, wrote the most popular article in the Review’s history. Called Marketing Myopia, it described a different way of thinking about change and marketing. I was a (very)...
Open Culture
The Medieval Masterpiece, the Book of Kells, Is Now Digitized and Available Online
If you know nothing else about medieval European illuminated manuscripts, you surely know the Book...
2 months ago
If you know nothing else about medieval European illuminated manuscripts, you surely know the Book of Kells. “One of Ireland’s greatest cultural treasures” comments Medievalists.net, “it is set apart from other manuscripts of the same period by the quality of its artwork and the...
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...
Seth's Blog
Volition and placebos
If a placebo heals your illness, does that mean it was all in your head in the first place? That you...
a year ago
If a placebo heals your illness, does that mean it was all in your head in the first place? That you weren’t really sick, or didn’t really want to get better? If expensive wine tastes better to you, but you can’t tell wine apart in a double-blind taste test, does that mean it...
Open Culture
The Night Frank Zappa Jammed With Pink Floyd … and Captain Beefheart Too (Belgium, 1969)
Recently an older musician acquaintance told me he never “got into ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ and all...
3 months ago
Recently an older musician acquaintance told me he never “got into ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ and all that,” referring to the “first major space jam” of Pink Floyd’s career and the subsequent explosion of space rock bands. I found myself a little taken aback. Though I was born too...
escape the algorithm
A complete guide to pretending you saw the total solar eclipse
I cannot relate to you
8 months ago
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