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Open Culture
The First Recording of Allen Ginsberg Reading “Howl” (1956) Image by Michiel Hendryckx, via Wikimedia Commons Occasionally I slip into an ivory tower mentality...
a year ago
91
a year ago
Image by Michiel Hendryckx, via Wikimedia Commons Occasionally I slip into an ivory tower mentality in which the idea of a banned book seems quaint—associated with silly scandals over the tame sex scenes in James Joyce or D.H. Lawrence. After all, I think, we live in an age when...
Seth's Blog
“It seems…” What a simple verb. A five-letter modifier that opens the door to discussion. If we state something...
a year ago
73
a year ago
What a simple verb. A five-letter modifier that opens the door to discussion. If we state something as a fact, we’re asking for an argument. But seems opens the door to learning and discussion. What are you seeing that I’m not seeing?
Open Culture
How Sci-Fi Writers Isaac Asimov & Robert Heinlein Contributed to the War Effort During World War II Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague De Camp at the Navy Yard in 1944 Robert Heinlein was...
a year ago
43
a year ago
Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague De Camp at the Navy Yard in 1944 Robert Heinlein was born in 1907, which put him on the mature side by the time of the United States’ entry into World War II. Isaac Asimov, his younger colleague in science fiction, was born in 1920 (or...
Seth's Blog
Five lessons from week one of This is Strategy Once you decide to write a book about strategy, it raises the bar for having a strategy for the...
10 months ago
61
10 months ago
Once you decide to write a book about strategy, it raises the bar for having a strategy for the launch. People generally focus far too much on the launch of a project. Rocketships need a perfect launch, because just about everything after the launch is simply ballistic. But most...
Rectangle
The first rectangle And the first of many
over a year ago
Open Culture
Jean-Paul Sartre Rejects the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964: “It Was Monstrous!” In a 2013 blog post, the great Ursula K. Le Guin quotes a London Times Literary Supplement column by...
a year ago
65
a year ago
In a 2013 blog post, the great Ursula K. Le Guin quotes a London Times Literary Supplement column by a “J.C.,” who satirically proposes the “Jean-Paul Sartre Prize for Prize Refusal.” “Writers all over Europe and America are turning down awards in the hope of being nominated for...
Seth's Blog
16 minutes Some facts and assertions about healthcare (particularly in the US) and then an outline of a change...
6 months ago
51
6 months ago
Some facts and assertions about healthcare (particularly in the US) and then an outline of a change agent that could improve health, perhaps dramatically. And so, a system that’s organized around treatments and status, that misallocates time and effort, causing stress for...
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...
10 months ago
63
10 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
Frank Lloyd Wright Thought About Making the Guggenheim Museum Pink Image via The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives Seen today, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,...
a year ago
41
a year ago
Image via The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives Seen today, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, seems to occupy several time periods at once, looking both modern and somehow ancient. The latter quality surely has to do with its bright white...
On the Arts
From Gothic Invaders to Mall Goths How an ancient Germanic tribe gave its name to a modern subculture.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
You’ve already failed No project is going to exactly match every hope you have for it. And even before you ship the work,...
9 months ago
48
9 months ago
No project is going to exactly match every hope you have for it. And even before you ship the work, you’ve already succeeded. No project is totally worthless. So, given that failure and success are on a spectrum, at least partly out of our control, the real question is: Now that...
Open Culture
How Choose Your Own Adventure Books Became Beloved Among Generations of Readers We’ve all read plenty of literature written in the first person, and plenty of literature written in...
a year ago
68
a year ago
We’ve all read plenty of literature written in the first person, and plenty of literature written in the third person. The second person, with its main subject of neither “I” nor “he” or “she” but “you,” is considerably harder to come by, and the writers who take it up tend to be...
Seth's Blog
Two kinds of salad A useful metaphor for freelancers and small businesses. Every good restaurant should have two...
over a year ago
91
over a year ago
A useful metaphor for freelancers and small businesses. Every good restaurant should have two different salads on the menu. The boring salad is the regular kind. It’s there for people who know that they want a reliable, repeatable, unremarkable salad. It’s the safe part of a safe...
Seth's Blog
Practical approaches for more effective teamwork Give credit, take responsibility Get aligned on timeframes Insist on a spec, write one, improve it...
a year ago
92
a year ago
Give credit, take responsibility Get aligned on timeframes Insist on a spec, write one, improve it Agree on a budget Keep a calendar Don’t hold a grudge Speak up clearly and generously Show your work Share your fears Make promises and keep them Do the reading Talk about people...
Seth's Blog
Infinity is not a number Little kids get confused about this… just add a few more to a very big number, and you have...
3 months ago
35
3 months ago
Little kids get confused about this… just add a few more to a very big number, and you have infinity. Actually, infinity is a feeling and a concept built on the presumption that it can never be reached. In a metrics-driven world, infinity is a dangerous thing to wish for, because...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: The Ban Cometh TikTok banned, RedNote reversal, TrumpCoin and Gjörfbunkle
7 months ago
Handprinted - Blog
Meet the Maker: Matt Hooper My name is Matt Hooper and I’m a relief printmaker working from my rather compact studio I built in...
10 months ago
81
10 months ago
My name is Matt Hooper and I’m a relief printmaker working from my rather compact studio I built in the garden of my home in a town just outside Leeds. I’m a self taught artist and printmaker, ironically having being in the print industry for 32 years. I left school at 16 with no...
Seth's Blog
No thank you Failing to acknowledge a favor or a courtesy is a triple mistake, and it’s becoming more common....
a year ago
26
a year ago
Failing to acknowledge a favor or a courtesy is a triple mistake, and it’s becoming more common. ChatGPT is now promoting the idea that it can write a thank you note for you, and a text is a lot easier than a handwritten note, and yet, the level of ‘thank you’ seems to be...
Open Culture
The Life & Death of an Espresso Shot in Super Slow Motion Some YouTuber posted online a pretty nice clip of an espresso shot being pulled from a La Marzocco...
a month ago
18
a month ago
Some YouTuber posted online a pretty nice clip of an espresso shot being pulled from a La Marzocco FB80 espresso machine at 120 frames per second. They recommend muting the sound, then putting on your own music. I gave it a quick shot with the famous soundtrack for Kubrick’s...
Seth's Blog
Shields up Years and years ago, I helped the Weekly World News make a book. While their periodical was weekly,...
over a year ago
82
over a year ago
Years and years ago, I helped the Weekly World News make a book. While their periodical was weekly, it certainly wasn’t news. They were just four people in a small office in Florida. They gleefully made stuff up every week. They had a few filing cabinets of stock photos, and they...
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...
a year ago
75
a year 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
A Free Yale Course on Medieval History: 700 Years in 22 Lectures In 22 lectures, Yale historian Paul Freedman takes you on a 700-year tour of medieval history....
2 months ago
29
2 months ago
In 22 lectures, Yale historian Paul Freedman takes you on a 700-year tour of medieval history. Moving from 284‑1000 AD, this free online course covers “the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam and the Arabs, the ‘Dark Ages,’...
Seth's Blog
Time, consquences and opportunities Dreams have consequences Hisham Matar Time passes, decisions are made, we face the consequences or...
a year ago
35
a year ago
Dreams have consequences Hisham Matar Time passes, decisions are made, we face the consequences or enjoy the benefits. A few books for this moment, about navigating our days, and the possibility of light. It bends toward justice. The Return, by Hisham Matar. A beautiful and...
Open Culture
20 Mesmerizing Videos of Japanese Artisans Creating Traditional Handicrafts In Japanese “tewaza” means “hand technique” or “handcraft” and, in this YouTube playlist of 20 short...
a year ago
36
a year ago
In Japanese “tewaza” means “hand technique” or “handcraft” and, in this YouTube playlist of 20 short films, various artisanal techniques are explored and demonstrated by Japanese masters in the field. For those who are both obsessed with Japanese art and watching things get made,...
Seth's Blog
Embodied energy It might only cost $2 in the vending machine, but that can of soda is a complicated battery. It...
11 months ago
69
11 months ago
It might only cost $2 in the vending machine, but that can of soda is a complicated battery. It stores the energy of the machines that were used to mine the bauxite, the ship that brought the ore to Iceland, the astonishing temperatures used to create the aluminum, then more...
Seth's Blog
While standing on one foot Make it easy! they insist. One of the longest-running direct response ads of all time was for a...
a year ago
50
a year ago
Make it easy! they insist. One of the longest-running direct response ads of all time was for a piano playing course. For more than forty years, people mailed in money for a simple, fast way to impress their friends by playing the piano. They sold a lot of manuals, but I’m...
Seth's Blog
How much extra is the gift wrap? One way to turn a product or service into a story is to gift wrap it. Yes, you did my taxes, but did...
a month ago
22
a month ago
One way to turn a product or service into a story is to gift wrap it. Yes, you did my taxes, but did you include a two-page summary and a useful folder to keep it in? Whether you’re providing a service to a casual customer or a product to a regular patron, what you’re really […]
Seth's Blog
Scaffolds and talent Kindergarten teachers matter more than you think. Chess isn’t a talent, it’s a learned practice....
a year ago
28
a year ago
Kindergarten teachers matter more than you think. Chess isn’t a talent, it’s a learned practice. We’re sorting for head starts, not growth. And that’s just the first chapter. I think Hidden Potential is the most important book in Adam Grant’s career. The indoctrination around...
Seth's Blog
Confusion about performance The thing that your product or service delivers could be called performance, and it’s made of two...
over a year ago
69
over a year ago
The thing that your product or service delivers could be called performance, and it’s made of two components: –The story and expectations and cultural impact of what you do (the story). –The deliverables that are objectively measured (the spec). It helps to have both. Many...
Seth's Blog
What’s new at purple.space? There are now 1,000 of us in this online community that’s not a social network. Proudly a millionth...
a year ago
32
a year ago
There are now 1,000 of us in this online community that’s not a social network. Proudly a millionth the size of some other online experiences. It includes the original Creative’s Workshop, with hundreds of people working through it, side by side. And just added, access to the...
Seth's Blog
The distribution of character Along the way, we have been taught to associate character skills like honesty, rationality,...
a year ago
69
a year ago
Along the way, we have been taught to associate character skills like honesty, rationality, agreeableness, grit and care with surface metrics like wealth or power. That’s almost certainly incorrect. And if we make assumptions based on vague measures of class, we’re going to get...
On the Arts
How do you actually create AI art? A Walkthrough of Using Midjourney, a Popular AI Art Creation App
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Study groups If I had to choose one metric that would determine how well someone would do in law school, it...
a year ago
26
a year ago
If I had to choose one metric that would determine how well someone would do in law school, it wouldn’t be the LSAT or another test. It would be whether or not they formed a study group, and who else was in it. Of course, the same is true for your project, or any sort […]
Open Culture
Empire Without Limit: Watch Mary Beard’s TV Series on Ancient Rome As the founding myth has it, the city of Rome was established by a man named Romulus, one of two...
4 days ago
6
4 days ago
As the founding myth has it, the city of Rome was established by a man named Romulus, one of two orphaned twin brothers raised by a she-wolf on the banks of the Tiber river. The legend of Romulus and Remus, which involves the former’s fratricidal slaying of the latter, lends...
Seth's Blog
Find the others New years bring resolutions, but those resolutions rarely stick. Creating change is difficult, and...
8 months ago
78
8 months ago
New years bring resolutions, but those resolutions rarely stick. Creating change is difficult, and it’s hard to do it alone. New years remind us that we might need a better strategy. A philosophy of becoming, a clear vision on where we’re going (and why). Here’s an invitation to...
Seth's Blog
Can’t wait The urgent problem might actually benefit from a short cooling-off period. But important challenges...
over a year ago
87
over a year ago
The urgent problem might actually benefit from a short cooling-off period. But important challenges can’t wait. Today is a good day to remember that better is possible, and that we shouldn’t wait for the problem to become easy or fade away. Better begins with each of us, but it...
Seth's Blog
“I made a mistake” This sits right next to, “I made a bad decision,” in things that are hard to say. But there are many...
2 months ago
29
2 months ago
This sits right next to, “I made a bad decision,” in things that are hard to say. But there are many moments when we’re confused about what actually happened. You might not have made a bad decision. And it’s also possible you didn’t make a mistake. It could be that there was...
Open Culture
Watch Bob Dylan Play “Mr. Tambourine Man” in Color at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival It was at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival that Bob Dylan famously “went electric,” alienating certain...
2 months ago
32
2 months ago
It was at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival that Bob Dylan famously “went electric,” alienating certain adherents to the folk scene through which he’d come up, but also setting a precedent for the kind of quick-change musical adaptation that he’s kept up into his eighties. At the...
Seth's Blog
Everything costs But not all costs are the same. There are three kinds of costs that people get confused about, but...
11 months ago
58
11 months ago
But not all costs are the same. There are three kinds of costs that people get confused about, but understanding them, really understanding them–in your bones–unlocks opportunity. Opportunity cost: If you eat the cupcakes, you can’t also eat the brownies. Every time we choose to...
Open Culture
Steven Spielberg Calls Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange “the First Punk Rock Movie Ever Made” Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick are two of the first directors whose names young cinephiles get...
a year ago
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a year ago
Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick are two of the first directors whose names young cinephiles get to know. They’re also names between which quite a few of those young cinephiles draw a battle line: you may have enjoyed films by both of these auteurs, but ultimately, you’re...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Frankie Brown I’m an illustrator and printmaker based in Portsmouth, Hampshire. I’m inspired by nostalgic...
5 months ago
136
5 months ago
I’m an illustrator and printmaker based in Portsmouth, Hampshire. I’m inspired by nostalgic storybooks and I love to create whimsical hand-printed illustrations. I used to work part-time at Handprinted, but in November 2024 I decided to give being a full-time artist a try! It’s...
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...
8 months ago
100
8 months ago
This week… But first, an announcement! TLDR: Over the holidays, I will be migrating this site from WordPress.com to Ghost. This may mean a little disruption, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum. Why am I doing this? I’ve been a paying customer of WordPress.com for my site...
Seth's Blog
Design has a language And it changes over time. You and I know what to do when we see a revolving door, or to speak...
over a year ago
94
over a year ago
And it changes over time. You and I know what to do when we see a revolving door, or to speak quietly in a library. We have expectations of how the world works and what designers are saying with their work. Here’s a photo of a device with two controls. We’ve been taught our whole...
Seth's Blog
The unaware snoop Here’s a breakthrough that’s about to happen somewhere: A GPT that reads every email that anyone in...
over a year ago
90
over a year ago
Here’s a breakthrough that’s about to happen somewhere: A GPT that reads every email that anyone in your organization has ever sent and makes it easy to ask it questions about what the entire organization knows. A person could probably not find the time, bandwidth or privacy...
Blog - Mac Pierce
+ / - , Actualization Reposting some writing I did a while back on the subject of how additive manufacturing is...
over a year ago
99
over a year ago
Reposting some writing I did a while back on the subject of how additive manufacturing is necessarily a destructive process.
Seth's Blog
The natural size No matter how many people come over for dinner, you’re only going to be able to engage with a few....
over a year ago
66
over a year ago
No matter how many people come over for dinner, you’re only going to be able to engage with a few. And no matter how big the crowd in the arena, the musicians can only see the faces of a few hundred. An investor can only be engaged and smart about a very small number 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
32
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...
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
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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...
Infinite Scroll
Podcast: What should we do about sports betting? ft. Isaac Rose Berman As a follow up to my article from a few weeks ago Should We Ban Gambling on Smartphones?, I’ve...
4 months ago
52
4 months ago
As a follow up to my article from a few weeks ago Should We Ban Gambling on Smartphones?, I’ve invited Isaac Rose-Berman on the show to talk about gambling policy.
Infinite Scroll
Stop Coping About TikTok It's proving that it deserves the ban
7 months ago