Full Width [alt+shift+f] FOCUS MODE Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]
Top Categories > creative
#all #programming #history #technology #startups #life #science #literature #creative #architecture #design #travel #finance #comics #AI #indiehacker #cartography Muted Categories [alt+←][alt+→]
Seth's Blog
Anonymity and Bugs Bunny I came across this (ironically) anonymous quote recently: “The offline world is full of sticks, but...
a year ago
72
a year ago
I came across this (ironically) anonymous quote recently: “The offline world is full of sticks, but the internet only has carrots.” When we come together in groups, it can bring out the best in people. When those groups are anonymous, porous and transient, though, the opposite...
Seth's Blog
Meaningfully informed Community requires individuals to have the option of speaking up. If we’re in this together, we...
a year ago
39
a year 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...
Blog - Mac Pierce
Enclosing a Prusa MK3, or how to completely overbuild an Octopi setup. Overbuilding a Prusa enclosure
over a year ago
Haterade
Nostalgia Pizza The virtues (and limitations) of the Soggy School Lunch Square
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Non-professional writers Nobody asks you to design a bridge, write a sonnet or do open heart surgery. We leave these...
a year ago
63
a year ago
Nobody asks you to design a bridge, write a sonnet or do open heart surgery. We leave these essential tasks to trained professionals. But many job descriptions carry the unstated addendum, “and write.” Write memos, proposals, and even instruction manuals. The local supermarket is...
Not Boring by Packy...
Weekly Dose of Optimism #136 Abundance, Nvidia GTC, Splashdown, Matic, Food Dyes, Biotech Commoditization
5 months ago
Open Culture
How Rome Began: The History As Told by Ancient Historians Much attention has been paid to the fall of the Roman Empire, by everyone from august historians...
a year ago
64
a year ago
Much attention has been paid to the fall of the Roman Empire, by everyone from august historians like Edward Gibbon to modern-day observers wringing their hands over the fate of the United States of America. But as every Rome enthusiast knows, that long collapse constitutes just...
Haterade
The Haterade Test Kitchen Makes Depression Tots™ Combating nihilism with crispier crowns.
over a year ago
Seth's Blog
Sincerity is expected Well, not always. That’s why it’s so important. We don’t expect an actor to tell the truth. That’s...
9 months ago
62
9 months ago
Well, not always. That’s why it’s so important. We don’t expect an actor to tell the truth. That’s their job. Musicians and other performers are playing a role. And social niceties encourage us to put on a smile and share appreciation, even in situations where it might not be...
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...
a year ago
76
a year 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
“We used to do that” When electricity came along, there was a swath of industries that were trapped in an old way of...
a year ago
35
a year ago
When electricity came along, there was a swath of industries that were trapped in an old way of thinking. The only ones that thrived were able to walk away from what they used to do and eagerly embrace something new. When the internet was young, the major book publishers had...
The Last...
True Detective's Detective taking part in a particular pleasure [Pastabagel and I have emailed about the show.  Some excerpts...
over a year ago
36
over a year ago
taking part in a particular pleasure [Pastabagel and I have emailed about the show.  Some excerpts of his]: In Episode 3, the preacher says to Cohle, "Compassion is ethics, detective" when he departs the trailer leaving the reformed pedophile Burt in distress.  Cohle replies...
Seth's Blog
Grandiosity as a form of hiding A business that says its mission is to, “reinvent local commerce to better serve our customers and...
over a year ago
88
over a year ago
A business that says its mission is to, “reinvent local commerce to better serve our customers and neighborhoods,” can spend a lot of time doing not much of anything before they realize that they’re not actually creating value. A non-profit that seeks to create “fairness and...
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...
Seth's Blog
ChatGPT for you AI is a mystery. To many, it’s a threat. It turns out that understanding a mystery not only makes it...
a year ago
40
a year ago
AI is a mystery. To many, it’s a threat. It turns out that understanding a mystery not only makes it feel less like a threat, it gives us the confidence to make it into something better. I use ChatGPT4 just about every day, and I’m often surprised at how frequently it surprises...
Seth's Blog
At the speed of judgment Getting to the conference in Santa Fe isn’t difficult. Someone will drive/fly you there. The hard...
6 months ago
50
6 months ago
Getting to the conference in Santa Fe isn’t difficult. Someone will drive/fly you there. The hard part is deciding to go. And yet, it might take 8 hours to arrive. If they invented teleportation and offered it for free, it would be very clear that where we went would simply...
Seth's Blog
The problems with flat out The desire for 11 is proof that we often want to go all the way to ten. While 11 is silly, there is...
a year ago
25
a year ago
The desire for 11 is proof that we often want to go all the way to ten. While 11 is silly, there is a lot of pressure to give our all. But there are problems. The first is that if you try to sprint an entire marathon, you’ll hurt yourself. Systems can be stressed for […]
Seth's Blog
Empathy at a distance … is almost as difficult as empathy up close. That person that’s not like you, from way over there,...
a year ago
59
a year ago
… is almost as difficult as empathy up close. That person that’s not like you, from way over there, the one that’s on the other team–it’s hard to imagine what they’re dealing with. They don’t believe what you believe, they haven’t experienced what you’ve experienced. And the...
Infinite Scroll
Weekly Scroll: Idiot Plots Plus! Gavin's podcast, morning routines, and a good chickpea post
5 months ago
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...
10 months ago
44
10 months ago
In early 1920, posters began appearing all over Berlin with a hypnotic spiral and the mysterious command Du musst Caligari werden — “You must become Caligari.” The posters were part of an innovative advertising campaign for an upcoming movie by Robert Wiene called The Cabinet of...
Open Culture
Umberto Eco’s List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism Creative Commons image by Rob Bogaerts, via the National Archives in Holland One of the key...
10 months ago
101
10 months ago
Creative Commons image by Rob Bogaerts, via the National Archives in Holland One of the key questions facing both journalists and loyal oppositions these days is how do we stay honest as euphemisms and trivializations take over the discourse? Can we use words like “fascism,” for...
Seth's Blog
The slog, the hobby and the quest Here’s a simple XY grid to help you think about your next project, freelance career or startup: All...
a year ago
29
a year ago
Here’s a simple XY grid to help you think about your next project, freelance career or startup: All too common are ‘fun’ businesses where someone finds a hobby they like and tries to turn it into a gig. While the work may be fun, the uphill grind of this sort of project is...
Open Culture
What Makes Picasso’s Guernica a Great Painting?: Explore the Anti-Fascist Mural That Became a... A painting is not thought out and settled in advance. While it is being done, it changes as one’s...
5 days ago
7
5 days ago
A painting is not thought out and settled in advance. While it is being done, it changes as one’s thoughts change. And when it’s finished, it goes on changing, according to the state of mind of whoever is looking at it. — Pablo Picasso In a famous story about Guernica, Pablo...
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...
Stat Significant
Which Celebrities Popularized (or Tarnished) Baby Names? A Statistical Analysis Which public figures impacted baby naming trends?
8 months ago
Seth's Blog
The weird arithmetic of coordinated action Twenty handwritten letters received by someone in power are worth a hundred times as much as two...
7 months ago
122
7 months ago
Twenty handwritten letters received by someone in power are worth a hundred times as much as two letters. And when that becomes a hundred different personal letters, increasing in volume, from different people, delivered to an organization every week for a year… it’s worth a...
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...
a year ago
36
a year 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...
Seth's Blog
Personal process notation “I’ll remember it later.” I’ll confess, I rarely do. It turns out, it’s easier to remember questions...
a year ago
32
a year ago
“I’ll remember it later.” I’ll confess, I rarely do. It turns out, it’s easier to remember questions than answers. And tools like Google Docs and photos in the cloud give us a chance to build our own personal search engine. It takes 14 steps to construct the pages in one of my...
Blog - Amy Goodchild
Meaningful Nonsense: How I generate sentences I’m coding a system in JavaScript that generates sentences of “meaningful nonsense”. Here are some...
a year ago
37
a year ago
I’m coding a system in JavaScript that generates sentences of “meaningful nonsense”. Here are some examples. I set off on this path because I’m working on a series of generative diagrams and I wanted them to have titles. Immediately I was drawn in by the effect of the diagrams...
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...
11 months ago
62
11 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,...
Open Culture
One-in-70-Trillion: An Evolutionary Biologist Explains the Mind-Bending Probability of Our Existence At a 1998 conference on technology and life, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas...
4 weeks ago
16
4 weeks ago
At a 1998 conference on technology and life, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams once proposed the notion of a sentient puddle. Imagine it “waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself...
Seth's Blog
Learning in August What better time? An hour a day for a month and you can learn a skill you’ll have forever. Beach...
a year ago
69
a year ago
What better time? An hour a day for a month and you can learn a skill you’ll have forever. Beach reads are a fine way to chill out, but a month spent to learn a skill is a fine way to take advantage of a quiet time. My brand new course on Strategy is now […]
Seth's Blog
When the committee decides They’re almost always conservative. Whether it’s a governmental body, the strategy group at a big...
a year ago
31
a year ago
They’re almost always conservative. Whether it’s a governmental body, the strategy group at a big company or the membership panel at the local country club, we can learn a lot by seeing what they approve and when they stall. Of course, each of us know a lot about our offering,...
Open Culture
Hunter S. Thompson’s Harrowing, Chemical-Filled Daily Routine E. Jean Carroll’s 1993 memoir of Hunter S. Thompson opens like this: I have heard the biographers of...
a year ago
130
a year ago
E. Jean Carroll’s 1993 memoir of Hunter S. Thompson opens like this: I have heard the biographers of Harry S. Truman, Catherine the Great, etc., etc., say they would give anything if their subjects were alive so they could ask them some questions. I, on the other hand, would give...
Open Culture
Emma Willard, the First Female Mapmaker in America, Creates Pioneering Maps of Time to Teach... We all know Marshall McLuhan’s pithy, endlessly quotable line “the medium is the message,” but...
a month ago
18
a month ago
We all know Marshall McLuhan’s pithy, endlessly quotable line “the medium is the message,” but rarely do we stop to ask which one comes first. The development of communication technologies may genuinely present us with a chicken or egg scenario. After all, only a culture that...
Anarchy Unfolds
March '24 Myths & Recs Sleep deprivation, Kim Petras, the Anthropocene, and more
a year ago
Seth's Blog
Simple techniques for complex projects Warm up the machines that take a long time first. Stress test the go/no go parts of the project as...
over a year ago
94
over a year ago
Warm up the machines that take a long time first. Stress test the go/no go parts of the project as early as possible. If the cost is low, replace dependent processes with parallel ones. Do the difficult parts when energy is high and the budget hasn’t been depleted. Ship before...
Seth's Blog
What do we do when it breaks? The unexpected happens. Systems fail, humans are unpredictable, interfaces aren’t perfect… The...
3 months ago
22
3 months ago
The unexpected happens. Systems fail, humans are unpredictable, interfaces aren’t perfect… The customer service professional demonstrates their strategic insight when they plan for eventual failure instead of denying it’s possible. The first step, of course, is to design things...
Open Culture
Take a Virtual Tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London The story of the Globe Theatre, the ancestral home of Shakespeare’s plays, is itself very...
a week ago
8
a week ago
The story of the Globe Theatre, the ancestral home of Shakespeare’s plays, is itself very Shakespearean, in all of the ways we use that adjective: it has deep roots in English history, a tragic backstory, and represents all of the hodgepodge of London, in the early 17th century...
Handprinted - Blog
Meet The Maker: Lorna Rose Hello, I’m Lorna, a self-taught artist working with printmaking and collage based in Devon,...
3 days ago
8
3 days ago
Hello, I’m Lorna, a self-taught artist working with printmaking and collage based in Devon, Southwest England. Themes of movement, how we inhabit and speak into public and domestic spaces are threads which regularly run through my work. My wider practice uses creativity as a...
Open Culture
4 Franz Kafka Animations: Watch Creative Animated Shorts from Poland, Japan, Russia & Canada Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari thought of Kafka as an international writer, in solidarity with...
a year ago
95
a year ago
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari thought of Kafka as an international writer, in solidarity with minority groups worldwide. Other scholars have characterized his work—and Kafka himself wrote as much—as literature concerned with national identity. Academic debates, however, have...
Handprinted - Blog
Neocolor Pastels for Mono Screen Printing Monoprinting using an open screen is a wonderfully creative way of using your screen printing...
5 months ago
47
5 months ago
Monoprinting using an open screen is a wonderfully creative way of using your screen printing equipment for speedy, painterly prints. Neocolor Pastels are a great material to use when mono screen printing - you can draw directly onto the mesh and print your drawing through the...
Seth's Blog
The shifting status of more data How do we know if we’re doing a good job? In some fields, it’s always been pretty easy to tell....
a year ago
35
a year ago
How do we know if we’re doing a good job? In some fields, it’s always been pretty easy to tell. Either the building falls down or it doesn’t. Either the car starts after you charge the battery or it’s still dead. We can ask easy questions about how long it took or how much it […]
Seth's Blog
“I changed my mind” Who is “I” and how does that “I” have the power to change the mind in question? What actually...
9 months ago
67
9 months ago
Who is “I” and how does that “I” have the power to change the mind in question? What actually happens is this: If you are brave enough to have your mind changed, experience can do that. But it’s rarely as conscious an intentional act as we give ourselves credit for.
Open Culture
How the First Rock Concert Ended in Mayhem (Cleveland, 1952) “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is...
3 months ago
30
3 months ago
“America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” That observation tends to be attributed to Tennessee Williams, though it’s become somewhat detached from its source, so deeply does it resonate with a certain experience of...
Open Culture
Hear Alan Watts’s 1960s Prediction That Automation Will Necessitate a Universal Basic Income One of the most propulsive forces in our social and economic lives is the rate at which emerging...
2 months ago
31
2 months ago
One of the most propulsive forces in our social and economic lives is the rate at which emerging technology transforms every sphere of human labor. Despite the political leverage obtained by fearmongering about immigrants and foreigners, it’s the robots who are actually taking...
Seth's Blog
The empathy of useful feedback When a friend shows you work in progress, your best contribution is to imagine the point of view and...
over a year ago
29
over a year ago
When a friend shows you work in progress, your best contribution is to imagine the point of view and preferences of the person it is being created for. “I don’t like it,” isn’t useful, because it’s not for you. “I could imagine that someone who wants x, y or z would be looking...
Open Culture
Watch the Earliest-Known Charles Dickens Film: The Death of Poor Joe A little over a decade ago, a curator at the British Film Institute (BFI) discovered the oldest...
a year ago
52
a year ago
A little over a decade ago, a curator at the British Film Institute (BFI) discovered the oldest surviving film featuring a Charles Dickens character, “The Death of Poor Joe.” The silent film, directed by George Albert Smith in 1900, brings to life Dickens’ character Jo, the...
Open Culture
David Lynch’s Weird Espresso Maker Gets Taken for a Test Drive David Lynch loved his coffee. For decades, the filmmaker let coffee fuel his creativity, drinking...
3 weeks ago
18
3 weeks ago
David Lynch loved his coffee. For decades, the filmmaker let coffee fuel his creativity, drinking five, six, even seven cups per day at Bob’s Big Boy. Famously, Lynch celebrated coffee in Twin Peaks (remember the line, “That’s a damn fine cup of coffee!”), and later directed a...
Open Culture
The Most Iconic Hip-Hop Sample of Every Year (1973–2023) Hip-hop was once a subculture, but by now it’s long since been one of the unquestionably dominant...
9 months ago
45
9 months ago
Hip-hop was once a subculture, but by now it’s long since been one of the unquestionably dominant forms of popular music — not just in America, and not just among young people. There are, of course, still a fair few hip-hop holdouts, but even they’ve come to know a thing or two...