The Marginalian
William James on the Most Vital Understanding for Successful Relationships
"Neither the whole of truth nor the whole of good is revealed to any single observer."
2nd Jun 2023
"Neither the whole of truth nor the whole of good is revealed to any single observer."
Josh Thompson
Monthly Review: November
This is my second monthly review, and I’m hooked.
I’ve thought this coming review frequently, but I...
1st Dec 2013
This is my second monthly review, and I’m hooked.
I’ve thought this coming review frequently, but I thought about that as I was conducting my month. This proactive review is in line with
Viktor Frankl’s admonition to “live every day as if it were your second chance to live it.”...
Josh Thompson
Movies I went out of my way to watch
Introduction
I’ve long liked to accrue certain lists of things I like within certain categories. to...
22nd Oct 2025
Introduction
I’ve long liked to accrue certain lists of things I like within certain categories. to list appreciable books invites a similar list for movies and movie-like things.
It feels strange to list all of these movies like this, in some ways, especially the first two...
The Marginalian
The One Hundred Milliseconds Between the World and You: Oliver Sacks on Perception
“If the doors of perception were cleansed,” William Blake wrote, “everything would appear to man as...
2nd Jun 2025
“If the doors of perception were cleansed,” William Blake wrote, “everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” But we are finite creatures, in time and in space, and there is a limit to how much reality we can bear — evolution gave us consciousness so that we may sieve the...
The American Scholar
Hold the Salt
Reconsidering an ancient city's bad reputation
The post Hold the Salt appeared first on The American...
1st Dec 2025
Reconsidering an ancient city's bad reputation
The post Hold the Salt appeared first on The American Scholar.
Wuthering...
What I Read in July 2026 – Some links found verbal form, others remained mere promises, mist, soft...
Soon I will put up a fall schedule for my plunge back into non-Shakespearian
plays, from say 1604 to...
14th Aug 2026
Soon I will put up a fall schedule for my plunge back into non-Shakespearian
plays, from say 1604 to 1614, an exciting stretch. Middleton, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher will
dominate.
SHAKESPEAREAN
The Adventures of Lady Egeria (1585), W. C. – Half
tedious, half confounding,...
Ben Borgers
War Room — using the native date picker
13th Feb 2023
The American Scholar
Natale Adgnot
Country couture
The post Natale Adgnot appeared first on The American Scholar.
3rd Nov 2025
Country couture
The post Natale Adgnot appeared first on The American Scholar.
Josh Thompson
Habits, Milestones, and Climbing
Since April 9th, I have spent exactly 70 minutes training for climbing. Prior to April 27th, I have...
1st May 2013
Since April 9th, I have spent exactly 70 minutes training for climbing. Prior to April 27th, I have climbed exactly seven times in the last five months.
I just spent two days at the New River Gorge and exceeded my expectations, considering my almost half-year hiatus from regular...
Josh Thompson
On Money (again)
Recently I posted
thoughts about money I’d written from back in 2013.
Money is hard to write about,...
18th Feb 2016
Recently I posted
thoughts about money I’d written from back in 2013.
Money is hard to write about, because there are many different ways we can approach it. It’s easy to feel judged when someone does something with their money that I don’t do with mine.
That all said, there...
The American Scholar
Leashed
The post Leashed appeared first on The American Scholar.
1st Oct 2025
The post Leashed appeared first on The American Scholar.
Salish Wolf
#50 Jake Roussos on Play, Smiling, and Empowering Children
Jake Roussos is on a mission to help people live their best lives by living
his best. Early on he...
5th Oct 2023
Jake Roussos is on a mission to help people live their best lives by living
his best. Early on he found a powerful tool that was available to him
wherever he went and in any interaction: his smile. Since then, he has been
positively impacting others through the simple...
This Space
Books of the year 2024
In order of being read.
Giorgio Agamben – What I saw, heard, learned…
One night, along Venice’s...
15th Dec 2024
In order of being read.
Giorgio Agamben – What I saw, heard, learned…
One night, along Venice’s Zattere, watching the putrid water lap at the city’s foundations, I saw that we exist solely in the intermittence of our being, and that what we call I is just a shadow...
The Marginalian
From the Labor Camp to the Pantheon of Literature: How Dostoyevsky Became a Writer
"I have nothing, except for certain, and perhaps very minor, literary abilities."
1st Sep 2024
"I have nothing, except for certain, and perhaps very minor, literary abilities."
The Marginalian
John Quincy Adams on Impostor Syndrome and the True Measure of Success
“You will never get any more out of life than you expect,” Bruce Lee wrote to himself. All...
3rd Jun 2024
“You will never get any more out of life than you expect,” Bruce Lee wrote to himself. All expectation is a story of the possible. Every person lives inside a story of who they are, what they are worth, and what is possible for their life, and suffers in proportion to how...
the late review
the perils of writing about oneself
some essays about writing essays pt 2
5th Aug 2025
some essays about writing essays pt 2
Josh Thompson
2023 Annual Review
It’s that time of the year. I often enjoy reading other people’s annual reviews, and I’ve always...
27th Jan 2024
It’s that time of the year. I often enjoy reading other people’s annual reviews, and I’ve always found value in writing my own, even as there is a few years I’ve missed, since I started the habit way back in 2015.
for a long time, I did annual reviews. 2020 was late, and then for...
Escaping Flatland
Morning ritual
+ reading recommendations
1st Feb 2024
+ reading recommendations
Escaping Flatland
Almost anything you give sustained attention to will begin to loop on itself and bloom
When people talk about the value of paying attention and slowing down, they often make it sound...
4th Sep 2025
When people talk about the value of paying attention and slowing down, they often make it sound prudish and monk-like. But we shouldn’t forget how interesting and overpoweringly pleasurable sustained attention can be.
Josh Thompson
Maybe "Now" Is Not the Right Time
Recently I deleted a bunch of old notes I had in
Evernote. Some of the notes were almost immediately...
19th Jul 2015
Recently I deleted a bunch of old notes I had in
Evernote. Some of the notes were almost immediately unneeded, like old receipts and confirmations.
Much of the rest was notes related to goals (“Checklist to move out of MD Apartment”, “Planning trip to Buenos Aires”) or to...
The Perry Bible...
Please
The post Please appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
26th Jul 2024
The post Please appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
ribbonfarm
Ribbonfarm is Retiring
After several years of keeping it going in semi-retired, keep-the-lights-on (KTLO) mode, I’ve...
11th Oct 2024
After several years of keeping it going in semi-retired, keep-the-lights-on (KTLO) mode, I’ve decided to officially fully retire this blog. The ribbonfarm.com domain and all links will remain active, but there will be no new content after November 13th, 2024, which happens to be...
Anecdotal Evidence
'A Book That Everybody Can Understand'
A partner at the Houston
law firm where my youngest son is working as an intern this summer has...
1st Aug 2025
A partner at the Houston
law firm where my youngest son is working as an intern this summer has loaned
him two nineteenth-century law books. Both were compiled by John G. Wells
(1821-80) and were bestsellers in their day, long before the practice of law
was fully...
The Elysian
Hackathon: Let's build a profit-sharing platform for writers
Creatives and developers—join us this Friday!
1st Oct 2025
Creatives and developers—join us this Friday!
Escaping Flatland
How can we rejuvenate the social fabric?
ask_another_guest
8th Jul 2026
Wuthering...
The Tragedy of Hoffman by Henry Chettle - The first step to revenge
His father hanged by the neck until dead for the high crime
of piracy, Hoffman vows Revenge! on the...
7th Apr 2026
His father hanged by the neck until dead for the high crime
of piracy, Hoffman vows Revenge! on the duke who executed his father. By chance the duke’s son is shipwrecked exactly
where Hoffman is keeping Hoffman, Sr.’s corpse hanging on the wall of a cave,
so Hoffman tortures and...
The Marginalian
The Mind in the Machine: John von Neumann, the Inception of AI, and the Limits of Logic
"Something very small, so tiny and insignificant as to be almost invisible in its origin, can...
2nd Dec 2023
"Something very small, so tiny and insignificant as to be almost invisible in its origin, can nonetheless open up a new and radiant perspective, because through it a higher order of being is trying to express itself."
The American Scholar
Most of Life
The post Most of Life appeared first on The American Scholar.
1st Apr 2026
The post Most of Life appeared first on The American Scholar.
The Elysian
Idea Labs! An open thread for collaborative worldbuilding
Let's brainstorm the future together.
22nd Mar 2024
Let's brainstorm the future together.
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RODEN] A new Popup Walk, Lots of Books
Roden Readers —
Ahoy from Crisptown, population: Everyone in Japan. The summer is done. Thank...
2nd Sep 2025
Roden Readers —
Ahoy from Crisptown, population: Everyone in Japan. The summer is done. Thank glorious gods be, the summer is done. (Mostly.) I can feel my brain starting to solidify again, returning to its natural state after three months of relentless broiled liquefaction.
In...
The Elysian
Cities should own their land—like Vienna and Amsterdam
Land autonomy beats governance autonomy every time.
2nd Mar 2026
Land autonomy beats governance autonomy every time.
Ploum.net
Goodbye Offpunk, Welcome XKCDpunk!
Goodbye Offpunk, Welcome XKCDpunk!
For the last three years, I’ve been working on Offpunk, a...
1st Apr 2025
Goodbye Offpunk, Welcome XKCDpunk!
For the last three years, I’ve been working on Offpunk, a command-line gemini and web browser.
Offpunk.net
While my initial goal was to browse the Geminisphere offline, the mission has slowly morphed into cleaning and unenshitiffying the modern...
ben-mini
Everything is a Spreadsheet
Revisiting an old 2020 Invest Like the Best podcast that interviews John Collision, co-founder of...
9th Nov 2025
Revisiting an old 2020 Invest Like the Best podcast that interviews John Collision, co-founder of Stripe. When asked about his thoughts on no-code:
I don’t think no-code is fully a panacea. Even when you’re doing no-code, you’re still reasoning about the relations between...
Escaping Flatland
Some remarks on being stuck, with digressions on David Hockney, developing style, and gardens
If something feels wrong, it is useful to articulate very precisely why that is
6 days ago
If something feels wrong, it is useful to articulate very precisely why that is
the late review
the dark frisson of knowledge
on the Wikipedian sublime
12th Jul 2025
on the Wikipedian sublime
Escaping Flatland
Things that connect us to ourselves, and things that don't
+ recommendations
6th Feb 2026
The Marginalian
Gary Snyder on How to Unbreak the World
"What we’d hope for on the planet is creativity and sanity, conviviality, the real work of our hands...
1st Feb 2025
"What we’d hope for on the planet is creativity and sanity, conviviality, the real work of our hands and minds."
The Marginalian
On Looking: Poet Lia Purpura on the Art of Noticing
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands...
4th Sep 2025
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way,” William Blake wrote in his most spirited letter. “As a man is, so he sees.” Because how we look at the world shapes the world we see, every act of noticing is an act...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ The Dark is Dubious
We find ourselves sitting by a heated pool in autumn temperatures at 7,200 feet. Santa Fe has been...
1st Oct 2021
We find ourselves sitting by a heated pool in autumn temperatures at 7,200 feet. Santa Fe has been home for two nights, where we luxuriated in a king-size bed with our own pillows (we don’t leave home without them).
How We Got Here
Since the last missive, we parted ways with...
the late review
the gallery of maladies
on long covid, hypochondria, and the forums
6th Nov 2025
on long covid, hypochondria, and the forums
Josh Thompson
Trip Report: New River Gorge
Kristi and I are spending a few weeks in Fayetteville, WV, home of the New River Gorge. There’s...
13th Sep 2015
Kristi and I are spending a few weeks in Fayetteville, WV, home of the New River Gorge. There’s fantastic climbing here. I climbed with good friends, and was absolutely humbled by how strong they all are. (My defense, at least for the next few weeks, is that I’ve not climbed...
Idle Words
Let's All Wear A Mask
Let's talk about masks!
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control recommended that every...
5th Apr 2020
Let's talk about masks!
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control recommended that every American wear a face covering when in public. Masks will be the hot, bold look for summer.
The medical evidence for the practice is overwhelming. The post-SARS countries in East...
The Marginalian
Blink Twice to Quell a Quasar: Carl Sagan on Superstition
Growing up in Bulgaria, in a city teeming in stray dogs and cars, I was deeply distressed by the...
4th Aug 2025
Growing up in Bulgaria, in a city teeming in stray dogs and cars, I was deeply distressed by the sight of each dead animal in the streets between home and school — deaths I could not prevent and could not bear. To cope with the aching helplessness, I developed a private...
The Marginalian
How to Be a Lichen: Adaptive Strategies for the Vulnerabilities of Being Human from Nature’s Tiny...
The hero of the modern myth is the victim, the emblem of the modern self the pronoun. We seem to...
2nd Nov 2025
The hero of the modern myth is the victim, the emblem of the modern self the pronoun. We seem to have forgotten that we are survivors of innumerable spasms of space and time, creatures who never would have given up the gills for lungs if we attached identity to gillness. Not so...
Ploum.net
La première Madame Pipi de l’espace profond
La première Madame Pipi de l’espace profond
Outre la première victoire au Tour de France d’Eddy...
3rd Apr 2026
La première Madame Pipi de l’espace profond
Outre la première victoire au Tour de France d’Eddy Merckx, 1969 fut une année qui marqua trois événements très importants.
1. Le premier homme sur la Lune
Deux de ces événements ont encore aujourd’hui un impact quotidien dans votre...
sbensu
Love's Executioner (book)
Countertransference applies to regular conversation.
1st Dec 2024
Countertransference applies to regular conversation.
Naz Hamid • Journal
Latent Co. is Forming
An homage to the Mac
Ryan Carver, Juan Pablo Zambrano, and I have formed Latent Co., a software...
2nd Dec 2025
An homage to the Mac
Ryan Carver, Juan Pablo Zambrano, and I have formed Latent Co., a software company. Driven by the creative tooling we’ve cut our teeth on and drawing on our product and imaging experience, we’re making a product for Mac.
Ryan and I go back a while: Typekit,...
Blog -...
Book Review - Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant
In the book Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant, author Roland Lazenby
meticulously shares the...
29th Mar 2020
In the book Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant, author Roland Lazenby
meticulously shares the journey of Kobe Bryant, from ancestral influences
up through his final game in the NBA. He is a clear fan of Kobe’s
inarguable work ethic, but he allows readers to reinforce their...
sbensu
When coordination pays off
Stories about Stripe Link where we have to do a lot of upfront coordination but it was worth it.
6th Oct 2024
Stories about Stripe Link where we have to do a lot of upfront coordination but it was worth it.
Josh Thompson
Taiwanese & Balinese Scooter Norms
Sometimes I’ve told people “I ride with Asian scooter norms.” or “I ride with Taiwanese and Balinese...
14th Aug 2025
Sometimes I’ve told people “I ride with Asian scooter norms.” or “I ride with Taiwanese and Balinese scooter norms”. Here’s what I mean by this statement.
a ‘norm’ is ‘something common, accepted, sometimes codified in law, but certainly accepted as ‘right’ or ‘acceptable’ or...
Escaping Flatland
A list of books and essays that I love
I’m purposefully not looking at my bookshelf to make sure I only pick books that I’ve thought about...
4th Nov 2025
I’m purposefully not looking at my bookshelf to make sure I only pick books that I’ve thought about so much that they immediately occur to me.
The American Scholar
The Brahmin and His Imaginary Friend
How a classic paean to the honest virtues of a Maine fisherman obscured several ugly truths
The...
2nd Dec 2024
How a classic paean to the honest virtues of a Maine fisherman obscured several ugly truths
The post The Brahmin and His Imaginary Friend appeared first on The American Scholar.
Wuthering...
What I Read in May 2026 – “These stories appeal to my sense of humor as well as my taste for formal...
NOT SHAKESPEARE
Poems and a Defence of Ryme (1592-1605), Samuel
Daniel – Author of the “Delia”...
4th Jun 2026
NOT SHAKESPEARE
Poems and a Defence of Ryme (1592-1605), Samuel
Daniel – Author of the “Delia” sequence of fifty sonnets, a genuine sequence, with
for example lines ending one poem and beginning the next. For some reason Thomas Campion, a writer of
the most beautiful songs,...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ On a Low and a High
A few days separate us from our time at Canyon of the Ancients and our last camp from this fall...
14th Apr 2022
A few days separate us from our time at Canyon of the Ancients and our last camp from this fall trip. After a mangled tale of an ER (mis)visit and a return for refuge at Sage Canyon (this time camping just outside the Workshop Loft — thank you, Grant, for the use of your bathroom...
Wuthering...
Anthony Powell's style and sensibility - Life is full of internal dramas, instantaneous and...
Nicholas Jenkins – I did not register his name at all for
the entire first novel, but I know it now...
22nd May 2025
Nicholas Jenkins – I did not register his name at all for
the entire first novel, but I know it now – goes to school, gets a job in
publishing, writes a novel, gets a girlfriend, gets a job as a script writer, splits
with the girlfriend, and writes another novel or two, none of...
ben-mini
Things to be Happy About & Perfect Software
Happy to share a new project: Things to be Happy About - things.ben-mini.com. It’s a daily blog...
27th Dec 2025
Happy to share a new project: Things to be Happy About - things.ben-mini.com. It’s a daily blog where I simply write five things to be happy about.
Back in college, I had a tiny whiteboard outside my dorm where I did the same exercise. I also brought it to my cabin as a camp...
Josh Thompson
2020 Annual Review
please note: i’m publishing this far after it was drafted, which was in January 2021. It’s being...
27th Jun 2022
please note: i’m publishing this far after it was drafted, which was in January 2021. It’s being published in June 2022 - I’m trying to back-fill ‘annual reviews’, I never finished this one or published it, until now.
Is it even possible to mention a 2020 review without somehow...
Ploum.net
La justesse au lieu de l’exactitude
La justesse au lieu de l’exactitude
Où je parle de hockey sous-marin, d’avions militaires et du...
14th Oct 2025
La justesse au lieu de l’exactitude
Où je parle de hockey sous-marin, d’avions militaires et du pourrissement des oranges punks.
L’arbitraire de l’arbitrage
C’est un fait historique peu connu, mais j’ai, brièvement, été arbitre sportif. J’ai en effet arbitré des matchs de...
The American Scholar
The Story of Mumbet
Who was the enslaved woman whose burial site at a Berkshires cemetery draws so much reverence and...
2nd Mar 2026
Who was the enslaved woman whose burial site at a Berkshires cemetery draws so much reverence and respect?
The post The Story of Mumbet appeared first on The American Scholar.
This Space
39 Books: 2023
This is the 39th and final post of this series. As the introduction explains, I began seeking a...
1st Jun 2024
This is the 39th and final post of this series. As the introduction explains, I began seeking a return to the short-form of the early days of blogging. And it started off well, with each entry written in no time, sometimes stirring up the sediment of initial enchantment. As I got...
Escaping Flatland
Take a part of the world that you love and give it your care
Edward Weston, Armco Steel, Ohio, 1922
1st Apr 2025
Edward Weston, Armco Steel, Ohio, 1922
Josh Thompson
Avoid a car accident with a $3 tool
TL;DR: Buy a
blind spot mirror for your car. They are $2, and can keep you from getting in an...
4th Jul 2016
TL;DR: Buy a
blind spot mirror for your car. They are $2, and can keep you from getting in an accident. Not a lot of people have them, though they’re awesome.
I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about how to make driving safer.
Step 1 to making driving safer is “don’t...
This Space
On the Calculation of Volume 1 by Solvej Balle
The premise of this multi-volume novel is simple: a modern-day French woman called Tara finds...
9th Jun 2025
The premise of this multi-volume novel is simple: a modern-day French woman called Tara finds herself stuck inside the eighteenth day of a November. The nineteenth never appears. On the 121st iteration of the same day she begins to write by describing the sounds made by her...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] Walking the Brooklyn Bridge
Ridgeline subscribers —
Thanks for all the “Yo!“s last week. It looks like transmissions from...
1st Jun 2026
Ridgeline subscribers —
Thanks for all the “Yo!“s last week. It looks like transmissions from mailbot2k are getting through. (Let me know if you see any “rendering errors” in your email clients; I think we fixed the Proton Mail issues.) FYI, because the last issue of Roden ended...
Salish Wolf
#11 Jen Segger on Adventure Racing, Endurance Coaching, and Pain as an Option
Jen Segger has traveled the globe competing as a world-class adventure
racing athlete. She has,...
2nd Jul 2020
Jen Segger has traveled the globe competing as a world-class adventure
racing athlete. She has, for year after year, for nearly 2 decades, pushed
her body to the extremes of what the human body is capable of enduring. And
now, on the brink of 40, she is showing little sign...
Blog -...
Book Review - Dancing Naked in the Mind Field
Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, the autobiography of Kary Mullis,
published in 1998, is...
26th Jun 2021
Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, the autobiography of Kary Mullis,
published in 1998, is reminiscent of another Nobel Prize winning
autobiography, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!. Dr. Mullis and Dr.
Feynman had a great deal in common, including their incomprehensible...
The American Scholar
New Year, Old Year
The post New Year, Old Year appeared first on The American Scholar.
1st Jan 2025
The post New Year, Old Year appeared first on The American Scholar.
The Marginalian
Between the Infinite and the Infinitesimal: A Scientist’s Search for the Fulcrum of Faith
"The universe is not a place where evolution happens, it is the evolution happening. It is not a...
2nd Feb 2024
"The universe is not a place where evolution happens, it is the evolution happening. It is not a stage on which drama unfolds, it is the unfolding drama itself."
Josh Thompson
An Open Letter about Golden
2022-06-15 Update
I wrote this document the first time in a very small number of minutes, three...
24th May 2022
2022-06-15 Update
I wrote this document the first time in a very small number of minutes, three weeks ago, on my way out the door on a particularly busy day. I follow “write it now”. I’ve gotten to discuss this letter with a few different people, because I mentioned it in email....
The Elysian
Humanity from the perspective of robots
Talking points for our literary salon next week.
1st May 2024
Talking points for our literary salon next week.
Josh Thompson
Content but Restless
There is tension between being content with what you have, and striving for more.
We have all heard...
3rd Sep 2013
There is tension between being content with what you have, and striving for more.
We have all heard the “serenity prayer”:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
This prayer is...
Escaping Flatland
On mentors
What is it that motivates someone to take on someone and help them grow? Why do some learners have...
8th Nov 2023
What is it that motivates someone to take on someone and help them grow? Why do some learners have that privilege?
Naz Hamid • Journal
Quality, Maintenance & Craft
We are shokunin.
Last week I was in Ojai, California, for True’s Founder Camp.[1] James Freeman,...
12th Mar 2025
We are shokunin.
Last week I was in Ojai, California, for True’s Founder Camp.[1] James Freeman, founder of Blue Bottle Coffee was in conversation with Jeff Veen, and one of the attendees asked him: “How do you maintain such high quality?”
Freeman answers, “‘Maintaining’ is a...
The Elysian
Maybe an exowomb is better than pregnancy
The Pod Generation’s near-future satire pits nature against technology. Which is the better curator?
2nd Jul 2025
The Pod Generation’s near-future satire pits nature against technology. Which is the better curator?
The Elysian
Yes, Taylor Swift is just as genius as Mary Shelley
The video from our live event.
3rd Oct 2024
The video from our live event.
Salish Wolf
#5 Fritzi Horstman on Healing Childhood Trauma, Activism Through Film, and Uplifting Humanity
Fritzi Horstman is a rare, beautiful individual with a selfless passion to
transform lives. As a...
9th May 2020
Fritzi Horstman is a rare, beautiful individual with a selfless passion to
transform lives. As a Grammy-award winning producer for her work on the
“The Defiant Ones”, Fritzi is not resting on her laurels. Nor is she
coasting through Hollywood, lapping up the limelight....
The Perry Bible...
Big Fish
The post Big Fish appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
3rd Jul 2026
The post Big Fish appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
Escaping Flatland
Reading challenging books with kids is fun and probably useful
I was looking through my diary from the summer of 2020 and found this entry about Maud, then three...
2nd Apr 2024
I was looking through my diary from the summer of 2020 and found this entry about Maud, then three years old, in late toddlerhood. 25th of July 2020. I was doing the dishes. Maud came in. “I have looked a little in books,” she said.
Idle Words
Sara Huddleston on the Latino Vote in Iowa
Last week I spoke with Sara Huddleston, candidate for Iowa state house in district 11 (Storm Lake)....
8th Aug 2020
Last week I spoke with Sara Huddleston, candidate for Iowa state house in district 11 (Storm Lake). A longtime community organizer and three-term city council member, she was the first Latina elected to a city council in the state of Iowa, and would be the first Latina to serve...
ben-mini
Trust and Procedural Fetishism
I recently finished reading Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. The book explains the...
14th Jun 2025
I recently finished reading Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. The book explains the various missteps taken by the U.S. government that led us to where we are today: a bureaucratic sludge of policies and regulations that’s caused ambitious projects to go over budget...
Escaping Flatland
How I write essays
Notes on process
4th Dec 2024
The Elysian
The TERRAFORM print pamphlet is now available—here's what we earned
Plus, join our literary salon discussion this week!
4th Aug 2025
Plus, join our literary salon discussion this week!
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] Kazunori Hamana in Apartamento
Ridgeline subscribers —
Man, it was fun talking with Kazunori Hamana back in January. He’s lived a...
12th Jul 2026
Ridgeline subscribers —
Man, it was fun talking with Kazunori Hamana back in January. He’s lived a bizarre life, seemingly one without a roadmap, though I suspect his laid-back, subtly-goatee’d vibes belie a cunning streak. He was welcoming and rough-edged in a disarming way. He...
ben-mini
Building FirstMover
I had one month to find a place to live in Manhattan. I reached out to friends for tips, and nearly...
14th Sep 2024
I had one month to find a place to live in Manhattan. I reached out to friends for tips, and nearly all of them pointed me to StreetEasy, the Zillow-owned NYC real estate search platform. Some of my more Type-A friends gave me extra helpful advice:
Narrow your search to 2-4...
Naz Hamid • Journal
The Abstraction Gap
Bridging the design-development gap as AI rises.
There’s a frustrating gap in how development...
1st May 2025
Bridging the design-development gap as AI rises.
There’s a frustrating gap in how development projects present themselves. What looks straightforward on GitHub — ‘just run this command!’ — quickly spirals into an odyssey of sudo permissions, package managers, and missing...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Road to Mesa
Good morning, light.
I awoke early this morning, perched on a mesa cliff-side, surrounded by low...
18th Jul 2022
Good morning, light.
I awoke early this morning, perched on a mesa cliff-side, surrounded by low foliage, cow patties galore, and a few skeletons and carcasses of younger cattle that couldn’t survive the path of migration that was next to our camp.
Everyone else was still mildly...
Astral Codex Ten
Moltbook: After The First Weekend
...
2nd Feb 2026
Josh Thompson
Typing for Programmers
If you had to distill my ability to bring value to those around me, it would be “Josh types good”.
I...
11th Dec 2016
If you had to distill my ability to bring value to those around me, it would be “Josh types good”.
I can press these magical little keys on this little metal box here, and make these words come out.
If you’re reading these words, you don’t care how these words actually got on...
Ben Borgers
Publishing my Fall 2022 class notes
5th Jan 2023
ben-mini
What’s Preventing Us from Building a Beautiful Product?
I just finished listening to Lenny’s conversation with Nan Yu, Head of Product at Linear, about what...
5th Feb 2025
I just finished listening to Lenny’s conversation with Nan Yu, Head of Product at Linear, about what it takes to build a great SaaS product.
Like many SaaS apps, the Kibu team and I have taken inspiration from Linear. But as we plan our roadmap and implement new solutions, I ask...
The Elysian
Let Cities Build Utopia—new drop!
My deep dive on the future of cities is now available as a print pamphlet, digital pamphlet, and...
10th Feb 2026
My deep dive on the future of cities is now available as a print pamphlet, digital pamphlet, and audio essay.
This Space
A fundamental deprivation: Montevideo by Enrique Vila-Matas
Perhaps all novels seek to converge on a single point.
The thought occurred to me as I read...
16th Apr 2026
Perhaps all novels seek to converge on a single point.
The thought occurred to me as I read Vila-Matas' Montevideo, translated by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott. A random thought, apparently, but also the kind of thought provoked by the passion of observation, anecdote and...
Ploum.net
20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3)
20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3)
Previously in "20 years of Linux on the Deskop": After...
8th Mar 2025
20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3)
Previously in "20 years of Linux on the Deskop": After contributing to the launch of Ubuntu as the "perfect Linux desktop", Ploum realises that Ubuntu is drifting away from both Debian and GNOME. But something else is about to shake the...
Wuthering...
What I Read in May 2025 – “There’s the store that’s shaped like a duck,” Franca said.
First, my poor email subscribers missed some of the installments
of my newsletter about Anthony...
2nd Jun 2025
First, my poor email subscribers missed some of the installments
of my newsletter about Anthony Powell.
If this keeps happening I will have to think of something or even do
something. Here they are:
A skippable piece of throat-clearing about the roman
fleuve.
What I think...
Josh Thompson
Migrating my Jekyll site to Netlify
Troubleshooting Netilify deploy
Ugggh I moved intermediateruby.com to Netlify a few months ago in...
26th Sep 2021
Troubleshooting Netilify deploy
Ugggh I moved intermediateruby.com to Netlify a few months ago in like 10 minutes, so my primary site, josh.works, should take maybe 20, right?
I’m a few hours deep. Here’s what I get when Netlify tries to build:
I should have done the following...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Midlife Malaise
The past few days have felt heavy. In a weird headspace, floating in the middle of space between a...
8th Jun 2023
The past few days have felt heavy. In a weird headspace, floating in the middle of space between a destination or goal, or rather, a state I aspire to, but seeing a road ahead of which the length is unknown.
It feels like a lot of things have been taken, removed, or no longer...
Josh Thompson
Training for climbing (progress update)
I am at the end of my second iteration of climbing training, and this is how it went and what I...
3rd Jun 2013
I am at the end of my second iteration of climbing training, and this is how it went and what I learned:
I completed the workout twelve times, but I took a twelve-day break between workout eleven and twelve. I first skipped a workout because I had ripped skin open on one of my...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ The Amasa 25K, My First Trail Race
Two years ago, I broke my elbow. A year ago, I put cycling on hold due to discomfort on the bike and...
29th May 2024
Two years ago, I broke my elbow. A year ago, I put cycling on hold due to discomfort on the bike and soon after started running as a cardio and endurance-based complement to my longstanding passion for rock climbing.
Trail running and ultras have captured my attention in recent...
Ploum.net
Quand éclatera la bulle IA…
Quand éclatera la bulle IA…
Comme le souligne Ed Zitron, toute la bulle actuelle est basée sur 7 ou...
1st Nov 2025
Quand éclatera la bulle IA…
Comme le souligne Ed Zitron, toute la bulle actuelle est basée sur 7 ou 8 entreprises qui s’échangent des promesses de s’échanger des milliards d’euros lorsque tous les habitants de la planète dépenseront en moyenne 100€ par mois pour utiliser ChatGPT....
The American Scholar
Medina de Rioseco
The post Medina de Rioseco appeared first on The American Scholar.
1st Jul 2026
The post Medina de Rioseco appeared first on The American Scholar.
Anecdotal Evidence
'Either Very Gravely Gay or Very Gaily Grave'
“Lend me—lend me some
disguise; / I will tell prodigious lies; / All who care for what I say /...
1st Apr 2026
“Lend me—lend me some
disguise; / I will tell prodigious lies; / All who care for what I say / Shall
be April Fools to-day!”
This sounds like our understanding
of April Fools’ Day as kids. Low-cost, nothing elaborate, just walk up behind a
guy and scream “Your pants are on...
This Space
Left on the Shelf
My old and very good friend Mark Thwaite has taken over at the Left on the Shelf bookshop, so if...
7th Feb 2026
My old and very good friend Mark Thwaite has taken over at the Left on the Shelf bookshop, so if you're at all interested in any of the subjects listed in the poster below, please consider subscribing to his newsletter, checking out the listings on Abebooks, and the offers on...
the late review
love's bad infinity
tristan und isolde - in theory and at the met
24th Mar 2026
tristan und isolde - in theory and at the met
Naz Hamid — Journal...
🔗 What price?
If anything, as the well gets poisoned by their own outputs, large language models may well end up...
6th Oct 2024
If anything, as the well gets poisoned by their own outputs, large language models may well end up eating their own slop and getting their own version of mad cow disease. So this might be as good as they’re ever going to get.
— Jeremy Keith
I use AI. Not particularly for...
Josh Thompson
How to complete a project
Most of us have goals. And we usually don’t reach any of them.
The
Minimum Viable Product “concept”...
1st Jan 2014
Most of us have goals. And we usually don’t reach any of them.
The
Minimum Viable Product “concept” has helped me with some goals, and it could be helpful to you.
It’s a simple concept: When starting something new, figure out what the minimum investment would get you the...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ I Don't Have Facebook
I don’t have an account with the big blue F. It’s 2015. The social network is almost 11 years old....
15th Jan 2015
I don’t have an account with the big blue F. It’s 2015. The social network is almost 11 years old. It’s remarkable — over a decade in existence and, mostly, still going strong.
I read about it a lot. I have friends who work there. I have been recruited and asked by the same...
Astral Codex Ten
"All Lawful Use": Much More Than You Wanted To Know
...
1st Mar 2026
The Elysian
Let's read the Terra Ignota series together
Our summer reading is Ada Palmer's feat of utopian worldbuilding.
3rd Jul 2024
Our summer reading is Ada Palmer's feat of utopian worldbuilding.
Robert Caro
In Florida, the Pitch Is High and Hard
A special Senate committee has opened an investigation into these “Misery Acres” that take dollars...
29th Mar 2023
A special Senate committee has opened an investigation into these “Misery Acres” that take dollars from people who cannot afford it.
Josh Thompson
Turing Prep Chapter 4: Arrays, Hashes, and Nested Collections
Preparing for Turing Series Index
What follows is an eight-part series that will help you pick up...
9th Jun 2019
Preparing for Turing Series Index
What follows is an eight-part series that will help you pick up useful information about a number of topics related to Ruby, specifically geared for students learning the Ruby programming language, as part of the Turing School’s Backend Software...
The Marginalian
Vision of the Womb and Vision of the Brain: H.D. on the Two Kinds of Seeing and the Key to Over-mind...
“One must be a seer, make oneself a seer,” Arthur Rimbaud wrote, “by a long, gigantic and rational...
2nd Jul 2025
“One must be a seer, make oneself a seer,” Arthur Rimbaud wrote, “by a long, gigantic and rational derangement of all the senses.” As more and more of our senses are being amputated by the blade of our image-centric culture, reducing the vast and delicate sensorium of human...
Ploum.net
La conjuration de la fierté ignorante
La conjuration de la fierté ignorante
Les scientifiques, les vulgarisateurs, les professeurs...
2nd Dec 2024
La conjuration de la fierté ignorante
Les scientifiques, les vulgarisateurs, les professeurs consacrent leur vie à lutter contre l’ignorance. Mais l’ignorance n’est pas vraiment le problème. Ce qui est dangereux c’est lorsqu’elle se camoufle. Lorsqu’elle se transforme en...
The Perry Bible...
The Message
The post The Message appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
3rd Nov 2025
The post The Message appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
Josh Thompson
Demonstration Junction Repair on Downing in Denver
I was out and about by scooter a recent warm january saturday evening.
Earlier in the week a few...
9th Dec 2025
I was out and about by scooter a recent warm january saturday evening.
Earlier in the week a few companies had been operating drilling equipment in the area. I’m not sure what they were doing, but they were scattered all about the neighborhood.
The work was done, but traffic...
Steven Scrawls
Quicksilver and Clay
Quicksilver and Clay
Like everyone else, I walk around the world in a body made of
quicksilver and...
11th Jan 2024
Quicksilver and Clay
Like everyone else, I walk around the world in a body made of
quicksilver and clay. The pieces of my body—my sense of humor, my
beliefs, my opinions and artistic sensibilities and worldviews,
everything—combine to present a cohesive self to be...
Josh Thompson
Waking Up Early, Part 3
I’ve written about my attempts to
wake up early before.
Most recently, I
promised to take a sleep...
2nd Aug 2013
I’ve written about my attempts to
wake up early before.
Most recently, I
promised to take a sleep log, to track trends. Fortunately, I did not intend to try to wake up early, because I didn’t.
Here’s what I learned in the last three weeks:
Benadryl messes with your ability to...
Josh Thompson
Array divergence in Ruby
Lets say you have a list of valid items, and you want to run another array against it, and pull out...
2nd Feb 2018
Lets say you have a list of valid items, and you want to run another array against it, and pull out the items that don’t match.
You don’t want to iterate through all of the items in one array, calling other_array.include?(item). (That’s computationally expensive)
valid_people =...
Ben Borgers
New in Superadmin: styling, images, rich text
23rd Nov 2022
Idle Words
My Taipei Quarantine
Part of what brought me to Taiwan was bureaucratic thrill seeking. Few other countries had gone...
26th Apr 2022
Part of what brought me to Taiwan was bureaucratic thrill seeking. Few other countries had gone from “just hop on a plane” to North Korean levels of inaccessibility as fast as Taiwan, and like a cat that paws at a door just because it's closed, I wanted in. The country was...
Josh Thompson
Wrapping my head around local politics 001
Warning: Buzzwords ahead about millennials.*
As a millennial, I want to “get involved” in my “local...
24th Aug 2016
Warning: Buzzwords ahead about millennials.*
As a millennial, I want to “get involved” in my “local community”, and don’t know the best way to “mobilize my resources”.
vomit. I hate admitting that. But I still want to figure out
if it is possible for me (little old me) to do...
Ploum.net
Une vie sans notifications
Une vie sans notifications
Переведено на русский Wandering Thinker
Avertissement : Cet article...
2nd Sep 2025
Une vie sans notifications
Переведено на русский Wandering Thinker
Avertissement : Cet article parle de mon expérience avec le Mudita Kompakt, mais, n’étant pas lié à cette firme, je ne répondrai à aucune question concernant cet appareil ni le Hisense A5. Tout ce que j’ai à dire...
Josh Thompson
Fred Roger's Method For Writing Scripts
Someone said:
People think this is silly, but read about Fred rogers’ method for writing a script...
30th Sep 2020
Someone said:
People think this is silly, but read about Fred rogers’ method for writing a script for his show. The rules aren’t fully applicable to presentations, but the attention to detail and to the Interpretation of the audience is. Don’t use any words carelessly.
I...
sbensu
The secondary market in gift cards
This post by patio11 covers a few things that I learned working with gift cards over the years.
13th Dec 2021
This post by patio11 covers a few things that I learned working with gift cards over the years.
sbensu
APIs as ladders
APIs are hard to learn. If you think about the learning curve of your API, you can design one that...
24th Jan 2022
APIs are hard to learn. If you think about the learning curve of your API, you can design one that works for beginners, novices, and experts.
Josh Thompson
Why Your Belayer is Keeping You from Climbing Hard(er)
Since climbing regularly again (!!!), I’ve observed lots of belaying in the gym. I can’t walk up to...
1st Oct 2014
Since climbing regularly again (!!!), I’ve observed lots of belaying in the gym. I can’t walk up to a stranger and say “Excuse me, sir, I noticed that your poor belaying is totally crippling your climber’s ability to try hard, and actively eliminating any hope you had of...
Anecdotal Evidence
'So a Fool Returneth to His Folly'
Grownups seldom credit children
with insight into human psychology, thus treating them as smaller,...
1st Apr 2025
Grownups seldom credit children
with insight into human psychology, thus treating them as smaller, more annoying versions
of themselves. My father had an acquaintance even he knew was a fool. By admitting such knowledge, he was violating adult solidarity. His friend's customary...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] Happy New Year With a Side of Fries
Ridgeline subscribers —
Hello from Denny’s. Happy new year. You can tell it’s January first, because...
1st Jan 2026
Ridgeline subscribers —
Hello from Denny’s. Happy new year. You can tell it’s January first, because I’m at Denny’s. I woke up and made a nice coffee and did some accounting (as one does) and went to my local shrine in Tokyo and bowbowclapclapbow’d and then I was off! Tramping...
Naz Hamid • Journal
Everybody Needs a Rock
A new homepage and site improvements.
Looking at the Colophon from it’s last update, I mentioned...
14th Feb 2026
A new homepage and site improvements.
Looking at the Colophon from it’s last update, I mentioned that a refresh had happened in February 2025. A year later, another refresh has landed
I wouldn’t normally write about a site update like this, but the goal of the new homepage design...
sbensu
How to avoid breaking APIs
The main trick is to design them with extension in mind so that you won't have to break them later.
16th Mar 2023
The main trick is to design them with extension in mind so that you won't have to break them later.
Josh Thompson
Rails Migration: When you can't add a uniqueness constraint because you already have duplicates
I get to occasionally contribute to the Wombat Security dev blog. I wrote the following for...
28th Sep 2018
I get to occasionally contribute to the Wombat Security dev blog. I wrote the following for development.wombatsecurity.com.
This post has been updated to reflect some lessons learned while running this migration in production. Don’t leave a column without an index at any point in...
Josh Thompson
Accomplishments and Achievements
We’re encouraged to accomplish and achieve, yes? From birth, we pass milestones. Generally these...
2nd Jul 2014
We’re encouraged to accomplish and achieve, yes? From birth, we pass milestones. Generally these milestones grow in complexity as we add to our abilities - it’s been a while since I’ve been rewarded for not wetting myself - but they are usually on par with our abilities.
For...
This Space
The end of literature, part five
"Stupid" and "a marketing exercise" were the first two descriptions I saw of the New York Times' 100...
25th Jul 2024
"Stupid" and "a marketing exercise" were the first two descriptions I saw of the New York Times' 100 Best Books of the 21st Century polled from hundreds of "literary luminaries" offering ten choices each, and while it is both of those things, "parochial" is the first word that...
Josh Thompson
The How and Why of BlockValue
I wrote the following post, and built the application in question, in 2017, in my “end of Turing”...
14th Sep 2017
I wrote the following post, and built the application in question, in 2017, in my “end of Turing” project, before I’d ever been hired as a software developer.
I really enjoyed the app that I built, and I keep wanting to get around to cleaning it up and making it work again. Maybe...
Naz Hamid • Journal
Craft Is Not Culture
A time, a place, and humans.
Let’s take a moment to consider the font, Instrument Serif. Created by...
24th May 2026
A time, a place, and humans.
Let’s take a moment to consider the font, Instrument Serif. Created by the Portland-based design agency Instrument for their own use — along with Instrument Sans — they open-sourced it on GitHub, where it made its way to Google Fonts, in a generous...
This Space
The crisis of narration and the future of the novel, part two
Byung-Chul Han says in The Crisis of Narration that modernity "is animated by a belief in progress"...
6th Nov 2025
Byung-Chul Han says in The Crisis of Narration that modernity "is animated by a belief in progress" and its narratives "radiate an aura because the future is a phenomenon of distance". This is evident in our reverence for the monuments of modernism, a reverence formed by wonder...
Ben Borgers
Winter break project list [2024]
21st Dec 2024
Ben Borgers
Don’t standardize your company’s coding agents yet
10th Nov 2025
Josh Thompson
Bollards: Why & What
author’s note: it’s always fun to see your own stuff on the Hacker News front page! This very post...
30th Apr 2024
author’s note: it’s always fun to see your own stuff on the Hacker News front page! This very post sparked >450 comments worth of conversation! I didn’t even know this got posted until days later!
What are bollards
The what and the why in a single image:
The what and why in a...
Escaping Flatland
Relationships are coevolutionary loops
Looking for Alice, part 3
31st Oct 2023
Looking for Alice, part 3
the late review
fear of breakdown
a psychopolitical theory
11th May 2026
Josh Thompson
The Violence of God and the Hermeneutics of Paul
Sometimes I (Josh) want to share around certain academic works. Sometimes its a PDF that I want...
8th Aug 2021
Sometimes I (Josh) want to share around certain academic works. Sometimes its a PDF that I want someone to download and read, sometimes it’s text from a book I’ve read, and cannot otherwise get a sharable format of. So, I laboriously take photos of pages, use an optical character...
Idle Words
The Shape of a Mars Mission
This post is the second in a series. Read part one here.
p {line-height:1.6em; }
p.caption {...
20th Feb 2025
This post is the second in a series. Read part one here.
p {line-height:1.6em; }
p.caption { margin-top:0px;padding-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;text-align:center;}
a.fnote {text-decoration:none;color:red}
img {margin-bottom:0px;}
“From a mathematics and trajectory...
Josh Thompson
Load Testing your app with Siege
Last time, I dug into using Apache Benchmark to do performance testing on a page that requires...
2nd Jul 2019
Last time, I dug into using Apache Benchmark to do performance testing on a page that requires authentication to access.
Today, we’ll figure out how to use siege to visit many unique URLs on our page, and to get benchmarks on that process. I’ll next figure out performance...
sbensu
Incentives as selection effects
When you apply a new incentive, you select for a new population that prefers the incentive.
11th Jun 2024
When you apply a new incentive, you select for a new population that prefers the incentive.
Josh Thompson
December Review, January Goals
This is a follow-up from last month’s goals
1. Deepen Knowledge of Back-end Development
I finished...
5th Jan 2017
This is a follow-up from last month’s goals
1. Deepen Knowledge of Back-end Development
I finished OverTheWire’s Bandit series, except the last lesson, which didn’t make sense. (It does now! Turns out login shells and “regular” shells are different. I’ll take another spin at it...
Josh Thompson
Climbing in Cuba, 2019
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go climbing in Cuba.
Mark and Dave, walking back from...
12th Apr 2019
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go climbing in Cuba.
Mark and Dave, walking back from climbing outside Viñales
Locals crag, called “The roof of the world”. Stunning routes.
because it was so hot, we spent a lot of time in this cave.
Kristi and I tend to stick...
Naz Hamid • Journal
Different Think
I don't write about Apple. I had to this time.
It started with a magazine ad. A musician I admired...
5th Aug 2025
I don't write about Apple. I had to this time.
It started with a magazine ad. A musician I admired was pictured: Henry Rollins, looking as he does, in black, shorts, tattoos visible and holding a computer. An Apple Powerbook.
He appears with Terry Ellis from Imago Records,...
This Space
"Sometimes God, sometimes nothing"
Once I imagined a novel in which everything seen throughout the day by a single person is reported...
18th Jul 2026
Once I imagined a novel in which everything seen throughout the day by a single person is reported in detail. I was a teenager in my first job and began by using company paper to describe the scrub on the slopes beside a motorway as seen from a car. I never got any further.
No...
sbensu
Creative kernels
Artists can often trace entire pieces around one idea that drives everything else.
1st Jul 2024
Artists can often trace entire pieces around one idea that drives everything else.
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Liquid Gold
Hi, this is Weightshifting, a newsletter by Naz Hamid and Jen Schuetz, primarily about vehicular...
10th Sep 2023
Hi, this is Weightshifting, a newsletter by Naz Hamid and Jen Schuetz, primarily about vehicular travel and exploring the American West.
This is season 2, en route from San Francisco to St. Louis. Our primary reason is to visit Jen’s family and attend a wedding. Our secondary...
Wuthering...
Marlowe's restless Doctor Faustus - I’ll burn my books!
In Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus the great
scholar sells his soul to the devil in exchange...
8th Dec 2025
In Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus the great
scholar sells his soul to the devil in exchange for twenty-four years of power
and knowledge. After learning and doing
everything he wants he spends Acts III and IV playing an increasingly stupid
series of pranks on anyone and...
Escaping Flatland
How I read
Reading well is an endurance sport. I sometimes talk to people who want to become serious readers...
1st Oct 2025
Reading well is an endurance sport. I sometimes talk to people who want to become serious readers and so pick up Kafka’s The Trial or something like that—it is about as pleasant as running a marathon untrained.
Josh Thompson
Trader Joe's Parking Lot
Hey Trader Joe’s,
This is a bit of an open letter, inspired by a recent visit to the local Trader...
13th Dec 2023
Hey Trader Joe’s,
This is a bit of an open letter, inspired by a recent visit to the local Trader Joe’s. I just moved to this part of Denver, and now for the first time am living within like a 3 minute scoot of a Trader Joe’s.
I know that some people like to complain about...
Escaping Flatland
On agency
Or, how to handle being sentenced to freedom, and handle it effectively, and authentically, and...
7th Jul 2025
Or, how to handle being sentenced to freedom, and handle it effectively, and authentically, and responsibly
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] Talking While Walking the Camino Francés in Spain
Ridgeline subscribers —
Heeeeeeellllloooooooo to the many many many many new subscribers who came...
14th Apr 2025
Ridgeline subscribers —
Heeeeeeellllloooooooo to the many many many many new subscribers who came from the Tim Pod(s). Welcome.
I’m Craig, and this is Ridgeline (my newsletter focused on walking (Roden, the other newsletter is more general)), which is supposed to be a weekly...
Josh Thompson
How To Write A Letter of Recommendation for Yourself
I meet regularly with early-career software developers. A few recurring meetings, 1x/week, plus...
6th Aug 2020
I meet regularly with early-career software developers. A few recurring meetings, 1x/week, plus ad-hoc calls as needed with others.
A question came up recently:
My three-month internship is close to wrapping up. The Co-founder/CEO/lead developer of the consulting company I’m at...
Ploum.net
20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 4)
20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 4)
Previously in "20 years of Linux on the Deskop": After...
23rd Jul 2025
20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 4)
Previously in "20 years of Linux on the Deskop": After contributing to the launch of Ubuntu as the "perfect Linux desktop", Ploum realises that Ubuntu is drifting away from both Debian and GNOME. In the meantime, mobile computing...
Astral Codex Ten
The Colors Of Her Coat
...
1st Apr 2025
Anecdotal Evidence
'Give Thanks for All Things'
“It is the province of
poems to make some order in the world, but poets can’t afford to forget...
1st Mar 2026
“It is the province of
poems to make some order in the world, but poets can’t afford to forget that
there is a reality of things which survives all orders great and small. Things are.
The cow is there. No poetry can have any strength unless it continually bashes
itself against...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RODEN] Oooohhh Summer, How Much Risk Is a Useful Amount of Risk?
Roden Readers —
There is sweat and then there is s-w-e-a-t and the out-of-doorsness in Japan is...
4th Aug 2026
Roden Readers —
There is sweat and then there is s-w-e-a-t and the out-of-doorsness in Japan is presently a natural machine that produces nothing but sweat and sweat and sweat and swelter. Dryness has been eradicated. Fire is impossible to start. Blowtorch any single thing and it...
Escaping Flatland
Thoughts on agency
If anyone is in the mood for a video call, I would like to get a few of you together on Saturday at...
12th Jun 2024
If anyone is in the mood for a video call, I would like to get a few of you together on Saturday at 6 pm CET (9 am PST). Like last time, I’ll prepare a few questions (probably relating to today’s post since that is top of mind) but mostly we’ll just talk about whatever comes up....
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] The Shops Atop the Canal in Toyohashi
Ridgeline subscribers —
Hello from Toyohashi, a city between nowhere and somewhere else. A Tōkaidō...
12th Mar 2026
Ridgeline subscribers —
Hello from Toyohashi, a city between nowhere and somewhere else. A Tōkaidō city I’ve walked through on my two trips back and forth between Kyoto and Tokyo. A city with a space shuttle on top of a building and the letters USA strangely emblazoned below.
On...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ A Simple Sophistication
The weather was beautiful today. A sunny 65 degrees or so. Fresh from a shower, I headed out during...
23rd Mar 2004
The weather was beautiful today. A sunny 65 degrees or so. Fresh from a shower, I headed out during the lunch hour on foot, camera in hand and took a lot of photos during my walk. It took me straight out to the lake, an 8 minute journey. I was surprised to see that they had made...
The Elysian
Even Christopher Nolan prefers 70mm film
With all the technology in the world, sometimes the more beautiful thing is less of it.
4th Aug 2026
With all the technology in the world, sometimes the more beautiful thing is less of it.
Josh Thompson
Injury Impedes Improvement
Kristi and I have been in Colorado for three months, I’ve been climbing regularly for two, I am back...
24th Sep 2014
Kristi and I have been in Colorado for three months, I’ve been climbing regularly for two, I am back in shape and it feels good.
I am tempted to throw myself into climbing again. To climb every day, or maybe every other day, and finish every session with training. But here’s the...
Idle Words
New Martian Writing
If you've enjoyed my writing about space over the years, I invite you to subscribe to my new...
26th Mar 2026
If you've enjoyed my writing about space over the years, I invite you to subscribe to my new substack newsletter, titled 'Mars for the Rest of Us', where I've been posting weekly essays on topics around Mars exploration.
Here are two recent free posts:
Musk on Mars: a...
Josh Thompson
Context Setting for certain patterns & classes of relationship difficulties
I’ve been “catching up” a lot in my life lately. Some of that catching up involves bringing up to...
3rd Jul 2022
I’ve been “catching up” a lot in my life lately. Some of that catching up involves bringing up to speed various people I’ve not spoken too (or spoken too much, or openly, or recently, or ever, or some combination thereof).
I am strongly biased towards written/editable/consistent...
Josh Thompson
Continuos Glucose Monitors (part 2)
About a year ago, I wrote this post about continuous glucose monitors, that’s sorta ‘part 1’ of...
12th Mar 2026
About a year ago, I wrote this post about continuous glucose monitors, that’s sorta ‘part 1’ of these two parts.
Since then, and parallel to this most recent time with the sensor, I’ve encountered improvements to the ecosystem. The sensor technology is way better, as is the...
Idle Words
Protests and Power
In August 2020, the New York Times asked me to write an op-ed for a special feature on...
4th Oct 2020
In August 2020, the New York Times asked me to write an op-ed for a special feature on authoritarianism and democracy. They declined to publish my submission, which I am sharing here instead.
When the George Floyd protests began to spread nationally in the summer of 2020, I...
The Marginalian
The Feather Detective: How Roxie Laybourne Pioneered Forensic Ornithology
You wouldn’t know it, looking at the tiny elderly woman in the white lab coat bent over a table in a...
1st Oct 2025
You wouldn’t know it, looking at the tiny elderly woman in the white lab coat bent over a table in a halogen-lit government office, you wouldn’t know she had spent her youth doing science with her whole body: extracting herself from a deadly mudflat with stubbornness and applied...
Josh Thompson
Streets in Asheville
Quick-and-dirty street analysis in Asheville, NC
A few months ago, I visited Asheville, NC. It’s a...
11th Feb 2017
Quick-and-dirty street analysis in Asheville, NC
A few months ago, I visited Asheville, NC. It’s a nice town, and has a great pedestrian life, as far as I can tell.
As a thought experiment, I decided to see how well I could make the case for reducing the road width of a few...
Wuthering...
Thomas Heywood's early melodrama A Woman Killed by Kindness - I’ll say you wept, I’ll swear you made...
I have called Thomas Dekker and Henry Chettle hacks, but Thomas
Heywood was the greatest hack of the...
2nd May 2026
I have called Thomas Dekker and Henry Chettle hacks, but Thomas
Heywood was the greatest hack of the Age of Shakespeare, having “an entire hand
or at least the main finger” in “two hundred and twenty” (!) plays (Three
Elizabethan Domestic Tragedies, p. 38).
He is more like a...
Blog -...
Book Review - Iron John
Iron John by Robert Bly is a classic book about men. It has legions of
ardent fans, but I...
15th Dec 2019
Iron John by Robert Bly is a classic book about men. It has legions of
ardent fans, but I reluctantly admit I am not one of the more zealous.
Although the book has high points – the classic story of Iron John as put
down by the Grimm brothers stands out to me, as well as an...
Escaping Flatland
Being creative requires taking risks
When children learn to draw, they tend to make more and more interesting images for several years...
7th Jan 2026
When children learn to draw, they tend to make more and more interesting images for several years until around age five, when they learn to be boring.
Ben Borgers
Trip to Germany, spring 2024
26th May 2024
The Marginalian
Grace Paley on the Countercultural Courage of Imagining Other Lives
“Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real,” Iris...
1st Aug 2024
“Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real,” Iris Murdoch wrote in her superb investigation of the parallels between art and morality. There could be no such realization without imagination, which is our only instrument for fathoming...
The Marginalian
Wherever You Are, Stop What You’re Doing
Nothing magnifies life — in the proper sense of the word, rooted in the Latin for “to make greater,...
4th Jan 2025
Nothing magnifies life — in the proper sense of the word, rooted in the Latin for “to make greater, to glorify” — more than the act of noticing its details, and nothing sanctifies it more: Kneeling to look at a lichen is a devotional act. We bless our own lives by recognizing and...
Anecdotal Evidence
'Try to Make Something New'
Almost the only thing I
ever write down so I don’t forget it is the grocery list. Sporadically I...
1st Feb 2026
Almost the only thing I
ever write down so I don’t forget it is the grocery list. Sporadically I kept a diary when younger but each time the essential tedium of recording quotidian
events defeated me. I discovered that most of my own life, the practical stuff
that consumes so...
The American Scholar
Inside Man
A young reporter’s devastating exposé of the amoral elite
The post Inside Man appeared first on The...
1st Jun 2026
A young reporter’s devastating exposé of the amoral elite
The post Inside Man appeared first on The American Scholar.
Salish Wolf
Welcome to Salish Wolf Podcast
In this podcast I share with you incredible stories of extraordinary
endeavors that capture the...
2nd Apr 2020
In this podcast I share with you incredible stories of extraordinary
endeavors that capture the magic of the human spirit.
The inspiration for this podcast is a wolf named Takaya who gained global
fame for living alone for nearly a decade on a tiny archipelago in the...
Escaping Flatland
People are too big to fit inside our heads
Notes on relationships, conversation, Dostoevsky, and Bakhtin
2nd Jun 2026
Notes on relationships, conversation, Dostoevsky, and Bakhtin
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Pound, rub, pound
It’s something like midnight. A four-and-a-half-pound senior Chihuahua is tucked into her blanket...
21st Nov 2021
It’s something like midnight. A four-and-a-half-pound senior Chihuahua is tucked into her blanket and snuggled up next to my left rib cage inside my sleeping bag. Jen is asleep beside us.
It’s 35°F.
We have myriad layers happening: Jen wears a down jacket inside her sleeping bag...
This Space
39 Books: 2015
In the Spring of 1997, I visited a friend in Kassel, a city in the middle of Germany, home of the...
24th May 2024
In the Spring of 1997, I visited a friend in Kassel, a city in the middle of Germany, home of the Brothers Grimm and Franz Rosenzweig, and not very far from Weimar, hence the visit to the Goethehaus mentioned in the entry for 1989. I hadn't heard of it before and nor had my...
The American Scholar
“Dead Man’s Hand”
The post “Dead Man’s Hand” appeared first on The American Scholar.
4th Aug 2025
The post “Dead Man’s Hand” appeared first on The American Scholar.
Naz Hamid • Journal
SF Zine Fest 2026
The antithesis of slop.
It's been a few years since I'd attended the SF Zine Fest. Friend Scott Boms...
a week ago
The antithesis of slop.
It's been a few years since I'd attended the SF Zine Fest. Friend Scott Boms had a table with his Matter Editions wares, and it's a 10-minute walk from home, so Jen and I had to go.
Held at The Hibernia, it was a treat to actually go into this historic...
Ben Borgers
Thursday, January 13, 2022
13th Jan 2022
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] Overtourism in Japan, and How it Hurts Small Businesses
Ridgeline subscribers —
I’m Craig Mod and I’ve been buuuuuuurnt out this last month following my...
10th Jul 2025
Ridgeline subscribers —
I’m Craig Mod and I’ve been buuuuuuurnt out this last month following my epic Things Become Other Things mega book tour. Finally, I’m gingerly emerging from my recovery cave. (But reserve the right to retreat again.) Here’s a fresh dispatch — in praise of...
The Marginalian
Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and Our Search for Meaning: Oliver Sacks on ChatGPT, 30...
"We are not incoherent, a bundle of sensations, but a self, rising from experience, continually...
2nd May 2023
"We are not incoherent, a bundle of sensations, but a self, rising from experience, continually growing and revised... Through experience, education, art, and life, we teach our brains to become unique. We learn to be individuals. This is a neurological learning as well as a...
Anecdotal Evidence
'But to Divert a Fierce Banditti'
The English poet William
Cowper (1731-1800) suffered his first attack of mental illness – today we...
1st Dec 2025
The English poet William
Cowper (1731-1800) suffered his first attack of mental illness – today we would
likely call it profound depression – at age thirty-two. Before then, while
studying law in the Temple, Cowper dined every Thursday with friends at the
Nonsense Club. He and a...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] A (Very) Short Walk With Rich Roll
Ridgeline subscribers —
For years, Kevin Kelly and I have been inviting (to no avail) Rich Roll on...
4th Jun 2025
Ridgeline subscribers —
For years, Kevin Kelly and I have been inviting (to no avail) Rich Roll on Walk and Talks. So it was with great delight that about a month ago, I (Craig Mod, author of this newsletter, Ridgeline; thanks for subscribing) flew out to LA to go on the Rich...
The Elysian
Writing Prompt: Design the future of the internet!
Participate in our next essay collection and print pamphlet.
2nd Jan 2026
Participate in our next essay collection and print pamphlet.
Josh Thompson
POODR Notes: Acquiring Behavior Through Inheritance (Chapter 6)
I’m reading through Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby .
These are some notes from chapter 6,...
28th Nov 2019
I’m reading through Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby .
These are some notes from chapter 6, Acquiring Behavior Through Inheritance; mostly these are for me, and they don’t intend to stand on their own. Read the book, work through chapter six, and then come back and read...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
🔗 Eva Decker
Eva Decker is a designer engineer who likes playing piano and writing CSS. Currently living in NYC...
6th Aug 2024
Eva Decker is a designer engineer who likes playing piano and writing CSS. Currently living in NYC with Samwise.
— Eva Decker
Visit original link → or View on nazhamid.com →
Josh Thompson
How to fly… like a boss
I am in a quest to
level up my life. Free flights is a big part of this. I’ve not gotten too many...
7th Oct 2013
I am in a quest to
level up my life. Free flights is a big part of this. I’ve not gotten too many of those yet, but the next best thing is free seat upgrades. I’m not talking about first class - that’s beyond me, at the moment. I’m talking about getting stuck in the back of the...
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