Josh Thompson
First pass with Elixir/Phoenix
I’m digging into Elixir and Phoenix. I’m working through this tutorial to cloning Slack.
The...
27th Oct 2017
I’m digging into Elixir and Phoenix. I’m working through this tutorial to cloning Slack.
The tutorial author says
At the time of writing, I have ~1 week experience with Phoenix. Similar to Rubber Ducky Debugging, I am writing this blog post to force myself to think differently...
The Marginalian
States of Possession: Erich Neumann on Creativity, the Unconscious, and the Psychology of...
There are things in life that come over you sudden as a flash flood, total as an eclipse — the great...
2nd May 2025
There are things in life that come over you sudden as a flash flood, total as an eclipse — the great loves, the great creative passions, the great urges to conquer a mountain or a theorem. They can feel like an alien invasion, like the immense hand of some imperative has seized...
Josh Thompson
Book Notes: 'The Case Against Sugar' by Gary Taube
In the last few weeks, I read The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes.
I found it to be compelling...
12th Aug 2019
In the last few weeks, I read The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes.
I found it to be compelling (more on that in a moment) and I want to be impacted by them. I want the daily decisions that I make to be subtly influenced by this author and these books.
Related but in a different...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RODEN] Summer Heatray Days
Roden Readers —
Hello from the swelterdome, the Cape O‘ Temperature Oppression, a.k.a. the Kanto...
1st Aug 2025
Roden Readers —
Hello from the swelterdome, the Cape O‘ Temperature Oppression, a.k.a. the Kanto area of Japan in July / August. It is so spectacularly, consistently hot that it’s hard to overstate just how bananas this heat is, how all consumingly present and manic it feels....
Naz Hamid — Journal...
🔗 Rick Rubin on Listening
If it’s music you’re listening to, consider closing your eyes. You may find yourself getting lost in...
15th Jul 2024
If it’s music you’re listening to, consider closing your eyes. You may find yourself getting lost in the experience. When the piece ends, you might be surprised by where you find yourself. You’ve been transported to another place. The place where the music lives.
— Rick...
Ben Borgers
Winter break project list
19th Dec 2023
Steven Scrawls
Sunday Scrawl #1: Learning Not to Know
Sunday Scrawl #1: Learning
Not to Know
When my parents sat me down in the living room the night...
30th Nov 2025
Sunday Scrawl #1: Learning
Not to Know
When my parents sat me down in the living room the night before I was
supposed to leave for college, I thought they were going to tell me they
were getting a divorce. At the time, it was the most terrifying upheaval
I could imagine.
Instead,...
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...
Ploum.net
I Don’t Have a Smartphone…
I Don’t Have a Smartphone…
…or, at least, I wish I didn’t.
"I don’t have a smartphone," is what I...
2 weeks ago
I Don’t Have a Smartphone…
…or, at least, I wish I didn’t.
"I don’t have a smartphone," is what I tell people and professionals nowadays. This allows me to cut the crap about companies insisting that I install their app or restaurants wishing that I scan a QR code to access their...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Music is Memory
Stone Temple Pilots’ “Kitchenware & Candybars” comes on, and suddenly I'm 17 again, driving...
3rd Sep 2024
Stone Temple Pilots’ “Kitchenware & Candybars” comes on, and suddenly I'm 17 again, driving underneath the amber glow of late-night deserted streets in Kuala Lumpur. I can feel the sharp air conditioning in the car against my skin, keeping the tropical heat and humidity outside...
The Marginalian
The Moon and the Yew Tree: Patti Smith Reads Sylvia Plath’s Haunting Portrait of Depression
"This is the light of the mind, cold and planetary."
4th Sep 2023
"This is the light of the mind, cold and planetary."
The Elysian
It's obvious why we hate social media
We need better internet platforms. We're already building them.
1st Apr 2026
We need better internet platforms. We're already building them.
Ben Borgers
Every student is cheating with AI
17th Aug 2026
sbensu
How to: friction logs
Friction logs are a technique to improve your own products and understand others. You use the...
12th Dec 2023
Friction logs are a technique to improve your own products and understand others. You use the produdct the way a real user would and write down every single moment you experience some form of negative emotion.
ribbonfarm
Storytelling — Just Add Dinosaurs
In a previous part, I covered the storytelling model of Matthew Dicks, who specializes in live,...
14th Mar 2024
In a previous part, I covered the storytelling model of Matthew Dicks, who specializes in live, spoken-word competitive storytelling from real life. He has a theory of stories I found deeply unsatisfying: That the essence of a story is a moment of character change where the...
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.
The Marginalian
The Universe in Verse Book
"We need science to help us meet reality on its own terms, and we need poetry to help us broaden and...
1st May 2024
"We need science to help us meet reality on its own terms, and we need poetry to help us broaden and deepen the terms on which we meet ourselves and each other. At the crossing point of the two we may find a way of clarifying our experience and of sanctifying it."
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...
Josh Thompson
Change
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Or something like that. Sometimes change is for...
30th Jun 2014
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Or something like that. Sometimes change is for the better, and sometimes its for the worse. I don’t know if there’s always a difference.
Recently, Kristi and I have seen lots of change; I’d say its for the better, but it’s not...
The Elysian
I'm crowdfunding my next book advance
And sharing the earnings with readers.
2nd Mar 2025
And sharing the earnings with readers.
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...
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...
The Marginalian
The Cosmogony of You
We live in a state of perpetual dissociation from the almost unbearable wonder of being alive....
1st Dec 2024
We live in a state of perpetual dissociation from the almost unbearable wonder of being alive. Wonder is always an edge state, its edge so sharp it threatens to rupture the mundane and sever us from what we mistake for reality — the TV, the townhouse, the trauma narrative. If we...
Steven Scrawls
Easy Questions, Part 2: Delusional Desires in Fiction
Easy
Questions, Part 2: Delusional Desires in Fiction
In Part 1, I examined a few
common tropes in...
6th Jun 2024
Easy
Questions, Part 2: Delusional Desires in Fiction
In Part 1, I examined a few
common tropes in stories and suggested that some stories might explore
certain questions not because those questions are interesting, but
because engaging with those questions allows the story to...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Grandstand Grant
This year: more people in photos. And more people in photos in landscapes. Cherish the times with...
19th May 2023
This year: more people in photos. And more people in photos in landscapes. Cherish the times with friends in special places. Here, Grant in Death Valley.
Read on nazhamid.com or Reply via email
ben-mini
IMG_0416
Between 2009 and 2012, Apple iPhones and iPod Touches included a feature called “Send to YouTube”...
3rd Nov 2024
Between 2009 and 2012, Apple iPhones and iPod Touches included a feature called “Send to YouTube” that allowed users to upload videos directly to YouTube from the Photos app.
The feature worked… really well. In fact, YouTube reported a 1700% increase in total video uploads...
Josh Thompson
Blood Flow Restriction with Tyler
old draft, publishing, needs polish.
Me: Sport climber, decade+, of and on a few different times...
16th Feb 2019
old draft, publishing, needs polish.
Me: Sport climber, decade+, of and on a few different times over the years.
Educate myself, train as effectively and safely as I can. I’m 30, and wanna hit some significant climbing goals by 40, and a big part of that is getting stronger,...
Josh Thompson
Practicing with Polylines
This is a first pass at trying to do something interesting (repeatedly) with the same base...
10th Sep 2024
This is a first pass at trying to do something interesting (repeatedly) with the same base primative, in this case, a “polyline”. Read the rest of this post, understand what we’re going for, then go to part 2: get your own polyline from strava. It’s not trivial to get, but its...
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...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Dissocial Media
I've been writing in my real handwritten journal in recent weeks that I've felt the weight of social...
1st Aug 2023
I've been writing in my real handwritten journal in recent weeks that I've felt the weight of social networks. And the manipulation and behavior patterning it's designed to do.
I worked for a softer social network for almost two years and while we weren't as abhorrent as the huge...
Josh Thompson
On Cleaner Controllers
A few days ago, I worked on a project that was mostly about serving up basic store data (modeled...
9th May 2017
A few days ago, I worked on a project that was mostly about serving up basic store data (modeled after Etsy) to an API.
We had a few dozen end-points, and all responses were in JSON.
Most of the action happened inside of our controllers, and as you might imagine, our routes.rb...
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
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...
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...
Blog -...
Book Review - Shots from the Hip
In the fields of Taoism, herbalism, and Chinese culture, Daniel Reid is a
legendary author who has...
18th Jul 2021
In the fields of Taoism, herbalism, and Chinese culture, Daniel Reid is a
legendary author who has written books that have changed the course of
lives. His most recent publication is a two-book memoir entitled Shots from
the Hip, a colourful account of his many exotic...
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...
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...
Josh Thompson
Planned Unit Design Document (work-in-progress)
This is a draft document, meant for circulation, will evolve with time and eventually be something...
1st Oct 2021
This is a draft document, meant for circulation, will evolve with time and eventually be something we bring to the City of Golden for ratification, or whatever needs to happen to get this done in this zone. This document relates to Collateralizing Mortgages and Loans With the...
Steven Scrawls
Supposedly-Deceased Intellectuals Found Living at Resort
‘Small
Village’ of Supposedly-Deceased Intellectuals Found Alive, Thriving at
Caribbean...
8th Aug 2024
‘Small
Village’ of Supposedly-Deceased Intellectuals Found Alive, Thriving at
Caribbean Resort
Gabriel Martinez, a 35-year-old confectioner living in the Cayman
Islands, thought he was posting a simple promotional photo when he
snapped a picture of his ‘cocoa-banana-surprise’ and...
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 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...
Escaping Flatland
Socratic dialogue with kids
I’m simply trying to understand how she thinks. When she answers in a way that does not match my...
7th Dec 2023
I’m simply trying to understand how she thinks. When she answers in a way that does not match my understanding—that is interesting to me.
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Sanding UI
One of the ways I like to do development is to build something, click around a ton, make tweaks,...
3rd Sep 2024
One of the ways I like to do development is to build something, click around a ton, make tweaks, click around more, more tweaks, more clicks, etc., until I finally consider it done.
The clicking around a ton is the important part. If it’s a page transition, that means going back...
Josh Thompson
Ethan Magnass' sermons from Grace Anglican Church in Grove City, PA
I’ve been recommending a collection of sermons to many people recently.
I’ve listened to each of...
14th Dec 2020
I’ve been recommending a collection of sermons to many people recently.
I’ve listened to each of these sermons quite a few times. They’re worth your time.
Ethan Magness is the rector at Grace Anglican Church in Grove City, PA.
Sermon Series on Joseph
Grace Anglican Church podcast...
ben-mini
Making My SQL Skills Obsolete
Quick Update: I updated my domain to ben-mini.com! All old URLs and the RSS feed under...
22nd Dec 2024
Quick Update: I updated my domain to ben-mini.com! All old URLs and the RSS feed under ben-mini.github.io will automatically redirect, so no changes are needed on your end.
By far, the most useful LLM app I’ve made is the Kibu Schema God:
I try not to make my posts too...
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...
the late review
obligatory one month without social media on my phone substack essay (contrarian edition)
it didn't change my life
27th Jul 2026
Josh Thompson
Quotes from 'Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving', by Pete Walker
I’ve found Pete Walker’s Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving to be deeply helpful.
Some of you,...
11th Aug 2022
I’ve found Pete Walker’s Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving to be deeply helpful.
Some of you, many of you, have blessed me and cared for me in kind ways, sometimes with very little knowledge of what was going on, or why I was the way that I was. Thank you. I’ve been...
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.
Blog -...
Book Review - Owning Your Own Shadow
The shadow of the human psyche cannot be overlooked in a thorough
exploration of personal...
16th Jan 2020
The shadow of the human psyche cannot be overlooked in a thorough
exploration of personal development. According to the classic resource
Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche, “The
shadow is that which has not entered adequately into...
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.
Josh Thompson
Change your MAC address with a shell script
For a while, I’ve had notes from Change or Spoof a MAC Address in Windows or OS X saved, so if I am...
18th Dec 2019
For a while, I’ve had notes from Change or Spoof a MAC Address in Windows or OS X saved, so if I am using a wifi connection that limits me to thirty minutes or an hour or whatever, I can “spoof” a new MAC address, and when I re-connect to the wifi, the access point thinks I’m on...
The American Scholar
A Messy Mix
The post A Messy Mix appeared first on The American Scholar.
1st May 2024
The post A Messy Mix appeared first on The American Scholar.
Astral Codex Ten
Meetups Everywhere Spring 2026: Times & Places
...
1st Apr 2026
Salish Wolf
#94 Jay St. Charles on Project Quiver
Jay St. Charles is a legendary bowyer based in Fall City, Washington. While
he was born into the...
a week ago
Jay St. Charles is a legendary bowyer based in Fall City, Washington. While
he was born into the world of archery and grew up in his father’s archery
shop, Jay eventually became a master bowyer, carving bows under the brand
of Pacific Yew Longbows. He lives on a small...
Josh Thompson
June trip to the New River Gorge
The New River Gorge had beautiful weather this weekend. The forecast for the weekend was, until...
3rd Jul 2013
The New River Gorge had beautiful weather this weekend. The forecast for the weekend was, until Friday, near-certain thunderstorms.
Typical of the New, the weather proved unpredictable, and we had glorious sun the entire trip.
I was eager to get out to the New, since my last...
Naz Hamid • Journal
Write Like a Human
Collaborative writing is rewarding.
In the past few months, I’ve been writing a lot. Not as much...
13th Jul 2026
Collaborative writing is rewarding.
In the past few months, I’ve been writing a lot. Not as much here, but for Aphera. Between our newsletter, blog, direct email feedback, and social media networks, I might spin up a draft and then bounce it off Ryan and Juan, or we volley it...
Josh Thompson
A Runbook for Upgrading Your Parent's Junky Old Laptop to a Chromebook
tl;dr: I’m creating a runbook for a very specific, delicate, and potentially time-consuming and...
20th Jul 2020
tl;dr: I’m creating a runbook for a very specific, delicate, and potentially time-consuming and emotionally-charged operation to replace my 70-year-old newly-widowed mother-in-law's ancient desktop computer with a easy-for-me-to-manage Chromebook
Update: I posted to r/ChromeOS...
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....
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.
Ploum.net
Pas de médaille pour les résistants
Pas de médaille pour les résistants
Si vous voulez changer le monde, il faut entrer en résistance....
26th Aug 2025
Pas de médaille pour les résistants
Si vous voulez changer le monde, il faut entrer en résistance. Il faut accepter d’agir et de se taire. Il faut accepter de perdre du confort, des opportunités, des relations. Et il ne faut espérer aucune récompense, aucune reconnaissance.
Un...
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.
Josh Thompson
Let Me Fix [some of] Your Parking Problems
Hi there! I’m Josh, and I’m your local neighborhood advocate for overlooked spaces.
Today, we’ll be...
14th Jul 2023
Hi there! I’m Josh, and I’m your local neighborhood advocate for overlooked spaces.
Today, we’ll be focusing on parking lots.
Your parking lot has a job to do, and every day, every night, rain or shine, hot or cold, clear, rainy, or snowy, your parking lot does the best it can at...
the late review
reclaiming the wälsungs
part of a body of work on Wagner's Ring cycle
14th Dec 2024
part of a body of work on Wagner's Ring cycle
Ben Borgers
Coding agents write 90% of my code now
18th Dec 2025
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
HTTParty and to_json
I was having some trouble debugging an HTTParty POST request.
A few tools that were useful to...
12th Mar 2019
I was having some trouble debugging an HTTParty POST request.
A few tools that were useful to me:
post DEBUG info to STDOUT
netcat to listen to HTTP requests locally
I had this code:
options = {
headers: {
"Content-Type": "application/json",
authorization: "Bearer...
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...
Idle Words
Why Not Mars
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot...
1st Jan 2023
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
— Richard Feynman
Entrance to underground cavern on Pavonis Mons. HiRISE, 2011
The goal of this essay is to persuade you that we shouldn’t send human...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ The Work Is Never Done
I went for a run. I’ve been running consistently for over a year and a half now. It’s a panacea for...
7th Nov 2024
I went for a run. I’ve been running consistently for over a year and a half now. It’s a panacea for me. I run outside. I like to feel the cool wind on my skin, my pores open and sweating, the legs rhythmically turning over in pursuit of flow.
In the beginning, I kept my head...
Ben Borgers
Trip to Germany, spring 2024
26th May 2024
Josh Thompson
I Once Worked Hard
When I began working at my first job out of college, I knew I didn’t want to spend my whole career...
12th Apr 2013
When I began working at my first job out of college, I knew I didn’t want to spend my whole career there. I was a college graduate (that means something, right?) working at a climbing gym, part time, teaching seven-year-olds how to climb at about $10 an hour.
I had no idea what I...
Ploum.net
Offpunk 3.0 "A Community is Born" Release
Offpunk 3.0 "A Community is Born" Release
For the last four years, I’ve been developing Offpunk, a...
9th Feb 2026
Offpunk 3.0 "A Community is Born" Release
For the last four years, I’ve been developing Offpunk, a command-line Web, Gemini, and Gopher browser that allows you to work offline. And I’ve just released version 3.0. It is probably not for everyone, but I use it every single day. I...
the late review
my enemy, the leitmotif
a missive
28th Jan 2026
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Music That Got Me Through 2020
As time goes on, I've learned something about myself: I'm now that person — that old fogey — that...
1st Feb 2021
As time goes on, I've learned something about myself: I'm now that person — that old fogey — that mumbles under their breath about the old days when music was real. That said, there are plenty of good artists (even great artists) making meaningful music today. I just have to...
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...
Ploum.net
Ne venez pas dire que vous n’étiez pas prévenus…
Ne venez pas dire que vous n’étiez pas prévenus…
…c’est juste que vous pensiez ne pas être...
20th Jan 2025
Ne venez pas dire que vous n’étiez pas prévenus…
…c’est juste que vous pensiez ne pas être concernés
Depuis des décennies, je fais partie de ces gens qui tentent d’alerter sur les terrifiantes possibilités qu’offre l’aveuglement technologique dans lequel nous sommes plongés.
Je...
Ploum.net
Un manifeste Offpunk
Un manifeste Offpunk
Ce texte est une traduction en français du Offpunk Manifesto rédigé par Arlon...
3rd Aug 2026
Un manifeste Offpunk
Ce texte est une traduction en français du Offpunk Manifesto rédigé par Arlon de Serra Grande et que j’ai co-signé
An Offpunk Manifesto (English version)
Versão em português
La révolution ne sera pas numérique
Alors que l’hyperconnexion apparait comme le...
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.
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RODEN] Hark, a Book Appears!
Roden Readers —
Howdy! From the sky! En route to NYC! I’m Craig Mod and this is Roden, a newsletter...
2nd May 2025
Roden Readers —
Howdy! From the sky! En route to NYC! I’m Craig Mod and this is Roden, a newsletter sent via magic tubes.
Since returning from Spain I’ve been in full-bore April Pod Mode, recording a dozen+ interviews and working on a bunch of essays for various publications in...
Josh Thompson
Upgrade your job
So, apparently I send a lot of email about people trying to get cool jobs. Here’s yet
another email...
30th Oct 2015
So, apparently I send a lot of email about people trying to get cool jobs. Here’s yet
another email I sent to a friend, recorded here.
Hi [redacted],
First I want to highlight is that flexible/remote jobs are
just like normal jobs, but more people want them, so the companies...
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...
This Space
Blood Knowledge by Kirsty Gunn
"A novel is a kind of lazy way of writing a short story, a short story a lazy way of writing a poem"...
29th Nov 2024
"A novel is a kind of lazy way of writing a short story, a short story a lazy way of writing a poem" said Muriel Spark, adding by explanation: "The longer they become, the more they seem to lose value". We might wonder then if the most value is to be found in the shortest novels,...
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."
Anecdotal Evidence
'My Mind Was Not Free From Perturbation'
Dr. Johnson writes in his
diary on January 1, 1774: “This year has past with so little improvement,...
1st Jan 2026
Dr. Johnson writes in his
diary on January 1, 1774: “This year has past with so little improvement, that
I doubt whether I have not [rather] impaired than encreased my Learning.”
It’s customary, of course,
to make resolutions this time of year -- to lose weight or stop drinking...
Josh Thompson
Circles of Influence
I was listening to a podcast today, where they said if you have problems knowing what to write...
5th Mar 2016
I was listening to a podcast today, where they said if you have problems knowing what to write about, or you’ve hit a block, write about something that angers you.
This is easy. I could write about any number of things that we’ve all read in a newspaper, and get good and angry...
Josh Thompson
Pry Tips and Tricks
the following is cross-posted from development.wombatsecurity.com. I wrote about some handy extra...
7th May 2018
the following is cross-posted from development.wombatsecurity.com. I wrote about some handy extra features I’ve found using Pry much of my day.
I joined the Wombat team a few months ago, and have been working on the threatsim product. We had a bit of a bug backlog, and myself and...
Anecdotal Evidence
'Influential Works That Are Almost Never Read'
John Ruskin would have a
difficult time of it in what passes for literary culture today. First, he...
20th Jan 2025
John Ruskin would have a
difficult time of it in what passes for literary culture today. First, he was
phenomenally prolific, even by Victorian standards, and how many people would
read all five volumes of Modern Painters or the idea-rich sprawl of Fors Clavigera?
Second, Ruskin...
Josh Thompson
Structural Holes and Good Ideas
Note from author: This is part of an experimental series, more-or-less based on “white papers” and...
18th Mar 2021
Note from author: This is part of an experimental series, more-or-less based on “white papers” and academic literature, as applied to somewhat practical-ish domains.
These pages serve as a brief overview of a paper, and I’ll be able to link to this paper down the road when I what...
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.
sbensu
Notes on UX and LLM integrations
I analyze 8 apps (ChatGPT, Notion, Perplexity, etc.) that use or integrate LLM and try to break down...
1st Jan 2024
I analyze 8 apps (ChatGPT, Notion, Perplexity, etc.) that use or integrate LLM and try to break down when and why they work well, or poorly.
Ben Borgers
Don’t standardize your company’s coding agents yet
10th Nov 2025
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...
ribbonfarm
Imagination vs. Creativity
I like to make a distinction between imagination and creativity that you may or may not agree with....
14th Jul 2024
I like to make a distinction between imagination and creativity that you may or may not agree with. Imagination is the ability to see known possibilities as being reachable from a situation. Creativity is the ability to manufacture new possibilities out of a situation. The two...
Anecdotal Evidence
'In Those Old Marshes Yet the Rifles Lie'
“But before he could
install himself in his Oxford college, Britain declared war on the...
1st Nov 2025
“But before he could
install himself in his Oxford college, Britain declared war on the Central
Powers, and soon this quiet young poet and literary scholar found himself commissioned
in the Royal Sussex Regiment, where his shyness won him the nickname Bunny but
his bravery won...
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...
sbensu
Lieutenants are the limiting reagent
Why don't software companies ship more products? Why do they move more slowly as they grow? What do...
25th Sep 2023
Why don't software companies ship more products? Why do they move more slowly as they grow? What do we mean when we say "this company lacks focus"?
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...
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...
the late review
whatever it takes
on monomania
17th Feb 2026
Escaping Flatland
How I write essays
Notes on process
4th Dec 2024
sbensu
Love's Executioner (book)
Countertransference applies to regular conversation.
1st Dec 2024
Countertransference applies to regular conversation.
ribbonfarm
Bangalore Meetup Report
Did a ribbonfarm meetup in Bangalore last night, the first ever in India. Thanks to Abhishek Agarwal...
6th Jun 2024
Did a ribbonfarm meetup in Bangalore last night, the first ever in India. Thanks to Abhishek Agarwal for organizing. I think this is the first meetup I’ve done since the last Refactor Camp in 2019. It was kinda last minute, which is why I only posted on Substack rather than here...
the late review
some thoughts on siegfried
a very normal essay somewhat about wagner's ring cycle
3rd Jan 2025
a very normal essay somewhat about wagner's ring cycle
Astral Codex Ten
Chip Off The Old Block
...
1st Jul 2026
Josh Thompson
How I take notes, AKA 'Add an Index to Your Notebook'
A while back, sometime in 2017, I wrote this tweet:
a while ago, I read about how to keep...
4th Sep 2019
A while back, sometime in 2017, I wrote this tweet:
a while ago, I read about how to keep well-organized notes on a range of topics. Here's my current notebook, indexed by category: pic.twitter.com/aVsNnGPEpd
— Josh Thompson (@josh_works) May 8, 2017
Since then, I occasionally...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Notes at 45
As I sit squarely in my mid-40s, I’ve gained valuable perspectives, learnings, and understandings....
12th Apr 2023
As I sit squarely in my mid-40s, I’ve gained valuable perspectives, learnings, and understandings. Here are some of them:
People > things. In our current society, the deepening pit of materialism, capitalism, and an insatiable desire for more has become all-consuming. However,...
The Marginalian
The Sunflower and the Soul: Wendell Berry on the Collaborative Nature of the Universe and the Cure...
"We are not the authors of ourselves. That we are not is a religious perception, but it is also a...
1st Jul 2024
"We are not the authors of ourselves. That we are not is a religious perception, but it is also a biological and a social one. Each of us has had many authors, and each of us is engaged, for better or worse, in that same authorship. We could say that the human race is a great...
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...
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...
Josh Thompson
Limitations of My Own Thinking
I sometimes make recommendations, or at least recount a story that has “actionable insights”....
5th Nov 2015
I sometimes make recommendations, or at least recount a story that has “actionable insights”. Anytime this happens, I start tripping over myself with warnings and qualifying statements.
Here’s what would happen:
I would make a recommendation (“start a side project to help get a...
Josh Thompson
Three Ways to Decide What to be When You Grow Up
Recently, I have had to explain to people what is it that I want to do. This question is difficult...
20th Dec 2012
Recently, I have had to explain to people what is it that I want to do. This question is difficult to answer for two reasons. The first reason is I am not yet strongly pulled into a specific position. My ideal answer would be “I want to do X role at company Y.” Short. Concise....
ben-mini
The Inner Game of Tennis
I just finished reading The Inner Game of Tennis by Tim Gallwey. Originally published in 1974, the...
12th Oct 2024
I just finished reading The Inner Game of Tennis by Tim Gallwey. Originally published in 1974, the book explores how the thoughts of an athlete affect their game. It’s lauded as being at the forefront of what we now call “sports psychology”. Although my competitive sports days...
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...
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...
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!
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...
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...
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...
Wuthering...
What I Read in February 2026 – Mouek mouek mouek… Ma-a-a-a… Ma-aa-a… said Saha
I am almost on my way to London. Some Shakespearian and Not Shakespearian
activities are on the...
1st Mar 2026
I am almost on my way to London. Some Shakespearian and Not Shakespearian
activities are on the schedule.
My reading, before this trip, was again very British.
THE WAR OF THE POETS
Antonio and Mellida (1599?) &
Antonio's Revenge (1600?), John Marston – A remarkable
pair of...
Astral Codex Ten
Nicholas Decker In Hell
...
2 weeks ago
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.
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...
This Space
Reading, forgetting
When John Updike read À la recherche du temps perdu after having read Scott-Moncrieff's translation,...
10th Sep 2025
When John Updike read À la recherche du temps perdu after having read Scott-Moncrieff's translation, he was surprised to find Proust less Proustian, the epithet we associate with flowery prose blossoming over prodigious sentences proliferating clause within clause. While I cannot...
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.”...
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."
ben-mini
Commoditize Your Complements
To the man who coined the phrase, “nothing in life is free”… have you been on GitHub...
16th Aug 2024
To the man who coined the phrase, “nothing in life is free”… have you been on GitHub lately?
Open-source is software that anyone can freely view, use, modify, and share because its code is publicly available on sites like Github and Huggingface. My last coding project alone was...
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.
Anecdotal Evidence
'Leaves Must Be Green in Spring'
The Battle of Malvern Hill
was fought near Richmond, Va., the capital of the Confederacy, on July 1,...
1st Jul 2026
The Battle of Malvern Hill
was fought near Richmond, Va., the capital of the Confederacy, on July 1, 1862.
Not as well remembered as Antietam or Gettysburg, it was the last of the Seven
Days Battles in the Peninsula Campaign, and prompted Confederate General Daniel
H. Hill to...
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.
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."
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
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...
This Space
The intimate outside
When this post from Max Cairnduff appeared I had been reading Heidegger's lectures on Hölderlin's...
31st Jan 2026
When this post from Max Cairnduff appeared I had been reading Heidegger's lectures on Hölderlin's poetry and books and essays studying Heidegger's lectures on Hölderlin's poetry in a bid, however incongruous, to articulate an experience unique to reading novels, so I was...
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...
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...
Steven Scrawls
Space to Play
Space to Play
I remember childhood as the slow advance of a great laboring
Seriousness. When I was...
26th Feb 2025
Space to Play
I remember childhood as the slow advance of a great laboring
Seriousness. When I was in middle school, an awareness began to settle
on me that great beings known as “colleges” watched from afar; by high
school I understood that I ought to order my life to be...
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...
Ploum.net
De la décadence technologique et des luddites technophiles
De la décadence technologique et des luddites technophiles
La valeur de texte brut
Thierry s’essaie...
6th Feb 2025
De la décadence technologique et des luddites technophiles
La valeur de texte brut
Thierry s’essaie à publier son blog sur le réseau Gemini, mais a du mal avec le format minimaliste. Qui est justement pour moi la meilleure partie du protocole Gemini.
La low-tech peut-elle...
The Elysian
Social Development > Self-Development
We need one much more than the other.
1st Jan 2025
We need one much more than the other.
The American Scholar
The Stolen Lines
The post The Stolen Lines appeared first on The American Scholar.
1st Sep 2025
The post The Stolen Lines appeared first on The American Scholar.
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...
Josh Thompson
`ls` command to show directory contents
I like to use the tree command on my local machine when trying to peek into the structure and...
3rd Oct 2018
I like to use the tree command on my local machine when trying to peek into the structure and contents of a given directory.
tree -L 2
will [L]ist recursively everything [2] levels deep from your current directory. The output is nicely formatted like this:
> tree -L 2
.
├──...
sbensu
Hiring from Big Tech
Some brief notes about the subject
30th Mar 2024
Some brief notes about the subject
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...
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 Elysian
Creating a global safety net without nation-states
A Guest Lecture featuring Sondre Rasch, co-founder and CEO of SafetyWing.
3rd Jun 2025
A Guest Lecture featuring Sondre Rasch, co-founder and CEO of SafetyWing.
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...
Ben Borgers
New in Superadmin: styling, images, rich text
23rd Nov 2022
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...
Naz Hamid • Journal
Modus Operandi
My operating rules and way of living.
This is a m.o. (mo) page, or modus operandi page. It lists out...
14th Apr 2025
My operating rules and way of living.
This is a m.o. (mo) page, or modus operandi page. It lists out the way I approach my life and the rules I apply to it to thrive. This is a living document and will be added to as more comes to mind, or as I develop new ones.
It is mirrored at...
The Elysian
We’ve raised $50,000—now I’m writing a book!
My vision for the future of capitalism has been greenlit. Now let’s make it a reality.
5th May 2025
My vision for the future of capitalism has been greenlit. Now let’s make it a reality.
Astral Codex Ten
Book Review: The Rise Of Christianity
...
12th Nov 2024
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ To Comprehend
To stand in a landscape that is hard to comprehend is to know that not all that should be celebrated...
14th Jul 2023
To stand in a landscape that is hard to comprehend is to know that not all that should be celebrated is human-made. To understand that to get here, it took hundreds, thousands, millions of denominations of time to render this environment is a lesson in a slow life that we’ve...
Escaping Flatland
Modular life, meaningful work
Highlights from the cutting room floor, pt. 3
5th Feb 2025
Highlights from the cutting room floor, pt. 3
Wuthering...
What I Read in December 2025 – We ain’t gonna eat that.
I am not so interested in writing a longer summary of my
year in reading, so I will put that...
12th Jan 2026
I am not so interested in writing a longer summary of my
year in reading, so I will put that here.
Finishing the massive The Story of the Stone and reading the
monstrous Finnegans Wake (here, continuing, ending) were solid
accomplishments in reading, if there are such things. ...
Ben Borgers
Make sure your university events are actually interesting
1st Mar 2025
Ploum.net
How I fought my smartphone addiction
How I fought my smartphone addiction
In a poignant Gemini post, Kevin Boone wrote about his anxiety...
13th Mar 2026
How I fought my smartphone addiction
In a poignant Gemini post, Kevin Boone wrote about his anxiety to go out of his house without his phone. (This is the Gemini protocol, totally unrelated to the Google chatbot.)
Phone anxiety (larsthebear.me)
Web version of the former
Around...
Wuthering...
What I Read in June 2025 - A life of agony was all for naught.
My summer plan was to read, short, easy books, and I almost
succeeded. I read short, difficult...
3rd Jul 2025
My summer plan was to read, short, easy books, and I almost
succeeded. I read short, difficult books
in French, and accidentally read several grim, sad, violent books, alongside some
playful nonsense.
FICTION
The Field of Life and Death (1935), Xiao Hong – For example. Ninety...
The Perry Bible...
Bubbled
The post Bubbled appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
1st Mar 2025
The post Bubbled appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
the late review
the gallery of maladies
on long covid, hypochondria, and the forums
6th Nov 2025
on long covid, hypochondria, and the forums
This Space
No safe landing
A review of A Winter in Zürau and Partita by Gabriel Josipovici
Gabriel Josipovici has said that...
5th Oct 2024
A review of A Winter in Zürau and Partita by Gabriel Josipovici
Gabriel Josipovici has said that as a critic he is conservative but as a novelist he is radical. The second claim may not be controversial but the first will come as a surprise to those who remember what he said...
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 +...
[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 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."
Naz Hamid — Journal...
🔗 Substack is at it again
There is no such thing as a perfect place on the internet. But it’s possible to avoid the ones that...
3rd Jan 2025
There is no such thing as a perfect place on the internet. But it’s possible to avoid the ones that aren’t even pretending to try to be better. The best time to leave Substack was a long time ago. The second best time is now.
— Marisa Kabas
Visit original link → or View on...
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
Issues related to the city of Golden
While I was biking around recently, I saw notes about an upcoming neighborhood meeting about some...
26th Jul 2021
While I was biking around recently, I saw notes about an upcoming neighborhood meeting about some rezoning, a big lot in downtown Golden.
I went to the meeting (Thursday, July 22) and learned a lot.
Here’s the lot in question:
I have ridden my bike past this property hundreds of...
Josh Thompson
Denver Botanic Gardens - What, How, Why
I recently got access to a delightful amenity, based on where I live. I’ve been sharing it with...
2nd Jun 2024
I recently got access to a delightful amenity, based on where I live. I’ve been sharing it with others as quickly as possible, because they too have access to it.
From here on out, when I reference “botanic gardens” or “the gardens”, I’m referencing the Denver Botanic Gardens,...
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...
Josh Thompson
Dizzying but Invisible Depth
The following is from https://plus.google.com/+JeanBaptisteQueru/posts/dfydM2Cnepe, but Google+ is...
16th Jan 2021
The following is from https://plus.google.com/+JeanBaptisteQueru/posts/dfydM2Cnepe, but Google+ is shutdown, so it’s not easily sharable. I’m reposting here because this is such a useful post.
Dizzying but invisible depth
You just went to the Google home page.
Simple, isn’t...
ben-mini
Modality Switching Online
I hate it when my dad leaves me a voicemail. Whenever I open my phone and see the pending voicemail,...
8th Jun 2024
I hate it when my dad leaves me a voicemail. Whenever I open my phone and see the pending voicemail, I roll my eyes. He tends to meander. My dad’s messages can range from 40 seconds to 2 minutes. He typically wants to inform me of something, like an upcoming family event or an...
Idle Words
The Lunacy of Artemis
In August 2020, the New York Times asked me to write an op-ed for a special feature on...
19th May 2024
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.
A little over 51 years ago, a rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying three...
Naz Hamid • Journal
Have the Coffee
Carve space out for opportunity.
After speaking in Kuala Lumpur last week, people stayed to discuss...
9th Sep 2025
Carve space out for opportunity.
After speaking in Kuala Lumpur last week, people stayed to discuss the topics we’d covered, forming a small group.
Building community was a weighty topic during the event, with myself, host Shaza Hakim, and many attendees speaking to it. In this...
The Elysian
My TEDx talk about the future of fiction
And publishing.
16th Jun 2024
Josh Thompson
Mythical Creatures: Refactoring wizard.rb
Preparing for Turing Series Index
What follows is an eight-part series that will help you pick up...
25th Jan 2020
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...
Wuthering...
Kawabata's The Sound of the Mountain - He began to feel that there was some sort of special little...
Dolce Bellezza hosted her 19th Japanese Literature Challenge
last month. Once I have written...
7th Feb 2026
Dolce Bellezza hosted her 19th Japanese Literature Challenge
last month. Once I have written this
post it will be the 54th book in this year’s event. Amazing.
The book is Yasunari Kawabata’s The Sound of the Mountain
(1954, serialized 1949-54). The sound of
the mountain is a...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Follow vs. Block
In the beginning, you followed someone to see their content in your feed.
Now, you block someone to...
2nd Jan 2024
In the beginning, you followed someone to see their content in your feed.
Now, you block someone to remove them from your feed.
That’s the price of an endless algorithmic feed designed to keep you in-app or on-platform, entertained, and eventually (if not already) monetized.
A...
Josh Thompson
October 2016 Review
October 2016 Review
This month’s review. In another few days I’ll post the goals for November.
I...
1st Nov 2016
October 2016 Review
This month’s review. In another few days I’ll post the goals for November.
I had
three goals for October, as of about 12 days ago:
October goals:
Programming
I wanted to finish a certain Rails Tutorial, and move on to the next one. This project I made zero...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Ernie Is Our Co-Pilot
Hello. You’re receiving this long-dormant-now-re-reawakaned newsletter because at some point in the...
25th Sep 2021
Hello. You’re receiving this long-dormant-now-re-reawakaned newsletter because at some point in the past you subscribed. (Thank you, by the way.) Back then, I was writing about some nexus of travels abroad, personal or professional news, and technology-ish topics.
There are some...
Robert Caro
Anatomy of a $9 Burglary
“Anatomy of a $9 Burglary” is among Caro’s best early writing. When police arrested a criminal, all...
1st Apr 2023
“Anatomy of a $9 Burglary” is among Caro’s best early writing. When police arrested a criminal, all signs indicated a simple case of burglar
Josh Thompson
Isometric Deadlift Holds (for Climbing!)
alternative titles: yielding isometric mid-thigh pin pulls, isometric deadlift 'holds' for fun and...
3rd Apr 2025
alternative titles: yielding isometric mid-thigh pin pulls, isometric deadlift 'holds' for fun and climbing
Introduction
A few months ago, I began some barefoot sprints up a hill at a local park, and discussed also adding heavy kettlebell swings.
My back started feeling great,...
This Space
A mighty contagious absence, part two
On submission and resistance to AI-generated literature
To great writers, finished works weigh...
26th May 2025
On submission and resistance to AI-generated literature
To great writers, finished works weigh lighter than those fragments on which they work throughout their lives. For only the more feeble and distracted take an inimitable pleasure in conclusions, feeling themselves...
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.
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...
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.
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 →
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.
The Marginalian
William James on Love
"If it comes, it comes; if it does not come, no process of reasoning can force it. Yet it transforms...
3rd Apr 2024
"If it comes, it comes; if it does not come, no process of reasoning can force it. Yet it transforms the value of the creature loved."
The Marginalian
Youth and Age: Kahlil Gibran on the Art of Becoming
A roadmap to the fulfilled belonging on the other side of "the great aloneness which knows not what...
4th Apr 2023
A roadmap to the fulfilled belonging on the other side of "the great aloneness which knows not what is far and what is near, nor what is small nor great."
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ This Is What We Have To Lose
Yesterday felt defeating with the damning report that our climate has indeed moved unfortunately...
10th Aug 2021
Yesterday felt defeating with the damning report that our climate has indeed moved unfortunately forward into severity and decline. It’s too late for some aspects but not too late to avoid some of the worst aspects.
The fires, the smoke, and the record-high temperatures that...
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