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...
Ploum.net
Is Pixelfed sawing off the branch that the Fediverse is sitting on?
Is Pixelfed sawing off the branch that the Fediverse is sitting on?
In January 2025, I became aware...
4th Dec 2025
Is Pixelfed sawing off the branch that the Fediverse is sitting on?
In January 2025, I became aware that there was a real problem with Pixelfed, the "Instagram inspired Fediverse client". The problem is threatening the whole Fediverse. As Pixelfed received a lot of media...
Josh Thompson
Gratitude 3x/day
Earlier this year, I read
The Miracle Morning, which promises (paraphrasing here):
If you do these...
1st Jun 2016
Earlier this year, I read
The Miracle Morning, which promises (paraphrasing here):
If you do these seven things every morning you’ll be the most amazing person you’ve ever met.
OK, it’s not exactly that bold, but it’s not far off. It wasn’t a terrible book, it had lots of good...
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...
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
a week ago
If something feels wrong, it is useful to articulate very precisely why that is
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.
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!
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Threaded
I penned a Thot(?!), or rather, a post on Threads, the Twitter clone that Meta released some time...
5th Nov 2023
I penned a Thot(?!), or rather, a post on Threads, the Twitter clone that Meta released some time ago. I don’t find it particularly useful, as my Twitter usage had declined long ago.
Anyway, the post (and accompanying photo):
“When I contemplate the idea of relocating, it’s 70°...
The Elysian
Is America about to fall? Or flourish?
That depends on us.
4th Nov 2024
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...
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...
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."
Anecdotal Evidence
'On the Plains of Poland'
On August 23, 1939, Hitler
and Stalin agreed to the secret non-aggression Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact....
2 weeks ago
On August 23, 1939, Hitler
and Stalin agreed to the secret non-aggression Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Germans
invaded Poland from the west nine days later, on September 1, 1939. On
September 17, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. The battle was over,
Poland subdued, by...
Escaping Flatland
Ethos and imagination
Milk Drop Coronet, an ultra-high-speed photograph of the splash of a drop of milk, Harold Edgerton,...
4th Nov 2024
Milk Drop Coronet, an ultra-high-speed photograph of the splash of a drop of milk, Harold Edgerton, 1957
the late review
whatever it takes
on monomania
17th Feb 2026
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,...
The American Scholar
Good Vibrations
One eccentric’s desert landmark allows visitors to bathe in sound
The post Good Vibrations appeared...
15th Apr 2024
One eccentric’s desert landmark allows visitors to bathe in sound
The post Good Vibrations appeared first on The American Scholar.
Josh Thompson
A Junction Efficiency Metric: Vehicles Per Square Meter Per Minute
still sorta drafty, but also its entirely possible the point is easily apprehended, and I’m way...
13th Sep 2025
still sorta drafty, but also its entirely possible the point is easily apprehended, and I’m way over-explaining
Introduction
Elsewhere, I’ve been referring to a ‘vehicles per square meter per minute’ calculation, when talking about junctions on mobility networks. The first place...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Now Reopen for Business
California re-opened on Tuesday and literally overnight, it feels like everything changed. And it...
17th Jun 2021
California re-opened on Tuesday and literally overnight, it feels like everything changed. And it has. The streets are busy again, clear voices can be heard all over, and people are emerging from their cocoons at their pace.
It feels like whiplash: going from riding with one...
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...
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...
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...
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"?
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...
sbensu
Language thought-orientation
You can tell a lot from somebody based on their speech patterns
27th Jan 2025
You can tell a lot from somebody based on their speech patterns
Naz Hamid • Journal
Fade to Blue
Redesigning as a method of interrogation.
Okay, okay, okay. I did it again.
Sometimes you design a...
24th Jun 2026
Redesigning as a method of interrogation.
Okay, okay, okay. I did it again.
Sometimes you design a thing, or redesign it, or evolve it, and you think you're there. But this unsettling feeling sinks in, and you think: “I’m not happy with this. What’s the problem?”
Friggin'...
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.
ben-mini
Nucleus Nouns
Consider the “nouns” the live inside an app of your choice:
You can spend hours building a list for...
10th Apr 2026
Consider the “nouns” the live inside an app of your choice:
You can spend hours building a list for just one app. But the more interesting exercise is weighting the nouns by impact in the app- considering which ones have the most “gravity” from the eyes of the user:
You quickly...
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...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] The Walk and Talk, Nagano Kiso-ji
Ridgeline subscribers —
I’ll die on my dumb hill, the one where I say: the best time to visit and...
17th Dec 2025
Ridgeline subscribers —
I’ll die on my dumb hill, the one where I say: the best time to visit and walk (most) of Japan is the end of November and the start of December. I think a lot of folks have a kind of North Eastern American mentality, where by the time December hits New...
The Elysian
Please come up with wildly speculative futures
Inside my writing philosophy.
1st Apr 2024
Inside my writing philosophy.
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...
Robert Caro
‘The Power Broker’ Is Finally Getting a Digital Edition. What Took So Long?
Caro’s mammoth study of the urban planner Robert Moses is coming out as an e-book on the 50th...
25th Mar 2025
Caro’s mammoth study of the urban planner Robert Moses is coming out as an e-book on the 50th anniversary of the biography’s publication.
Anecdotal Evidence
'Poor Naked Wretches, Whereso’er You Are'
Aleksander Wat (1900-67)
was a Polish poet and one-time Communist hounded and imprisoned by Nazis...
1st May 2025
Aleksander Wat (1900-67)
was a Polish poet and one-time Communist hounded and imprisoned by Nazis and
Soviets alike. In 1964 while visiting California, he recorded lengthy
conversations with fellow poet and Pole Czesław Miłosz. The transcripts were
translated by Richard Lourie...
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...
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
Escaping Flatland
On having more interesting ideas, pt. 2
Cutlery designed by Salvador Dalí
11th Aug 2026
Cutlery designed by Salvador Dalí
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...
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...
ben-mini
Claude is kicking ChatGPT’s butt (in one thing)
Back in high school, I remember receiving an email for a study guide from a friend. Instead of the...
15th Jul 2025
Back in high school, I remember receiving an email for a study guide from a friend. Instead of the PDF coming attached, it was a link to a site called Dropbox.
Upon opening the file, you create an account. From there you’re introduced to a feature stack that went well beyond any...
Josh Thompson
Growing in your first software development job
I started my first software developer role a year ago. (November 2017)
This is tremendously...
28th Nov 2018
I started my first software developer role a year ago. (November 2017)
This is tremendously exciting, of course, but introduces its own set of challenges, like:
I finished Turing and I’ve got a job! Oh snap. I just finished a grueling program, and my reward is I’m fit to sit at...
ribbonfarm
History is More Like Science Fiction Than Fantasy
I’ve been slow-reading Bettany Hughes’ Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities for months now, ever since I...
2nd Apr 2024
I’ve been slow-reading Bettany Hughes’ Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities for months now, ever since I visited the city (on Kindle, so I didn’t realize when I started that it’s 600 pages plus another 250 odd notes). It’s dense and absorbing and I’ll probably do a reflections post...
Anecdotal Evidence
'The Things Which Make a Life of Ease'
R.L. Barth, our finest living
epigrammist (admittedly, not a vast job description), has sent me
his...
1st Jun 2025
R.L. Barth, our finest living
epigrammist (admittedly, not a vast job description), has sent me
his translation of a well-known epigram by Martial, the Roman master of the pithy
form. Bob found it among his papers and doesn’t remember making it. “[T]ranslating
something [Ben]...
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...
Idle Words
Effective Political Giving
With less than two months left before the election, this is an explainer for the politically...
3rd Sep 2020
With less than two months left before the election, this is an explainer for the politically panicked. You're anxious, you feel the need to do something, and you have a little money to spare. Who should you give it to?
My goal here is not to sell you on specific candidates...
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...
Ben Borgers
The morning of graduation
21st May 2025
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...
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
Wuthering...
What I Read in August 2026 – what he hopes to gain from all this knowledge
Now and again, Geiser finds himself wondering what he really
wants to know, what he hopes to gain...
2 weeks ago
Now and again, Geiser finds himself wondering what he really
wants to know, what he hopes to gain from all this knowledge. (Man in the Holocene, Max Frisch, tr. Geoffrey
Skelton, p. 90)
An uncomfortable sentence there.
A reminder that I will return to non-Shakespeare plays...
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...
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...
Josh Thompson
Redefining Success
It’s been pretty quiet around here lately. It’s been almost a month since my last entry. I thought...
6th Nov 2013
It’s been pretty quiet around here lately. It’s been almost a month since my last entry. I thought about writing something here almost every day, but here is why I didn’t:
I want to produce “content” that is helpful and relevant to those who might read it.
I felt like nothing I...
Josh Thompson
On Friction
warning. self-indulgeant diatribe coming. I generally try to avoid these, but it’s my website, and I...
20th Dec 2017
warning. self-indulgeant diatribe coming. I generally try to avoid these, but it’s my website, and I can write what I want.
We’re rapidly approaching the end of the year, and I’ve got a few dozen ideas rolling around my head that I want to solidify my thoughts on.
One of the...
ben-mini
Platform or Point Solution?
A while back, I wrote a post titled “What is a Platform?”. I defined what a platform is and why tech...
8th Mar 2025
A while back, I wrote a post titled “What is a Platform?”. I defined what a platform is and why tech companies are so determined to become labeled as one. My definition of a platform is a tool that allows users to define and build their own things, which can be used by other...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] A Few London Strolls
Ridgeline subscribers —
For the last ten days I’ve been walking around London. Mostly in a little...
a week ago
Ridgeline subscribers —
For the last ten days I’ve been walking around London. Mostly in a little corner of it in the northeast part of the city. But can you even call a part a “corner” when the city extends in every direction without stopping? Whatever you call it, I’ve been in...
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...
The Marginalian
Carl Linnaeus’s Flower Clock
“The eternal problem of the human being is how to structure his waking hours,” the Canadian...
2nd Apr 2025
“The eternal problem of the human being is how to structure his waking hours,” the Canadian psychiatrist Eric Berne observed in his 1964 classic Games People Play. Four centuries earlier, Galileo had both combated and complicated the problem by inventing timekeeping and with it,...
Escaping Flatland
The world reveals itself to those who travel by foot
Nothing was as scary as we thought, and everything was weirder and more friendly.
6th May 2026
Nothing was as scary as we thought, and everything was weirder and more friendly.
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.
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.
ben-mini
Stealing is a Skill
I’m slowly developing my own list of advice: have a creative mindset, embrace radical transparency,...
24th Jun 2026
I’m slowly developing my own list of advice: have a creative mindset, embrace radical transparency, and write down what makes you happy. I’d like to add one more to the list: stealing is a skill!
Stealing is good for the soul. If done well, you will be able to build value at...
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...
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...
The Marginalian
Fox and Bear: A Tender Modern Fable About Reversing the Anthropocene, Illustrated in Cut-Cardboard...
An antidote to the civilizational compulsions that rob human nature of nature.
1st Jul 2023
An antidote to the civilizational compulsions that rob human nature of nature.
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...
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.
the late review
the mirror-self
an obsession
12th Dec 2025
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...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] Walk and Talk — The Portuguese Costal Camino
Ridgeline subscribers —
We were lucky. Maybe the luckiest group walking the Portuguese costal...
14th Apr 2026
Ridgeline subscribers —
We were lucky. Maybe the luckiest group walking the Portuguese costal Camino. (Certainly the second luckiest.) All the things conspired in our favor: The weather, the food, the quality of the path (lots of great seaside boardwalk walking for miles and...
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 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.
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...
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...
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...
the late review
this is the late review
a casual blog of late reviews
21st Jul 2024
a casual blog of late reviews
Escaping Flatland
An essay in which my friend feels stuck and I suggest relaxing some constraints
The short version is that my friend, in my opinion, thinks about what he wants in a too constrained...
5th Mar 2025
The short version is that my friend, in my opinion, thinks about what he wants in a too constrained way.
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...
✏️ 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 American Scholar
Dottie Lo Bue
House and home
The post Dottie Lo Bue appeared first on The American Scholar.
4th Nov 2024
House and home
The post Dottie Lo Bue appeared first on The American Scholar.
The Marginalian
After Love: Maxine Kumin’s Stunning Poem About Eros as a Portal to Unselfing
It is one of the hardest things in life — discerning where we end and the rest of the world begins,...
3rd Oct 2023
It is one of the hardest things in life — discerning where we end and the rest of the world begins, negotiating the permeable boundary between self and other, all the while longing for its dissolution, longing to be set free from the prison of ourselves. That is why we cherish...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ A Second Shot
It sunk in. Both the needle and the fact that life had indeed changed. I turned to my left and...
13th May 2021
It sunk in. Both the needle and the fact that life had indeed changed. I turned to my left and looked at her. She, the same Black woman who had administered the first, and this time I tucked her name away into my memory, having forgotten it in the excitement and overwhelming...
Astral Codex Ten
The Colors Of Her Coat
...
1st Apr 2025
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 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."
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...
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."
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
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.
Josh Thompson
On Learning
As a student at Turing, I’ve recently been thinking about learning how to learn, specifically in the...
5th Jun 2017
As a student at Turing, I’ve recently been thinking about learning how to learn, specifically in the context of software development.
I am a bit hyperactive when it comes to trying to learn new things. Over the years, I’ve done plenty of ineffective learning, and at least a...
Salish Wolf
#9 Luke Gifford on the Hero’s Journey, Shadow Work, and Childhood Trauma
Occasionally a person enters my life who I know almost instantly is going
to have a profound...
8th Jun 2020
Occasionally a person enters my life who I know almost instantly is going
to have a profound impact on my personal journey. My guest in this episode,
Luke Gifford, is one of those people. From our ‘non-chance’ encounter
almost 2 years ago at a personal growth event, we...
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...
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...
This Space
Invasion of the Universe
I wonder how many of those of us who write exclusively on literature and read only novels, poetry,...
14th May 2026
I wonder how many of those of us who write exclusively on literature and read only novels, poetry, literary criticism and occasionally into related subjects, have an otherwise unaccountable curiosity with another beyond the literary horizon. Many, I imagine. I'm not talking about...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[ESSAYS] My 'Rules' for Running My Membership Program
Should you start a membership program? Probably not. But boy am I glad that I started mine.
Today...
1st Feb 2025
Should you start a membership program? Probably not. But boy am I glad that I started mine.
Today (basically) marks the sixth anniversary of starting SPECIAL PROJECTS. Each year, I’ve written up everything I learned. In total, here are nearly 40,000 words on running a membership...
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...
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!
Ben Borgers
Winter break project list [2024]
21st Dec 2024
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 →
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.
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...
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....
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.
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.
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Mirrored Malaysia
After almost three years apart due to the pandemic, we were heartwarmingly reunited with my family...
14th Sep 2022
After almost three years apart due to the pandemic, we were heartwarmingly reunited with my family in August of 2022. It was an intense and dense ten days, spending almost all waking hours together: talking, eating, and watching the time go by as fast as it would arrive. I...
the late review
the dark frisson of knowledge
on the Wikipedian sublime
12th Jul 2025
on the Wikipedian sublime
Josh Thompson
About Roundabouts
I’m desperately trying to work through a giant back-log of writings. Please see write it now for...
5th Mar 2022
I’m desperately trying to work through a giant back-log of writings. Please see write it now for more. I’m spending only a few minutes on this, forgive my errors.
Of late, I’ve had a lot of conversations about roundabouts. I’m basically trying to explain the ways that a mobility...
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...
Josh Thompson
On Scooters as a class of vehicle/tool
Introduction
Often when I say “scooter”, especially in the united states, the person thinks of...
18th Dec 2024
Introduction
Often when I say “scooter”, especially in the united states, the person thinks of something different than what I mean. Here’s Denver’s Sportique Scooters, here’s one of their recent posts:
So that is the kind of vehicle I’m talking about when I say “scooter”.
I...
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
The Weeks
Percolating on design
At the end of every year I start to feel it. 2024 ended on a tumultuous note....
7th Nov 2025
Percolating on design
At the end of every year I start to feel it. 2024 ended on a tumultuous note. I dive into introspection, combing over the last year in search of pattern and meaning. I gathered what I found at the bottom of the ocean floor, coming up for air with the...
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...
This Space
Reading, ignorance
The papacy, people say, counts in centuries, and perhaps never even thinks of counting, because its...
23rd Jun 2026
The papacy, people say, counts in centuries, and perhaps never even thinks of counting, because its goal is eternity.1
It has been a pleasure every few months to buy the latest volume in the new translation of À la recherche du temps perdu. I've now read the third, by Peter...
ribbonfarm
Intellectual Menopause
I ran across the alarming phrase intellectual menopause a few months ago in John Gall’s...
16th Aug 2024
I ran across the alarming phrase intellectual menopause a few months ago in John Gall’s Systemantics, and it naturally stuck in my brain given I’m pushing 50 and getting predictably angsty about it. The phrase conjures up visions of a phenomenon much more profound and unfunny...
Naz Hamid • Journal
Beyond Curiosity
I'm not sure he meant it that way.
We were walking together in the shopping center. The central...
15th Jul 2025
I'm not sure he meant it that way.
We were walking together in the shopping center. The central escalators made you loop around on the floor on the short side to proceed to the next set. As we neared the ground floor, headed to the food court sub-level, my father posited a...
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...
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.
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...
Anecdotal Evidence
'Superintending What He Cannot Regulate'
In my family we can’t get
away from the “Y” chromosome. Having children is known as “going to the...
1st Jul 2025
In my family we can’t get
away from the “Y” chromosome. Having children is known as “going to the Y.” I
have three sons, no daughters, and my brother, who died last summer, was my
sole sibling. My mother had five brothers, no sisters. My father, two brothers,
no sisters, etc....
Anecdotal Evidence
'All He'd Read and Learned'
Eccentricity in books is a
tricky quality. It can be charming and inspire lifelong devotion. Take...
1st Aug 2026
Eccentricity in books is a
tricky quality. It can be charming and inspire lifelong devotion. Take Robert
Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, a book I discovered in my freshman
year. I redundantly keep three copies on the shelves nearest my desk. Tristram
Shandy is another...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Notes at 46
Thoughts, observations, and new ways of approaching life that have been percolating since my last...
8th Apr 2024
Thoughts, observations, and new ways of approaching life that have been percolating since my last birthday:
Owning a personal digital space is more important than ever before. Having come to the internet during a time when all it was were personal fan sites and journals, and the...
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,...
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...
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...
Ben Borgers
Winter break project list
19th Dec 2023
Ben Borgers
Every student is cheating with AI
17th Aug 2026
Escaping Flatland
Relationships are coevolutionary loops
Looking for Alice, part 3
31st Oct 2023
Looking for Alice, part 3
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 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."
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,...
sbensu
Default blind
In a software business, it is hard to even know what is going on.
20th Sep 2024
In a software business, it is hard to even know what is going on.
Josh Thompson
"A delicate mix of chess... and bear wrestling"
Over the last few weeks I’ve found myself needing to break down “why” of sport climbing (I’ll refer...
2nd Nov 2014
Over the last few weeks I’ve found myself needing to break down “why” of sport climbing (I’ll refer to sport as “lead” climbing from here on out. Sorry, trad climbers).
If someone is enjoying top roping, (or bouldering) why should they take on the work of learning to lead climb,...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] Full Days and the Long Walk
Ridgeline subscribers —
Hello from the other side of my ~220 kilometer walk through the Kiso...
27th Oct 2025
Ridgeline subscribers —
Hello from the other side of my ~220 kilometer walk through the Kiso Valley.
I sent a shorter version of this newsletter as the last issue of the (the entire walk is) Between Two Mountains pop-up newsletter. This version is quite expanded. The archives of...
Ben Borgers
An underbaked GPT-Codex-5.3-Spark review
14th Feb 2026
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...
Josh Thompson
2018 In Review & Thoughts on 2019
I find a lot of value in other people’s reviews of their years. It’s the time of year to be...
5th May 2019
I find a lot of value in other people’s reviews of their years. It’s the time of year to be contemplative and reflective on the last 12 months, so here we are.
Note to reader: I’m posting this in May, 2019. I wrote it in late December, 2018, didn’t get around to finishing it up...
Josh Thompson
A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept
The following is recounted on
Quora, from a lecture by Stanford
professor John Ousterhout (he’s in...
26th Jun 2015
The following is recounted on
Quora, from a lecture by Stanford
professor John Ousterhout (he’s in the Computer Science department):
Here’s today’s thought for the weekend. A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of Y-intercept.
[Laughter]
So at a mathematical level this is...
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...
Astral Codex Ten
H5N1: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
Don't give your true love a partridge, turtledoves, or (especially) French hens
1st Jan 2025
Don't give your true love a partridge, turtledoves, or (especially) French hens
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...
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RIDGELINE] Driving the Tōkaidō
Ridgeline subscribers —
Hello from amidst the Toyama rush of media requests. I’ve had to say no to...
16th Jan 2025
Ridgeline subscribers —
Hello from amidst the Toyama rush of media requests. I’ve had to say no to most of them, mainly because I’ve been finishing the final final final final set of edits on the Random House edition of Things Become Other Thing. Those edits are in. The book can...
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.
Naz Hamid • Journal
Million-Mile Tech
Durability is the ultimate feature.
I wrote in October last year that I wouldn’t upgrade my iPhone...
21st Oct 2025
Durability is the ultimate feature.
I wrote in October last year that I wouldn’t upgrade my iPhone 14 Pro. That’s also not quite true.
I did upgrade my phone — with a new battery and leather case. This isn’t what people typically think of when they say they upgraded their phone....
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...
Ben Borgers
Don’t standardize your company’s coding agents yet
10th Nov 2025
Escaping Flatland
Writing while walking
We do not belong to those who have ideas only among books, when stimulated by books.
2nd Sep 2024
We do not belong to those who have ideas only among books, when stimulated by books.
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...
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...
Astral Codex Ten
Book Review: The Rise Of Christianity
...
12th Nov 2024
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.
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
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 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.
Craig Mod — Writer +...
[RODEN] Blank Spaces, Radicalized Offlineness, Curious Protagonists
Roden Readers —
Ahh, it’s nice. The outside. The outside is nice. Finally, very nice. The best...
28th Nov 2025
Roden Readers —
Ahh, it’s nice. The outside. The outside is nice. Finally, very nice. The best season in Japan. The leaves, they change. Out yonder, Mt. Fuji performs foojalicousness on the horizon as I type these very words. Being a bit coy, hiding, peeking, hiding once again....
Naz Hamid • Journal
On Rdio
Rdio comes out of beta, and what a glorious service it is.
Music is a huge part of many people’s...
8th Jun 2010
Rdio comes out of beta, and what a glorious service it is.
Music is a huge part of many people’s lives. It seems odd that music is essentially sounds and noises put together to form something that transcends its individual parts. Music, even in its simplest form is a whole, made...
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. ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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...
The Elysian
Another step toward becoming reader-owned media
A bunch of business updates and a request for your feedback.
7th Jul 2026
A bunch of business updates and a request for your feedback.
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
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...
Naz Hamid — Journal...
✏️ Grantland
Day 22: Oct 1, 2023
—
As we suspect, the weather reports prove wildly inaccurate. At 8,000 feet,...
1st Oct 2023
Day 22: Oct 1, 2023
—
As we suspect, the weather reports prove wildly inaccurate. At 8,000 feet, we’re subject to alpine weather rules. Meaning, isolated storms can cycle in at anytime, and they do. Lightning flashes, thunder cracks. We sleep in fits and starts. I remove the...
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...
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,...
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...
✏️ Boy Meets Girl
At the request of my much loyal readership (I’m looking at you Lacey), the story of how I came to be...
26th Oct 2004
At the request of my much loyal readership (I’m looking at you Lacey), the story of how I came to be with girl seems to be of interest. I know, I know. I disappear for a bit from writing and then I return smitten, enamoured and very much exploring a journey I’m quite glad to be...
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....
sbensu
Interfaces for logical migrations
This post explains how you can use interfaces to make data model and database migrations easier.
4th Aug 2023
This post explains how you can use interfaces to make data model and database migrations easier.
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...
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...
Naz Hamid • Journal
Simpler Screens
Smartphones are a distraction. Numerous studies and research have proven out various scenarios: from...
5th Feb 2025
Smartphones are a distraction. Numerous studies and research have proven out various scenarios: from students unable to learn as well, to laws prohibiting hands-on device use while driving, and the various apps and platforms that buzz, ping, and are designed to distract.
People...
Escaping Flatland
If you're facing a complicated decision, your first job isn't to find a solution, but to understand...
Some housekeeping:
18th Aug 2025
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...
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...
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...
Wuthering...
What I Read in July 2025 - books are quiet and unobtrusive, and do not try to hustle the reader
In general, however, he [Louis XVI] preferred writing down his thoughts
instead of uttering them by...
8th Aug 2025
In general, however, he [Louis XVI] preferred writing down his thoughts
instead of uttering them by word of mouth; and he was fond of reading, for
books are quiet and unobtrusive, and do not try to hustle the reader. (Stefan
Zweig, Marie Antoinette, 1932, p. 77 of the 1933...
the late review
AI and Internet Hygiene
we are going to have to re-learn how to use the computer
1st Oct 2024
we are going to have to re-learn how to use the computer
The Perry Bible...
Hacked
The post Hacked appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
5th Apr 2024
The post Hacked appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
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...
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,...
Escaping Flatland
How I write essays
Notes on process
4th Dec 2024
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...
Wuthering...
What I Read in June 2026 – I don’t know, that’s all words, never wake, all words, there’s nothing...
Oh right, I can pretend I am writing something. Some notes on books I read in the distant...
22nd Jul 2026
Oh right, I can pretend I am writing something. Some notes on books I read in the distant past.
NOT SHAKESPEARE
The Dutch Courtesan (1604), John Marston – Discussed long ago.
Poems (1594-1612), George Chapman – A superb,
innovative poet, somehow an Ovidian and an...
Full Width 
Shortcuts 
Sign Up 
Log In 
Articles 
Reading List 