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1st Jul 2026
🔗 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
53

🔗 Rick Rubin on Listening

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
✏️ 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
19

✏️ On a Low and a High

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
37
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."
Inside Man A young reporter’s devastating exposé of the amoral elite The post Inside Man appeared first on The...
1st Jun 2026
1

Inside Man

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Jun 2026
A young reporter’s devastating exposé of the amoral elite The post Inside Man appeared first on The American Scholar.
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
29

Building FirstMover

from ben-mini [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
The Story of Mumbet Who was the enslaved woman whose burial site at a Berkshires cemetery draws so much reverence and...
2nd Mar 2026
1

The Story of Mumbet

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Mar 2026
Who was the enslaved woman whose burial site at a Berkshires cemetery draws so much reverence and respect? The post The Story of Mumbet appeared first on The American Scholar.
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
1

A fundamental deprivation: Montevideo by Enrique Vila-Matas

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Designing for support teams Support agents spend their entire lives using the same software. Their needs are very different from...
5th Feb 2024
23

Designing for support teams

from sbensu [alt+shift+b] in literature

5th Feb 2024
Support agents spend their entire lives using the same software. Their needs are very different from consumer software. Here are some things to keep in mind.
Trust and Procedural Fetishism I recently finished reading Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. The book explains the...
14th Jun 2025
1

Trust and Procedural Fetishism

from ben-mini [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
[RIDGELINE] Overtourism in Japan, and How it Hurts Small Businesses Ridgeline subscribers — I’m Craig Mod and I’ve been buuuuuuurnt out this last month following my...
10th Jul 2025
1

[RIDGELINE] Overtourism in Japan, and How it Hurts Small Businesses

from Craig Mod — Writer + Photographer [alt+shift+b] in literature

10th Jul 2025
Ridgeline subscribers — I’m Craig Mod and I’ve been buuuuuuurnt out this last month following my epic Things Become Other Things mega book tour. Finally, I’m gingerly emerging from my recovery cave. (But reserve the right to retreat again.) Here’s a fresh dispatch — in praise of...
5th Oct 2025
the perils of writing about oneself some essays about writing essays pt 2
5th Aug 2025
1

the perils of writing about oneself

from the late review [alt+shift+b] in literature

5th Aug 2025
some essays about writing essays pt 2
1st Jun 2025
A ghost question: Is Beauty Good by Rosalind Belben This is the first paragraph of a review cut from the TLS in 1989. I was in my fourth year of reading...
2 weeks ago
1

A ghost question: Is Beauty Good by Rosalind Belben

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

2 weeks ago
This is the first paragraph of a review cut from the TLS in 1989. I was in my fourth year of reading novels and looking everywhere for ideas for what to read next, often keeping reviews that excited my interest. What set Gabriel Josipovici's reviews apart was the inclusion of the...
✏️ Liquid Gold Hi, this is Weightshifting, a newsletter by Naz Hamid and Jen Schuetz, primarily about vehicular...
10th Sep 2023
17

✏️ Liquid Gold

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Artist The post Artist appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
21st Jan 2026
1

Artist

from The Perry Bible Fellowship [alt+shift+b] in literature

21st Jan 2026
The post Artist appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
How is music possible If you take a scene from a horror movie and add funny music, the killer suddenly looks hilarious....
4 weeks ago
1

How is music possible

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 weeks ago
If you take a scene from a horror movie and add funny music, the killer suddenly looks hilarious. Isn’t it strange that that happens?
Doomr Most of my creations can be contained within an RSS feed; Doomr cannot. You'll want to check the...
14th Feb 2024
22

Doomr

from Steven Scrawls [alt+shift+b] in literature

14th Feb 2024
Most of my creations can be contained within an RSS feed; Doomr cannot. You'll want to check the website for this one.
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
1

What I Read in February 2026 – Mouek mouek mouek… Ma-a-a-a… Ma-aa-a… said Saha

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
✏️ 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
19

✏️ I Don't Have Facebook

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Every country ranked from best to worst A report card for the whole world.
2nd Sep 2025
37

Every country ranked from best to worst

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Sep 2025
A report card for the whole world.
How to Be a Lichen: Adaptive Strategies for the Vulnerabilities of Being Human from Nature’s Tiny... The hero of the modern myth is the victim, the emblem of the modern self the pronoun. We seem to...
2nd Nov 2025
11
2nd Nov 2025
The hero of the modern myth is the victim, the emblem of the modern self the pronoun. We seem to have forgotten that we are survivors of innumerable spasms of space and time, creatures who never would have given up the gills for lungs if we attached identity to gillness. Not so...
Care doesn't scale Care Doesn’t Scale I met a social worker whose job was to look after four orphaned children. She’d...
24th Oct 2024
46

Care doesn't scale

from Steven Scrawls [alt+shift+b] in literature

24th Oct 2024
Care Doesn’t Scale I met a social worker whose job was to look after four orphaned children. She’d alternate with her coworkers spending 24 hours at a time living with the kids, effectively acting as their parent. The children, unsurprisingly, had a lot of trauma and so her job...
IMG_0416 Between 2009 and 2012, Apple iPhones and iPod Touches included a feature called “Send to YouTube”...
3rd Nov 2024
47

IMG_0416

from ben-mini [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
“Dead Man’s Hand” The post “Dead Man’s Hand” appeared first on The American Scholar.
4th Aug 2025
31

“Dead Man’s Hand”

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

4th Aug 2025
The post “Dead Man’s Hand” appeared first on The American Scholar.
4th Sep 2023
Relationships are coevolutionary loops Looking for Alice, part 3
31st Oct 2023
33

Relationships are coevolutionary loops

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

31st Oct 2023
Looking for Alice, part 3
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
25

Maybe "Now" Is Not the Right Time

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Rage, Muse The novels that revisit Greek myths, giving voice to the women who were scorned, wronged, or...
1st Aug 2024
84

Rage, Muse

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Aug 2024
The novels that revisit Greek myths, giving voice to the women who were scorned, wronged, or forgotten The post Rage, Muse appeared first on The American Scholar.
20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3) 20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3) Previously in "20 years of Linux on the Deskop": After...
8th Mar 2025
51

20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3)

from Ploum.net [alt+shift+b] in literature

8th Mar 2025
20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 3) Previously in "20 years of Linux on the Deskop": After contributing to the launch of Ubuntu as the "perfect Linux desktop", Ploum realises that Ubuntu is drifting away from both Debian and GNOME. But something else is about to shake the...
the dark frisson of knowledge on the Wikipedian sublime
12th Jul 2025
1

the dark frisson of knowledge

from the late review [alt+shift+b] in literature

12th Jul 2025
on the Wikipedian sublime
23rd Jul 2026
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
1

Books of the year 2024

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Ralph Roister Doister, among the first regular English comedies - Then to our recorder with... Ralph Roister Doister (written c. 1550, published 1567) once had the distinction of being the first...
2nd Sep 2025
1
2nd Sep 2025
Ralph Roister Doister (written c. 1550, published 1567) once had the distinction of being the first comedy in English.  Please see this 1911 edition of the play calling it “the first regular English comedy.”  I do not know what 19th century critics meant by “regular” but this...
[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
1

[RIDGELINE] The Shops Atop the Canal in Toyohashi

from Craig Mod — Writer + Photographer [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
20

June trip to the New River Gorge

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
2017 In Review & Thoughts on 2018 Note: this “annual review” covers three topics. Click on one to skip to it: Looking back on...
1st Jan 2018
21

2017 In Review & Thoughts on 2018

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Jan 2018
Note: this “annual review” covers three topics. Click on one to skip to it: Looking back on 2017 thoughts on going into 2018 book recommendations from the 79 books I read last year I’ve got mixed feelings on annual reviews. I steadfastly refuse to set New Years’ resolutions, and...
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
55
1st Jul 2023
An antidote to the civilizational compulsions that rob human nature of nature.
'Either Very Gravely Gay or Very Gaily Grave' “Lend me—lend me some disguise; / I will tell prodigious lies; / All who care for what I say /...
1st Apr 2026
1

'Either Very Gravely Gay or Very Gaily Grave'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Apr 2026
“Lend me—lend me some disguise; / I will tell prodigious lies; / All who care for what I say / Shall be April Fools to-day!”  This sounds like our understanding of April Fools’ Day as kids. Low-cost, nothing elaborate, just walk up behind a guy and scream “Your pants are on...
reclaiming the wälsungs part of a body of work on Wagner's Ring cycle
14th Dec 2024
1

reclaiming the wälsungs

from the late review [alt+shift+b] in literature

14th Dec 2024
part of a body of work on Wagner's Ring cycle
Please The post Please appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
26th Jul 2024
26

Please

from The Perry Bible Fellowship [alt+shift+b] in literature

26th Jul 2024
The post Please appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
31st May 2021
On Not Consuming Animals Or Viewing Them As Exploitable This is such a draft, but I wanted to get it written so I could point to this big compendium of...
3rd Aug 2026
1

On Not Consuming Animals Or Viewing Them As Exploitable

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

3rd Aug 2026
This is such a draft, but I wanted to get it written so I could point to this big compendium of things related to “now I eat/consume plants and not animals”, or “i went vegan recently, here’s some observations”. I ‘went vegan’ a few months ago, as of when I began drafting this...
✏️ Road to Mesa Good morning, light. I awoke early this morning, perched on a mesa cliff-side, surrounded by low...
18th Jul 2022
21

✏️ Road to Mesa

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

18th Jul 2022
Good morning, light. I awoke early this morning, perched on a mesa cliff-side, surrounded by low foliage, cow patties galore, and a few skeletons and carcasses of younger cattle that couldn’t survive the path of migration that was next to our camp. Everyone else was still mildly...
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
38

The Lunacy of Artemis

from Idle Words [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
24

Three Ways to Decide What to be When You Grow Up

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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....
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
23

Let Me Fix [some of] Your Parking Problems

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Storytelling — Just Add Dinosaurs In a previous part, I covered the storytelling model of Matthew Dicks, who specializes in live,...
14th Mar 2024
28

Storytelling — Just Add Dinosaurs

from ribbonfarm [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Maybe an exowomb is better than pregnancy The Pod Generation’s near-future satire pits nature against technology. Which is the better curator?
2nd Jul 2025
30

Maybe an exowomb is better than pregnancy

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Jul 2025
The Pod Generation’s near-future satire pits nature against technology. Which is the better curator?
A mighty contagious absence, part two On submission and resistance to AI-generated literature   To great writers, finished works weigh...
26th May 2025
1

A mighty contagious absence, part two

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
19

On Cleaner Controllers

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
The Porcupine Dilemma: Schopenhauer’s Parable about Negotiating the Optimal Distance in Love This is the supreme challenge of intimacy — how to reconcile the aching yearning for closeness with...
3rd Aug 2023
76
3rd Aug 2023
This is the supreme challenge of intimacy — how to reconcile the aching yearning for closeness with the painful pressures of actually being close, how to forge a bond tight enough to feel the warmth of connection but spacious enough to feel free. Kahlil Gibran knew this when he...
A Retrospective on Seven Months at Turing Collection of thoughts on Turing It’s the last week of Turing. I went through the backend software...
8th Aug 2017
19

A Retrospective on Seven Months at Turing

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

8th Aug 2017
Collection of thoughts on Turing It’s the last week of Turing. I went through the backend software engineering program, and it’s been a journey. In no particular order, I’m throwing down thoughts in three general categories: What went well What didn’t go well What I might have...
Cities should own their land—like Vienna and Amsterdam Land autonomy beats governance autonomy every time.
2nd Mar 2026
1

Cities should own their land—like Vienna and Amsterdam

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Mar 2026
Land autonomy beats governance autonomy every time.
Another step toward becoming reader-owned media A bunch of business updates and a request for your feedback.
7th Jul 2026
1

Another step toward becoming reader-owned media

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

7th Jul 2026
A bunch of business updates and a request for your feedback.
Not As Giants Love Not As Giants Love Short story, ~2000 words A week ago, when I asked you if you still loved me, I...
4th Jul 2024
40

Not As Giants Love

from Steven Scrawls [alt+shift+b] in literature

4th Jul 2024
Not As Giants Love Short story, ~2000 words A week ago, when I asked you if you still loved me, I thought the most painful thing you could’ve said was no. I don’t know if you remember, but when you said “Of course I still love you” and asked if I still loved you, I started to...
5th Jan 2024
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
1

Being creative requires taking risks

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

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.
love's bad infinity tristan und isolde - in theory and at the met
24th Mar 2026
1

love's bad infinity

from the late review [alt+shift+b] in literature

24th Mar 2026
tristan und isolde - in theory and at the met
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
28

APIs as ladders

from sbensu [alt+shift+b] in literature

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.
What comes after the nation-state? And how can we build safety nets without borders?
21st May 2026
1

What comes after the nation-state?

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

21st May 2026
And how can we build safety nets without borders?
Avoid a car accident with a $3 tool TL;DR: Buy a blind spot mirror for your car. They are $2, and can keep you from getting in an...
4th Jul 2016
19

Avoid a car accident with a $3 tool

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

4th Jul 2016
TL;DR: Buy a blind spot mirror for your car. They are $2, and can keep you from getting in an accident. Not a lot of people have them, though they’re awesome. I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about how to make driving safer. Step 1 to making driving safer is “don’t...
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
21

Structural Holes and Good Ideas

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
27

Change your MAC address with a shell script

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
'Those Little Cracklings of Mirth and Folly' Who is being described and who is doing the describing: “His prose is the model of the middle style;...
1st May 2026
1

'Those Little Cracklings of Mirth and Folly'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st May 2026
Who is being described and who is doing the describing: “His prose is the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not formal, on light occasions not grovelling; pure without scrupulosity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always equable, and always easy, without...
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
24

2023 Annual Review

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
22

Wrapping my head around local politics 001

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
27

How to fly… like a boss

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Metanational corporations are redesigning the world map Parag Khanna on metanational corporations and how they are opening borders, reshaping geopolitics,...
2nd Feb 2025
58

Metanational corporations are redesigning the world map

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Feb 2025
Parag Khanna on metanational corporations and how they are opening borders, reshaping geopolitics, and creating a world of interconnected city-states.
On Foraging Mushrooms From the Local Park (Part 2) A time ago, I wrote a thing that felt like stumbling into a delightful discovery: On Foraging...
4 weeks ago
1

On Foraging Mushrooms From the Local Park (Part 2)

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

4 weeks ago
A time ago, I wrote a thing that felt like stumbling into a delightful discovery: On Foraging Mushrooms at Cheesman Park Sometimes I’ll amend a post, with updates from a later time, sometimes it’s easier to just make a separate part 2. Everything continues delightfully with...
“A Bed for Your Voice to Sleep In” The post “A Bed for Your Voice to Sleep In” appeared first on The American Scholar.
3rd Aug 2026
1

“A Bed for Your Voice to Sleep In”

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

3rd Aug 2026
The post “A Bed for Your Voice to Sleep In” appeared first on The American Scholar.
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
18

Climbing in Cuba, 2019

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Blood Flow Restriction with Tyler old draft, publishing, needs polish. Me: Sport climber, decade+, of and on a few different times...
16th Feb 2019
1

Blood Flow Restriction with Tyler

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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,...
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
1

Quand éclatera la bulle IA…

from Ploum.net [alt+shift+b] in literature

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....
🔗 What price? If anything, as the well gets poisoned by their own outputs, large language models may well end up...
6th Oct 2024
21

🔗 What price?

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

6th Oct 2024
If anything, as the well gets poisoned by their own outputs, large language models may well end up eating their own slop and getting their own version of mad cow disease. So this might be as good as they’re ever going to get. — Jeremy Keith I use AI. Not particularly for...
The Violence of God and the Hermeneutics of Paul Sometimes I (Josh) want to share around certain academic works. Sometimes its a PDF that I want...
8th Aug 2021
32

The Violence of God and the Hermeneutics of Paul

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

8th Aug 2021
Sometimes I (Josh) want to share around certain academic works. Sometimes its a PDF that I want someone to download and read, sometimes it’s text from a book I’ve read, and cannot otherwise get a sharable format of. So, I laboriously take photos of pages, use an optical character...
✏️ Borrego Boogie Almost a year ago, Jen and I headed south to Bishop, then a run through Death Valley, an obnoxiously...
8th Mar 2023
17

✏️ Borrego Boogie

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

8th Mar 2023
Almost a year ago, Jen and I headed south to Bishop, then a run through Death Valley, an obnoxiously windy night in Alabama Hills, and then reset in San Diego before a good run and a few nights in Anza-Borrego desert. It's remarkable that a place this wild and surprisingly...
'A Frangible and Transparent Failure' The title poem in Anthony Hecht’s 1979 collection The Venetian Vespers is a dramatic...
1st Oct 2026
1

'A Frangible and Transparent Failure'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Oct 2026
The title poem in Anthony Hecht’s 1979 collection The Venetian Vespers is a dramatic monologue spoken by an aging American expatriate living in Venice. Across its roughly eight-hundred lines the speaker gives the impression of fleeing something left unstated – not a scandal or...
Sticking With It A sobering chronicle of our toxic times The post Sticking With It appeared first on The American...
2nd Jun 2025
16

Sticking With It

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Jun 2025
A sobering chronicle of our toxic times The post Sticking With It appeared first on The American Scholar.
Supposedly-Deceased Intellectuals Found Living at Resort ‘Small Village’ of Supposedly-Deceased Intellectuals Found Alive, Thriving at Caribbean...
8th Aug 2024
39

Supposedly-Deceased Intellectuals Found Living at Resort

from Steven Scrawls [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
4th May 2026
1

Open Thread 432

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

4th May 2026
...
No safe landing A review of A Winter in Zürau and Partita by Gabriel Josipovici   Gabriel Josipovici has said that...
5th Oct 2024
1

No safe landing

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
1

La première Madame Pipi de l’espace profond

from Ploum.net [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Exile on Silicon Valley The golden window of tech may have expired. In 2010, I came across a video of Mick Jagger being...
9th Oct 2026
2

Exile on Silicon Valley

from Naz Hamid • Journal [alt+shift+b] in literature

9th Oct 2026
The golden window of tech may have expired. In 2010, I came across a video of Mick Jagger being interviewed (text version here). It was for a re-release of Exile on Main Street with 10 new tracks. During the interview he says this: But I have a take on that — people only made...
Lorena Diosdado Multifaceted Latinx identities The post Lorena Diosdado appeared first on The American Scholar.
5th May 2025
32

Lorena Diosdado

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

5th May 2025
Multifaceted Latinx identities The post Lorena Diosdado appeared first on The American Scholar.
On Friction warning. self-indulgeant diatribe coming. I generally try to avoid these, but it’s my website, and I...
20th Dec 2017
22

On Friction

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
fear of breakdown a psychopolitical theory
11th May 2026
2

fear of breakdown

from the late review [alt+shift+b] in literature

11th May 2026
a psychopolitical theory
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
19

Protests and Power

from Idle Words [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Even Christopher Nolan prefers 70mm film With all the technology in the world, sometimes the more beautiful thing is less of it.
4th Aug 2026
1

Even Christopher Nolan prefers 70mm film

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

4th Aug 2026
With all the technology in the world, sometimes the more beautiful thing is less of it.
Real Wood AI makes particle board. As a child, woodworking was part of my school’s curriculum. One of our...
20th Apr 2026
1

Real Wood

from Naz Hamid • Journal [alt+shift+b] in literature

20th Apr 2026
AI makes particle board. As a child, woodworking was part of my school’s curriculum. One of our projects was making a simple sailboat, with the kind of shape and blockiness of those wood toys you see for little kids. From a solid block, we chiseled out the center cavity where the...
Ribbonfarm is Retiring After several years of keeping it going in semi-retired, keep-the-lights-on (KTLO) mode, I’ve...
11th Oct 2024
46

Ribbonfarm is Retiring

from ribbonfarm [alt+shift+b] in literature

11th Oct 2024
After several years of keeping it going in semi-retired, keep-the-lights-on (KTLO) mode, I’ve decided to officially fully retire this blog. The ribbonfarm.com domain and all links will remain active, but there will be no new content after November 13th, 2024, which happens to be...
Risk-takers decide faster Unsurprising connection between risk and speed.
5th Nov 2024
44

Risk-takers decide faster

from sbensu [alt+shift+b] in literature

5th Nov 2024
Unsurprising connection between risk and speed.
Change The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or something like that. Sometimes change is for...
30th Jun 2014
23

Change

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
✏️ Tracks of the Ancients I notice the tracks as I return from a brief scouting trip. When deciding on a campsite for the...
4th Feb 2022
17

✏️ Tracks of the Ancients

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

4th Feb 2022
I notice the tracks as I return from a brief scouting trip. When deciding on a campsite for the night, reconnaissance is necessary: one, to verify personal safety; two, to ensure picturesque views and surroundings, but distance between neighbors (if applicable); and three, to...
✏️ Forty Three On March 28th 2021, I turned 43. My second pandemic birthday, I turned 42 shortly after San...
14th Apr 2021
18

✏️ Forty Three

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

14th Apr 2021
On March 28th 2021, I turned 43. My second pandemic birthday, I turned 42 shortly after San Francisco went into lockdown. It feels like a lifetime has passed between now and then, and with a sense of deja vu, like it was yesterday. Except that I wasn't at home, and I was on the...
Emerson on the Singular Enchantment of Indian Summer (and a Better Term for This Liminal Season... "There are days... wherein the world reaches its perfection, when the air, the heavenly bodies, and...
1st Nov 2024
53
1st Nov 2024
"There are days... wherein the world reaches its perfection, when the air, the heavenly bodies, and the earth, make a harmony."
The Perfectionists (book) A great book that covers the ideas and people behind modern industry.
1st Aug 2024
23

The Perfectionists (book)

from sbensu [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Aug 2024
A great book that covers the ideas and people behind modern industry.
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
1

Latent Co. is Forming

from Naz Hamid • Journal [alt+shift+b] in literature

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,...
On Learning As a student at Turing, I’ve recently been thinking about learning how to learn, specifically in the...
5th Jun 2017
20

On Learning

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
The Abstraction Gap Bridging the design-development gap as AI rises. There’s a frustrating gap in how development...
1st May 2025
30

The Abstraction Gap

from Naz Hamid • Journal [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm I’m a little late to the party, but I just finished the wonderfully imaginative There Is No...
3rd May 2024
36

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

from ribbonfarm [alt+shift+b] in literature

3rd May 2024
I’m a little late to the party, but I just finished the wonderfully imaginative There Is No Antimemetics Division (2020) by qntm. The premise is that our world is full of things with antimemetic properties. An antimeme is “an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by...
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
4

Write Like a Human

from Naz Hamid • Journal [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Seed Shanty The post Seed Shanty appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
2nd Oct 2026
1

Seed Shanty

from The Perry Bible Fellowship [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Oct 2026
The post Seed Shanty appeared first on The Perry Bible Fellowship.
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
1

Taiwanese & Balinese Scooter Norms

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
1

What I Read in December 2025 – We ain’t gonna eat that.

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

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. ...
History before Shakespeare - The Famous Victories of Henry V - he hath taken the great raze of... The establishment in the 1570s of permanent theaters just outside of the walls of London led to a...
8th Nov 2025
1
8th Nov 2025
The establishment in the 1570s of permanent theaters just outside of the walls of London led to a massive increase in the demand for new plays.  Every available source of stories was looted.  English history proved to be especially popular or at least easy to adapt to the...
What I Read in September 2025 – A hand that taught what might be said in rhyme My writing on Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great plays has been hampered by an apparent...
7th Oct 2025
1

What I Read in September 2025 – A hand that taught what might be said in rhyme

from Wuthering Expectations [alt+shift+b] in literature

7th Oct 2025
My writing on Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great plays has been hampered by an apparent post-France short circuit in my ability to write.  So I will put up some easier posts to remind myself how to write. I had two major projects this month, one ongoing, one returned to...
bride and sister, be to your brother sentimental incest in Die Walküre
3rd Apr 2025
1

bride and sister, be to your brother

from the late review [alt+shift+b] in literature

3rd Apr 2025
sentimental incest in Die Walküre
16th Jun 2024
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
18

How to complete a project

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
'Shut Not Thy Purse-Strings' Unlike his friends Coleridge, Hazlitt, Wordsworth and Hunt, who often made fools of themselves as a...
1st Mar 2025
44

'Shut Not Thy Purse-Strings'

from Anecdotal Evidence [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Mar 2025
Unlike his friends Coleridge, Hazlitt, Wordsworth and Hunt, who often made fools of themselves as a result, Charles Lamb had little interest in the momentous events of his day. About “Boney” – Napoleon Bonaparte – he wished only to know the dictator’s height, unlike Hazlitt, who...
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
1

On Rdio

from Naz Hamid • Journal [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Back in the saddle (of writing) Background It’s been a hell of a year. I’ve got about 10,000 things I’ve wanted to write about, and...
26th Apr 2022
22

Back in the saddle (of writing)

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

26th Apr 2022
Background It’s been a hell of a year. I’ve got about 10,000 things I’ve wanted to write about, and have not gotten around to any of them. Here’s my various top-level reasons for not writing: what I want to write about feels too complicated to express easily/coherently I feel...
3rd Oct 2024
108

Yes, Taylor Swift is just as genius as Mary Shelley

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

3rd Oct 2024
The video from our live event.
Act a Fool, or: Motion vs. Action If you’ve started reading this article, but have only two minutes, don’t read what I’m writing. Go...
16th Mar 2014
23

Act a Fool, or: Motion vs. Action

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

16th Mar 2014
If you’ve started reading this article, but have only two minutes, don’t read what I’m writing. Go read this article by James clear. It’s called “ The Mistake Smart People Make: Being In Motion vs. Taking Action”. I’ve linked it a third time here. Go read it. James starts with...
Our AI Midwife A guest post by Drew Housman
2nd Oct 2026
1

Our AI Midwife

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Oct 2026
A guest post by Drew Housman
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
100

On Scooters as a class of vehicle/tool

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
1

Invasion of the Universe

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Array divergence in Ruby Lets say you have a list of valid items, and you want to run another array against it, and pull out...
2nd Feb 2018
22

Array divergence in Ruby

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Feb 2018
Lets say you have a list of valid items, and you want to run another array against it, and pull out the items that don’t match. You don’t want to iterate through all of the items in one array, calling other_array.include?(item). (That’s computationally expensive) valid_people =...
✏️ Notes at 45 As I sit squarely in my mid-40s, I’ve gained valuable perspectives, learnings, and understandings....
12th Apr 2023
17

✏️ Notes at 45

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

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,...
1st Jul 2022
1st Jun 2022
Pry Tips and Tricks the following is cross-posted from development.wombatsecurity.com. I wrote about some handy extra...
7th May 2018
20

Pry Tips and Tricks

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Craft Is Not Culture A time, a place, and humans. Let’s take a moment to consider the font, Instrument Serif. Created by...
24th May 2026
2

Craft Is Not Culture

from Naz Hamid • Journal [alt+shift+b] in literature

24th May 2026
A time, a place, and humans. Let’s take a moment to consider the font, Instrument Serif. Created by the Portland-based design agency Instrument for their own use — along with Instrument Sans — they open-sourced it on GitHub, where it made its way to Google Fonts, in a generous...
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
27

Issues related to the city of Golden

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
16

POODR Notes: Acquiring Behavior Through Inheritance (Chapter 6)

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
23

Monthly Review: November

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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.”...
[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
1

[RODEN] Blank Spaces, Radicalized Offlineness, Curious Protagonists

from Craig Mod — Writer + Photographer [alt+shift+b] in literature

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....
#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
1
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...
HTTParty and to_json I was having some trouble debugging an HTTParty POST request. A few tools that were useful to...
12th Mar 2019
22

HTTParty and to_json

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
1
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...
Book Review - The Surrender Experiment With the book The Surrender Experiment, author Michael (Mickey) Singer, gives us a gift. In this...
6th Apr 2020
39

Book Review - The Surrender Experiment

from Blog - Anchorpointexpeditions.com [alt+shift+b] in literature

6th Apr 2020
With the book The Surrender Experiment, author Michael (Mickey) Singer, gives us a gift. In this eloquently penned biography of his “journey into life’s perfection”, he demonstrates the beauty that life can provide for us when we are not solely guided by our logical,...
Ethos and imagination Milk Drop Coronet, an ultra-high-speed photograph of the splash of a drop of milk, Harold Edgerton,...
4th Nov 2024
66

Ethos and imagination

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

4th Nov 2024
Milk Drop Coronet, an ultra-high-speed photograph of the splash of a drop of milk, Harold Edgerton, 1957
My Taipei Quarantine Part of what brought me to Taiwan was bureaucratic thrill seeking. Few other countries had gone...
26th Apr 2022
29

My Taipei Quarantine

from Idle Words [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Quotes from 'Spare the Child' Introduction Here’s quotes from Spare the Child: The Religeous Roots of Punishment and the...
1st Feb 2025
40

Quotes from 'Spare the Child'

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Feb 2025
Introduction Here’s quotes from Spare the Child: The Religeous Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse, by Philip Greven. It was written in 1989, same year I was born, 35 years ago as of 2025. It’s sometimes nice to be able to share quotes with people....
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
1
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...
30th Nov 2024
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
52

An essay in which my friend feels stuck and I suggest relaxing some constraints

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

5th Mar 2025
The short version is that my friend, in my opinion, thinks about what he wants in a too constrained way.
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
1

Pas de médaille pour les résistants

from Ploum.net [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
[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
1

[RIDGELINE] Driving the Tōkaidō

from Craig Mod — Writer + Photographer [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
I'm crowdfunding my next book advance And sharing the earnings with readers.
2nd Mar 2025
48

I'm crowdfunding my next book advance

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Mar 2025
And sharing the earnings with readers.
H5N1: Much More Than You Wanted To Know Don't give your true love a partridge, turtledoves, or (especially) French hens
1st Jan 2025
48

H5N1: Much More Than You Wanted To Know

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Jan 2025
Don't give your true love a partridge, turtledoves, or (especially) French hens
If we fix the phone, we fix society Here's how I would redesign devices for a more analog world.
22nd Sep 2026
1

If we fix the phone, we fix society

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

22nd Sep 2026
Here's how I would redesign devices for a more analog world.
3rd Mar 2025
52

Open Thread 371

from Astral Codex Ten [alt+shift+b] in literature

3rd Mar 2025
...
the gallery of maladies on long covid, hypochondria, and the forums
6th Nov 2025
1

the gallery of maladies

from the late review [alt+shift+b] in literature

6th Nov 2025
on long covid, hypochondria, and the forums
this is the late review a casual blog of late reviews
21st Jul 2024
1

this is the late review

from the late review [alt+shift+b] in literature

21st Jul 2024
a casual blog of late reviews
Anarchy (or, less provocatively, Mutuality and Co-Creation) In 2017, I read The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the...
3rd May 2024
22

Anarchy (or, less provocatively, Mutuality and Co-Creation)

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

3rd May 2024
In 2017, I read The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey; everything and nothing changed. Lots changed because all of I sudden, I could clearly label a dynamic that had always irked me. I could see that some people would avoid...
Carl Linnaeus’s Flower Clock “The eternal problem of the human being is how to structure his waking hours,” the Canadian...
2nd Apr 2025
56

Carl Linnaeus’s Flower Clock

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

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,...
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
21

Upgrade your job

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
“The Fig Tree” by Ruth Stone Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Fig Tree” by Ruth Stone appeared first on The American...
1st Jul 2025
31

“The Fig Tree” by Ruth Stone

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Jul 2025
Poems read aloud, beautifully The post “The Fig Tree” by Ruth Stone appeared first on The American Scholar.
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
52

The Universe in Verse Book

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

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."
Twentieth anniversary post On this day in 2004, I posted the first entry on this blog.  In recent years many posts have...
25th Sep 2024
1

Twentieth anniversary post

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

25th Sep 2024
On this day in 2004, I posted the first entry on this blog.  In recent years many posts have reflected on the past and present of literary blogging (it has no future) so I will not go over that waste land again except to wish more had followed the example of This Space. One of...
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
32

After Love: Maxine Kumin’s Stunning Poem About Eros as a Portal to Unselfing

from The Marginalian [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
The intimate outside When this post from Max Cairnduff appeared I had been reading Heidegger's lectures on Hölderlin's...
31st Jan 2026
1

The intimate outside

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
24

Load Testing your app with Siege

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
[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
1

[RODEN] A new Popup Walk, Lots of Books

from Craig Mod — Writer + Photographer [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Word Rot Word Rot Unless you are extraordinarily unfortunate, every problem you ever face will have been...
12th Dec 2023
23

Word Rot

from Steven Scrawls [alt+shift+b] in literature

12th Dec 2023
Word Rot Unless you are extraordinarily unfortunate, every problem you ever face will have been faced in some form by someone who came before you. That person may have already shared the story of that challenge, and that story might have melded with other tales to form collective...
Even Christopher Nolan prefers 70mm film With all the technology in the world, sometimes the more beautiful thing is less of it.
4th Aug 2026
1

Even Christopher Nolan prefers 70mm film

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

4th Aug 2026
With all the technology in the world, sometimes the more beautiful thing is less of it.
AI and Internet Hygiene we are going to have to re-learn how to use the computer
1st Oct 2024
1

AI and Internet Hygiene

from the late review [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Oct 2024
we are going to have to re-learn how to use the computer
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
86
1st Sep 2024
"I have nothing, except for certain, and perhaps very minor, literary abilities."
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
1

New Martian Writing

from Idle Words [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Let Cities Build Utopia—new drop! My deep dive on the future of cities is now available as a print pamphlet, digital pamphlet, and...
10th Feb 2026
1

Let Cities Build Utopia—new drop!

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

10th Feb 2026
My deep dive on the future of cities is now available as a print pamphlet, digital pamphlet, and audio essay.
✏️ 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
21

✏️ Dissocial Media

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
[RODEN] Summer Heatray Days Roden Readers — Hello from the swelterdome, the Cape O‘ Temperature Oppression, a.k.a. the Kanto...
1st Aug 2025
1

[RODEN] Summer Heatray Days

from Craig Mod — Writer + Photographer [alt+shift+b] in literature

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....
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
1

A Junction Efficiency Metric: Vehicles Per Square Meter Per Minute

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
1st Apr 2025
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...
2nd Sep 2026
2

I Don’t Have a Smartphone…

from Ploum.net [alt+shift+b] in literature

2nd Sep 2026
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...
✏️ 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
20

✏️ The Dark is Dubious

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
105
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.
Dottie Lo Bue House and home The post Dottie Lo Bue appeared first on The American Scholar.
4th Nov 2024
58

Dottie Lo Bue

from The American Scholar [alt+shift+b] in literature

4th Nov 2024
House and home The post Dottie Lo Bue appeared first on The American Scholar.
Book Review - Dancing Naked in the Mind Field Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, the autobiography of Kary Mullis, published in 1998, is...
26th Jun 2021
49

Book Review - Dancing Naked in the Mind Field

from Blog - Anchorpointexpeditions.com [alt+shift+b] in literature

26th Jun 2021
Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, the autobiography of Kary Mullis, published in 1998, is reminiscent of another Nobel Prize winning autobiography, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!. Dr. Mullis and Dr. Feynman had a great deal in common, including their incomprehensible...
[RIDGELINE] Walking and Not Walking a Castle in Italy Ridgeline subscribers — Hello! It’s me, Craig Mod. I’m doing an event with David Marx in Tokyo this...
12th Oct 2026
1

[RIDGELINE] Walking and Not Walking a Castle in Italy

from Craig Mod — Writer + Photographer [alt+shift+b] in literature

12th Oct 2026
Ridgeline subscribers — Hello! It’s me, Craig Mod. I’m doing an event with David Marx in Tokyo this Friday night (17th) at Tiger Mountain, a small, hip bookshop. The in-person tix are all sold out, but it will be livestreamed, and there are still tickets for that bit. It costs...
Days are enormous + personal update and reading recommendations
1st Apr 2026
1

Days are enormous

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Apr 2026
+ personal update and reading recommendations
An Open Letter about Golden 2022-06-15 Update I wrote this document the first time in a very small number of minutes, three...
24th May 2022
19

An Open Letter about Golden

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

24th May 2022
2022-06-15 Update I wrote this document the first time in a very small number of minutes, three weeks ago, on my way out the door on a particularly busy day. I follow “write it now”. I’ve gotten to discuss this letter with a few different people, because I mentioned it in email....
Please come up with wildly speculative futures Inside my writing philosophy.
1st Apr 2024
52

Please come up with wildly speculative futures

from The Elysian [alt+shift+b] in literature

1st Apr 2024
Inside my writing philosophy.
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
1

The end of literature, part five

from This Space [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
Practicing with Polylines This is a first pass at trying to do something interesting (repeatedly) with the same base...
10th Sep 2024
39

Practicing with Polylines

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
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
1

20 years of Linux on the Desktop (part 4)

from Ploum.net [alt+shift+b] in literature

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...
8th Jul 2026
1

How can we rejuvenate the social fabric?

from Escaping Flatland [alt+shift+b] in literature

8th Jul 2026
ask_another_guest
The Power Broker, Chapter 30: Robert Moses and Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri Note from Josh: The following is an excerpt of chapter 34 of the Power Broker, called “Moses and the...
5th Aug 2023
24

The Power Broker, Chapter 30: Robert Moses and Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri

from Josh Thompson [alt+shift+b] in literature

5th Aug 2023
Note from Josh: The following is an excerpt of chapter 34 of the Power Broker, called “Moses and the Mayors”. The chapter is about Moses’ relationship with all of the mayors of NYC that overlapped with Moses’ “rule” over NYC. This excerpt covers just one of the mayors’ overlap...
✏️ Resilience By Design Every morning I read about a situation that pushes us further away from what we've come to know or...
17th Apr 2020
21

✏️ Resilience By Design

from Naz Hamid — Journal + Links [alt+shift+b] in literature

17th Apr 2020
Every morning I read about a situation that pushes us further away from what we've come to know or expect. With that comes the question of how our evolving reality affects product design, particularly for those who practice it. While some tech companies are seizing opportunities...
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