Writing
Challengers
One of the things that may be apocryphal—because I’ve never bothered to actually look it up, just...
6th Dec 2025
One of the things that may be apocryphal—because I’ve never bothered to actually look it up, just kept it kicking around in my head—is David Foster Wallace’s justification for the emphasis on footnotes in Infinite Jest: that they’re meant to be a physical metaphor for the...
Writing
Breakneck
I, like so many other people in the Tyler Cowen / Stripe Press extended universe, have deeply...
1st Nov 2025
I, like so many other people in the Tyler Cowen / Stripe Press extended universe, have deeply enjoyed Dan Wang's annual letters over the past years. And I was delighted to see that he returned to writing in the form of a long-form book, largely about the same subject. In writing...
Writing
Long Story Short
Long Story Short, feels like in many ways a synthesis of everything Raphael and Lisa have been...
3rd Oct 2025
Long Story Short, feels like in many ways a synthesis of everything Raphael and Lisa have been trying to do and say, packaged in a slightly more mature and restrained way than the excesses of Bojack Horseman and their respective written fiction (everyone should read Someone Who...
Writing
Goodwill
Read essay: Goodwill
1st Sep 2025
Writing
Three apps that will not change your life
After what has felt like a long winter of habitual reliance on my existing tools, I’m finally...
15th Aug 2025
After what has felt like a long winter of habitual reliance on my existing tools, I’m finally playing around with some new ones. This is a healthy habit—so long as you don’t convince yourself that you’re just one more App Store download away from a previously unimaginable level...
Writing
VC-subsidized tokens
Simon Willison writes about the recent Cursor changes:
1st Jul 2025
Simon Willison writes about the recent Cursor changes:
Writing
Black Bag
There's a (likely apocryphal) quote from Soderbergh about Ocean's Eleven, one of the greatest movies...
14th Jun 2025
There's a (likely apocryphal) quote from Soderbergh about Ocean's Eleven, one of the greatest movies about America:
Writing
The Ghost
All good books are different but all bad books are exactly the same. I know this to be a fact...
11th May 2025
All good books are different but all bad books are exactly the same. I know this to be a fact because in my line of work I read a lot of bad books - books so bad they aren't even published, which is quite a feat, when you consider what is published. And what they all have in...
Writing
The Flamethrowers
“Making art was really about the problem of the soul, of losing it. It was a technique for...
1st Mar 2025
“Making art was really about the problem of the soul, of losing it. It was a technique for inhabiting the world. For not dissolving into it.”
Writing
Being John Malkovich
I had held off on watching Being John Malkovich for a while, mostly because I think I had a pretty...
1st Feb 2025
I had held off on watching Being John Malkovich for a while, mostly because I think I had a pretty good idea of what it was and, while I wanted to watch it at some point, it never felt particularly urgent. (The vision in my head was a sort of Bosch painting filled with John...
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