FeedCity

I want writing to be as open as podcasting. The pattern is ridiculously easy to apply. If this were on a a high school math test, it would be too easy, everyone would get it right. How do you make text work like podcasting? 1. You look for a brain-dead obvious choice for tex...

Wyoming, February 2026.

From the video Photographing a snowstorm in Jackson, Wyoming.

British footy announcers identifying a player from the U.S. when he does something impressive: “the Fulham left-back,” “the Juventus midfielder,” etc.

British footy announcers identifying the same player when he does something wrong: “The American.”

My spitball idea for a generational law to keep more young people from ever starting a tobacco habit — and thus, nicotine addiction — would be through scaled taxation.

After last night's game I remember I now remember why I was so relieved last season when the Knicks were eliminated in the semifinals of the NBA playoffs. It’s a freaking exhausting sport. And the sad truth is the Knicks are getting beaten by Atlanta. Or maybe it's not so sa...

Erica’s book arrived this week. It’s been with me on the balcony, on the couch, in a park—and today, I read the last few pages in the sun, on a bench at the south end of Lake Munksjön. Such a cozy slice-of-life read. 📚

Also, this tidbit from the book’s introduction:

I’ve been drawing and writing all my life, but I didn’t think I had enough to fill a book. I guess all I needed was to keep going.

Love that. Just keep going.

I think about this scene more and more lately.

From an earlier essay on Elizabeth on the alternative to thinking of every social/cultural political situtation as a pitched battle:

Warriors are right that this world is certainly full of problems, and sometimes battles must be fought. Nobody can shrug them off or pretend that they don’t exist. But losers don’t in fact shun the active life. Instead, they are engaged in activity that takes place in a much deeper stratum of consciousness than political and journalistic warfare. They invest energy in existentially permanent activities, like loving and caring for other people: children, students, family, neighbors, colleagues. They work as musicians, educators, physicians, priests, and artists. Beautiful losers renew and pass on the art, literature, and manners that constitute the best of our culture.

Andy McMillan and Andy Baio: Today, over 10 years later, and almost two full years after we retired the festival for good, we’re finally launching that website. Named after what we thought would be a throwaway title for a short-lived GitHub repo, allow us to introduce XO...

Eva Corlett, reporting for The Guardian in 2023: New Zealand’s new government will scrap the country’s world-leading law to ban smoking for future generations to help pay for tax cuts — a move that public health officials believe will cost thousands of lives and be “cata...

My friend and colleague Elizabeth Corey: Certainly the professoriate leans leftward. But it turns out that people from right and left can agree on many things despite our differences: for example, what to read in our courses, pedagogical practices, and how to care for our s...

On the right tools for the (or my) classroom job.

In the past week I’ve started three personal experiments that use AI (in this case Claude Code). For each, the experiment lies in automating steps in my cognitive work that are useful or necessary but not the actual cognitive work itself. They’re helper activities, supporting the main task. For two of the three that is […]

Ephrat Livni, reporting for The New York Times (gift link): Britain aims to raise a “smoke-free generation” by permanently banning the sale or supply of tobacco to anyone born in 2009 or after, with a bill that was approved by Parliament on Tuesday. The bill applies to ...

I say this every couple of years, and it’s time: The next time someone tells you that René Girard is a great genius, before you decide you believe it please read this essay by Joshua Landy.

Sylvia Pixley

Let's say you're in Claude Code and you think of something you want to post on your blog. How many steps before you're ready to click the Post button and get back to work? I don't think there's a way to create something that works this way, you'd have to switch out of Claude or ChatGPT. Wouldn't it be nice if you could do it right there?

Why Firefox? There's a moment now when the web could benefit from leadership. There's a chance to rebuild text in the web around the use of AI systems. But almost every company that could be a leader in this space isn't thinking about what they can do for the web, instead ar...

Russ Choma, reporting for Mother Jones: Devin Nunes was not an obvious choice to run a fledgling social media network, but after $1.1 billion in losses, the former dairy farmer and congressman is out as the head of Truth Social. Donald Trump Jr., a board member at Trump...

Nilay Patel, in a terrific essay (and Decoder one-sider) at The Verge: In fact, the polling on this is so strong, I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people hate AI, and that Gen Z in particular seems to hate AI more and more as they encounter it. There’s that NBC New...