Bookmarks for June 2, 2026
- The AI Bubble — No One's Happy
A depressing but probably accurate analysis.
Author: Alasdair
Bookmarks for May 22, 2026
- Inside the Secret History of the DeGrange Family – The New York Times
A fascinating account of one family, split into two branches, and a very clear highlight of how much many elements of race/racism are a social construct. Some sad and difficult stuff in here, and some cause for hope, too.
Bookmarks for May 21, 2026
- At Long Last, I Have Maxximized My Looks – McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
A perfect set of little touches makes this a must read.
Bookmarks for May 6, 2026
- Why Han Solo Was An Amazing TTRPG Player And TTRPG Players Of Han Solo Characters Mostly Aren't – Old Men Running The World
Keiron is absolutely bang on here. It can be summarised as "get buy in", but the flip side is "if you want to play a reluctant-hero character who has to be convinved to do things, make sure it's very, very easy to convince them".
Bookmarks for April 29, 2026
- The Death of Spotify: Why Streaming is Minutes Away From Being Obsolete
The writing has been on this particular wall for over a decade, and smaller indie artists have known it for a long time. What interests me is that Jimmy Iovine is now saying it.
Bookmarks for April 24, 2026
- What do coders do after AI? – Anil Dash
This article resonated very, very strongly with me, and particularly this quote:
“The reason that tech generally — and coders in particular — see LLMs differently than everyone else is that in the creative disciplines, LLMs take away the most soulful human parts of the work and leave the drudgery to you,” Dash says. “And in coding, LLMs take away the drudgery and leave the human, soulful parts to you.”
Bookmarks for April 21, 2026
- A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity | Open Culture
I've listened to "Cross Road Blues" a number of times over the years. This really is an impressive new digitisation of a very clean and well preserved original.
- Tim Cook Is Stepping Down As Apple CEO
And the letter he has written to the community of Apple users seems really very genuine and plausible, and I find myself wondering how many CEOs can really say the same sorts of things about their job. Obviously, being the CEO of Apple is a pretty one-of-a-kind thing, but still: how many of them feel a sense of outright joy that they get to do the job the do? As opposed to some of ghastly, competative grindset mentality or even just a weight-of-responsibility thing?
- xkcd: Types of Board Game
Perfect summary. Especially the "Party" one.
Bookmarks for April 17, 2026
- A Pillar of Economics Admits That It Was Wrong – The Atlantic
The World Bank abandon free market doctrine in favour of sensibly targeted government intervention. In further news, down is up, and dogs are now cats and vice versa. I jest, but this is both interesting and kinda-good-news.
Bookmarks for April 15, 2026
- YouTube Now Worlds Largest Media Company, Topping Disney
I suspect I'm not alone in watching more Youtube that broadcast TV. But I do still get odd looks when I say I do that. I am relieved to find that merely makes me more mainstream than the person looking at me funny.
- We gave an AI a 3 year retail lease in SF and asked it to make a profit | Andon Labs
An AI research company is letting an AI run a shop. And it's hired staff. It's a fascinating research experiment, if, at the current level of the tech, more or less doomed to be no more than a weird curio.
Bookmarks for April 14, 2026
- New Orleans’s Car-Crash Conspiracy | The New Yorker
Absolutely wild true-crime story from New Orleans. Fascinating read.