I wrote about old rap magazines, the fight for the future of hip hop’s past, and the impact the digital age has had on history, for @defector.com
defector.com/lost-recipes
A hand holding a library copy of Charles Yu’s novel “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe”
This book is fucking me up in all the right ways 🪷
Roses are redde
Violettes are blue
Sayinge that the adoption of a technologye ys inevitable
Ys a way to trick you
Reflected on why it's been so hard to start over. organized.ghost.io/permissionle...
“How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe” by Charles Yu
“Archive of Unknown Universes” by Ruben Reyes Jr.
“How To Stop Time” by Matt Haig
Those in power have tried to convince us that resistance would be too tiring.
But let Minnesotans teach you that it’s actually energizing to be a part of a movement to change society for the better.
If you’re tired, get involved. You’ll be surprised by how quickly you start to feel better.
I am taking down the paywall for this one, as I believe it remains relevant as a reflection on the limits of the authoritarian assault – and the need to push back against the idea that America is inevitably and irresistibly marching towards a Trump dictatorship.
This week’s piece:
Photo of a Kumiko project in progress. A geometric hemp leaf pattern constructed within a grid.
A photo of a finished Kumiko project. A geometric hemp leaf pattern constructed within a grid, surrounded by hashes.
First woodworking class was a disaster, but I finished 😅
“Bringing the temperature down” are instructions for how to continue heating up a simmering pot without it boiling over; not instructions for ceasing to heat up a pot. The metaphor clearly communicates its intended rhetorical purpose.
My personal guiding question remains this:
What have I done to alleviate suffering today?
Convinced that being able to answer that affirmatively each night is what has powered me through the past few years, and lets me sleep at night.
Omg, so cute 🥹🥹🥹
Thank you ♥️! Excited to dig into the links you shared ✨
I can’t imagine going through the healthcare system now. Wouldn’t call myself lucky but feel relieved it happened before *waves hands*. Wishing you and your family a better experience. If you need any help, feel free to ping me!
A brief update. Reflected on coffee work and its role in my recovery from a breakdown, trading ambition for drive, and the coffeehouse as social infrastructure. Special thanks to @shannonmattern.bsky.social, whose work has helped shape my thinking and bridge experience to research.
Finding a nice balance between blogging, essays, flash non-fiction, and speculative short stories. Have accepted I have to pass through all four for every story I want to tell about the last five years.
I find the idea that technology “evolves” via some sort of passive internal force of history extremely pernicious. The idea that things simply improve rather than very specific choices and efforts being made in targeted areas that then require new infrastructures to maintain is really dangerous.
Yes, and as someone who writes both non-fiction and speculative fiction, it kind of pisses me off because it denigrates both genres. Know that perfect objectivity isn’t possible, but kind of wish the lines between the two were respected more. I blame post-modernism 😊
Yes, I finally get to live out my “Nina MacLaughlin doing carpentry in the dead of winter while re-reading Ovid” fantasy 🧚🏻♀️🪑
glowing grotto 🌱
🍃 How do we translate between the world within and the world around us? (Po Bronson, "What Should I Do With My Life?")
🍃 How do we decide what’s right for our own lives? How do we go about constructing that life? (Nina MacLaughlin, "Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter")
Most valuable questions from 2025, which still feel relevant in 2026:
🍃 What has your resilience cost you? (Emily P. Freeman, "How To Walk Into A Room")
🍃 Are you spending your time being supported? Or trying to prove yourself worthy of support? (Robin Moriarty, "What Game Are You Playing?")
This is why I signed up for woodworking in January. Angry crafting feels necessary right now 💅
A tiny, female hand with painted nails, holding a copy of Italo Calvino’s essay collection “Six Memos for the Next Millennium”, over crossed legs in gray sweatpants.
Italo Calvino’s essay on “lightness” has been in the back of my mind for nine months now and set the tone for much of the year. Re-reading it now feels appropriate. So happy to finally have a hardcopy in hand.
* who’d
What do you mean? I actually have issues with systems thinking, as it tends to be a strategy for avoiding responsibility and dodging ethical/moral questions. Here’s what I mean:
talyarkoni.org/blog/2018/10...
This is why people become writers 😉. If you want something in tech, though, have you looked into Layer Aleph, The Center for Civic Futures, or DAIR? Feel like the people who’s appreciate your skillset the most are in the civic tech space or thereabouts.
Wish I could have attended❣️Excited to see what you do next!
Go for it. If it doesn’t work out, you can always self-publish later.
Eight books arranged in a grid on a gray blanket. Starting from the top-left and moving down: 1. “The Saturday Night Ghost Club” by Craig Davidson 2. “Underland” by Robert McFarlane 3. “Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask” by Jim Munroe 4. “Engineering In Plain Sight” by Grady Hillhouse 5. “To Engineer Is Human” by Henry Petroski 6. “Who We’re Reading When We’re Reading Murakami” by David Karashima 7. “Unequal: The Math of When Things Do and Don’t Add Up” by Eugenia Cheng 8. “From Geometry to Topology” by H. Graham Flegg
Ah, your blanket and selection looks so cozy. Here are mine:
Life isn’t simple like math where every problem has an answer; it’s more like math, where problems have many answers or no possible answer at all!
One of the many reasons AI can't produce good writing is it can't hate its own writing. It can't think to itself "Maybe I'm illiterate" during the writing process. And that's essential
