Links #150

Celeste Nguyen on writing being an inherently dignified human activity and on writing a newsletter. After reading this, one of my loose goals for the year — I don’t make formal resolutions anymore — is to write more on this blog, and to branch out to other kinds of posts in addition to the booknotes and link posts.

Dan Wang’s 2025 letter on China and the U.S. Good analysis. Looking forward to reading his new book, Breakneck.

Booktime on the legacy of The Power Broker. “I believe its legacy is much more complex than many of the retrospectives published in major outlets over the last month make it seem.” A good counterpoint, at least for this Caro fanboy.

Roy Scholten’s LEGO Letterpress art. Fun.

Lofi microbes to study/relax to. Ha. I don’t actually use YouTube for things like this, but I love the idea of a livestream of microbes.

Graphite, a newish open source graphics app. I’ve played around with it a little, and the procedural node-based editing seems like it may end up being useful in making my art.

Emily Bressler in McSweeney’s with “I Work For an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I’m Actually a Really Good Person.” Ha.

Ted Gioia on why secondhand is now better than buying things new. This does seem true, and what a pity that is.

JA Westenberg on the case for blogging in the ruins. “The blog, at its best (a best I aspire one day to reach) is Montaigne’s direct descendant. It’s a form that allows for intellectual exploration without demanding premature certainty. You can write a post working through an idea, acknowledge in the post itself that you’re not sure where you’ll end up, and invite readers to think alongside you. You can return to the topic weeks later with updated thoughts. The format accommodates the actual texture of thinking, which is messy and recursive and full of wrong turns.”