I was 12 years old when I first encountered this quote by Samuel Beckett: “Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.” That quote…
Meditations On Moloch
I. Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem on Moloch:What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination? Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and u…
Tom Robbins Quotes
"I believe in nothing, everything is sacred. I believe in everything, nothing is sacred." - Tom Robbins
Profit, cost, price, learned societies; further thoughts on Samuel A. Moore's Publishing Beyond the Market
Since I last wrote, I have had a few more thoughts on Samuel Moore’s book. Again, these are not necessarily things that he does not discuss or things that he should have discussed. They are merely thoughts that occurred to me in response to reading his work.
The Breath of the Author
The palpable presence of someone else's mind in our best writing should give us pause about the encroachment of AI text
Parmenides: Pre-Socratic Philosophy
Experiments with Monstrousness
‘I weep for you,’ the Walrus said; ‘I deeply sympathize’
The Tragedy of "The Tragedy of the Commons"
The man who wrote one of environmentalism’s most-cited essays was a racist, eugenicist, nativist and Islamaphobe—plus his argument was wrong
How books can sap the soul and poison readers with ideas | Aeon Essays
What’s more wholesome than reading? Yet books wield a dangerous power: the best erode self, infecting readers with ideas
Douglas Hofstadter - Person Paper on Purity in Language
From Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern by Douglas R. Hofstadter, Basic Books, 1985. (Original web version: http://www.bloomington.in.us/~abangert/person.html)
Noam Chomsky - "The machine, the ghost, and the limits of understanding"
Authorship, division of labour, material and digital form; thoughts on Samuel A. Moore's Publishing Beyond the Market
On Christmas day, we had a quiet time this year. One of the things I did was to read Moore, Samuel A., Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons (University of Michigan Press, 2025). This is a most enjoyable book that outlines a project and worldview that I know Sam has been cultivating and refining for many years. I should stress that I am not writing a “review” here. I would be conflicted anyway as I am thanked in the acknowledgements. But it did, like all good books, make me think and I wanted to jot down some thoughts. These thoughts are not necessarily novel – sometimes Sam even explores some of them in the book – but I thought it would be enjoyable to express them nonetheless.
Three Quotes from Early GitHubbers
Written pieces, talks, and other bits by Zach Holman.
MAiD, ableism, cognitive accessibility, and more
This one took a bit to write. The first piece is long (1,600+ words), and intense. But it needed to be said. I'll be interested to hear what you think. You...
Quote Origin: You Cannot Fool All the People All the Time
Question for Quote Investigator: One of the most famous sayings attributed to Abraham Lincoln is about deception:
Quote Origin: The Optimist Invents the Airplane and the Pessimist the Parachute – Quote Investigator®
George Bernard Shaw? Gladys Bronwyn Stern? W. H. H. MacKellar? Gil Stern? Mack McGinnis?