The most radical thing you can do to rebel against this emerging post-literate, brain-slop-world we are entering is read long, complicated books on a daily basis. The ability to pay attention for long periods will be one of the most valuable and rare skills of the future.— Laura Matsue (@lauramatsue) October 18, 2026
A Wild chat with Sarah Stein Lubrano on getting people to change
How do we change people’s minds about what’s happening to the world...before it's too late?
Technically Radical
They're so thoroughly hypnotized by the short-term victory of global capitalism that they can't surf the new paradigm, look to the longer term. – Charles Stross, Accelerando One obvious role for a radical intellectual is to do precisely that: look at those who are creating viable alternatives, try to figure out what might be the larger implications of what they are (already) doing, and then offer those ideas back [to the world], not as prescriptions, but as contributions, possibilities—as gifts. – David Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology Over 2024, we saw major tech investors and company owners overtly turn toward the right, overtly backing Donald Trump in his electoral campaign....
Technically Radical
They're so thoroughly hypnotized by the short-term victory of global capitalism that they can't surf the new paradigm, look to the longer term. – Charles Stross, Accelerando One obvious role for a radical intellectual is to do precisely that: look at those who are creating viable alternatives, try to figure out what might be the larger implications of what they are (already) doing, and then offer those ideas back [to the world], not as prescriptions, but as contributions, possibilities—as gifts. – David Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology Over 2024, we saw major tech investors and company owners overtly turn toward the right, overtly backing Donald Trump in his electoral campaign....
Luiza Jarovsky, PhD on Twitter / X
🚨 University professors have been saying AI is completely destroying learning and that we'll soon have an AI-powered, semi-illiterate workforce. Here's a glimpse into the educational apocalypse:"Sarah, a freshman at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, said she first used… pic.twitter.com/Rq6zUi5mRp— Luiza Jarovsky, PhD (@LuizaJarovsky) May 6, 2026
Skim reading is the new normal. The effect on society is profound | Maryanne Wolf
When the reading brain skims texts, we don’t have time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s feelings or to perceive beauty. We need a new literacy for the digital age writes Maryanne Wolf, author of Reader, Come Home
William Dalrymple on Twitter / X
Just finished this gem by the wonderful @KimGhattas. Kim is one of best informed and most intelligent writers on West Asia, remarkable for her ability to bring clarity to the most complex scenarios. She is also a wonderful storyteller. Her new book, The Best Kind of American, is… pic.twitter.com/ZOHEulcuOe— William Dalrymple (@DalrympleWill) August 27, 2026
How to Go Mad Without Losing Your Mind: Madness and Bla…
Winner of the Modern Language Association First Book Pr…
Changing Minds: Computers, Learning, and Literacy
An impassioned guide to how computers can fundamentally change how we learn and think.Andrea diSessa's career as a scholar, technologist, and teacher has b
Ultra-Processed Minds: The End of Deep Reading and What It Costs Us
A reflection on the reading life. What formed it, what threatens it, and what remains.
Future Knowledge | Mass Surveillance and the Loss of Fun
In this episode of Future Knowledge, Alexis Durante-Tierney and Helen Vogelsong-Donahue, hosts of the Born Digital podcast, explore how growing up under constant surveillance may be changing the wa...
Amelia Wattenberger 🪷 on Twitter / X
exploring ways we can "step back" from text/code and make sense of it,the way do in maps or how we can "fit more" in our visual system, it just gets smaller and decreases resolution.here's a fun one: extract the main concepts and throw them on a sphere, keep spinning to go… pic.twitter.com/yzh42EcBTe— Amelia Wattenberger 🪷 (@Wattenberger) July 6, 2026
Steal This Story, Please! (2025)
New York-based independent investigative journalist Amy Goodman has been reporting from hotspots around the world for decades: from East Timor to Morocco, Nigeria, and Gaza, and closer to home during…
The Curious About Everything Newsletter #65
The many interesting things I read in July 2026
The revolt of the reader | The Observation Deck
Reading is important to me. While I’m not a quick reader nor an especially voracious one, I have found that long-form reading has had a profound influence on me over my life. And because reading is important to me, writing is too: writing not only allows us to convey our ideas, but the very act forces us to test and distill them — at once making our ideas more robust while providing the vehicle by which to share them.
"There is a contrast between my biological development, confidently realizing its in-built norm, and my fumbling psychological development, realizing partially..one among many apparently possible orders .. Learning what to want is the most radical, the most painful and the most creative art of life"
