Links
A regularly updated collection of things I find worth reading, watching, or listening to. Subscribe via RSS.
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Current: an RSS reader
№ 129I linked to Terry Godier’s thoughts on RSS before.
He followed them up by launching his own RSS reader, Current. It has no unread count: new posts arrive, linger for some time, and then quietly fade away.
A lot of deep thought went into its creation and, the occassional UX niggle aside, I find it very pleasing to use.
I’m glad he turned the concept of RSS upside down and gave it a good shake. (I do hope the square-shaped macOS icon will be updated soon!)
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Image from The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives. A geeky typographic deep-dive into upside-down H’s.
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iPad Air with M4
№ 127Apple released a few ads this week and, while I haven’t paid very close attention to their advertising output recently, they are... quite great. I liked the one for the Neo, and the ad for the new iPad Air is particularly well executed. It has a lovely light touch, and is somewhat disorienting amd irksome, but in a good way. The horrendous macOS regression aside, it seems they’ve found their mojo on this front.
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Research by Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye shows that AI doesn’t reduce one’s workload, but increases it. The summary:
One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consistently intensify it: In the study, employees worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day, often without being asked to do so. That may sound like a win, but it’s not quite so simple. These changes can be unsustainable, leading to workload creep, cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making. The productivity surge enjoyed at the beginning can give way to lower quality work, turnover, and other problems. To correct for this, companies need to adopt an “AI practice”, or a set of norms and standards around AI use that can include intentional pauses, sequencing work, and adding more human grounding.
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Phantom Obligation
№ 125Terry Godier on why RSS readers (still) look like email clients, and why that means the design has guilt built-in.
He asks Brent Simmons, the designer of the first RSS reader, NetNewsWire, who says:
The part I don’t understand and can’t explain is why RSS readers are still mostly following this UI. But every new RSS reader ought to consider not being yet another three-paned-aggregator. There are surely millions of users who might prefer a river of news or other paradigms. Why not have some fun and do something new, or at least different?
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The Winterkeeper
№ 124A lifetime spent protecting Yellowstone National Park. Steven Fuller is a winter caretaker of the park, and has lived there for the past fifty years, hunkering down in a remote mountain cabin, and raising his children there, too—a most idyllic upbringing.
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Edith Bowman interviews Jonny Greenwood about his score for One Battle After Another, the latest film by Paul Thomas Anderson that’s just plain fantastic. They have collaborated on many films now (There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza, Inherent Vice, The Master), and hearing Greenwood explain in detail how he went about creating this latest is a treat.
Apparently, prompted by the fact that one of the musical cues needed to go on for 22 minutes, he built and programmed a mechanical ghost drumband; I’d love to see it in action. Greenwood always speaks with such respect about the musicians he’s worked with, and is so humble about his own musical genius. Always a joy to listen to.
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I’m a fan of Matt Willey’s work. I found him through INQUE, the large-format annual literary publication he designs, and followed his work since. Here he is speaking at Typographics 2025 about designing TV titles for, among other things, Killing Eve. (He also designed the titles for Landscapers, a great show I had entirely forgotten about.)
Cheers to Charlie for sharing.
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Ten Writing Prompts
№ 121
Three Six Five by Lucy Ives. Over on The Paris Review, via Iris, ten writing prompts by Lucy Ives, from her forthcoming book Three Six Five. The Distraction Diary is one I will try and implement as of this week.
If you work at a computer, keep a running account of what you are thinking at moments when, instead of continuing a task, you have a tendency to turn to “frivolous” or “unnecessary” pursuits, such as digging through social media, stalking esoteric DJs, or trawling eBay. Note your thoughts and impulses at these moments. Consider allowing the note-taking to replace the activity you had thought to turn toward. Remain aimless, if possible. Observe, describe; write things you didn’t mean to write and think things you didn’t mean to think.
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Produced by a clothing brand (apologies), this video follows Matt Somerville, a bee conservationist. For the last fourteen years, Matt has created log hives in winter, placing them throughout the landscape in summer to provide shelter for wild honey bees. They’re beautiful structures—sculptures of sorts—and I very much appreciate the work. Judging by this short documentary, creating just a single log hive is no easy feat, and the man has created thousands.