Essays

10posts

An old brass tap on a dark tiled wall, a single drop of water frozen mid-fall beneath the spout

Jul 17, 20264 min

On Changing the World One Room at a Time

On "not my problem," and what happens when you drop the first word.

Agency Modernity

Two wine glasses tilted toward each other in a toast with no hands, rims almost touching, warm spotlight

Jul 16, 20263 min

On the Last Human Sports: An Erratum on Flirting

A correction to the codex. The management regrets nothing.

LLMs Trolling

A solitary middle-aged man sitting alone on a dimly lit metro platform

Jun 22, 20263 min

Everyday Heroes

Working notes for a column.

Agency Craft

A small steaming kettle sitting incongruously inside a large bubbling jacuzzi.

Jun 15, 20261 min

The Jacuzzi Fallacy

"It was worth it because of this nice thing that fell out of it" is not an argument. It's the receipt for a purchase you never compared.

Fallacies Thinking

A green iguana sitting with regal composure on a velvet cushion beside a small golden crown, under a single spotlight

Jun 11, 202612 min

On the Last Human Sports: The Rules of Trolling

There is a leaderboard for everything now. Two games take no machine entry — and one of them has iguanas in it.

LLMs Trolling

A lone robed figure climbs the long central stair of a vast stepped stone temple toward a fire at its summit, at cold ashen dawn

Jun 8, 202622 min

You'll Understand When You're Older

the catastrophe you never look up

Modernity Moloch

An open antique naturalist's field guide on a dark wooden desk in lamplight: a hand-drawn engraving of a horned creature on the right page, dense handwritten annotations on the left, a dip pen in the gutter

Jun 3, 202618 min

A Monster Manual

a field guide to your own catastrophes

Craft Self Knowledge

A wooden Trojan horse on wheels in a city avenue at dawn, watched from a high window

May 28, 20267 min

Call me Cassandra

Three years holding this back. Done holding.

Authenticity LLMs

A slender stone tower on a hill at dusk, one upper window lit warm orange; a small post-house with a shelf of bound journals visible through its window sits at the foot of the hill; a muddy path connects them

May 13, 202614 min

Of Solitary Vice

Most work that feels productive is self-referential, and the small warm room is unlikely to tell you so. An essay on the alchemist's tower, the journals at the foot of the hill, and the visitor whose advice is absorbed, not refused.

Craft Isolation

Solitary figure descending a mountain path toward a lit city in the valley at dawn

May 12, 202616 min

This Is the Lucky One

Most decisions you celebrate were wrong, and nothing in your week is going to tell you which ones. An essay on feedback loops, falsification, and the discipline of being made to find out.

Feedback Loops Research Life