Alex Burns

Handwrite a to-do list each morning

What did Benjamin Franklin, Ludwig van Beethoven and Michael Jordan have in common? They all woke up each day and jotted down a to-do list. Of course, none of those guys (even heyday Jordan) had access to today’s apps or programs, which are able to automate tasks and set reminders and track your progress with an... See more

Taken together, we can combine them into what we might call a hierarchy of information :

• Raw data: the endless stream of posts, likes, bot spam


• Information: headlines, hashtags, trending things


• Knowledge: the narratives we share and fight over.


• Understanding: recognizing what might not be real (or is hyperreal)


• Wisdom: systemic analysis, the ability to

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But it was serving a function for you because that is one form of “like.” It’s what we call in linguistic speak a “quotative like,” and that “like” substitutes for the verb “to say.” What you are doing is saying, “I’m not telling you verbatim what the teacher said. I’m giving you sort of my subjective recall of what she said.” It’s a really useful... See more

But most websites today prioritize efficiency and usability, which leads to a kind of architectural sameness. “Everybody's house sort of looks the same,” he says, “you're taking the same hallway... because we’ve fallen into the same UI patterns.” He wonders about a new kind of website that invites curiosity rather than just guiding a behavior.... See more

Achieving perfection is the most efficient way to discover how little it offers.

Since its founding in 2012, A24 has consistently been on the upswing. The company’s success doesn’t come down to one thing, but a variety of factors: the championing of up-and-coming auteurs (Ari Aster, Greta Gerwig, Robert Eggers, the directorial duo known as the Daniels), which has established the studio as a reliable tastemaker; the execution of... See more