Alex Burns
@alexgraceburns
Alex Burns
Substack for volcano brains (could be a neat video).
Thinking of your site as a full & adaptable encapsulation of yourself.
The concept of “soft publishing” and “self curating.”
The technicals: sections, tags, home page design.
Side projects as the key to the good life By Marty Bell • 31 Jul 2025
When I was 13, I created a chat room for teenagers to talk about art and photography (the tagline was, if I remember, “The future of art but we don’t give a fuck”). I think that was the first self-made project I put out into the world, and it taught me one of the most important
... See moreA fan of both Herman Melville and long-forgotten archives, Grann landed on the journals of a 16-year-old midshipman who was stranded with his crew members on an island off the coast of Patagonia. It was not the document’s descriptions of typhoons, shipwreck, or mutinies, however captivating, that convinced Grann the story of The Wager was worth... See more
Chronicler of the Flower Moon
a prime example of why a common book is so helpful! two very different ideas coming together
make websites cool again!!! pt 2. // visual diary/creative inspiration #017:
I think our brains have gotten so used to the homogeneity of the design of platforms - built on efficiency, uniformity, ease… that to see stuff like this, un-templated containers of content, is such a delight and surprise. website as art. art... See more
Arrianesubstack.com“Hot girl food” is about a sense of romanticizing simplicity; like the act of cracking open a can of smoked fish, “hot girl food” is seemingly effortless. But of course, even the things that are portrayed to us as “effortless” require effort; this is the myth of “no makeup” makeup, or the “effortless dinner party” that can be flung together with... See more
Bettina Makalintal • Why Is Tinned Fish ‘Hot Girl Food’ Now?
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
Who's Getting Rich Off Your Attention?
"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
—Arthur C. Clarke
Because right now there is someone
Out there with
a wound in the exact shape
of your words.
Out there with
a wound in the exact shape
of your words.