making sublime

I’ve come to think of software applications as a form of digital architecture: some are places of concentration, others of collaboration, others clearly just for fun. Software’s emotional dimension is crucial: how it feels dictates how it’s used. (Architects hire environmental psychologists; tech companies hire user-experience researchers.)... See more

And so a lot of the books that I now think of as foundational to how I see the world, to my aesthetic worldview, my ethical worldview, I just found out about because people would post on Reddit or Twitter. I think that is something really special about the internet, that you do not need to be in the right family context, geographic context, social... See more

I am so, deeply, truly uninterested in reaction (which is why I don’t read the comments on my public Instagram account). But I am so curious about response: the mysterious sacred moments when we are compelled into action (often unwitnessed by others) or invited into new ways of thinking.

It’s the difference between seeing a painting through a... See more

“See enough and write it down, I tell myself. And then some morning, when the world seems drained of wonder, some day when I’m going through the motions of doing what I am supposed to do... On that bankrupt morning, I will simply open my notebook and there it will all be, a forgotten account with accumulated interest. Paid passage back to the world... See more