Otis Chandler

Smashing, a new app curating the best of the web from Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler, is now available to the public.

When I’m writing in Google Docs, any time I get stuck with a concept, I can select a sentence, press “CTRL” + “R”, and Sublime’s browser extension (available in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Arc) will pull up relevant ideas, like this:

A recent paper by two economists at the Federal Reserve found that Mr Trump’s targeted tariffs did not work as intended. Looking at manufacturing industries such as household appliances and car parts, they found a small jobs boost from the import protection conferred by tariffs. But this was more than offset by drags from both retaliatory tariffs a... See more

On Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook, and almost every other big social media platform, the link is deprioritized in favor of keeping your eyes on the platform at all costs. This has had disastrous consequences for journalism, art, and the fundamental connective nature of the web.

Watching this from inside the media, I’ve experienced two contradicting feelings. First is a kind of powerlessness from working in an industry with waning influence amid shifting consumption patterns. The second is the notion that the craft, rigor, and mission of traditional journalism matter more than ever.

Facebook was born from a website made for elite students to rank their classmates’ sexual attractiveness; Twitter was a watercooler where bored office workers could get attention by telling jokes in public. It’s as if 3M’s accidental invention of Post-It notes while failing to make space glue landed them a UN veto.