Best of sceneswithsimon.com on Kiwi News
Most upvoted by Kiwi News readers
105 stories from sceneswithsimon.com have been shared on Kiwi News since 28 May 2023, with 243 upvotes and 19 comments in total. The latest was shared on 2 June 2026. The 50 most upvoted are listed below.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- What is Your System Prompt?
The article, by Simon de la Rouviere, examines what a system prompt is and proposes that a good one for a person should be concise and descriptive, condensing a worldview into a few sentences. It compares the published system prompts of Claude, Grok and ChatGPT, noting that ChatGPT's is long and tool-focused while Claude's contains some generally good advice. De la Rouviere writes a sample personal system prompt describing himself as an Afrikaans white man in his 30s who grew up in post-Apartheid South Africa, with habits such as listening more than speaking, forgiving rather than standing his ground, and sharing his writing through a weekly newsletter. The post ends with a personal update on his second bout of COVID and his cancelled half-marathon.
- Dissecting Substack’s Inverted Revenue Curve
Substack's revenue does not concentrate among its most popular creators the way it does on ad-supported platforms, where a small share of creators earn most of the money. Simon argues that Substack sells access rather than attention, so paying subscribers express individual desire and support smaller writers. He is not fully convinced that direct payment alone explains the difference and suggests something else inside Substack is also at work. He also says he found no convincing numbers for Patreon or OnlyFans that would show a different pattern.
- On The Crisis of Cool
This is a newsletter-style roundup, so the summary covers its main pieces. Its lead item is Chris Marino's article on the perceived "crisis of cool," which argues that in 2020s New York the performance of being an artist has taken precedence over the production of art. The newsletter's author adds that younger people are trying to counter perceived cringeness by labeling sincere activities "performative," and predicts that offline coolness will return in a new form. Other items cover Sachin's piece on gambling's changing meaning across cultures, drawing on McLuhan and Geertz, and a ranking of the four main US cities that puts San Francisco and the DMV (DC and Baltimore) closely at fourth and fifth.
- Nouns, Delivery At Dawn, and Collectible Media
Simon argues that Delivery At Dawn, a Nouns-funded animation, shows collectible media can work at larger scale, particularly when sales also fund open source development. The Protocol Guild proposed that Nouns fund a short animation celebrating the EIP 4844 Ethereum upgrade and asked for $400,000. Released as an open edition NFT through Zora with proceeds split 80/20, the project drew over 31,000 collectors who raised about 200 ETH, sending $529,000 to open source developers and $130,000 back to Nouns after the platform fee.
- Memecoins and Crypto's Moral Compass
The author's central view is that memecoins are a form of coordination and entertainment that can be judged by whether their social benefits outweigh their costs, and that they should be steered toward pro-social outcomes rather than ignored. The piece cites Vitalik Buterin wanting more memecoins that support public goods and fewer that enrich insiders, and it notes CipherTrace's report that rug pulls accounted for 99% of crypto frauds in 2023, totaling $2.1 billion in losses. It also cites polynya's argument that memecoins reflect crypto's broken moral compass, and says that gambling addiction estimates are 1-5% of US adults.
- Who's Changing: Me, My Culture, or the World?
This is a newsletter-style roundup, and its central theme is whether personal change in one's 30s comes from getting older, from the broader culture, or from society at large, with the author concluding it may be both. The author describes wanting to slow down and spend time on walking, writing and existing relationships, and cites Vitalik Buterin's reflections on turning 30 and on finite beautiful things. The rest of the post covers a Matthew Ball report on declining gaming revenue, UMG pulling its music from TikTok, the Palworld copyright question, and Noah Smith's critique of the Dark Forest idea in Three Body Problem.
- On Speculation and Optimism's Recent $100m Retroactive Public Goods Grants
Optimism's third Retroactive Public Goods Funding Round (RetroPGF) funded 501 projects with over ~$100m (30m $OP), according to the article, which presents retroactive funding as a way to reward past useful work rather than predict future success. The round was far larger than the previous two, which rewarded 10m OP and $1m. The author, Simon, argues that the bicameral governance structure, split between the Citizens' House and the Token House, and the focus on retroactive funding are what the experiment gets right. He also lists open risks, including failure to bootstrap revenue before the 20% allocation is distributed and possible capture of the governance house.
- Three Tomorrows & The Creative Journey
Simon, writing a weekly newsletter, argues that people are seeking new forms of in-person connection after years of online life, and that authentic creative work will get attention regardless of how it is made. He points to running clubs in Williamsburg, crypto DAO FWB's festival held in a forest, and teenagers in New York choosing flip phones and meeting in parks as signs of this shift. He also says book sales in the U.S. are the highest they have ever been, and he is pessimistic about private equity firm KKR's proposed purchase of Simon & Schuster. He argues that AI will not suddenly flood culture with content, because creation is the easiest step in cultural formation.
- Time Off vs Creative Relaxing
Simon asks whether the pull to create during holidays and time off is a real tension with being present, and he is hoping to do more of both in 2025. He describes feeling anxious on holidays about not writing, and he questions whether this is healthy, noting he has gotten better at balance with age. The post also covers his novel draft 2, with a goal of finishing it soon and sharing draft 3 with friends and potential agents around mid-year, and a reading, watching and gaming roundup.
- What To Do About Distribution
Simon, a creator, writes that he feels torn between the importance of distribution and his preference for life away from screens, describing online venues as gamed, algorithmic and noisy. He argues that canon is overplayed and that studios and fans should let it go, and he is wary of Disney's plan to let fans remix its media with AI. He says the Disney plan could strengthen mega-IP's dominance and leave less room for new creators.
- UMG Deals and Generative AI in Music
Universal Music Group announced generative AI deals with Udio, which settles litigation and includes a joint creation, consumption, and streaming product, and with Stability.ai for tools. Udio and UMG are targeting a 2026 launch of a "walled garden" where AI creations cannot be downloaded or posted outside the site, which UMG executive vice president and chief digital officer Michael Nash said is meant to avoid "direct cannibalization" of artists' streaming tracks. Udio CEO Andrew Sanchez describes the platform as part Spotify-like service, part creator platform, and part social network. The commentary argues that label consolidation, like earlier pressure on streaming services, will strengthen major companies more than individual creators.
- What is Programmable IP Licensing Good For?
The author argues that programmable IP licensing is most useful for open IP that is illiquid, and that it is less suited to closed mega-IP, where owners want to protect their works. The author says they were involved in this domain from 2014 to 2019, including work on Ujo Music's automated royalty payment prototype on Ethereum and the COALA IP framework. The article cites Story Protocol's $140m raise for a blockchain network focused on programmable IP, and suggests IP clubs, such as tabletop RPG licensing groups or an SCP subset charging for commercial derivatives, as possible uses.
- Prediction Markets as Conversations
Simon argues that prediction markets work as conversation spaces, not just forecasting tools, and that Manifold's social features add valuable context to market prices. He says that on Manifold, users stake their reputations as predictors, and that comments anchored to predictions and the ability to follow other predictors add context that PredictIt lacked. He also suggests adding comments to market timelines, similar to how SoundCloud places comments over an audio waveform. He notes that Manifold has been quite accurate in last year's US mid-terms, though he says the user base skews toward nerds, rationalists, tech people, and forecasters.
- Act 2 is About Context, Not Conflict
This newsletter argues that act 2 of a story is less about inflicting conflict on the protagonist and more about placing a theme in context with alternate perspectives until it is exhausted. The author contrasts this with Kurt Vonnegut's advice to "be a sadist," noting that conflict-driven stories like Star Wars and The Graduate fit the model, but so do non-conflict stories such as Paddington, Ted Lasso, Before Sunrise, Lost in Translation and Perfect Days. The newsletter also covers NFT art, thinner book printing and San Francisco landmark preservation.
- From Social LLM Agents with Wallets to Self-Owning Forest Deodands
The author argues that social LLM agents with crypto wallets, such as Terminal of Truths and Aether, are an early step toward more autonomous entities that could be described as "deodands" or "Coasean" blobs rather than agents. The article says Terminal of Truths, an LLM on Twitter, drove a memecoin worth over $500m in a short time, with the bot earning a few million from it. It describes Andy Ayrey's "Infinite Backrooms" project and a fine-tuned Llama model that Ayrey connects to Twitter, while noting Ayrey still monitors its posts and manually acts as its world interface for the wallet.
- The Eclipse and the Reclamation of Looking at the Same Thing
The writer argues that the April 8 total solar eclipse offered a brief, shared experience that people should try to repeat through local, offline life rather than relying on the sky. Describing watching it from DC, the writer says millions across populous parts of Northern America gathered outside, which felt like a reclaiming of shared reality from screens. The writer links this to a wish to reinvest in local culture, such as subsidising arts, sports and community groups, and to balance digital life with connection to place.
- Solaris (1972) vs Solaris (2002)
Technologists often miss the second-order effects that slow positive feedback loops, so AI may take longer to reshape society than the AI-2027 scenario suggests. Vitalik Buterin notes that if the length of tasks AIs can complete autonomously keeps doubling roughly every seven months, they could operate for the equivalent of a whole human career by the mid-2030s. Anu Atluru describes "local social craft," meaning community-building work like hosting salons or running paint nights, as a kind of work AI is unlikely to dominate. Derek Thompson, citing Marc Dunkelman, argues that the "middle ring" of community in American social life has atrophied.
- Lore as a Third Place
The author argues that lore has become a "third place" for fans, where it is treated as sacred and guarded, which can make franchises risk-averse and alienate newcomers. Using The Acolyte as the main example, the piece describes some fans scrutinizing the show for minor lore errors, such as a Ki-Adi-Mundi age change tied to a 1999 Phantom Menace Insider's Guide. The author says media increasingly relies on its creators' identities as part of the meta-narrative, which they see as a strength, while acknowledging that it can frustrate fans who want stories to stand on their own.
- Media Saturation & Having Media Speak For Us
The article argues that in an age of abundant media, popular works succeed less on distribution or quality alone and more on whether they let people express a feeling or identity to others. It contends that media increasingly "speaks for us," citing Fred Again's sold-out LA show, the BookTok push for Fourth Wing, and the film Challengers over Furiosa as examples. Steven Hyden attributes memory-holed albums partly to a numbing familiarity in 2024 pop music, while Constance Grady describes TV's strongest work as happening in small, passionately loved niches like Mrs. Davis.
- Paying Drivers To Not Drive Congestion Pricing Inspired by Ethereum's Blockspace
The author proposes a congestion pricing model inspired by Ethereum's EIP 1559 that pays drivers to stay off the road rather than only charging them to drive. Under the scheme, drivers allowed to drive for free on a given day would be offered a reward for staying away, funded by fees paid by drivers who want to drive without a free pass. The fee would combine a base fee set by road demand with a stay-away price set by a daily Dutch auction that descends until enough bids cover the drivers allowed to drive free. The article presents this as directional rather than perfect and lists open questions, including collusion risk and how to define who is eligible for payment.
- Maps and The Value Of Being Lost In The Act Of Creation
This newsletter, written by Simon, argues that a map is most useful when it stays a mini-map that keeps a person in the experience rather than pulling them out of it, a principle he applies to games, life and writing. He cites Tears of the Kingdom as handling this well, since its mini-map shows relevant nearby information and landmarks visible in the world, and the game does not punish veering off-path. Applying the idea to his novel, he says that too much plotting leaves the story stuck, while too little lets the world dissolve, and he describes his own writing progress and a half marathon he is preparing for.
- Inside Andreessen's Techno-Optimism Manifesto: NPC Meme as Ideology
Commentators respond mostly critically to Marc Andreessen's techno-optimism manifesto. Noah Smith defends technological progress as a humanist commitment to giving people as much choice as possible, admitting this is a moral intuition rather than something provable with facts. Ed Zitron calls the essay an embarrassment, a vague libertarian complaint that makes no concrete suggestions. Steven Levy argues the manifesto justifies unchecked markets and inequality, and that its language about "captured people" suffering from ressentiment is dehumanising, which he calls the NPC meme as ideology.
- Past Lives and The Boys of Summer
Mitchell Chan's video game art project The Boys of Summer is presented as an NFT collection in which players pursue a major league baseball career that ends in death, and the author argues it mirrors how life feels when spreadsheets run ahead of us. The author links it to the A24 film Past Lives, which follows a married Korean American woman reconnecting with her childhood sweetheart from South Korea, and says both works turn the grief of unlived lives into something reflective rather than dramatic. The game lets players restart and reveals hidden metrics over time, and its title card changes based on the player's blockchain data.
- The Garden of a Messy, Protocolized Rewilding vs the Fragile Monocultured Lawn
Anti-trust is a good lever for the web and Hollywood, but the writer argues it is too US-centric and prefers protocolization and people-led change, while noting that both carry costs. Daniel Bessner's Hollywood piece reports that as of 2021, CEOs at most of the largest industry companies earned between 200 and 3,000 times the pay of median employees, and that four companies now control film and TV. The writer cites Elinor Ostrom's research on collective resource management and Cindy Lee's album Diamond Jubilee, released as .wav files, as examples, but concludes the best lever is when individual choice becomes collective choice without government enforcement.
- How to Be Illegible In The Age of Slop
This newsletter argues that creative work should resist being shaped for algorithmic legibility, and that LLM-generated slop is defined by work that feeds on audience attention rather than delighting it. Simon argues that creators should experiment with form, show the depth behind their work, use social media to show breadth rather than depth, and keep useful noise like mistakes and rough edges. The piece says LLMs can still be valuable exploratory tools, provided they are used to find new insight rather than to feed on attention.
- Gearing Down
The author announces they are slimming down their newsletter, dropping regular long-form "tent pole" articles in favor of roundups, life updates, links and new music, because writing it in its current form takes at least two days a week. They say this time has slowed progress on their novel, which has taken a year and a half, and on their art. Other sections cover reading Caroline Kepnes's "You," running, gaming with Factorio, and a critique of Polymarket's election forecasts as subject to survivor bias. The author also argues that real-money markets have structural problems and that prediction markets are best read alongside the news.
- A (Sober) Reflection on a Decade of Ethereum
Vitalik Buterin's... wait, the article's author is not named in the text, so I must avoid attributing it by name unless the text names them. The text does not name its author. The author's central view is that Ethereum's coordination potential has been realized alongside harms, and that its future depends on people as well as protocols. Supporting specifics: the author co-designed the ERC20 standard and helped popularise token bonding curves, now used in most new token launchpads. The author cites itch.io deindexing NSFW content, including queer content, after pressure from payment processors, and quotes Yuki Clarke on Bluesky saying a SFW comic was deindexed because of its LGBT tag.
- Translations and Ekphrastic Writing on Digital Art
Writing about digital art should be as detailed and specific as possible, and LLM-generated translations can then make it accessible to different audiences. Regina Harsanyi, writing for the Toledo Museum's Infinite Images exhibit, noted that vague terms like "virtual" or "immaterial" are often used for digital art, and she used ekphrastic description to write about Operator's Human Unreadable. Brian Droitcour replied that dense context can become unhelpful for new viewers and pointed to Ken Liu's essay on using LLMs as translators. The text argues that writing about art is itself a translation, so multiple simplified versions could help readers see the work.
- Evaluating Prediction Markets
Simon argues that prediction market supporters treat these markets as infallible and that they need better scoring methods than calibration alone. He points to survivor bias: a 70% outcome that later comes true is held up as proof of accuracy, a 15% outcome that flips true is framed as the mainstream media missing it, and failed predictions are forgotten. He notes that Brier scores, where 0 is perfect and 1 is worst, ignore timing, and that Philip Tetlock describes predictions that are well calibrated but hover near 50%, which are not useful. Polymarket alone recorded $213 million of volume in July.
- Year 1 of Scenes with Simon: A Retro and What's Next for 2024
Simon reflects on the first year of his weekly newsletter, Scenes with Simon, reporting that he completed a newsletter every week for a year, with about one new subscriber a day and 6 paid subscribers at the time of writing. He says his main reason for starting was to write more and to avoid social media, and he states that his plan for 2024 is to continue the newsletter as it is, with a more refined focus on authenticity and more personal topics. He also says he is weighing a move to Buttondown or a return to email and his own blog, but has not decided.
- NFTs can‘t die
NFTs cannot die, because a blockchain permanently records each token's history of transfers and interactions, even as volume falls and companies shut down or pivot. The medium was largely marketed as a market for prices, which obscured that history, while Receipt by 0xHaiku, which displays each transfer on the artwork, and Rhea Myers's 2014 contract "This Is Art" are cited as examples of work that surfaces it. Ed Zitron is quoted calling NFT hype "a long con on customers and the media." The text also notes that on a shared ledger, a conceptual artwork can be collected in the same block as a phishing theft.
- Why We Like Pirates: On the Depth and Breadth of Boat Stories
The author argues that boat stories, which combine the Carrier Bag and Hero's Journey narratives, offer the best of both depth and breadth. Drawing on Venkatesh Rao's definition, the piece describes depth as tending, relationships and staying, and breadth as exploring, risk and adventure. It cites examples such as the Rocinante in The Expanse, the Going Merry in One Piece, and the Enterprise in Star Trek. The author concludes that a boat story is both, reflecting what people want from life.
- Retreating to Digital Villages From The Algorithmic Scenes
This newsletter argues that the algorithm-driven creative environment of the web has fractured, pushing creators back toward smaller, human-scale communities, which it calls villages. The author contrasts villages with scenes, which are short-lived clusters of people held together by a shared interest, and says many scenes that algorithms such as Twitter once bound together are now withering. Examples of the retreat it names include Discord groups, IRL events, newsletters, blog rolls and tapes, and it credits the Hollywood creative strikes this year partly to creators meeting on picket lines away from the algorithm. The piece closes by suggesting that creators are now freer to make what they want rather than content for feeds.
- Token-Curated Registries in 2023 and A Problem With Price Signals
This newsletter argues that adding price signals to information curation can crowd out other motivations, so that contributors serve the protocol rather than the protocol serving users. The author, who helped popularise Token-Curated Registries, says they have softened on the idea and proposes retroactive funding protocols, where work is done for non-financial reasons before contributors are rewarded. The newsletter also covers the WGA's AI demands, which it summarizes as treating AI as a tool that cannot determine writing credit, and the struggles of short fiction magazines after Amazon ended its Kindle Newsstand program.
- Finishing The Thought
Simon argues that publishing a thought is worth doing even when it is half-formed, because writing it down for others forces clarity and changes the writer. He cites Toby Shorin's phrase "finished the thought" and says that writing more regularly makes writing easier, pointing to Henrik Karlsson's "shit blog" as an example. He also argues that a weekly practice should feel enjoyable in its process, comparing it to his running hobby, and suggests writing weekly pieces that could later be condensed into 5 to 10 essays.
- Ego as Venue
Creators should treat the ego as a venue: a space that invites audience conversation and channels energy back to people instead of extracting attention from them. Rick Rubin is quoted saying the audience comes last, while Jacob Collier is described as playing to the audience and building choirs from it. Drawing on Marina Abramovic's "The Artist is Present," creators are urged to ask whether their work invites people in more than it seeks recognition.
- This Essay Shouldn't Go Viral
Culture's middle has eroded as popularity concentrates at the top, and the web should be tempered as the center of our information ecology to restore resilience and dynamism. Supporting data cites music charts where top songs linger longer while the bottom quarter rotates faster, and film box office share held by the top ten movies rising from about 25% in the early 2000s to 45% in 2025. Drawing on antimemes as described in qntm's story and Nadia's book, it argues that group chats are antimemetic publicly but memetic privately.
- The Sunday Edition #1 - Hi, I'm back. Also, Some Housekeeping
- Owning the Memes of Production
The author argues that memecoins show how financial access could be widened without broad deregulation, by moving investor protections from exclusion to transparent code. Murad is named as explaining why people enjoy trading memecoins, citing community and fairer access to wealth creation. The piece points to US rule 506c under Regulation D, which limits broad advertising of private offerings to accredited investors, and to IPO costs that averaged over $2m in 2019. It also describes bonding curves, which keep the reserve held in common for liquidity and move tokens to an automated market maker once they graduate.
- Where To Start Your Story
Stories should begin by revealing one of their stakes as early as possible and then keeping that thread running throughout, which may make readers more forgiving of a slow setup. Michael Arndt, who wrote the screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine, holds that great endings require great stakes, meaning what a character can gain or lose in pursuing a goal. In Breaking Bad, the real stake is Walter White's dignity and ego, and even though the world defeats him, he gains the belief that he could make his own destiny.
- A Trip Through the Venice Biennale, Interregnums, and Protocol Art
The writer argues that the present may be an interregnum, a transitional period in which exceptions to rules have become the norm, and that the 2026 Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" by main curator Koyo Kouoh, reflects this moment. Citing Venkatesh Rao's essay on "exceptionists," the writer links rising exceptions to breakdowns in international rules and norms over the last decade. The Dutch Rietveld Pavilion's performance, in which shutters closed over the windows, is read as reflecting the end of Enlightenment ideals, while the Holy See pavilion focused on listening. The writer concludes that whether this is an interregnum is unclear and that paying attention is the best response.
- Co-Composting Collaboration
The writer describes a "co-composting" collaboration with Octopusyarn on what kind of media suits generative LLM AI, where the pair co-research asynchronously in a shared Google Doc over a week or two, discuss findings on a call, then write separate blog posts. The newsletter also covers Timber's six principles of protocol futurology, with the principle that nothing should be allowed to go extinct singled out as the most interesting, and a discussion of Coinbase's UK ad, which frames "exit through the casino" as a way out of economic stagnation. Other sections cover the writer's current reading, watching, running and writing.
- Artist Corporations
Yancey Strickler has called for a new legal form of corporation, the artist corporation (A-Corp), which would combine elements of LLCs, corporations, and nonprofits. The newsletter author welcomes the idea and asks how such a structure would avoid misuse by larger corporate IP holders, such as Disney, to sidestep double taxation of a C-Corp. The author also notes that their former studio's smart contract splits sat in front of a C-Corp for Untitled Frontier, which avoided custody and double taxation but ruled out issuing equity.
- Too Many Cameras and the US TikTok Ban
Simon's newsletter argues that too many cameras and too much always-on platform use have made online life more performative and less sincere, and that people should rely less on platforms and turn them off more often. He recalls an earlier web where going online was a destination, and he cites a suggestion that people now experiment less because "the audience is always present." The issue also covers the US TikTok ban, which he says sent many users to RedNote, the Chinese platform, and it adds personal notes on recent TV shows, travel and gaming.
- Banana Art Politics, Old Earth Vibes, and AI Art Turing Tests
Simon's weekly newsletter covers a range of topics, including a Sotheby's sale in which Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana artwork, "Comedian," sold to Justin Sun for $6.2 million, and the wall banana itself was a Dole banana bought earlier that day from a Manhattan fruit stand for 35 cents. Sun said he planned to eat the banana. The newsletter also discusses Dean Kissick's view that centering identity politics has "ruined" art, and reports that Scott Alexander's test found people guessing AI art versus human art at a median above 60% accuracy. Other sections cover Factorio, Arcane S2, Pachinko S2, and a concert where many attendees wore earplugs.
- To Being A Little More Dazed And Confused
Simon argues that the lasting appeal of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, which turned 30, reflects a value of unstructuredness that modern data-driven studios and communication habits have lost. He cites Linklater's remark that a studio would no longer give a director $6 million to make an indie-style "weirdo film" like Slacker. He also describes a Variety report that studios now assemble "super fan focus groups" to test marketing and sometimes change projects, and he compares overreliance on data and constant communication to a diet heavy in carbs.
- A Checkpoint on Generative Art (in NFTs)
Kevin Esherick (Duckrabbit) critiques generative art in NFTs along technical, conceptual, and aesthetic lines, and the author largely agrees with the conceptual and aesthetic points while defending the genre as a meta-statement. Esherick argues that NFTs tie art to capital and that generative art is created only after purchase, so it "consummates" the marriage of art and money, and that its speculative, lottery-like nature can produce cheap, "assembly line art." The author calls ArtBlocks-style generative art interesting because it captures the tension between abundance and provenance, with blockchains acting as a checkpoint for art that would otherwise remain in an "adjacent possible space."
- The AI Dreamcore Meme Extended Universe
Simon argues that AI-generated media will mainly serve a long tail of niche content, such as fan-fiction universes and extended meme universes, where production is too expensive, too time-sensitive, or too niche for conventional media. He points to three recent trends that fit this pattern: dark fantasy TikToks, AI extensions of old vine memes, and generative memes. He describes these as "tone" media, which emphasize mood over plot, and cites Fabian Stelzer, who went viral for an automated Wojak meme generator. The rest of the post covers unrelated topics, including leap seconds and Danish mortgage bonds.
- Checkpoints & Savepoints
This mid-year newsletter by Simon explains why he writes, framing his weekly practice as a personal space to revisit and rethink ideas rather than a pursuit of audience growth alone. He describes running his first half marathon in 2:06 and contrasts running's predictable effort-to-results relationship with the unpredictability of creative work. He also argues that art's unnecessary, exploratory qualities matter more than optimizing for distribution, citing Kate Dwyer's Esquire piece on debut authors and Nicole Counts' comments on community.
- The I in Will and Team in Testament
The author, Simon, reflects on signing new wills and testaments after moving countries and marrying, and concludes that writing one in the "post-individual era" means condensing many selves into a single document, with "Yosotros" (a collective "I" and "We" term) offered as a way to see the collective self. He ties his unease to the law's layered "legal fictions," to crypto-mediated certainty, and to Yancey Strickler's essay on the post-individual. He says he avoids alternate identities because energy spent on one identity is taken from another. The rest of the newsletter covers his running deload week, a Phantom Menace rewatch, and links to commentary on publishing and homepages.