The ledger · 432 folios
Everything kept.
The book in full, newest first. Folio numbers run the other way: the oldest leaf is always number one.
2026
August
432 31 Aug Omawrite 1 min 431 31 Aug AI is NOT guzzling water! 1 min 430 30 Aug Sonder 5 min 429 29 Aug When everyone take the fastest route 2 min 428 29 Aug The rise of agentic commerce 1 min 427 28 Aug Small language models are all we need 1 min 426 28 Aug How does the preference for sons impact the mental well-being of women in rural India? 1 min 425 27 Aug Google’s Pragmatic Pivot? 3 min 424 26 Aug Seek not more answers but better questions 1 min 423 25 Aug Chinese models are the most popular AI models by token volume 1 min 422 24 Aug On AI doom 1 min 421 23 Aug Gold is a hedge against debasement 2 min 420 22 Aug Pep Guardiola on players he admires 1 min 419 21 Aug Welcome to AI slopulism 6 min 418 20 Aug Quotes 1 min 417 19 Aug T.M. Krishna on symbols 1 min 416 18 Aug AI is still underhyped 4 min 415 17 Aug Rare earths are neither financially valuable nor financially viable 1 min 414 17 Aug A 17GB miracle 1 min 413 16 Aug Macro boogeymen 1 min 412 14 Aug Olivier Blanchard what will trigger a debt crisis in France 1 min 411 13 Aug Neuroscience is in trouble 1 min 410 13 Aug AGI for dummies is here 1 min 409 12 Aug The Chinese LLMs are good! 3 min 408 11 Aug What's comes after transformers? 1 min 407 11 Aug Keep yawping 1 min 406 10 Aug I got some links for you 5 min 405 09 Aug Treat your reading list like a river 2 min 404 09 Aug Muffled whispers and hidden vistas 4 min 403 09 Aug How China Escaped the Poverty Trap is free to read 1 min 402 09 Aug Google DeepMind model can predict cyclones 1 min 401 09 Aug A reader for the classical Greek and Latin canon 1 min 400 08 Aug Innovation is a random lottery 1 min 399 08 Aug Food fight about AI 1 min 398 08 Aug China's electric future 1 min 397 07 Aug Tell your agent to speak to my agent 13 min 396 07 Aug ChatGPT free users get unlimited access to Luna 1 min 395 06 Aug Cloudflare is on a roll 1 min 394 06 Aug China is still building a lot of coal plants 1 min 393 05 Aug The age of extreme job anxiety 1 min 392 04 Aug Trump is monetizing his presidency 1 min 391 04 Aug The violent act of reading 2 min 390 03 Aug Bullish on global warming 1 min 389 02 Aug RSS is cool! 1 min 388 02 Aug China’s AI gift to the world 9 min 387 01 Aug The life of a Banchhada girl 1 min 386 01 Aug Solve the right problems 1 min 385 01 Aug OpenAI’s models hacked Hugging Face 3 min 384 01 Aug OCR tools 1 min 383 01 Aug China envy 2 minJuly
382 31 Jul Brad Setser on China Shock 2.0 8 min 381 30 Jul Hyperpolitics 1 min 380 29 Jul China and global imbalances 5 min 379 28 Jul Visualizing trade flows and tariffs 1 min 378 28 Jul Inequality stats 1 min 377 27 Jul We're all goldfishes 2 min 376 26 Jul Disenchated generation 1 min 375 24 Jul Perspectives on the student protests 3 min 374 23 Jul Be more ambitious 2 min 373 21 Jul On the student protests in Delhi 1 min 372 20 Jul Links 1 min 371 19 Jul Age of conspiracies 1 min 370 18 Jul It's hard work remaining true to your heart 1 min 369 17 Jul The Hymn of Creation — Nāsadīya Sūkta 2 min 368 15 Jul I got some links for you 4 min 367 13 Jul The act of seeing 1 min 366 12 Jul Michael Muthukrishna makes the case for land and inheritance tax 1 min 365 03 Jul Time to make web forums great again? 2 minJune
364 30 Jun Is microfinance useful or useless? 2 min 363 29 Jun Impact of heatwaves on labor productivity 1 min 362 28 Jun India is now a one-party country 4 min 361 27 Jun The internet is still good 3 min 360 21 Jun A few thoughts on AI-assisted writing 5 min 359 14 Jun Marie Curie on adversity 1 min 358 13 Jun AI will make the world more legible 1 min 357 11 Jun LLMs offer mundane utility 4 min 356 08 Jun Orhan Pamuk on stories 1 min 355 05 Jun We're all hydrogen atoms that learned how to talk. 1 min 354 03 Jun Cheaper LLM models offer mundane utility 1 minMay
353 30 May Great monologue from Andor 1 min 352 30 May A voice-first future? 1 min 351 28 May The bullshit asymmetry principle 1 min 350 28 May Introducing Yawp 1 min 349 26 May How well do you understand India?? 4 min 348 23 May The Chinese AI subsidy 4 min 347 23 May Simon Last on how to use agents 1 min 346 19 May Cloudflare on Mythos 1 min 345 19 May A gaggle of links 5 min 344 18 May Garment of destiny 1 min 343 16 May A few thoughts after watching the movie Train Dreams. 1 min 342 14 May Economic liberalisation is good for the environment 1 min 341 12 May I got links for you 6 min 340 11 May China is NOT Japan 1 min 339 10 May Shower test 1 min 338 09 May Digg is back? 1 min 337 09 May AI progress continues 1 min 336 08 May AI as a your reading guide 2 min 335 05 May Long term temperature trends in India 1 min 334 04 May We're always in the process of becoming, but never become 1 min 333 03 May Life of an indie publisher 1 min 332 01 May Your money beliefs are static. Your life isn't. 6 minApril
331 29 Apr Crypto is popular in Iran 1 min 330 27 Apr Loose Thoughts 3 min 329 26 Apr Therapy speak is making us miserable 1 min 328 25 Apr Reading books is the most glorious pastime 1 min 327 23 Apr Prompting people 1 min 326 22 Apr Harness engineering 1 min 325 21 Apr Man has it all 1 min 324 21 Apr Are open weight models a bigger deal than we realise? 1 min 323 20 Apr I wouldn't want to be a young graduate right now 11 min 322 18 Apr For fuck's sake, fuck around 1 min 321 14 Apr Everything blended, nothing understood 8 min 320 12 Apr What you pay attention to is who you become 2 min 319 11 Apr I got rabbit holes for you 13 min 318 10 Apr The infrastructure to dream 6 min 317 07 Apr Everybody should have a blog 2 min 316 06 Apr A dubious virtue 2 min 315 05 Apr The profound pleasures of simple things 1 min 314 04 Apr Writing advice from Ernest Hemingway 1 min 313 04 Apr Use the damn tools 1 min 312 04 Apr The tyranny of weak links 1 min 311 04 Apr Externalizing the cost of war 1 min 310 04 Apr Code is cheap 2 min 309 04 Apr Alexis de Tocqueville on despotism 2 min 308 04 Apr AI diffusion can't and won't be rapid 1 min 307 03 Apr Google Gemini 3 API Is better than I expected 1 min 306 01 Apr On whether Russia can continue to recruit new soldiers. 1 minMarch
305 29 Mar I got some links for you 6 min 304 29 Mar Feeling god up 3 min 303 28 Mar The pain of living with pain 1 min 302 27 Mar Revenge of the real 1 min 301 26 Mar This time is NOT different 1 min 300 22 Mar The internet gets shittier and shittier 1 min 299 21 Mar Time to work hard 1 min 298 20 Mar Invictus by William Ernest Henley 1 min 297 18 Mar Today's links 1 min 296 15 Mar kottke.org turn 28 1 min 295 15 Mar Attention is first philosophy 1 min 294 14 Mar Who pays the price for the war on Iran? 1 min 293 14 Mar Useful markdown tools 1 min 292 14 Mar Good writing advice from Frederik Gieschen 1 min 291 14 Mar Craig Mod on building software using Claude 2 min 290 12 Mar Why the Strait of Hormuz is important 1 min 289 11 Mar All the advice you need in life. Blake's Proverbs of Hell 5 min 288 10 Mar Robin Williams on intelligent design 1 min 287 09 Mar Gangster imperialism with a side of dick measuring contest 1 min 286 08 Mar Violent spectacles 2 min 285 08 Mar Harrison Ford: Life Achievement Award Acceptance Speech 1 min 284 07 Mar Tamil inscriptions on the tombs of Egyptian kings 1 min 283 07 Mar Indonesia bans social media for teens 6 min 282 07 Mar Evaluating the success of China's solar industrial policy 1 min 281 06 Mar On boredom 1 min 280 05 Mar China has different attitude towards AI 1 min 279 04 Mar To see a world in a grain of sand 1 min 278 03 Mar Misunderstanding China's ambitions 2 min 277 03 Mar Library in the wild 1 min 276 03 Mar Large language models (LLMs) are index funds 2 min 275 02 Mar Too distracted, too bored, and too stupid to care? 2 min 274 02 Mar The brutal economics of music streaming 1 min 273 01 Mar Use the damn tools and then judge 2 minFebruary
272 28 Feb Terrence Tao on AI 1 min 271 27 Feb Jeremy Siegel on an AI Apocalypse 2 min 270 27 Feb Cognitive war 1 min 269 27 Feb AI-powered power review 1 min 268 26 Feb Why Is Fertility So Low in High-Income Countries? 2 min 267 26 Feb The stupidty of luxury goods 2 min 266 26 Feb The physical limits of AI 1 min 265 25 Feb There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs 1 min 264 24 Feb Parody is now reality 1 min 263 23 Feb AI as an excuse to fire people 1 min 262 22 Feb Nate Silver on the political impact of artificial intelligence (AI) 2 min 261 22 Feb Another dodgy self help guru? 1 min 260 21 Feb Trump's stupid trade war takes a stupid new turn 3 min 259 21 Feb How India gives 1 min 258 21 Feb Chesterton fences everywhere 3 min 257 20 Feb Geopolitical survival guide 2 min 256 19 Feb A promise is a direction taken 2 min 255 18 Feb An AI reading companion 2 min 254 17 Feb The fundamental problem is complicity 2 min 253 17 Feb Technology saturated beings 1 min 252 17 Feb AI-assisted coding is the new entertainment 1 min 251 16 Feb Iain McGilchrist on attention 1 min 250 15 Feb We are all unhappy wanderers 1 min 249 15 Feb Go to the limits of your longing 2 min 248 14 Feb Social media bans are hard to enforce 2 min 247 14 Feb An emotional wreck 2 min 246 13 Feb Simone Weil is awesome 1 min 245 12 Feb We don't know how it all works 1 min 244 12 Feb Things we lost in the fire 2 min 243 11 Feb Build something you care about and benefits others 1 min 242 10 Feb The shadowy world of abandoned oil tankers 1 min 241 10 Feb Pratap Bhanu Mehta on the India-US trade deal 1 min 240 09 Feb Predictions are hard 1 min 239 09 Feb LLMs are bad at solving math problems not in their training data 1 min 238 09 Feb Big tech capex numbers are ridiculous 1 min 237 09 Feb Be alone! 1 min 236 09 Feb A moderately ambitious India 1 min 235 08 Feb People were, are, and will be dumb 2 min 234 08 Feb My adventures in vibe coding 1 min 233 07 Feb Introducing small web 1 min 232 06 Feb Normie AGI is here 10 min 231 06 Feb Kimi 2.5 is as good as Sonnet 4.5, ChatGPT O3 and Grok 4 1 min 230 05 Feb Will Storr on smartphones 2 min 229 05 Feb Toni Morrison on evil 1 min 228 04 Feb Age of anxiety 1 min 227 04 Feb 159 years of momentum investing 1 min 226 03 Feb The future of work 1 min 225 03 Feb Psychoanalysing Dario Amodei 2 min 224 01 Feb What does it mean to translate something? 1 min 223 01 Feb I have always felt alright in my company 2 min 222 01 Feb Great mystery, teach me how to trust my heart 1 min 221 01 Feb Finland considers social media ban for kids under 15 1 min 220 01 Feb Coding is automated, vision is not 1 minJanuary
219 31 Jan Unintended consequences 1 min 218 31 Jan Some interesting facts 2 min 217 31 Jan Paul Goodman's anatomy of silence 1 min 216 31 Jan new age bribery 1 min 215 30 Jan The murderous robots are coming! 1 min 214 30 Jan Do markets make people moral? 1 min 213 29 Jan The world needs a ginormous amount of copper 3 min 212 29 Jan A considered life 2 min 211 28 Jan Vibe coding is like gambling 2 min 210 28 Jan Post-AI world scenarios 1 min 209 27 Jan What factors enabled China to dominate so many critical industries? 14 min 208 27 Jan We need to think about the welfare of digital minds 2 min 207 27 Jan Feel the AGI! 3 min 206 27 Jan China's dominance is nuts 1 min 205 26 Jan To know is to be assured of defeat 1 min 204 26 Jan The coming of the robots is delayed 1 min 203 26 Jan Fuck you money 2 min 202 26 Jan Electric vehicles are reducing pollution 1 min 201 25 Jan A short intro to Baruch Spinoza's philosophy 8 min 200 24 Jan Flimsy beliefs 1 min 199 24 Jan Dare to feel 2 min 198 23 Jan O ye of little hope 1 min 197 23 Jan The fault in our precious metals 1 min 196 23 Jan The defining question of our times: "Who are you without your job?" 3 min 195 22 Jan Orchestrating is the new doing 1 min 194 22 Jan Large Language Models (LLMs) are no longer just next word predictors. 2 min 193 22 Jan How to write a good spec for AI coding agents 1 min 192 21 Jan Suffering from prosperity 2 min 191 20 Jan Can books teach you anything? 1 min 190 19 Jan What drives us 1 min 189 19 Jan We are living in wild times 3 min 188 19 Jan Using Obsidian with an AI assistant 1 min 187 18 Jan The whole is not the sum of its parts 1 min 186 17 Jan The past is the present 1 min 185 17 Jan Influentists 2 min 184 17 Jan China derangement syndrome 1 min 183 16 Jan You don't know much 1 min 182 16 Jan The future of AI and automation 3 min 181 15 Jan On AI regulations 1 min 180 14 Jan On AI coding 1 min 179 13 Jan Yeah, sure, AI is useless 1 min 178 13 Jan The virtual co-workers are here? 2 min 177 13 Jan The Bullshit job apocalypse 6 min 176 13 Jan Small tyrannies 4 min 175 12 Jan The future of coding 2 min 174 11 Jan Open source voice transcription tools 1 min 173 10 Jan The short-termism in our stars 1 min 172 10 Jan Automation is a moral imperative 2 min 171 09 Jan Best of times and worst of times for cognitive peasants 6 min 170 08 Jan If you can describe it, you can solve it 1 min 169 08 Jan AI is killing software jobs 4 min 168 07 Jan On AI and job automation 1 min 167 07 Jan All habits are hard work 4 min 166 06 Jan Ben Thompson makes an optimistic case for AI 2 min 165 05 Jan I dwell in possibility 1 min 164 05 Jan Code is now content 3 min 163 04 Jan Writing as a way to converse with yourself 1 min 162 04 Jan Neo-gangsterism 1 min 161 04 Jan Emotional returns vs financial returns 3 min 160 04 Jan A Psalm of Life 2 min 159 03 Jan We're all unique protons and electrons 1 min 158 03 Jan The future of work 1 min 157 03 Jan Now is the time for fun 1 min 156 02 Jan 2025: The year LLMs felt real 2 min 155 01 Jan Wild times in AI land 1 min 154 01 Jan Industrial-scale production of software 1 min 153 01 Jan Gitanjali 48 2 min2025
December
152 31 Dec You can just do things 1 min 151 31 Dec On the joys of writing 1 min 150 31 Dec AI and the compression of everything 4 min 149 30 Dec Reflections on Scott Belsky’s Predictions 3 min 148 29 Dec Welcome to the slopocalypse 1 min 147 29 Dec Skyfall post-AI world edition 2 min 146 29 Dec Building at the speed of thought 2 min 145 28 Dec Why write 1 min 144 28 Dec Intellectual bacchanalia 2 min 143 28 Dec Gitanjali 3 by Rabindranath Tagore 1 min 142 27 Dec Summoning Ghosts: Why You Need to Try AI Coding Tools 10 min 141 26 Dec G.K. Chesterton on miracles 4 min 140 26 Dec Another lament for literature 1 min 139 25 Dec Why AI is not a bubble 1 min 138 25 Dec Self improving systems are not possible 1 min 137 24 Dec The debt part of the AI cycle 1 min 136 24 Dec Claude Code is awesome, but terribly named 2 min 135 24 Dec AI is overdelivering 2 min 134 24 Dec A dumb model of AI 3 min 133 23 Dec Some non-advice advice 6 min 132 22 Dec We are a collection of particles but... 2 min 131 22 Dec Preserving India's artistic heritage 3 min 130 21 Dec The case against superintelligence 5 min 129 21 Dec Blogging is good for your soul! 2 min 128 20 Dec We are summoning ghosts with LLMs 1 min 127 20 Dec The digital world is the only escape 2 min 126 20 Dec Predictive AI > Generative AI 2 min 125 20 Dec AGI for normal people is here 4 min 124 19 Dec My little heart 2 min 123 18 Dec Be human 1 min 122 16 Dec AI coding tools keep getting better and better 1 min 121 15 Dec Vibe engineering 1 min 120 15 Dec On China and chips 2 min 119 15 Dec LLMs as your reading partner 3 min 118 13 Dec Poor countries are not catching up with rich countries 5 min 117 13 Dec Ads everywhere 1 min 116 12 Dec Links for later 1 min 115 12 Dec László Krasznahorkai's Nobel Prize lecture 1 min 114 12 Dec An unified theory of vibes 1 min 113 11 Dec We're are all unoriginal 1 min 112 11 Dec Monkeys are really good at predicting electoral winners 2 min 111 11 Dec How to read more 1 min 110 10 Dec Virtue cannot be known without knowing vice 2 min 109 10 Dec Learn some philosophy 1 min 108 10 Dec How much knowledge has been lost 2 min 107 09 Dec Charlie Munger on dealing with setbacks in life 2 minNovember
106 21 Nov The future of global trade 1 min 105 17 Nov Oral traditions in India 1 min 104 15 Nov Ah, but is not this a glorious time for your deep inward fires? 2 min 103 14 Nov Take big shots 1 min 102 14 Nov How many jobs can AI kill 1 min 101 12 Nov What to expect when expecting 1 min 100 12 Nov AGI will be business as usual? 3 min 099 11 Nov Did we get evolution wrong? 6 min 098 08 Nov Reading as escalation 1 min 097 08 Nov Evil by Arthur Rimbauld 1 min 096 06 Nov Leviathan by George Oppen 1 min 095 05 Nov AI as a research partner 1 min 094 03 Nov The guy who financed Johannes Gutenberg 3 min 093 03 Nov Human nature will never change 1 min 092 02 Nov AI blind spot 1 min 091 01 Nov Dhwani: A directory for Indian public domain works 1 minOctober
090 31 Oct Post-cognitive world 1 min 089 31 Oct Invention of modernity 1 min 088 30 Oct Can AI eliminate information advantages 2 min 087 29 Oct Institutional impact of AI 2 min 086 29 Oct Economic impact of AI 2 min 085 28 Oct The value of asking right questions 1 min 084 28 Oct Don't want to die? Drink coffee 1 min 083 27 Oct AI-powered invoice fraud 1 min 082 26 Oct The value of education in the shadows of AI 1 min 081 26 Oct Brian Eno on being pretentious 2 min 080 25 Oct On having a philosophy of money 1 min 079 25 Oct AI is kicking your butt; just accept it 1 min 078 23 Oct Fun is a skill 2 min 077 22 Oct Rousseau on reflection and reason 1 min 076 22 Oct Here come the robots 1 min 075 21 Oct The prerequisites for scientific progress 2 min 074 20 Oct On ritual 1 min 073 20 Oct Naked without values 3 min 072 20 Oct China is playing long games 1 min 071 18 Oct You never know when the carousel stops spinning 2 min 070 17 Oct On hope and despair 2 min 069 17 Oct For A Cynic by Countee Cullen 1 min 068 15 Oct On billionaires and the ultra-wealthy 1 min 067 14 Oct Tools for thinking 2 min 066 14 Oct Odds and ends 4 min 065 12 Oct Where death is cheaper than life itself 2 min 064 11 Oct A few good rabbit holes 1 min 063 11 Oct Rilke's advice to a young poet 2 min 062 10 Oct A beautiful line from Camus 3 min 061 09 Oct Meditation by Charles Baudelaire 1 min 060 07 Oct odds and ends 2 min 059 03 Oct How Terence Tao uses AI 2 min 058 03 Oct Henry Oliver on how to have good taste 1 min 057 02 Oct The cost of extreme weather 2 min 056 02 Oct On pursuing things 1 min 055 02 Oct On nostalgia 1 min 054 02 Oct C.S. Lewis on reading old books 2 minSeptember
053 30 Sept AI links 3 min 052 29 Sept Everything everywhere all at once 1 min 051 28 Sept The day is gone by John Keats 1 min 050 27 Sept The infinite pleasures of diving down rabbit holes 1 min 049 25 Sept Zero Sum thinking is ruining the world 1 min 048 24 Sept I got some links for you 5 min 047 23 Sept Kafka on reading 1 min 046 22 Sept Twilight of the humans? 3 min 045 22 Sept Philosophy of life and Seneca’s letters 1 min 044 21 Sept Wild Geese by Mary Oliver 1 min 043 19 Sept How Americans use AI and what they think about it 2 min 042 18 Sept How long do we have left? 2 min 041 16 Sept Today in learning 2 min 040 15 Sept The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats 1 min 039 14 Sept We are borrowed stardust 1 min 038 13 Sept Philosophy understood as a way of life 2 min 037 12 Sept The economics of tyranny 4 min 036 11 Sept A hopeful view of large language models (LLM) 4 min 035 10 Sept Social media is a funhouse mirror 4 min 034 09 Sept The solar revolution 1 min 033 07 Sept Poetry is a salve for the soul 2 min 032 06 Sept Aggregating book mentions 1 min 031 05 Sept I got some links for you 10 min 030 04 Sept How fiber optic cables work 15 min 029 03 Sept What is artificial intelligence (AI)? 4 min 028 02 Sept Bhuvan's law 3 min 027 01 Sept Will the poor countries catch up the rich? 5 minAugust
026 31 Aug The heart wants what it wants 1 min 025 30 Aug Speculation Is like water—it always finds a way 1 min 024 29 Aug Vibe Physics? Not Yet 3 min 023 28 Aug The weight of telling stories 3 min 022 27 Aug Your next good read 1 min 021 26 Aug I just want to know 3 min 020 25 Aug On luck and randomness in life 16 min 019 24 Aug On Walking 1 min 018 23 Aug On AI-assisted writing 5 min 017 22 Aug On AI taking jobs 4 min 016 21 Aug All knowledge is my province 1 min 015 20 Aug The cost of collective apathy 2 min 014 18 Aug The greatest anonymous poem 8 min 013 17 Aug Why read? 6 min 012 15 Aug Is the twilight of the humans? A few AI links 7 min 011 13 Aug Welcome to the age of weaponized interdependence 6 min 010 12 Aug What It Means to Be Human in the Age of AI 5 min 009 10 Aug The world won't end with a bang but with a shrug of indifference 6 min 008 09 Aug The death of silence and the loss of contemplative spaces 1 min 007 08 Aug The potato love story 3 min 006 07 Aug Universities in the age of AI 1 min 005 05 Aug War and Peace isn’t a novel, it’s a mirror 6 min 004 04 Aug Stephen Hawking on the philosophy of life 8 min 003 03 Aug Good advice from Rudyard Kilpling 6 min 002 02 Aug I gots Links for you: Issue #1 29 min 001 01 Aug The Protection Racket: A History of Tariffs and Who Really Pays 27 minNothing in the ledger matches that combination.