When we got our first house, it also came with our first lawn. Right about this time of year, the dandelions would start sprouting everywhere, invasive weeds ruining the manicured green that kept us in good standing on our block. Wanting to be the perfect homeowner, I bought an amazing contraption that let me yoink them out, one by one, without even bending down. It was so satisfying to keep those forces of entropy away … until a couple of days later, when the lawn filled up with them again. Come on!
I was so exasperated that the next year, I just let them stay. As it turns out, after a few weeks, that first explosion of yellow-to-white-puffballs settled down to just one here and there, and it didn’t really look all that bad. They were actually kind of pretty. Now, we hold off on mowing until a bit later in the season, letting pollinators have a chance to do their thing, and somehow our lawn has filled with the most beautiful wildflowers.
I don’t think the neighbors mind.
My Picks
Your data is everywhere. The government is buying it without a warrant.
This situation is a travesty, and it has still not been resolved. There’s a slim chance that we can regain our privacy by the time the short-term extension to Section 702 expires, but it’s not looking good. Why is this not an obvious, slam-dunk decision?
YouTube is quietly but steadily adding fantastic free content to their service, making my premium membership even more valuable. They recently included one of my favorite movies of all time, and I’m delighted to share it here. Starring Gene Hackman in what he considered his greatest film, this mystery/thriller examines human interactions, surveillance, and isolation in a way that is both gripping and profound.
Enough with the heavy stuff! Two dudes randomly pick a country and find a restaurant in the NYC area that serves its cuisine. Great guys, great food, great culture. Tons of fun.
A lot of what I share in this newsletter comes from longtime blogger Jason Kottke, who has been curating the best of online content for almost 30 years. Highly recommended. I’m sure you’ll see plenty of great things that I’ve missed. He and I also share a lot of common interests and preferences (in music, art, design, etc.), so my parasocial tendencies make me feel as though it’s a friend sending out these wonderful things, not some random online personage.
Recently Published
Like it or not, new AI technologies are now able to identify critical bugs in the software we all use every day, on every device. While we may eventually end up in a better place because of it, getting there is going to be bumpy, and we need to be prepared.
What Would the Buddha Think of an LLM?
A Robin Sloan newsletter sent me down a deep rabbit hole, leading to some surprising insights. How do we wrap our heads around something that is, by design, eternally ephemeral, yet simulates something that persists? How inhuman is a computer program that interacts with us entirely from the derivative output of humans?
In the Groove
One of my favorite things growing up was listening to live bootlegs of bands I loved. I used to go to record shows on weekends, wandering through high school auditoriums and parking lots, looking for something special. There’d always be a booth bursting with cassettes labeled in Sharpie and bins of vinyl with strange cover art, each one begging to be discovered. Some bands hit different live. Purer, rawer, and more intimate. Others actually do their thing better in front of an audience than in the studio.
I recently came across the Aadam Jacobs Project on the Internet Archive, and I am in heaven. Aadam recorded thousands of indie, punk, and rock concerts from the 80s to the 2010s and has started putting them up online for all of us to enjoy. The sound quality is surprisingly good on many of these, and tons of favorite groups from back in the day are well represented.
There’s Ida and Stereolab with some of their best work back in 1996. There’s Aqualung turning a horrible night with a broken piano into a fantastic performance in 2005. How about some classic Smiths and New Order? So much to explore!
Until Next Time
Are you able to let things go? It’s a lifelong struggle for me. But every spring, when the lawn fills up with flowers that we never planted, I’m reminded: a step back isn’t the same thing as a step backwards.