5 days ago
Boost your writing productivity with our free Write or Die inspired tool. Set timers, face consequences if you stop, and challenge yourself to write faster.
super simple AO3 template for scrivener When I first started using Scrivener it felt really complex and overwhelming, and all the templates were way more complicated than they needed to be. So, I made…
6 days ago
A modern classic in sci-fi.
8 days ago
Following the first hyperlink in the main text of an English Wikipedia article, and then repeating the process for subsequent articles, usually leads to the Philosophy article. In February 2016, this was true for 97% of all articles on Wikipedia, an increase from 94.52% in 2011. The remaining articles lead to an article without any outgoing wikilinks, to pages that do not exist, or get stuck in loops.
see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_philosophy_phenomenon
13 Dec 25
11 Dec 25
A new anonymous essay published every day in December in the countdown to Christmas.
Explore motifs from Hamilton, Wicked, and Les Misérables.
07 Dec 25
This is exactly why I refuted Paul Graham’s “Good Writing” post. Zombie facts poison discourse.
A nice linguistic principle, even absent of the post’s content:
we don’t have much conscious awareness of a lot of the patterns in our own speech, let alone much insight into the reasons for them
There are two senses in which writing can be good: it can sound good, and the ideas can be right. […] I think writing that sounds good is more likely to be right.
This thought feels dangerous and is arguably wrong. He later says that this isn’t quite right, but it still feels like a bad (and arguably bit dishonest) thing to lead your essay with.
So it’s not quite right to say that better sounding writing is more likely to be true. Better sounding writing is more likely to be internally consistent. If the writer is honest, internal consistency and truth converge.
This is significantly better, but still reads as naïve. If anything, I feel like well-written stuff can make it really hard to challenge the assumptions of an argument, which in a way is its own hell. I think Graham is right to point out that clumsy writing reflects wrong ideas, and that getting rid of those errors can help you fix the ideas, but I feel like in some way, because of how the argument is framed, that this essay is self-refuting.
Excellent programmer who’s now pivoted to writing and book publishing.
03 Dec 25
doing a reverse mary sue self-insert where you make up an oc and give them all of your worst personality traits
29 Nov 25
When the research being promoted is about sex-differences, the soundbite/clickbait approach involves leading with some attention-grabbing statement about men and women that basically accords with most people’s preconceptions. The message is that Science has now confirmed the accuracy of a commonplace gender stereotype.
In the past decade or so, Disney/Pixar movies have undergone a really interesting change.
28 Nov 25
27 Nov 25
Forester is a tool for authoring, exploring, and sharing scientific and mathematical hypertexts. It is your lab notebook, your journal, your blackboard, and the home of your lecture notes.
An intensely fascinating tool which has been finding more and more use among the mathematics community.
see also: https://sr.ht/~jonsterling/forester/
If you are a scientist, an engineer, a philosopher, an anthropologist, or an academic of any stripe, thinking and understanding is your job.
The personal blog of Caleb Jay Rogers, Software Engineer.
Don’t Download Apps
26 Nov 25
Technical content can be as pristine as a crystal clear mountain pond, but if no one can find it, they’ll drink out of a muddy puddle instead.
Gotta get people to Pokémón go to the polls.
18 Nov 25
Owl Editor is the AI-powered document editor that reviews your draft, explains every suggestion, and helps you publish with confidence.