…what we did, or I did actually, was find the Catholic index of the banned books that you were not allowed to read - and read them all. And if you wanted to know how come I became so well educated, that is how.
Marianne Faithfull, speaking in BBC documentary Marianne in Paris: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/pl…
We’re it, man. We’re the reason for the season. Everything that has ever mattered (in the human world, not the natural world, to be clear) comes from people. Individuals and communities. Not from machines, not from corporations, but from people and communities who not only have (ideas but the wherewithal to pursue those ideas with effort, commitment, learning, and sheer teeth-gritting bloody-mindedness. I want you to feel that in your bones. I want you to feel the power you possess as a person in this world who tells stories. We’re going to what?
We’re going to win. How?
I want you to tell those stories. Your stories. The ones that matter most to you — not the ones that feed machines, not the ones that feed companies, but the ones that feed you, and by proxy, the audience beyond you.
Part of Chuck Wendig’s Writer Resolution for 2026: terribleminds.com/ramble/20…
When it comes to AI, I am very much Team Wendig.
I often think of this brief near-future conversation in William Gibson’s The Peripheral:
“You have Badger?”
“Music?”
“A site. Keeps track of your friends and stuff.”
“‘Social media’?”
“I guess so.”
“It was an artifact of relatively low connectivity. If I remember correctly, you already have less of it than there was previously.”
…writing is living, and reflecting that world on the page. It’s not sitting at my computer and trying to find pithy ways to fix everything. It’s doing, being, caring, making, in person or on the streets, or even online. It’s then taking that feeling and putting it on the page.
…being a writer involves looking up from the confines of this document, meeting the world where it is and engaging with it. And then taking that back on to the page.
Nikesh Shulka nikesh.substack.com/p/does-an…
I believe that January is a hangover month for recovering and catching up from the holidays, and therefore ill-suited to new endeavors in self-improvement. I save making any resolutions, if any, for February, the shortest month.
Austin Kleon austinkleon.substack.com/p/making-…