Grokkist Press
Reading Room
Snackables
Things we found elsewhere and pass on: a film, a tool, an essay, a corner of the old internet. A few lines on why, then off you go. New ones join the shelf as we find them, newest first.
20 Apr 2025
WikiTok is a TikTok-style interface for exploring random Wikipedia articles — each swipe reveals a new one, complete with images and excerpts, inviting you into topics you'd never have sought out. A minimalist, mobile-friendly web app that turns idle scrolling into an educational journey w
Read the note ↗6 Apr 2025
When did reading stop involving awe? A gently sprawling meditation on schole — the ancient notion of leisure as serious, soul-forming inquiry. Mariam Mahmoud traces the tradition from its classical roots through the Islamic world and into the private libraries of curious amateurs, reclaimi
Read the note ↗6 Apr 2025
Narain Jashanmal assembles the receipts for a familiar hunch: most TV shows start strong and then fall apart. Using AI research tools, he gathers data from IMDb, Metacritic and fan forums to chart how serialized story arcs decline — season 2 is often the peak, and few shows survive past se
Read the note ↗6 Apr 2025
This beautifully simple site overlays historical borders onto modern maps, letting you trace the shifting lines of empires, kingdoms and states through time. Pick a place and a year — see who claimed it then, and who came before. An interactive reminder that even the most solid lines on a
Read the note ↗6 Apr 2025
A love letter to a golden age most people never knew existed. This traces the era from 1952 to 1967 when Tombow and Mitsubishi poured care, craft and industrial ingenuity into making the world's most exquisite writing tools — not through cutthroat competition but a kind of honourable arms
Read the note ↗6 Apr 2025
Korean creator Chess Makta remixes chess strategy with meme-speed editing, custom beats and full sensory overload — an attention-economy fever dream with a surprising amount of pedagogical clarity, running on the motto 'chess is a vibe, and games gotta be lit and full of fun.' Even obscure
Read the note ↗23 Mar 2025
If you naturally think in deep time — or sometimes need reminding to zoom all the way out — this is a gift. To Scale turns mind-bending cosmic scales into tangible, physical experiences; here they map 13.8 billion years of cosmic history step by step across a dry lakebed in the Mojave. A q
Read the note ↗23 Mar 2025
Stripe quietly publishes Works in Progress, a thoughtful magazine on ideas that shape the future. Here Ruxandra Teslo asks: what if having children were as easy and accessible as deciding to have them — no ticking clocks, no waiting for the 'right' moment? She explores the cutting edge of
Read the note ↗23 Mar 2025
Dana Piazza uses nothing more than pens or paintbrushes to create intricate patterns that seem to ripple, twist and undulate on the page. His drawings are deceptively simple at first glance — often just lines or dots — but the cumulative effect is mesmerising, offering an illusion of movem
Read the note ↗10 Mar 2025
This essay explores our cultural discomfort with visible effort, using Succession actors Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin as a case study: Culkin's effortless charm is celebrated, Strong's intense method approach is mocked. The unspoken rule — you're never supposed to look like you're tryin
Read the note ↗10 Mar 2025
What happens when you slow down, resist the urge to interrupt, and truly listen? That's the premise behind Unhurried, a conversational approach rooted in improv, where the best scenes emerge from space and patience. Founder Johnnie Moore describes Unhurried Conversations as an experiment i
Read the note ↗10 Mar 2025
Folk on Foot brings together music, landscape and storytelling by following musicians as they walk through places that shaped them — an invitation to slow down and listen to both the land and the people who carry its songs. In this episode, Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis takes host Matthew Ban
Read the note ↗