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.
28 Oct 2022
I find teeth creepy — I once lived near a dentist whose mascot was a giant grinning tooth that itself had teeth. No thank you. Anyway: Kelley Benes is a surrealist sculptor who creates oddities full of teeth and eyeballs. They're very good, and I also hate them. Enjoy.
Read the note ↗28 Oct 2022
A masterful, amusing and delightfully concise piece of 'thick description' that goes right inside what the true American diner experience is all about. If we pay close attention as this writer does, the seemingly mundane world around us becomes a place of everyday wonder and understanding.
Read the note ↗28 Oct 2022
Every week, Sketchplanations takes one idea and explains it in a single friendly drawing with a paragraph of context. This one — sampling bias — is a favourite: how the group you happen to ask can quietly decide the answer you get. Going since 2013; the archive is a small treasure.
Read the note ↗28 Oct 2022
Remember the last time you saw a government ad urging you to change your behaviour and you actually did? Me neither. 'Community-based social marketing' is a field that has grown up around fostering sustainable behaviour — looking at how new social norms are actually adopted and diffused th
Read the note ↗14 Oct 2022
I'm a big planner, but I also don't like being told what to do — often this means I refuse to follow my own plans, sometimes five minutes after making them. This guy gets it. 'I don't wanna follow my plans if I'm not feeling them' is a core process many grokkists always have running, and h
Read the note ↗14 Oct 2022
Exactly what it says on the tin — 20 mechanical principles combined into a single useless Lego machine, captivating from start to finish. Ten points to the YouTube commenter who pointed out that the machine is not, in fact, useless: its use is demonstrating 20 mechanical principles.
Read the note ↗14 Oct 2022
A couple of programmers built CityWalks as a pandemic project to let people virtually explore cities all around the world on foot, with optional ambient sounds. Surprisingly soothing — and it even has a mode for those who miss the eerie feeling of wandering empty streets.
Read the note ↗14 Oct 2022
A short, sharp piece from Tim Harford that asks a simple question: what if we're confused about the difference between inflation and real changes in price — and what if that confusion has led us to pursue some unhelpful policies while ruling out others for the wrong reasons?
Read the note ↗14 Oct 2022
If you're a Mac user who mainly lives in Gmail, Mimestream combines the best of both worlds with neither pain nor friction — a proper native client with Gmail's features underneath. I've been using it for months and it keeps getting better.
Read the note ↗30 Sep 2022
The history of the bass, performed through 45 songs on 9 different basses. The love of music is palpable throughout — part of a series that also includes the history of the violin, saxophone and piano.
Read the note ↗30 Sep 2022
Like many, I don't read newspapers or watch TV news, so I've cobbled together a set of high-quality newsletters I trust. International Intrigue is a great daily roundup of what's happening around the world in geopolitics — one event covered in a few in-depth paragraphs, then a quick-fire s
Read the note ↗30 Sep 2022
There's little doubt tech is slowly becoming a regulated industry — but what does that mean, exactly? Regulation is political, messy and complicated, all about trade-offs between public goods that are often incommensurable. Shouty catch-cries to 'break up Big Tech' don't help much; this is
Read the note ↗