Lately I’ve reduced my usage of social media. Even those that I consider more pure the-internet-is-fun-again destinations like Mastodon and Bluesky. I still open them regularly, but I just don’t find myself going to them to find new or interesting things as much. Most of my online enjoyment comes from subscribing directly to blogs and newsletters.

I thought I’d share them here in case anyone else was looking for quality content to replace their doom-scrolling with. There’s not a particular theme to them, other than that some of them are tech-adjacent, but they’re all writers that just bring me joy when I see a new article, post, or newsletter from them. In no particular order:

  • Manuel Moreale’s People and Blogs — Interviews with people who have blogs. While a lot of them are technologists of some sort, there’s a great variety that helps me learn about new ideas and people I wouldn’t have otherwise found.

  • Austin Kleon’s newsletter — Austin has been inspiring me to find more opportunities for creativity, especially in the offline realm of sketching and writing. Maybe even attempting block printing at some point.

  • Amy Goodchild’s newsletter — Amy uses code to create very cool works of computer art. She’s inspired me to dabble in p5.js which has been a fun creative outlet for me.

  • Adam Mastroianni’s Experimental History — Adam explores the psychological aspects of human nature with a humorous twist. His articles make me chuckle and help me understand myself and others better.

  • Craig Mod’s Roden, Ridgeline, and various pop-up newsletters — Craig spends his time walking through Japan and writing books about his experiences. His writing style is casual yet very intentional and I always finish reading one of his pieces feeling lighter and more reflective about life.

  • David Pierce’s Installer — Installer is published with an impressive regularity on Saturday mornings. It’s essentially my adult version of Saturday morning cartoons; it’s become the first thing that I read and is full of just enjoyable and cool stuff around the internet.

  • Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, and Claudia Dawson’s Recommendo — Recommendations of all sorts. Sometimes articles, other times products. Sometimes just an idea. All high quality and useful along with brief explanations of why it’s being recommended.

  • Robin Sloan’s newsletter and blog — Best description I’ve got for Robin is that he’s an author who writes about books, technology, and creative pursuits (he also makes olive oil?). He’s a tough one to categorize but I always look forward to posts from him.

Enjoy! ✌️