Microcosmographia

Microcosmographia lxxii: History of Uncertainty

August 31, 2024

Cleaning the house every Saturday morning has become my de facto philosophizing time. At first it was just because of the rare chance to focus on a physical...

Microcosmographia lxxv: Pristine Substrate

May 5, 2024

In meditation and mindfulness practice, we’re asked in a multitude of ways to stop identifying with our thoughts, at least for a moment. This is a pretty...

Microcosmographia lxxiv: Orbital Mechanics of the Heart

July 4, 2023

Microcosmographia lxxiv: Orbital Mechanics of the Heart Do you think I can complete this letter in one sitting? Let’s find out. I have absolutely dozens of...

Microcosmographia xlii: It’s Okay To Say Things That Seem Obvious

March 10, 2023

Microcosmographia xlii: It’s Okay To Say Things That Seem Obvious When planning a writing project, a talk, a presentation, or even a conversation, I often...

Microcosmographia lxxi: Litany of the Long Self

February 20, 2023

If you’re anything like me, your brain does not summon up reasons to be proud without some delicate coaxing. It helps to keep a “done list” to complement...

# Microcosmographia lxiv: Incantation 3 — Okay, Compared to What?

April 29, 2022

This most powerful incantation may be my most important discovery of 2021. Any judgment you make, especially about yourself or your situation, must be in...

Microcosmographia lvxiii: Incantation 2 — So what are you going to do about it?

January 18, 2022

This incantation works to transmute outrage, melancholy, and general complainy crabbiness; into resoluteness, tranquility, and general reasonableness. It’s a...

Microcosmographia lxv: Elementary particles of meaning

December 24, 2021

One of my favorite moments in deep discussion with a dear friend is when the conversation seems to hit bedrock. Jon Bell and I talk quite a lot, and one...

Microcosmographia lxii: Incantation 1 — What if you just didn’t?

November 26, 2021

There are a few commonsense exhortations that I have found that funtion like magic incantations, cutting through unhelpful thought patterns and wresting me...

Microcosmographia lxiii: How to Pause

January 31, 2021

Microcosmographia lxiii: How to Pause Hallon, I’m apparently joining a couple of friends like Sarah and Ash by, while not having intentionally and officially...

Microcosmographia lv: The Discipline

March 22, 2019

After ten years away, I reread Anathem by Neal Stephenson, a book I’d suspected might be my favorite novel. Now I can say that it is. It’s set in a culture...

Microcosmographia liv: Erasure Meditation

April 7, 2018

I recently had my worldview forcefully re-centered by Steven Pinker’s book Enlightenment Now. It vividly illustrates that the world is categorically far...

Microcosmographia liii: Hanging out with Darwin

March 13, 2018

So we had a child. Two months in, I have a lot of feelings and hopes and thoughts about that. If you want the cute photos and sentimentality, I can add you...

Microcosmographia xlvi: Sekai Caravaggio Aruki

April 24, 2017

Celebrating Inbox Zero by lying on the couch listening to Curtain Call by haruka nakamura, I imagined a video documentary series about historical figures. Do...

Microcosmographia xvi: Our Mathemindful Universe

April 10, 2017

Do you meditate? I used to associate the practice with certain spiritual traditions or worldviews, and I got some moderately useful advice from books like...

Microcosmographia xli: Wave Existence

March 4, 2017

How important do you think it is to be consistent? I think I assumed for a long time that of course a person should remain more or less the same person all...

Microcosmographia xxxi: Balanced Values

February 26, 2017

What are your values? Yours individually, and those of your organizations and projects? I think identifying values works best if you can phrase both the...

Microcosmographia xxxviii: Habit

January 3, 2017

Routine and habit are, I believe, the only reliable tools for improving yourself and your situation. I think they tried to convince me of this in grade...

Microcosmographia xxxv: おやすみなさい

June 17, 2016

In February I had an evening that made me think, as long as I can experience something like this at least once per year, then life is going well. It's been...

Microcosmographia xxxiv: Clammbon 2016 Trip Report

April 7, 2016

This was written for Dramatickers, my fan-site for the band Clammbon. I thought that newsletterfriends might like to read it, too. If you’re in a hurry you...

Microcosmographia xxx: Write Think Write Write

January 15, 2016

Sketching is the cental activity of design, but it doesn'€™t always have to be sketching pictures. I really like roughing out text outlines to make sense of...

Microcosmographia xiv: Do the Dumb Things I Gotta Do

January 1, 2016

How often do you consciously evaluate the direction of your life? For some folks it’s today, once a year. For a good while my answer was “never”. If I was...

Microcosmographia xxix: Siri Teaches Interaction Design, part ii

December 21, 2015

I’m working through my music library in chronological order, which has been a thrilling rediscovery of my favorite music in its original context. When 1975...

Microcosmographia xxviii: In-Context Undo

November 20, 2015

Jon, My partner in UX Launchpad, put his prodigious design insight and experience into a post about why undo has been demoted in mobile interfaces. I tend to...

Microcosmographia xxi: Old Bombadillo

November 4, 2015

Hello, friends. Remember me? I’ve been in a weird place lately. Some of it is that I’ve been busy, sure. But I’ve also just been a quieter person for a...

Microcosmographia ix: Every Paragraph A Doomsday

September 20, 2015

I recently finished the book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom. It’s a history of the quest to create superhuman artificial...

Microcosmographia xix: How User Interfaces Are Still Failing Us, part ii

September 10, 2015

Time for another one of this series. It seemed appropriate, since I have been thinking about 3D Touch and the Apple Pencil and the other interactions...

Microcosmographia xviii: Periodic Table of Priorities

September 1, 2015

Do you have a system for managing your time? Since 2005 I’ve used a personal variant of Getting Things Done to manage my work. That changed my life. If...

Microcosmographia vii: How User Interfaces Are Still Failing Us, part i

August 16, 2015

How about that technology? Always getting better in miraculous new ways, while somehow remaining frustrating enough that those of us who make it suspect...

Microcosmographia viii: How Apple Music is like 520 East

August 9, 2015

Can I just complain for a second? I know that software is hard, but when software messes up my music-listening experience in ways that used to work just...

Microcosmographia v: I Was Just Now Thinking About Emoji

February 25, 2015

How much do you love emoji? I used to really hate ’em. In 2002 I lived in Tokyo, and used an AU phone that felt like the future. But it drove me crazy that...

Microcosmographia iv: Producers

February 18, 2015

Do you like the band RUSH? I have been super into them since I was like 12. Lately I have been thinking about the documentary that came with the limited...

Microcosmographia iii: Creativity Hax

February 11, 2015

Creativity Hax Pretty tired today! I am trying segmented sleep again, and am not quite used to it yet. But I have an old email here that I sent to my dear...

Microcosmographia ii: Zoom Out

February 4, 2015

Zoom Out Do you know Bret Victor? He’s a universally well-regarded thinker on the topic of how humans work and learn with technology. A lot of smart people...

Microcosmographia i: Exile in Hashtagtinople

January 28, 2015

Exile in Hashtagtinople Thank you for signing up. I’m not sure yet precisely what this newsletter is going to become, but for a while now I’ve been feeling...