Brilliant reading
I've mentioned here before that what I'm trying to do for Wired is write about the internet like it's not new. To review it like it's culture. I'm still working out how to do that, to be honest, I'm not sure I'm doing it well. It's certainly made me very conscious of people who are doing it fantastically.
For example, there's this piece from Jay Owens. Brilliantly written, useful ideas, properly sourced with actual facts and examples, thoughtful, provocative and funny. This is what properly expert internet criticism looks like. I'd love to write something this good.
Joanne McNeil's newsletter is always similarly inspiring, always an introduction to cultural stuff I've never encountered before, always a sentence I'd love to have written. Try this:
"Podcasts are for the world of Chandlers — people with Chandler-from-Friends voices or created for an audience with Chandler-like sensibilities. And I keep clicking on new podcasts but nothing is working for me (Chandlers, all of them!)"
That has made it impossible for me to listen to all sorts of podcasts and made me apply a whole new editorial filter to 41256.
If you don't, you should read/follow Jay and Joanne.
(There are currently 464 of you. Bless you for that. I used to love the look / layout of the Amstrad CPC 464 keyboard.)