💥New Book: When Language Fails. Now available at Amazon and in the usual bookstores and marketplaces.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1972025007

Why do some arguments never resolve? Why do intelligent people talk past one another, armed with the same words but reaching incompatible conclusions? 🧐

More details to follow.

#books #wrriting #publishing #writingCommunity #philosophy #reading #language #semantics #communication #strategy #politics #education #society #ontology #perspective #book #promotion #amazon

"Why do these artificial companions lead us down such dangerous paths? One AI scholar recently argued that what happens when a human and a chatbot engage in conversation should be understood as co-hallucination." —Kristen French for Nautilus

https://nautil.us/why-youre-more-likely-to-develop-ai-psychosis-than-to-join-a-cult-1270352/ ?src=longreads

#longreads #AI #mentalhealth #hallucination #chatbots #writing #reading

If reading books is a habit formed early in life then the news that only around 10% of boys aged 14-16 ready daily for pleasure is a sad testament to the temptations of social media & sport, as well as the pressures of school work.

Of course, many may pick up the habit later, and some might argue nowadays its no surprise, but as an avid reader of books myself (and knowing the value I get from that experience) it seems a sad state of affairs.

#books @books #reading

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/feb/22/teenage-boys-reading-books-research

I've got a love-hate relationship with discovering classic texts.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/02/20/the-ragged-trousered-philanthropists/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

The love is, of course, the content; the hate is that it's been yet unexplored.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists.
Edwardian London. I found this.

If, like me, you are anti-Capitalist or anti-Modernist, this may be right up your street.

#philosophy #books #history #london #class #work #capitalism #inequality #property #history #media #socialmedia #comparison #news #reading #poverty

This week's Top 5:

ㆍTwin Cities resistance (The Verge)
ㆍPsychedelic self-reinvention (Granta)
ㆍGuardians of the ranch (Smithsonian)
ㆍA file of fragments (VQR)
ㆍPantone’s political white (LARB)

https://longreads.com/2026/02/20/top-5-of-week-598/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Longreads #Writing #Journalism #Reading #Essay

If y'all are curious about the books I've read over the past 3 years, check it:

https://courtcan.com/2026/02/19/books-i-read-in/

#books
#reading
#ReadALLtheThings
#ILoveBooks

@NickEast_IndieWriter

Thanks for filling me in. I mostly read free ebooks, often from Libby where I can find the current hits and a good back catalog but I like buying books from indie authors when I can afford them.

And I always really enjoy these books which are usually unique and not genrefied.

Like I said, you're in my wheelhouse. I'll let you know how I like the book and when I get to part two.

#reading #indies

Introducing The Longreads Questionnaire, a new series exploring how writers read, write, and create.

Maria Popova, the creator of The Marginalian and author of the new book TRAVERSAL, kicks off our inaugural edition.

https://longreads.com/2026/02/17/questionnaire-maria-popova/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Longreads #Interview #Writers #Writing #Reading #Creativity

Things are meant to be used. Paint is meant to stain. Perfumes are meant to be sprayed. Candles are meant to be burned. Clothes are meant to be worn. Stop waiting for a good day to use things; use good things you have to manufacture good days.

#quotes #showerthought #reading #books #art #fashion #cooking

Good morning tooting friends. Such a solid sleep last night, I was very tired even though I nana napped yesterday afternoon. In bed by 9.30pm & could barely get through one chapter of my book. I’m reading The Alice Network by Kate Quinn at the moment, I’m enjoying it but it’s confronting & sad. I did rouse a few times during the night but all in all it was a near 8hr sleep. Go me 😁.
It was 14c when I got up & while I’m very aware that the seasons are definitely changing. The days end up still quite warm by late afternoon. It’s going to be in the 30’s all week & 32c is where we’ll get to today. It’s beautiful outside right now, lovely & sunny but relatively cool - perfect.
I need to do some work on my tiny garden out the very back of my unit. It’s a small area where my clothesline is & a tiny amount of lawn. I also have some large pots there that I repurposed from the two halves of an old rolling compost bin & there’s a small ground garden I built a few years ago that has really struggled after the flooding & then the heat. Plants need to be removed, cut back etc. I’ll tidy it up & make a plan as to what to do there next. I’d like to get another bay tree but have it in one of the large pots, they do well in pots & there’s nothing quite like fresh bay leaves.
Hope everyone has a lovely #Saturday doing things you enjoy. Have a great day people 🌻. #Weather #Reading #Garden

In this week's Top 5:

—Lessons from apartheid
—Clever Claude?
—Bodies anew
—Wax on, wax off
—Mine’s free

https://longreads.com/2026/02/13/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-597/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Top5 #longreads #writing #reading #essays

Data and information are never neutral. Seeing Like a State should be required reading for all statisticians, data scientists, and 'if you can't measure it, you can't manage it' cohorts. As I've mentioned before, stats is tossed into maths curricula despite being more about methodology; this talks about historicity.
👉 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20186.Seeing_Like_a_State

#philosopy #socialscience #reading #books #maths #statistics #Enlightenment #perspective #legibility #convenience #critique

Expanded #introduction

Mostly also stuff in my profile:
#Sauna #サウナ
#wine
#CraftBeer #beer #brewing
#日本酒
#BBQ
#chilis
#guitar
#FrenchHorn,
#jazz,
#IrishSetter #IrishSetters #RedSetters
#vinyl #LPs
#books #reading #coffee

Also, as I go into my first summer of not working since 14 years old I intend to do a lot of #kayaking and #fishing (from the #kayak), and some #MountainBiking #MTB but more #GravelRiding

January 28, 2026

Still snowed in. I know many people are out and about but I'm not. Practice piano and vibraphone. Read and rest. Eat chili. enjoy the slightly warmer weather before it drops again.

HairyLarryLand Discord Invite Link
https://discord.gg/hpjz9DwNd5

#journal #discord #HairyLarryLand #music #reading

On my friend's advice I just checked out Storm Front on Libby.

Now reading

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Beautiful prose.

But I am nearing the end.

I will save my final thoughts for when I've finished. I don't know if there will be an ending or if it will just end.

#books #reading

What do centuries-old stones, a self-winding watch and child's sock have in common?

Such time capsules often hide in our cupboards: lost treasures, family heirlooms, old diaries or dry pressed flowers. It is not their monetary value that matters, but the stories they tell.

After reading similar posts from @AlexWolfe, @daj and @hryggrbyr, I started to think of my own list.

🌐 https://blog.gridranger.dev/my-oldest-things

#blog #post #indieweb #familyhistory #reading #bloggingchallenge #boardgames

The most annoying thing about corporate surveillance to me is the arrogance of the prediction mechanisms.

These algorithms build a model of me based on my clicks from three years ago and then try to trap me in that loop forever. They show me music they think I'll like, and news they think I'll engage with, and videos they think will enrage me enough to keep me hooked to their platforms. They are actively trying to flatten my personality into something easy to monetize.

As most people I've seen say out loud, "Privacy as a concept is way beyond hiding secrets. A part of it also means preserving your capacity to change. To be surprised. To be inconsistent."

If I could tell every human one thing, it would be to actively refuse to be a predictable data point. Mess up their metrics. In whatever way you are capable of.

#socialmedia #algorithmicbias #privacy #dataprivacy #quotes #foss #facebook #linkedin #llm #noai #enshittification #reading #books #baking #art #philosophy #adhd #depression #cybersecurity

I had NotebookLM create a podcast summary of a video on moral psychology interventions. Blog post to follow.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/65d25PLFIEezBiMgyf7lku?si=QEPGl-8ERRWei5uuYV9J5w
#philosophy #psychology #podcast #morality #communication #language #cognition #reasoning #enlightenment #books #reading #critique #bookreview

"Watching Gilmore Girls helps me remember what it felt like to have a man love me like I was his own daughter, even when he had no biological imperative to do so." —Peggy Carouthers for Electric Lit

https://electricliterature.com/i-rewatch-gilmore-girls-to-remember-my-stepfather/?src=longreads

#longreads #electriclit #grief #gilmoregirls #reading #writing

This week's Top 5:

• ICE fighter (Der Spiegel)
• Tectonic researcher (High Country News)
• Prairie preserver (Noema)
• Regal grandmother (Southlands)
• Wild timekeeper (Emergence Magazine)

https://longreads.com/2026/01/16/top-5-longreads-593/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Longreads #Reading #Nonfiction #Essay #Journalism

Claude, the Therapist, Is In to explain the challenge of academic orthodoxy
https://philosophics.blog/2026/01/16/claude-the-therapist-is-in/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social
#philosophy #llm #ai #claude #critique #language #orthodoxy #kant #reading #writing #blog #podcast #history

"Only in the last 200 years did farmers transform these acres into neat cornfields." —Christian Elliott for Noēma

https://www.noemamag.com/where-the-prairie-still-remains/?src=longreads

#longreads #prairie #pioneer #Iowa #writing #essay #reading

A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis, part 2.
📖 https://youtu.be/AOMiCsa4vxg
I discuss my latest book.
#books #writing #philosophy #reading #language #video #youtube #communication #law #contracts #author #graph #efficiency #complexity #science

In this week's Top 5:

—January begins (The Atlantic)
—Finding beauty (The Believer)
—Powerful blues (Oxford American)
—Toxic water (Orion)
—Begonia baton (The Observer)

https://longreads.com/2026/01/09/the-top-5-longreads-of-the-week-592/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Top5 #longreads #reading #writing #essays #journalism

"So there I was, moving from apathy to disbelief, holding the same plant my great-grandfather Sigmund had nurtured nearly 100 years ago." —Emma Freud for The Observer

https://observer.co.uk/news/first-person/article/emma-freud-sigmund-freuds-begonia/?src=longreads

#freud #writing #reading #longreads #familyhistory #begonia

A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis. 📖 https://a.co/d/3FhE49S
Almost 10 years in the works, I explain why more time and detail cannot improve some forms of communication due to diminishing marginal returns to effort. This book covers English, but I've already extended the hypothesis to French (elsewhere), and I am working on other ontological barriers.
#philosophy #language #books #writing #communication #reading #philosophyoflanguage #meaning #linguistics #epistemology #ontology #nonfiction

"That people can manipulate chatbots to get more information—regardless of how dangerous that information may be—is a hallmark of recent tragedies tied to AI chatbots." —Lester Black, Stephen Council for SFGATE

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/calif-teen-chatgpt-drug-advice-fatal-overdose-21266718.php

#longreads #AI #ChatGPT #writing #reading #essays

An author reads James. Brilliant.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/01/05/james-talks-truth/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

“Belief has nothing to do with truth. Believe what you like. Believe I’m lying and move through the world as a white boy. Believe I’m telling the truth and move through the world as a white boy anyway. Either way, no difference.”

Percival Everett #Novel #Reading #AmericanLiterature #Classic #PhilosophicalFiction #Race #Identity #blog #podcast #Belief #Truth #Reality #Power #Perception #Injustice #Ideology #Literature #Philosophy

Obligatory year-end post. I share my most and least favourite books of 2025.
👉 https://philosophics.blog/2025/12/31/bonus-2025-post-books/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social
I also congratulate myself on 1,000+ posts (overall) and 30,000+ views (2025).
#books #reading #philosophy #yearinreview #bookreview #philosophy #psychology #classics #literature #fiction #nonfiction #history #trainspotting #narrative #stories #humans #blog

Alt...

book covers

I was chatting with ChatGPT and suggested that the Bible read like Ayn Rand. The response:

http://philosophics.blog/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

That’s unkind to Ayn Rand. At least she knew she was writing fan fiction for her own temperament. If it’s literature, it’s literature in the same way a minutes-of-meeting document is prose.

#bible #biblestudy #christianity #worship #religion #reading #writing #history #critique #literature #philosophy #theology #criticalTheory #bollocks #faith

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Angels

"Walking barefoot as a monk was a constant reminder of how we humans are always connected to the earth, bound by gravity, ever aware of the heft we carry—some of us more than others."

Ira Sukrungruang for The Sun: https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/600-on-walking

#Longreads #Essay #Reading #Writing #Walking #Body #Exercise #Monks #Thailand #England

A simple reminder that most Philosophics Blog podcast summaries are available before the blog post.
https://philosophics.blog/2025/12/22/psa-podcasts/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social
#blog #announcement #podcast #philosophy #language #reading #talking #sharing

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Bry Willis with an AI mic insert

50 Years of Language Insufficiency

👉 https://philosophics.blog/2025/12/20/a-history-of-language-insufficiency/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lih

I share thoughts on the genesis of A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis, 50 (or more) years in the making. (Webcams take great selfies – subject notwithstanding. 🧐😉)

#reading #writing #reviewing #proofing #philosophy #language #books #publishing #lih #communication #clarity #hypothesis #selfie #author

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Author Bry Willis reading A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis.

I evaluate #Justice as a house of cards through the lens of a language insufficiency hypothesis
https://philosophics.blog/2025/12/20/justice-as-a-house-of-cards/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=lih
#philosophy #philosophyOfLanguage #philosophie #mtg #cards #blog #choice #agency #responsibility #lih #desert #classification #podcast #semantics #meaning #writing #amwriting #reading

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MTG Agency card

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MTG Justice card

"This year’s 'Stories You Missed' include journeys with mummies and endangered birds, meditations on compost and lionfish, and deep studies of time, maps, and memory. Maybe you haven’t missed them quite yet; in fact, maybe they’ve been waiting to find you at this very moment." https://longreads.com/2025/12/19/best-of-2025-the-stories-you-missed/?utm_source=x&utm_medium=social #reading #longreads #bestof #curation

Do you ever need a break?
https://philosophics.blog/2025/12/17/i-need-a-break/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

#philosophy #writing #research #reading #commitment #law #ethics #ai #jobs #blog #podcast

Alt...

man sleeping on park bench

Our 10 most popular editors' picks of 2025: https://longreads.com/2025/12/16/most-popular-editors-picks/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Featuring The New Yorker, New York, Intelligencer, Bloomberg Weekend, Texas Monthly, San Francisco Chronicle, Curbed, and Slate 🏆

#Longreads #Reading #Bestof2025 #Nonfiction #Journalism

"I’ve wondered what might happen if I narrow my lens: apply constraints to my days, focus on the choices that actually shape my world."

In today's Year in Reading essay, @cherilucas acknowledges her limits: https://longreads.com/2025/12/12/restraint-as-wisdom/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Longreads #Reading #Bestof2025 #Essay #Writing #Nonfiction #Ecology #AI #Collapse #Survival

"Turning in isn’t turning away. It’s something more like attunement."

Continuing our Year in Reading series, @provenself shares his favorite #longreads of 2025, including Sarah Miller on ayahuasca therapy at n+1, Chris Colin on total darkness at The New York Times Magazine, and more.

https://longreads.com/2025/12/11/inward-journeys/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Reading #bestof2025 #Essay #Journalism #Writing Storytelling #Nonfiction

The art of #writing is as rewarding and enjoyable as the act of #reading.

But today, people are asking LLMs to perform those fun tasks of reading and writing, and leaving for themselves the dull task of presenting to their bosses the LLM’s summary that they do not fully comprehend.🤦‍♂️

"But amid trial and trauma—or perhaps even despite them—many of these stories dare to hope." Editor Krista Stevens shares the stories that she could not stop thinking about this year.

https://longreads.com/2025/12/10/hope-in-dark-times/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#YearInReading #Curation #Reading #Longreads