~the-official-medium | Bookmarks (92)

👋 Welcome backIssue #259: asking yourself why, Brian Eno’s life advice, and courageBy Harris SockelIn 1926, Carter G. Woodson, one of the first historians to focus specifically on the African diaspora, proposed a celebration of Black Americans’ contributions to the country (it was first just a week) coinciding with ...

In one of the most popular Medium stories ever (featured in issue #105), Methodist pastor Lydia Sohn interviews her eldest congregants about their joys, hopes, fears, and regrets. Sohn was in her thirties at the time, and like many thirtysomethings she cared immensely about her career. Thinking of her future, Sohn e...

✌ Hello againIssue #257: postmodern AI, twee-isms, and sparksBy Harris SockelA quick correction: In an earlier version of this newsletter, we misquoted Chinese Diplomat Mao Ning. We’ve fixed that below.Humans don’t like uncertainty. I’ve touched on this in previous issues (it’s one reason why making decisions is so ...

🌙 Happy Lunar New Year!Issue #256: the United States of Breakfast, midlife crises, and having funBy Adeline DimondI was a lonely kid. My mother’s friend clocked this right away, and one day she grabbed my chin and made me face her. “You will find your people,” she said, not breaking eye contact.And I did, but perhap...

Add italics and bolding to highlight specific ideas. You can also separate sections using H1 and H2 headers.Here’s more information on how to format your story using the Medium editor.Include any commentaryOne of the advantages of republishing your thread as a Medium story is that you get the opportunity to address ...

👋 HolaIssue #255: laughtivism, DeepSeek, and compartmentalizationBy Harris SockelLast weekend, I spent several hours digging into a majestic 138-minute read by Tom Morton-Collings (it’s more of a book, to be honest). He began the project last year, inspired by Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time...

👋 We’re back!Issue #254: Severance, subtweets, and sauceBy Harris SockelA few years ago, I was on a team at Medium that had a pretty big goal: completely rebuild our onboarding experience. For context, “onboarding” is a pretty critical piece of Medium (and most consumer apps): It’s the moment when you select topics ...

✌️ See you next weekIssue #253: scrobbling, sign language, and self-perceptionBy Harris Sockel“The problem with normal meetings,” writes Bobby Powers in a review of one of his favorite books — Six Thinking Hats by physician and prolific author Edward de Bono — is that “rather than collectively viewing a problem from...

⏳ Not to freak you out or anything, but we’re already 6.12% of our way through 2025Issue #252: birthright citizenship, God writes a novel, and giving yourself permission to put down the weightBy Harris Sockel“You’re way more resilient than you think,” writes Mark Shrime, MD, PhD in one of the best stories I’ve read ...

👋 Welcome backIssue #251: letting go of assumptions + self-imposed urgencyBy Harris SockelCandy corn. Pez. Maraschino cherries. Gummy worms…All delicious… and all typically contain Red Dye №3, aka erythrosine (via ancient Greek eruthrós, or “red”). The dye was banned by the FDA last week, though it’s been off shelve...

🤖 I swear to God a human wrote thisIssue #250: foraging, pickling, and dead husbands who haunt your dreamsEarly robots were charming. In 1956, artist Irving Block designed Robby the Robot for the movie Forbidden Planet. Robby had a dry wit, was designed to help humans and follow Isaac Asimov’s three Laws of Robotics...

🇺🇸 It’s MLK Jr. Day and Inauguration Day today here in the U.S. — so we’re off today, but we have a brief issue for you while we’re out.Issue #249: autofiction, Carter’s legacy, and making good memoriesMatthew Teutsch, director of the Lillian E. Smith Center at Georgia’s Piedmont University, teaches college students...

📆 Today is Friday, January 17th. There’s only one other Friday the 17th in 2025, happening in October.Issue #248: moderation, small language models, David Lynch, and post-death password sharingMeta’s announcement last week that they were gutting their fact-checking efforts and changing their approach to moderation o...

📱 One of my lightly held 2025 resolutions is to stop picking up my phone when I don’t know what to do with my handsIssue #247: Excalidraw, luck, and teaEven if two products do the exact same thing — like enabling you to upload 90-second videos or publish 1,000-word blog posts — they’re different. They have different...

🚗 Hello and welcome backIssue #251: wildfires, knives, and lesser-known reading recsLate last year, I was visiting one of my favorite places on Earth: Dolores Park in San Francisco at golden hour. It was starting to get cold and the sky was turning purple, which meant I’d need a ride home. “You have to take a Waymo,...

👋 Somehow, we’re (almost) halfway through JanuaryIssue #246: making a mobile game, empathy v. accountability, and a procrastination tipA few of my coworkers do this chaotic thing at the beginning of the year: They delete every recurring meeting and repopulate their calendars gradually, only reinstating what they act...

On Wednesday, January 29th from 12–1pm ET (9–10am PT), we’re holding a free webinar for anyone interested in learning more about academic and scholarly writing on Medium. Here’s the link to RSVP!Event overviewThe event will be a panel discussion with three experts in academic/scholarly fields: Carin-Isabel Knoop, Re...

☀️ We’re back with the Medium NewsletterIssue #244: Louise Bourgeois, imperfect information, and the best outdoor photography gearMy philosophy professor once tried to help me understand Kant’s theory of the sublime. “It’s that feeling when you’re inside a house during a raging storm,” he said, rolling a cigarette. ...

✌️ Be safe this weekendIssue #243: literary rejections, good storytelling, and unconscious envyI’m guessing some of you saw this, but: Yesterday, at former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, Barack Obama was seated next to Donald Trump. They were in the second row, behind Kamala Harris and surrounded by all 5 li...

Image created by Jason CombsAs we’ve written here before, part of being a platform is dealing with spam and fraud. Yes, we’re building a place where anyone can share their knowledge, wisdom, and experience, and our goal is to deepen our collective understanding of the world through the power of stories. But we also ...

👋 Hello againIssue #242: wildfire policy, vibe curators, and optimizing for understandingI’m writing this one day before you’ll receive it (Wednesday morning), and I just woke up to photos and videos of the Pacific Palisades fire — one of three fires burning in and around Los Angeles. At least 30,000 people were for...

👋 It’s Wednesday, and we’re 2% of our way through 2025Issue #241: salt, Jimmy Carter, and the Golden GlobesOn Friday, I saw Heretic with a friend (Hugh Grant is perfectly cast, just likable enough to be an unexpectedly three-dimensional villain) and then we walked a few blocks to a nearby bar. I didn’t think I was g...

🙂 Welcome back to the Medium Newsletter (it’s so good to be back!)Issue #240: who the Pope would play in Baldur’s Gate 3 and a good reason to read moreWhat does the phrase “getting out of your comfort zone” really mean, especially when it pertains to writing?“When you stretch your limits, you redefine comfort,” says...

😎 We’re back and better-rested than everIssue #239: jungle gym careers, Billie Holiday, and questioning your defaults“Writing forces you to hear your thoughts,” goes one of my favorite tweets. “It is a confrontation with yourself.”One of my resolutions this year — and maybe one of yours — is to write more. (Thankful...