Through Lines 286

If you had asked me what song Rush would perform during their first Junos appearance in (checks notes…) 2026 — track one off their self-titled debut album, circa 1974 would never have crossed my mind, but it’s perhaps a brilliant choice for the debut of drummer Anika Niles in place of the late and arguably irreplaceable Neil Peart as the signal of a new beginning.

Art & Design

  • When design is covered with rigor and nuance, it changes how the field is read more broadly. It becomes something that can be discussed with the same level of attention and specificity as fields with a longer history of critique… Elizabeth Goodspeed makes a strong case that designers need to write more about their work — to fill in missing context and thinking as a cure for so many bad takes.
  • The ache you feel isn’t regressive. It’s your body asking for rituals that cost something. Dustin Parker’s brilliant The Future Smells Like Paper absolutely nails why friction and imperfection still matters.
  • Excited to see a few well-deserving folks that I know personally in this year’s excellent list of the Eames Institute's Curious 100.
  • Alexander Endrullat’s clever and unexpectedly poignant Off the Grid intaglio prints made from discarded devices have such a rich analog patina.
  • I’m extremely intrigued by the Open Printer project which just happened to come along at a time when something like this could be very useful and interesting.
  • Not sure how I feel about Radioposter but color me intrigued by the basic premise.

Humanities

  • You’ve probably never really thought that deeply about what trusting you gut actually means. The Gut Decision Matrix is a helpful breakdown between instinctive and intuitive decisions.
  • We should all go off and really consider the impacts of many technological driven effects on ourselves over the last couple decades on our ability to think rationally and reasonably because we’ve reached the edge of the cliff and it seems like a lot of people are ready to jump.
  • See also this now several years old interview with Ted Chiang by Ezra Klein who makes a very cogent point that our fears of technology are rooted in a fear of capitalism.
  • This recent photo of our home from NASA sure is a good reminder of our general insignificance in the universe.
  • It’s hard to hear, but your work is not who you are. Or if it is and you haven’t figured out yet that there's more to life, the best time to start is right now.
  • Net fulfillment over net worth which originates from Die with Zero by Bill Perkins is a simple idea I’ve started trying to put into practice more myself.
  • The the moon got a new crater.

I’m keeping this one nice and short and a bit more focused than usual. After finally getting the Riso ME9450 up and running this past week and just today selling the EZ391, I’m starting to feel a sense of clarity (maybe also relief) around what to do next. While a backlog of ideas continues to grow, I’ve been feeling a particular urgency around a couple specific ones that have been the focus of recent research, and honestly, that feels like the best use of my time and energy.