“Clayton isn’t a bushy-tailed young naif but a greying fixer. Those conspiracies that our heroes uncover in The Firm and Antitrust? That’s the kind of thing Clayton is paid to cover up. He’s there to keep business orderly and functioning, one bribe, bail bond, or called-in favor at a time.”

Great essay on the corporate thrillers of the 1990s by @maxread.info: «As the economy becomes all but illegible to ordinary people, the only possible way to explain consolidation and inequality is in terms of mafia-sponsored tax-dodging schemes and techie murder conspiracies. …

i love being a man city fan. this rocks

Sometimes, you read an idea that so clearly sums up an experience that you didn't know you were having, repeatedly. At every work place. For all of time. Thanks @maxread.info for the glimpse into the human experience. I feel seen.

I wrote an essay for Criterion about "Corporate Thrillers," including Wall Street, The Devil's Advocate, Disclosure, Michael Clayton, and more

I only subscribe to one Substack, simply because I like to Read Max. This is a really engaging essay.

This is great

all politics is fandom now, and the democratic party is the pitt (its fans obsessively despise it)

max on corporate thrillers for Criterion is a mad libs of everything I love. great essay herein 👇

I wrote an essay for Criterion about "Corporate Thrillers," including Wall Street, The Devil's Advocate, Disclosure, Michael Clayton, and more

guys whose job it is to sell astroturfed viral marketing campaigns really love to tell people that their astroturfed viral marketing campaigns are extremely effective

johan lange is quietly building the best wide receiver program in europe and if spurs can find a good QB i could see them competing for bowls next year

making helen dewitt tyler cowen's problem is win-win-win

the intricate heavily researched beauty routine is obviously overdetermined but at least one thing going on is EXTREME cases of forum brain crossing the traditional gender divide. women in skincare subreddits sound exactly like guys in audiophile or espresso forums www.thecut.com/article/extr...

“A.I. is “inevitable” precisely because it’s not revolutionary." In a week of AI novels cancelled, journalists using AI sacked while forcibly injecting it into others' workflows, Max Read muses if the shift to professional AI writing is avoidable or inevitable maxread.substack.com/p/is-ubiquit...

“AI may be “mid”, but it’s effects will be anti-medium-quality”

trying to think of a basketball stalin. can anyone think of an extremely hard working guy good at consolidating power, burnishing his reputation, building a dynasty, undeniable major Ws but ultimately not a top top guy despite the unshakeable beliefs of his unconquerable posthumous stan army

great tom delonge story from ilan rubin www.instagram.com/reels/DW4NtQ...

A lot of people have asked what the Oakland Review of Books is. One good answer is that ORB is the opposite of whatever these guys have become. Give a thought to subscribing, won't you? www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org#/portal/signup

Read the article about the history of Oakland's sideshows that everyone at r/OaklandCA (that's the reactionary Oakland subreddit) absolutely hated: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/sideshow-his...

excellent as usual

what kind of "inevitable" is ai? maxread.substack.com/p/is-ubiquit...

he's doing reality tv promo. you should imagine this music on while you read this www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx9u...

this is about AI in journalism and writing but it applies just as much to AI use in education - it's an acceleration of existing issues. you don't "fix" it without persuading students to value education in a way they currently do not.

what kind of "inevitable" is ai? maxread.substack.com/p/is-ubiquit...

Good article by Max, but I want to point out that Marche is twisting the order of events and simply lying. It was the readers who pointed out that the book was AI, not the other way around. You could see it in the reviews before the investigation.

Exactly correct. If you’ve been in media for the last 20 years, you see how AI writing will slot into capitalist enterprise of “word production” in a different (maybe clearer?) way than the outlines of the conversation usually take.

“A.I.-generated text is ‘inevitable’ in the same way that high-volume blogs were ‘inevitable’ or Facebook fake news pages were ‘inevitable’: Not because of some ‘natural’ superiority or excellence, but because they follow so directly from the logic of the system out of which they emerge.”

A good read.

what kind of "inevitable" is a.i. writing?

this guy's writing is dogshit but i think it's great that in a world where 3 body problem--reactionary nationalist propaganda!!--is a huge hit there's really popular sci-fi about how aliens and us would probably get along and work together to save the galaxy :) that's political and it's good!

Very funny how the influence of EA was memory-holed after SBF’s fall. @maxread.info one of the few people to take it seriously as it ought to be, e.g. maxread.substack.com/p/what-anthr...

the lost maxis classic

NEMESIS (1992), dir. Albert Pyun

you can tell this lady used to be a gawker commenter bc she has that particular combination of smug, dull, and unselfaware

going live on substack shortly with @lioneltrolling.bsky.social

when the article mentions "hoagie, burger and pizza shops frequented by Princeton University students" cc @katiebakes.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/...

i get the feeling we're gonna see a lot of psychopaths in government trying to retroactively blame malign israeli influence for 30+ years of psychopathic foreign policy that was very much our fault

when your mysterious traveling companion says something so eggphobic you gotta hit em with the angel stare

it seems fair as far as it goes to say the bay area could be denser and richer, but the answer to the question "where's my silicon valley megacity" is "in the pearl river delta" www.slowboring.com/p/why-silico...

really funny that the twin generational legacy of millennials is "cringe wokeness" and "binge drinkers"

want to note that PTA pronounced it "pynch-AWN," which is not how anyone else says except for pynchon himself (and lisa) on the simpsons

in this week's newsletter: what are A.I.-or-human quizzes actually measuring? maxread.substack.com/p/what-do-wh...

you and i are not the same

This is reinforcing Max Read’s thesis from 2024 maxread.substack.com/p/people-pre...

everyone complaing about the pitt's psa storylines doesn't remember what 90s network tv was like. people were getting addicted to diet pills and meeting nine year olds with aids every week. "buhhh what about my morally ambiguous antiheroes" shut the fuck up. this is tv heritage.

I've accidentally backed myself into a career as a content creator and need your help figuring out what to do next. Please take this short survey, even if you don't subscribe! bit.ly/4s4drzz

watch here! open.substack.com/live-stream/...

going live on substack w/ @lioneltrolling.bsky.social at 2

the conditions that made elon successful at tesla and spacex and starlink (zirp, nonexistent sectoral competition, not addicted to ketamine) no longer hold true. its hard to be a failure at $700b net worth but i dont xai keeping pace