The mistake of believing you are the bigger thing: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/23/the-mistake-of-believing-you.html

The Art of Money Getting: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/23/the-art-of-money-getting.html

We are mature in one realm, childish in another: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/23/we-are-mature-in-one.html

As per my last email: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/23/as-per-my-last-email.html

Always more mountains: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/23/always-more-mountains.html

What if I told you that we could reduce the energy used per useful AI output by ~100x through existing techniques? blog.dougbelshaw.com/ais-energy-p... #AI #SystemsThinking #Policy

What if I told you that we could reduce the energy used per useful AI output by ~100x through existing techniques? blog.dougbelshaw.com/ais-energy-p... #AI #SystemsThinking #Policy

New genres are emerging that exploit cognitive and moral resources in ways that did not have technological pathways before: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/21/new-genres-are-emerging-that.html

Drug testing on brains hovering between life and death: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/21/drug-testing-on-brains-hovering.html

A good day at @thinkingdigital.bsky.social

Strategy 101

What an absolute pleasure it's been to run the pilot cohort of #TechFreedom with @tomcw.xyz over the last six weeks. Some really interesting people from three different countries attended the sessions and the conversation and learning was top-notch 🤘 techfreedom.eu

I've also renewed my domain for 5 years, which made me feel very grown-up

I've updated my /now page blog.dougbelshaw.com/now/

3 things made me do this blog.dougbelshaw.com/archiving-my...

I don't know why you're relying on potentially seeing this in your algorithmic feed instead of subscribing by RSS/email, but here we go: blog.dougbelshaw.com/archetypes-w...

I don't know why you're relying on potentially seeing this in your algorithmic feed instead of subscribing by RSS/email, but here we go: blog.dougbelshaw.com/archetypes-w...

"As the philosopher Byung-Chul Ham has written, 'we produce against the feeling of lack'. Our frenetic activity is often an effort to shore up a sense of ourselves as minimally acceptable members of society." – Oliver Burkeman

What have I been up to this week? Let me tell you... blog.dougbelshaw.com/weeknote-20-... #weeknote

Why do people procrastinate?: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/17/why-do-people-procrastinate.html

Field Notes on Productive Friction: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/17/field-notes-on-productive-friction.html

Arbitrary structures and accidental hierarchies: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/17/arbitrary-structures-and-accidental-hierarchies.html

"I have led a toothless life, he thought. A toothless life. I have never bitten into anything. I was waiting. I was reserving myself for later on—and I have just noticed that my teeth have gone. – Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason"

Some people have asked about how I self-host my websites and tools, so here you go: blog.dougbelshaw.com/cloudflare-t...

The impact of volcanoes on the Black Death: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/15/the-impact-of-volcanoes-on.html

Some people have asked about how I self-host my websites and tools, so here you go: blog.dougbelshaw.com/cloudflare-t...

20% gone within 24 hours: blog.dougbelshaw.com/cognitive-wa...

Believe in your own excellence: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/14/believe-in-your-own-excellence.html

There are always people who fall outside the bounds of what a service can handle: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/14/there-are-always-people-who.html

My kidnappers returning me back: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/14/my-kidnappers-returning-me-back.html

I will never not think that it's cringe to prepend or append your title or academic credentials on a social network. Yes, that includes LinkedIn.

I was talking to someone last night who was saying the same about her mother, whose eyesight has deteriorated to the extent that she is now registered blind. She said that the joy of being able to read again was profound. 🤔

i have never once come to my senses and i don't intend to start now

Some theses on #slop. A thread. Slop is automated ideology. It's content made of content, optimized for circulation, prompted, shaped, and refined through feedback loops of adaptation to platform conditions 1/

I came across the phrase "cognitive wallpaper" yesterday, and it unlocked a whole cascade of thoughts which has resulted in me announcing my first zine, coming Q3 2026: blog.dougbelshaw.com/cognitive-wa... #zines #DigitalLiteracies #Attention #ProductiveFriction

I came across the phrase "cognitive wallpaper" yesterday, and it unlocked a whole cascade of thoughts which has resulted in me announcing my first zine, coming Q3 2026: blog.dougbelshaw.com/cognitive-wa... #zines #DigitalLiteracies #Attention #ProductiveFriction

Now where's that floppy drive...?

'View source' taught a generation how the web worked. There's no equivalent with AI: just a prompt, an output, and an impenetrable statistical model in between. So what now? I've been thinking through that here: blog.dougbelshaw.com/after-web-li... #DigitalLiteracies #AILiteracy #WebLiteracy

'View source' taught a generation how the web worked. There's no equivalent with AI: just a prompt, an output, and an impenetrable statistical model in between. So what now? I've been thinking through that here: blog.dougbelshaw.com/after-web-li... #DigitalLiteracies #AILiteracy #WebLiteracy

Very much looking forward to reading this, a gift from @mrlockyer.bsky.social for building TaskDial (and the upcoming ProjectDial) 🙂 dynamicskillset.com/tools

I think Sunday at 21:48 is a perfectly fine time to publish one's #weeknote, thank you very much blog.dougbelshaw.com/weeknote-19-...

The new world order is rearranging itself on the planet and settling in: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/10/the-new-world-order-is.html

If you can't live without the Chrome browser, given the latest news* why not try Chromium, the open source browser on which it's based? www.pcmag.com/news/chrome-... *See www.pcmag.com/news/chrome-...

Every Sunday, my little robot friend runs a custom prompt to catch me up on what's been going on... and what might happen next. I intentionally get it to deprioritise US news, so that I'm a bit better informed about world events. www.linkedin.com/pulse/global...

The next #TechFreedom newsletter goes out soon! Sign up here: newsletter.techfreedom.eu

Finally! Chaos with Ed Miliband 🤘 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_w...

Oof: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/09/oof.html

We live in an economy that has systematically destroyed the conditions for trust, and then charges us for the workarounds: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/09/we-live-in-an-economy.html

My goal is to encourage people to take action and look at the alternatives that are on the table: https://thoughtshrapnel.com/2026/05/09/my-goal-is-to-encourage.html