My grandmother trusted the evening news because she'd watched it earn that trust for decades. Nobody told her when the rules changed. Nobody told our parents either. A new essay on cognitive inheritance.

People are loving the printed & mailed version of my blog (the photo below is from a friend and subscriber). If you're interested in slowing down with some essays on leadership, systems, and the open web you can subscribe here: jesse.blog/mail

Three trips to Paris. One underground conference. A question I can't shake about what we owe the open source commons we've built together. New essay:

There's something that gets lost between a screen and your eye. The weight of it. The sense that someone actually made something. So I'm trying something different, if you go to jesse.blog/mail, you can subscribe and add your mailing address — and I'll send them to you. On paper. With a stamp.

Churchill by Paul Johnson

4 Hour Work-week by Tim Ferriss

High tech makes big promises, but it can’t replace the human experience. My trip through San Francisco’s transportation layers — from stalled Ubers to looping Waymos — reminded me what we lose when systems… https://jesse.blog/stories/high-tech-low-touch/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Podcast: The Hidden Drags That Undermine Team Leadership Effectiveness

Most teams don’t fail because of the big disruptions. They drift because of the subtle drag—those half-knot inefficiencies you barely notice until it’s too late. In 2026, efficient leadership… https://jesse.blog/stories/team-leadership-effectiveness/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Our very own @ma.tt joined the TBPN crew to close out #StateOfTheWord yesterday. They talked about WordPress 6.9, open source, @beeper, and how AI is changing the web. Did you miss it? Check it out now. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBQh...

97% complete. I've been staring at this screen for 27 minutes. The first 97% took 3 minutes. The last 3%? Still waiting. (Continued in thread) #UXDesign #ProductDesign #UserExperience

✍️ Just published: On The Sacred Act of Writing: Distraction Free – my reflections after a three-month sabbatical and how I’m building a daily writing ritual to protect focus and flow. Ready to dive deeper into… https://jesse.blog/essays/on-the-sacred-act-of-writing-distraction-free/

Aimez L’amour Queer à Paris.”

"We wish for the courage to be brutally honest, forgetting to wish for the empathy to know when honesty becomes brutal." jesse.blog/from-my-jour...

Untitled We wish for the courage to be brutally honest, forgetting to wish for the empathy to know when honesty becomes brutal. - Jesse Friedman

I look down at the banana peel. It grew out of the earth, traveled across the globe, and was carried to this spot to adopt its new station as a natural element in an unnatural world. jesse.blog/stories/bana...

Banana Times Square has an unnatural resonance, one you cannot become attuned to. It hums from electrified currents pumped into sky-high advertisements. It buzzes from worker bees shuffling across cement pathways. It aches as black and yellow caravans ebb and flow through its arteries. But there…

It’s only a mistake if you make it twice I used to encourage my teams and colleagues to 'Celebrate Failures.' Otherwise, we hide shared learnings from one another when we sweep mistakes under the rug in shame. The truth is, we all know this, we all fail from time to time. What's important is…

A Note on Ego Recently I have been more in tune with, and listening to the impact of Ego on our imagination. Our early childhood was Ego-less. We felt no shame running naked through our backyards, waving our arms, and singing songs. As children we also… https://jesse.blog/stories/a-note-on-ego/

Everywhere I look I'm reminded of my dwindling code commits in #Github. #webdev #programming #memes

"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." - Isaac Asimov

I just threw my hat in the ring to compete in Jamie Marsland's speed build competitions. 🤞 I need to improve my browser extension tools. Who has good color sampling, and spacing tools suggestions that I can use to quickly breakdown an existing site.

I keep learning about "life rules" that are absolutely capitalist plays to pull money out of our wallets. The food pyramid, for example, was designed to promote higher margin, sugary foods to keep us buying. So I'm curious, where did the 8-hours of sleep per night rule come from? Is it legit?

Anyone see any tools to help you find people to follow based on who you follow on twitter or other networks?

"“something definitely shifted” after the company was acquired by the private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018." - @ma.tt This is a good read by observer.com observer.com/2024/11/word...