Probably the fastest I've seen Cory Doctorow explaining his theory of "Enshittifaction" with Ronny Chieng on The Daily Show. A must watch: youtu.be/d2e-c9SF5nE?... #DailyShow #CoryDoctorow #enshittification

I ❤️ print

Subscription fatigue is real. That’s a problem for the likes of Netflix but also for all the writers and artists etc who, perhaps having lost paid employment, set up on eg Substack to build a paid audience.

A bit of extra light for you on this darkest day.

Rembrandt eat your heart out johnpaulflintoff.blot.im/portrait-of-...

Loved this @theprofrog.bsky.social

Heartening to be reminded that I’m not alone in my feelings about Meta and the people who run it. From the #FinancialTimes today @financialtimes.com

individuals who support the short story in the uk - list in 2025 anthology by @nicholasroyle.bsky.social - @prototypepubs.bsky.social @ailsacox.bsky.social @ggaffa.bsky.social @cathygalvin.bsky.social @jonathangibbs.bsky.social @johnnymains.co.uk @chrispower.bsky.social @tonywhite.bsky.social

EPISODE Featuring a brown envelope from HMRC. open.spotify.com/episode/7mSe...

Yep I did a Black Friday thingy, to celebrate five years of making and selling my art. (I lowered prices to match five years ago.) Felt a bit awkward, tbh, “doing a Black Friday sale”, as if it might somehow ruin everybody’s day, but this feedback makes me conclude it was actually no bad thing.

Downsizing my notebooks, to give paper a chance to compete with digital. Phone fits in back pocket so notebooks must do that too. Why? Because although digital is wonderful amazing etc too much of it makes me giddy. Paper *never* does that.

Instagram versus RSS - 🧵 /1

With excellent and funny intro by @nicholasroyle.bsky.social

🧵 Your micro-memoir doesn't need to be about life-changing moments. It can be deeply nerdy about whatever you actually care about. Here's what a tech history newsletter taught me about documenting the small, obsessive details that only you would think to preserve:

🧵 1/ Writing a micro-memoir but stuck on when to use photos vs words? Here's a useful solution I found this week in a graphic novel. It's perfect for showing repetitive work that's central to your story, whether it's writing, or fixing a roof, or a daily commute. Here's how to use it:

I made thousands of edits in the past week or so in the process of reviewing every one of the following to check for overuse: But Though Although Also Just Often Seem/s/ed Sometimes Always Then Still Simply/Merely (usually inserted previously as a bad solution to 'just') That (daddy of them all).

“At the end of my first American tour, I felt like sitting there with a sign around my neck saying, No, I’m not Bridget Jones. But […] obviously it was a bit of me, a bit of the world around me, and a bit exaggerated.” Helen Fielding in The Paris Review www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/12...

“The poets I delight in are possessed by their poems as by the rhythms of their own breathing. Their finest poems seem born all-of-a-piece, not put together by hand” - Sylvia Plath, in a fascinating 1962 survey of poets from The London Magazine archive. 1/2🧵 thelondonmagazine.org/archive-a-19...

Bored of bubble-bath? Buy a Year of Poetry with a Poetry Archive membership and enjoy new monthly recordings. poetryarchive.org/support/gift...

Post on Bluesky giving a strong sense of qiute how much people who loved a print newspaper (as it happens, in this case, The Independent) but absolutely loath -e the online versinn. LINK: is.gd/5zcgjr @iandunt.bsky.social

An excellent way to remember him. Do read

Please send good thoughts for Peanut (beloved schnauzer) now that I have dropped her at the vet.

Five years ago, a major publisher asked me to illustrate a book. Not my own book but someone else’s.

"Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10 per cent of its overall annual revenue — or $16bn — from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show" - Reuters www.ft.com/content/4560...

Gmail? I switched to Protonmail which is excellent. It WAS a headache changing over - passwords and sign-ins everywhere - but that lasted for only a short while and I have been VERY happy to escape from Google. Also strongly recommend browsing privately with Duck Duck Go and message with Signal.

It’s NOT been a great week for Peanut.

Made this picture as a thank you to the people who look after sick animals (and do so from the building in the centre of the picture).

Helping someone assemble Instagram posts as a booklet.

Meaning happens in the spacing.

The cover for this week’s issue, “Sudden Shower,” by Sergio García Sánchez. See what’s inside: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/i4knjA

Follow me, says the small fluffy dog. As seen near Pentameters theatre. #DogsofHampstead

🧵1 The difference between a photo album and a compelling micro-memoir? Captions. Master the skill of caption-writing and you'll make every photograph work twice as hard, showing one thing while revealing another. Here's how to write captions that transform your images:

🧵 /1 Many people try to cram their entire life story into a memoir. That’s a mistake. Instead: speed through some parts, linger over others. Here's how a brilliant illustrator told her mother's life in just 128 pages (and what it means for your micro-memoir):

🧵 1/7 Lots of people want to create a legacy book. Most start, then give up. Not because they didn't try - but because they're waiting for the "right" publisher, the "perfect" story, the "whole" life. Here's how to publish something beautiful almost immediately:

Reading on paper, and Attention www.linkedin.com/posts/johnpa...

🧵 1/7 Your micro-memoir needs more than just words. The right photos, used the right way, can tell years of story in a single image. Here's how to choose and display images that make your memoir unforgettable:

I enjoyed this in the FT and used a combination of Instagram and TikTok to create the video remix @financialtimes.com @jburnmurdoch.ft.com

I just so loved his poem “V.” And “A Cold Coming”. What a loss.

Oops. That may explain the relatively low number.

Late sun on kitchen tiles.

Suddenly it reeks of AI. www.linkedin.com/posts/johnpa...

Behind the scenes at the FT Festival, on the lawn at Kenwood. Staff in white shirts and black trousers took a break while delivery vehicles were unloaded. A JCB stood ready to push and pull.

One thing you can be sure: This was not written by ghastly ai.

“The best ‘reasoning’ [AI] models today ‘face a complete accuracy collapse beyond certain complexities’. Lunch with the FT @financialtimes.com @ftweekend.com #emilybender

As AI kills search traffic is it time everyone had a newsletter instead of a website? This is from @simonowens.bsky.social

VS Pritchett is horribly underrated. Just listened to Paul Theroux read one of his stories on my favourite podcast open.spotify.com/episode/11sN...

Free delivery is GO on ALL books site-wide this weekend 🎉 We hope you can get down to a real life bookshop, but if not - you can support them right here. Bag a book from Bookshop.org and keep indie bookshops thriving! uk.bookshop.org/lists/indepe...

How many subs is too many? How many to pay for? How to unsubscribe? www.townandcountrymag.com/society/a645...