Recommendations

Written for entries to flow into each other rather than ranked in order. A recommendation does not equal an endorsement of the positions advanced by the creator(s). Sometimes it can be enlightening to consume something that is high quality yet disagreeable. Check ratings to make sure you’re comfortable with the content.

Blogs

Rationalist

Astral Codex Ten

Scott Alexander’s Substack successor to Slate Star Codex. Legendary science communicator, great writer, less interesting when he gets political. One of my favorite blogs.

Less Wrong

The rationalist community blog. Scott got his start here. Be warned, some people find them so detestable that they’ve formed entire anti-rationalist communities. I don’t even disagree with most of their criticisms, but it can’t be denied that the rationalists are outputting high effort content that seems a little more edifying to spend time on (While forming your own opinions! The rationalists might be completely wrong about everything but at least they are high effort, high quality falsehoods) than haters doing what they gonna do. Also, the web design is sweet.

Gwern

Another prominent rationalist, this time with an over-engineered website and a dogged fixation on a strange grab bag of topics. There’s something charming about the unapologetic nerdiness he attacks his subjects with, writing way more words than necessary and accumulating huge amounts of visualizations and links.

Dynomight

Another rationalist-adjacent self-experimenter, this one with an under-engineered site. He convinced me that aspartame is extremely low-risk and that fixing your air quality is one of the highest impact health interventions. Dry sense of humor and great writing.

Matt Lakeman

Unhinged self experiments and travel logs that will appeal to someone who reads Wikipedia for fun.

Engineering

Applied Cartography

Justin Duke blogs about his experience as a “yeoman” engineer, quietly tending to his little product that he bootstrapped without external funding.

Irrational Exuberance

The rare engineering blog from an executive perspective. Everyone can be a better leader no matter their org-chart position.

Ryan Ashcraft

Another yeoman, this one laboring on the excellent Foodnoms app (a MyFitnessPal alternative that I love).

Martin Fowler

One of the original architects of Agile, Test Driven Development, and other engineering innovations that are just taken for granted these days. Ignore his hard-won wisdom at your peril.

Doug Gregor

He makes Swift. Bottom text.

Fly.io

It’s just a lil ol PaaS startup, but for some reason everyone here has a virtuosic grasp of the English language. Their articles never fail to entertain, confront, and inform. I will say their whole polemic about AI was one of their worst (in terms of style, no comment on the arguments advanced) and I’m kind of upset it went so viral.

Corporate Tech Blogs

The engineering challenges that big tech decides to blog about can get really in the weeds. If you want to be a top-tier engineer it can’t hurt to pay attention to what esoteric engineering at scale looks like in practice, even if they lack any personality or consistency (it’s a different person writing each post). Weak recommendation to DoorDash, Netflix, and Meta (though Meta has an annoying habit of trying to get you to listen to their podcast).

Miscellaneous

Andy Matuschak

Andy has gone through a couple of eras online, including his more conventional blog Square Signals. He has a sweet résumé that includes building iOS and leading R&D at Khan Academy. Nowadays he’s doing a lot of exciting independent research and engineering around systems to help us learn better that could genuinely change the world if they work.

ACOUP

A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry is pop history for the masses, but no less rigorous for it. He has an enormous backlog revolving around his professional academic focus on war in ancient and medieval Europe. My favorite series is his thorough takedown of misconceptions about Sparta.

GioCities

This is the guy that most inspired me to make this website. You may see many parallels in our site format (he’s better tho). He writes about nerdy media and more obscure semi-political tech issues that should be of interest to anyone with an investment in the internet. And I guess he’s like, a pillar of what remains of the Homestuck fandom?

Silver Bulletin

Cmon, it’s Nate Silver! You mostly need to read this so you aren’t tempted to go back to the corpse of Disney’s FiveThirtyEight which has definitely started to stink in his absence.

Numb at the Lodge

The richest prose style of anyone I read. Kinda political, kinda literary. Always weird.

The Last Psychiatrist

Extremely cynical guy complains about the inauthenticity of modern society. Many of his writings have sort of entered the internet canon.

Books

You can also check out my goodreads

Literature

i.e. not genre fiction

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Each of the brothers will lay bare a different facet of your own psyche and begin to pull at the threads of your web of self-justification until all at once the curtains fall away to reveal a way forward. I have no idea how a mortal wrote this.

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky

A must-read for anyone who’s ever done something wrong. So that excludes you, of course.

Anna Karenina

Leo Tolstoy

Emergent narrative springs forth from realized characters. Your enjoyment of the book will be a function of how annoying you find the self-insert named Levin.

War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoyan maximalism. You will most certainly lose track of the convoluted family trees, even with the wikipedia article constantly open. But there’s big payoff for persisting.

Doctor Zhivago

Boris Pasternak

I might as well get all of the Russian favorites out of the way. The Russian Revolution made personal. The movie does not do it justice.

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

A gulag prisoner goes about his day. Written by a real life gulag prisoner. Will make you feel cold.

East of Eden

John Steinbeck

I think of it as a thematic sequel to the Brothers Karamazov, because it touches on and develops many of the same themes, swapping Russiaisms for Americana.

The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas

It’s anti-revenge, actually.

The Three Musketeers

Alexandre Dumas

Historical swashbuckling comedy from the Romantic Era. No movie adaptation has quite nailed the bizarre Monty Python energy.

Moby Dick

Herman Melville

An utter immersion into whaling life. Yeah there’s some weird psychodrama going on with the titular whale and stuff but it’s mostly just cold sea breezes, rough ropes, whipping sails, and spermaceti.

Watership Down

Richard Adams

The primordial British ooze from which Redwall eventually emerged, but markedly more mature.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

John le Carré

Methodical spy procedural written by an actual spy. Sometimes spywork gets personal.

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel

A meticulously researched and extravagantly rendered trilogy that brings Tudor bureaucrat Thomas Cromwell’s life into sharp focus. I can’t recommend it enough.

Fantasy

The Wheel of Time

Robert Jordan

Do not undertake this series lightly. 14 books at ~800 pages each. The early volumes are too derivative, the middle ones are too boring, and the later ones are too stilted, and yet it’s just about the apex of high fantasy. Jordan has a masterful (sometimes repetitive) grasp of the English language. Sanderson wasn’t quite up to the task but it was a fine ending. Still a masterclass in foreshadowing and payoff and wrangling an ensemble cast.

The Black Company

Glen Cook

Weird, dark fantasy. Our protagonists are contractors for the evil empire. The framing device of a first-person memoir allows for interesting storytelling tricks.

Perdido Street Station

China Miéville

Weirder, darker fantasy. If you’re a fan of Disco Elysium you’ll notice they’ve clearly taken some inspiration from this. Probably my favorite standalone fantasy novel. It should get a movie or video game.

Dune

Frank Herbert

Dune is actually fantasy, ok? And it’s genre-defining. The first one, at least. The movies are impossible to grasp without reading it.

A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin

The writing! The beautiful, sweet sentences. It’s like Tolkien but better.

Elantris

Brandon Sanderson

I’m generally not a huge fan of Sanderson. He has a laser focus on plot and worldbuilding which leaves his characters all sounding like large language models. And his writing is, uh, straightforward. But Elantris is the rare tightly constructed standalone fantasy novel in a sea of series. And it’s still got all the unique Sandersonisms that make people love him, including a wild finale. It’s the book I recommend to people trying to get into fantasy.

Nonfiction

Anything by David McCullough

David McCullough

1776, Truman, John Adams, you name it, I love it. American Narrative Histories that deeply move me.

Red China Blues

Jan Wong

For all its self-conscious quirk and journalistic turn of phrase, it’s a heartfelt examination of China’s almost sentimental war against modernity. Made me laugh and cry within the same chapter more than once.

Narconomics

Tom Wainwright

This was one of the first books that genuinely shook my worldview back in high school. It has the necessary rigor to convince you of some rather counterintuitive truths and lead you to dark conclusions about everyone’s motives here.

Dopamine Nation

Anna Lembke

I think anyone who has an internet connection ought to read this at some point, probably Digital Minimalism too. It’s not really a self help book.

Music

Be warned that a lot of these are explicit, though I can usually find clean versions on streaming for anything that might play on the radio.

Hip Hop

As a genre, it has the ability to express more complicated ideas with its focus on dense lyrics. It’s other main innovation has been foregrounding the drum loop as the main character of the song. The right combination of lyrical flow and catchy beat can send me into a trance.

A$AP Rocky

Despite his mainstream success he can be surprisingly experimental.

Favorite Albums: TESTING

Favorite Songs: D.M.B, Tailor Swif, Purity, Praise The Lord, Kids Turned Out Fine

AG Club

The bay area’s own heirs to Brockhampton’s youthful megagroup vibes.

Favorite Albums/EPs: BRODIE WORLD, Impostor Syndrome, 2MORE

Favorite Songs: HOT PINK, Tattoo, Memphis, aorta, Barry, CAJH DAY, COLUMBIA, BabyBoy’s Interlude

AlttA

French electronic legend 20syl teams up with the underrated Mr. J Medeiros of The Procussions to create sumptuous electro-rap of a quality you can only really get in France, but in English!

Favorite Albums: The Upper Hand, Facing Giants

Favorite Songs: Snow Fire, Under the Water, That Good Ship, Connery, Honorificabilitudinitatibus, Optimum, Falcon Heavy

Aminé

I have to hype up Aminé for repping Portland. He’s not afraid to be goofy and he has a singing voice that sets him apart from other rappers in his generation.

Favorite Albums: Good For You, Limbo

Favorite Songs: Spice Girl, Blinds, Sundays, Heebeejeebies, Woodlawn, Compensating, Shimmy, Easy, DR. WHOEVER, Feels So Good, Cool About It

Asha Imuno

The most exciting new kid on the block. He’s the full quadruple threat: great voice, great lyricism, great musicality, great production. PINS & NEEDLES absolutely blew me away.

Favorite Albums: PINS & NEEDLES

Favorite Songs: DID I CALL AT A BAD TIME?, HONEY, FLORIDA WATER, DO u WANNA BE HIGH?, PHONICS, W.W.A

Binary Star

Two young guys met each other in prison in the late 90s and went on to record a classic album that can go toe to toe with Wu-Tang’s best work.

Favorite Albums: Masters of the Universe

Favorite Songs: Honest Expression, Reality Check, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (Jail), I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (Prison), Masters of the Universe, Solar Powered

Black Star

Mos Def and Talib Kweli are both titans in their own right but they are simply a powerhouse together.

Favorite Albums: Black Star

Favorite Songs: Brown Skin Lady, Respiration

Brockhampton

The boyband. An incredible slate of performers and producers that have created some of the most aesthetically cohesive projects in rap. I find myself associating my favorite albums of theirs with seasons of the year: The Saturation trilogy is Summer, Ginger is Winter/Autumn, Roadrunner is Spring.

Favorite Albums: SATURATION, SATURATION II, SATURATION III, GINGER, ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE

Favorite Songs: SWAMP, BUZZCUT, RENTAL, BOY BYE, GOLD, STAINS, STAR, BUZZCUT, GUMMY, SWEET, DON’T SHOOT UP THE PARTY

Childish Gambino

He acts, he directs, he writes, and yes, he raps and sings.

Favorite Albums: “Awaken, My Love!”, Atavista

Favorite Songs: Psilocybae, Me and Your Mama, The Worst Guys, Sweatpants, Feels Like Summer

De La Soul

The fathers of alternative hip hop, managed to stay surprisingly relevant and fresh over 4 decades.

Favorite Albums: AOI: Bionix, and the Anonymous Nobody…

Favorite Songs: What We Do, Trying People, Watch Out, Pain, Drawn, Simply, Held Down

Denzel Curry

Yes he made that meme song in 2017 but he’s actually cracked

Favorite Albums: TA13OO, UNLOCKED, Melt My Eyez See Your Future

Favorite Songs: DIET_, Take_It_Back_v2, ‘Cosmic’.m4a, TABOO, BLACK BALLOONS, X-Wing, Troubles

Drapht

I have a weird fixation on Australian hip hop. For some reason I found it before I even found American hip hop. Drapht kinda sounds like an Aussie Eminem.

Favorite Songs: Jimmy Recard, Summer They Say, Don Quixote, Dancin’ John Doe, 24hrs of Sunlight

EARTHGANG

Criminally underrated duo from Atlanta are the heirs (and dare I say it an improvement) to OutKast’s legacy and aesthetics.

Favorite Albums: Mirrorland, GHETTO GODS, PERFECT FANTASY

Favorite Songs: Robots, Meditate, This Side, Bank, Tequila, LIE TO ME, WATERBOYZ, SMOKE SUM, FLAVORS OF KARMA, DIE TODAY

GoldLink

A unique voice and some oddly sentimental rap music

Favorite Albums: At What Cost

Favorite Songs: Have You Seen That Girl?, Herside Story, Summatime, Crew, Got Muscle

Isaiah Rashad

Hailing from the same stacked 2010s TDE lineup as Kendrick Lamar and SZA, Rashad is breathy, woozy, and psychedelic, like if lofi beats to study/relax to had lyrics. And being on TDE nets him some great features, of course.

Favorite Albums: The House Is Burning, The Sun’s Tirade

Favorite Songs: All Herb, Headshots (4r Da Locals), THIB, RIP Young, Free Lunch, Bday

JID

He’s a bit of a one trick pony if we’re being honest, but that one trick is spiderweb flows at a breathless pace in a bizarre tenor voice, and oh what a trick it is.

Favorite Albums: The Forever Story

Favorite Songs: Raydar, Dance Now, Crack Sandwich, Stars

Joey Bada**

I have to avoid saying or printing his name, but I simply can’t ignore his talent. If EARTHGANG is the heir to the Atlanta that OutKast built, then Joey is the heir to the New York that Wu-Tang built. Pure boom bap bliss.

Favorite Albums: 1999

Favorite Songs: Survival Tactics, Killuminati, Don’t Front, Righteous Minds, Where I Belong

JPEGMAFIA

The beats he cooks up are unbelievable. The pettiness with which he attacks the mic is unmatched. Kanye’s heir.

Favorite Albums: I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU, LP!, SCARING THE HOES

Favorite Songs: 1539 N. Calvert, Thug Tears, ARE U HAPPY?, SICK NERVOUS & BROKE!, BALD! REMIX, either on or off the drugs, i recovered from this, Garbage Pale Kids

Kanye West

He’s uh, he’s not doing so great right now. But it’ll take more than a public mental breakdown and courtship with extremism to erase his massive contributions to music.

Favorite Albums: The Life of Pablo, JESUS IS KING

Favorite Songs: Jesus Walks, Pure Souls, Water, Everything We Need, No More Parties in LA, Black Skinhead, BURN

Kevin Abstract

We have him to thank for forming Brockhampton. He’s always been the most talented and relentlessly creative out of all of them. Optimistically he has 4+ more great albums in him.

Favorite Albums: Blush, American Boyfriend: A Suburban Love Story

Favorite Songs: Empty, Miserable America, Baby Boy, H-Town, Pop Out, Copy, Yoko Ono, SIERRA NIGHTS, SLUGGER

Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer

Chap-hop is rapping as a Victorian gentleman. You may think that doing a comedic bit for musical career would get old, but on the contrary Mr. B is incredibly musically talented and has kept it fresh and surprisingly catchy for over a decade now.

Favorite Songs: Hip-Hop Was to Blame After All, Nicknackatory, They Don’t Allow Rappers in the Bullingdon Club, Shelltoes or Brogues, Looking Forward to Leaving, Not Being Invited

People Under the Stairs

LA’s greatest underground duo. Playful and chill Gen-X guys vibin with all the party-people, and some left hook moments of social consciousness.

Favorite Albums: OST, Highlighter, 12 Step Program

Favorite Songs: The LA Song, Pictures On My Wall, Tales of Kidd Drunkadelic, The Joyride, Can’t Hold it Back, The Love, Graffiti on a High School Wall, Trippin’ at the Disco

Playboi Carti

Ah, what to say about Sir Cartier that hasn’t already been said. His mesmerizing exploration of the human voice as an instrument has created an entire new subgenre of rap. Just don’t pay attention to the lyrics, they’re a distraction from the main attraction.

Favorite Albums: Die Lit

Favorite Songs: Sky, Vamp Anthem, Poke It Out, Magnolia, Lean 4 Real, Shoota, Fell In Luv, Foreign, Choppa Won’t Miss

The Procussions

Socially conscious, subtly Christian trio from Colorado. Old school sensibilities and good fundamentals.

Favorite Albums: 5 Sparrows for 2 Cents

Favorite Songs: The Fringe, Leave Her Alone, Shabach, Fight Here, Miss January, The Storm, I’ll Fly, Little People, For the Camera, Jiminy Cricket

Rich Brian

He’s the same age as me almost to the day. He’s got the powerhouse that is 88rising helping him carve out a niche with a distinctly Asian flavor.

Favorite Songs: New Tooth, Sunny, Sundance Freestyle, Jumpy, Butterfly, VIVID

The Roots

Unfortunately they sold out a decade ago to be Jimmy Fallon’s house band, but in their heyday they were blurring the boundary between big band jazz and hip hop in exciting ways.

Favorite Albums: Things Fall Apart

Favorite Songs: The Next Movement, Dynamite!, Adrenaline!, Stay Cool, Sacrifice

Saba

Tragically overshadowed by Chance the Rapper, Saba was the coolest thing that came out of Chicago’s post-Kanye generation. He’s still churning out fire, completely independent of any record label I might add!

Favorite Albums: The Bucket List Project, CARE FOR ME, Few Good Things, From the Private Collection of Saba and No ID

Favorite Songs: Stoney, Church / Liquor Store, Westside Bound 3, Photosynthesis, World In My Hands, LIFE, SMILE, HEAVEN ALL AROUND ME, Fearmonger, Come My Way, Woes of the World, How to Impress God, hue_man nature

Travis Scott

Like Playboi Carti or Kanye West, it’s difficult to overstate how revolutionary Travis’s style was for modern music. Still, none of his progeny can do melodic trap quite like him.

Favorite Albums: Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, ASTROWORLD

Favorite Songs: SKELETONS, HOUSTONFORNICATION, goosebumps, pick up the phone, lose, I KNOW ?, Maria I’m Drunk

Tyler the Creator

Pulled off one of the most unexpected mid-career pivots and went from making music that was abrasive and edgy to sweet and melodic. I definitely prefer the second era.

Favorite Albums: Flower Boy, CHROMAKOPIA

Favorite Songs: Noid, CORSO, HOT WIND BLOWS, See You Again, Boredom, 911 / Mr. Lonely, Hey Jane, Take Your Mask Off

Folk

Honorable Mentions

Artists who haven’t managed a powerhouse album for me but still have some songs worth checking out

Hip Hop