the life you were meant to live
9 books on living up to your ideals ✦ and how to betray yourself (in love, art, writing, thinking)
personal canon
finding meaning in life through literature, art, design, and culture ✦✧ through weekly posts and enthusiastic conversations
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Latest posts
i'm teaching 2 workshops this summer and you're invited
research, write, make, and reflect with me at ultralight school (NYC) and FWB Fest (Idyllwild, CA)
i used to think that novels were a waste of time
the question of taste ✦ stealing art from fictional museums ✦ and everything else I read in April–May 2026
everything i read in february & march 2026
and! my Dialectic podcast episode on creative fulfillment and the life of the mind ✦
everything i read in january 2026
what Substack can learn from James Joyce ✦ philosophy from Bergson to Zhuangzi ✦ and essays/paintings worthy of sustained attention
we've created a society where artists can't make any money
on artistic innovation, cultural stagnation, and the decline of Silicon Valley intellectualism
best books, essays, and poems of 2025
an invitation to read more in the new year ✦
writing is an inherently dignified human activity
the case for starting your own newsletter ✦ and reflections on 2 years, 52 posts, and 31,000 subscribers
everything i read in october & november 2025
do you really need to read all the books you buy? ✦ plus reviews of 2 excellent debut novels ✦ an Italian novella about rogue AI ✦ and an attempt to "read" "theory"
conversations with friends (on tech, culture, criticism, and bait)
my podcast conversation with the writer and technologist Jasmine Sun ✦