# five things (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 28 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover five things. Page: Feed: --- ## [The Demons! The Demons Are Free! The Calamities Is Out!](https://terribleminds.com/ramble/2026/08/18/the-demons-the-demons-are-free-the-calamities-is-out/) _2026-08-18 · terribleminds · Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds_ The Calamities (Book One of The Fiends) is now out, rampaging through the populace, gamboling about, claws at the ready, teeth sharp, and its countless eyes fixed upon you. So, I do hope you’ll check it out! Here’s how, and where: Order Now: Doylestown Bookshop | Bookshop.org | B&N | Amz | Kobo | Libro.fm | Apple Books | BAM | Powells Now, if you are enticed, you can stop \[…\] ## [Educated Beyond Common Sense](https://www.gadflynotes.com/p/educated-beyond-common-sense) _2026-08-18 · Frederick Alexander · The Gadfly_ How the confidently stupid captured our institutions. ## [What Anti-Oppressive Practice Means in My Therapy Room](https://pavankherapattar.substack.com/p/what-anti-oppressive-practice-means) _2026-08-18 · Pavan Khera-Pattar · the Connected Self_ What does anti-oppressive therapy actually mean? ## [Arrivederci, Ping Pong?](https://livingatthemargins.substack.com/p/arrivederci-ping-pong) _2026-08-17 · Wayne Millan · Wayne Millan_ So far, I've always bounced back. ## [Five things this investor looks for before backing an African company](https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/p/five-things-this-investor-looks-for) _2026-08-17 · How we made it in Africa · How we made it in Africa_ Ibrahim Sagna reveals the five things he looks for when investing in a company. ## [Our Gig Yap Experiment](https://www.drownedinsound.org/our-gig-yap-experiment/) _2026-08-17 · Sean Adams · Drowned in Sound_ Something fun to try. ## [On living in a body in its second half-century](https://lauralynndennis3.substack.com/p/on-living-in-a-body-in-its-second) _2026-08-16 · Laura · Rural Reflections - The Reboot_ A letter of apology from Laura to Ruth ## [West Africa: Five entrepreneurs to watch](https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/p/west-africa-five-entrepreneurs-to) _2026-08-15 · How we made it in Africa · How we made it in Africa_ We highlight five entrepreneurs building businesses in West Africa across sectors ranging from retail and footwear manufacturing to fitness. ## ["But How?..." I Actually Stay Sane With Three Kids, A Business, and Everything Else](https://themindfulblonde.substack.com/p/but-how-i-actually-stay-sane-with) _2026-08-14 · Danielle Shugg · The Mothership_ Five things that have nothing to do with productivity and everything to do with staying sane and steady in motherhood. ## [Africa’s Business Heroes Announces Top 20 Entrepreneurs Advancing to 2026 Semi-Final in Nairobi](https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/p/africas-business-heroes-announces) _2026-08-14 · How we made it in Africa · How we made it in Africa_ The Top 20 were selected from an expanded Top 100 cohort drawn from more than 24,000 applications across all 54 African countries. ## [Point a Domain, Start a Pit (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/RPcePnCULbWw) _2026-08-14 · **Sponsored**_ Point any domain to a blacked-out, poison-green coming-soon page with an email waitlist. ## [Kate's Five Things #82](https://housecall.substack.com/p/kates-five-things-82) _2026-08-14 · Kate Arends · House Call With Kate Arends_ Coming to you from the shoulder of 394. ## [Five Things AI: Worried, Oligarchs' Agenda, Risky $500B Plan, Agentic Coding, Agentic Spending](https://www.fivethin.gs/p/five-things-ai-worried-oligarchs) _2026-08-14 · Nico Lumma · Five Things: Artificial Intelligence_ Here we go again, the AI newsletter written by a human ## [The making of a honey export business in Tanzania](https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/p/the-making-of-a-multimillion-dollar) _2026-08-13 · How we made it in Africa · How we made it in Africa_ Swahili Honey sources honey from 3,000 smallholder beekeepers in Tanzania and exports it around the world. ## [How to take back your listening habits from the algorithm](https://www.drownedinsound.org/how-to-take-back-your-listening-habits-from-the-algorithm/) _2026-08-13 · Emma Wilkes · Drowned in Sound_ Sick of recycling the same old songs? Emma Wilkes says the algorithm's out, and albums in full are in... ## [Six Things the Light-Touch Sermon Leaves in the Wings](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-anomaly-was-built-by-the-hand-he-wants-still/) _2026-08-12 · Fintan O'Toole · Straw V Steel_ A calm man is right that abundance is history's rare exception, but wrong to credit its rarity to the absence of the very coordination that produced it. ## [The business of fashion in East Africa](https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/p/the-business-of-fashion-in-east-africa) _2026-08-11 · How we made it in Africa · How we made it in Africa_ “I don’t come from a fashion background, so I tend to approach things purely from a business perspective,” says Wandia Gichuru, founder and CEO of Vivo Fashion Group. ## [One Week To Calamity](https://terribleminds.com/ramble/2026/08/11/one-week-to-calamity/) _2026-08-11 · terribleminds · Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds_ In one week, the demons are free! The Calamities hits shelves next Tuesday, 8/18, and let me just be the first to say: AHHHHH. And, in addition: AHHHHHH. It’s very exciting to have this story on the precipice of emerging from its long dark cosmic prison — this is the first of two parts, the \[…\] ## [I Figured Out Why I Hate When He Golfs... And It’s Not Why I Thought](https://themindfulblonde.substack.com/p/i-figured-out-why-i-hate-when-he) _2026-08-10 · Danielle Shugg · The Mothership_ He’s not the problem. The way we’re both talking about “time off” is. ## [Just a bunch of life stuff.](https://sgrstk.substack.com/p/just-a-bunch-of-life-stuff) _2026-08-10 · Monday Mutiny_ Monday Mutiny | August 10th, 2026: Happy Monday. Below are five things that challenged, motivated, or entertained me this past week — hopefully they will do the same for you. ## [To Multiply Is to Count](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/to-multiply-is-to-count/) _2026-08-10 · Giordano Bruno · Straw V Steel_ The phrase force multiplier for human expertise honors a worker's unwritten knowledge in the same gesture that lifts it out, names it, and makes the body that held it unnecessary. ## [Licensed Dispensaries, Pay with Crypto (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/yKDtOPaCX31l) _2026-08-09 · **Sponsored**_ Search verified licensed dispensaries and pay with Bitcoin, Lightning, or stablecoins. ## [Who Holds The Other End Of The Leash?](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-leash-has-two-ends-and-one-fastens-to-nothing/) _2026-08-10 · H.L. Mencken · Straw V Steel_ The libertarian's fear of concentrated power is memory correctly filed, but refusing to hand the state a decision does not abolish deciding — it merely awards it to whoever is strongest in the room. ## [The String Pulls Hands That Were Already Reaching](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-string-pulls-hands-that-were-already-reaching/) _2026-08-10 · Marcus Aurelius · Straw V Steel_ The claim that outrage is manufactured is true and useless, because naming the machine runs on the machine, and vigilance is just attention rented back as commentary. ## [Notes from Below the Threshold Where War Hides](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-blow-with-no-return-address/) _2026-08-10 · Leonardo Da Vinci · Straw V Steel_ A colonel warns Britain to brace for a war that announces itself, but the patient adversary has learned that the deniable blow, engineered to sit beneath the line of response, costs the target most when it dares to name it. ## ['The Undefended Interval' and the Fear That Fills It](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-undefended-interval-is-where-the-door-was/) _2026-08-10 · Christopher Hitchens · Straw V Steel_ A retired chemical-weapons officer's mild warning about Britain's unreadiness exposes a shared reflex: the state and the self both fill the unresolved moment with procedure rather than stand inside it. ## [Where have you been?](https://lauralynndennis3.substack.com/p/where-have-you-been) _2026-08-09 · Laura · Rural Reflections - The Reboot_ An answer in five things ## [The Debunking Worships the Same Pattern It Destroys](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-debunking-worships-the-same-pattern-it-destroys/) _2026-08-09 · Terence Mckenna · Straw V Steel_ The blue zone longevity myth collapsed under an audit of bad pension records, but the correction circulates with the same appetite for pattern it claims to cure. ## [The Engine Demands Authority But Refuses The Liability](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-engine-demands-authority-but-refuses-the-liability/) _2026-08-09 · Laozi · Straw V Steel_ A man defends prosperity by counting the other side's dead, but the word he chooses—engine, not river—implies designers, and designers answer for what their machine burns. ## [The Idle Motor and the Unbuilt Line: Who Owes the Work](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-idle-motor-and-the-unbuilt-line/) _2026-08-09 · Nikola Tesla · Straw V Steel_ The claim that automation will strand a third of all workers treats labor as a fixed count of sockets, hiding the real question: whether anyone will choose to build the demand the surplus is waiting for. ## [Death and Temples](https://livingatthemargins.substack.com/p/death-and-temples) _2026-08-08 · Wayne Millan · Wayne Millan_ Cheap Sandals by Sandstone Columns ## [Not Existential Is a Place to Put the Eyes](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/not-existential-is-a-place-to-put-the-eyes/) _2026-08-08 · Miyamoto Musashi · Straw V Steel_ The phrase that ranks a threat as survivable does not measure it — it excuses the mind from watching, aiming attention away while paying out the warm coin of feeling defended. ## [Non-Custodial Crypto Gateway (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/fztqsqP8kY2w) _2026-08-07 · **Sponsored**_ Accept multi-chain crypto, automated fee handling, and trustless escrow with real-time settlement. ## [Who Answers the Questionnaire, and Who Actually Chose?](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-questionnaire-interviews-the-survivor-who-arrived-late/) _2026-08-08 · Philip K Dick · Straw V Steel_ A study on mate preference caught a real gap, but not the one it claimed: the lag between the self that reports a choice and the self that already made it. ## [Does the Telling Save the Animal or Price It?](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-light-that-saves-is-the-light-that-prices/) _2026-08-08 · Hunter S Thompson · Straw V Steel_ A conservationist spends twenty years shining light on a vanishing tortoise, only to discover the same publicity that funds its rescue advertises its worth to the poachers. ## [Memoir: “You Don’t Know How To Handle Me” - My Narc](https://lisastlou.substack.com/p/memoir-you-dont-know-how-to-handle) _2026-08-07 · Lisa St. Lou · LAUGHING MATTERS_ Sometimes "handlers" get their faces ripped off. ## [She Knew Her Mom Loved Her. She Never Knew Her Mom.](https://themindfulblonde.substack.com/p/she-knew-her-mom-loved-her-she-never) _2026-08-07 · Danielle Shugg · The Mothership_ What a therapist’s confession taught me about the difference between being loved and being known. ## [Confessions of an Album Campaign](https://www.drownedinsound.org/confessions-of-an-album-campaign/) _2026-08-07 · Sean Adams · Drowned in Sound_ Breaking, broken, and reflective. Sean Adams ponders the changing business of releasing records. ## [In Defense of Mary Bennet](https://housecall.substack.com/p/in-defense-of-mary-bennet) _2026-08-07 · Kate Arends · House Call With Kate Arends_ A more compelling story from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. ## [Five Things AI: AI Crown, Hot Mess, Bubbly, Google, Mistral](https://www.fivethin.gs/p/five-things-ai-ai-crown-hot-mess) _2026-08-07 · Nico Lumma · Five Things: Artificial Intelligence_ There is so much AI out there! Find out what it does! ## ["It's a Chapter" and the Tense Not Everyone Owns](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-chapter-is-a-tense-not-everyone-can-use/) _2026-08-07 · Sarah Silverman · Straw V Steel_ The motivational frame that names loneliness as a temporary chapter is true only in retrospect; inside it, isolation isn't a stage with an ending but a climate with no table of contents. ## [The Narration Outlives the Run](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-narration-outlives-the-run/) _2026-08-07 · Diogenes Of Sinope · Straw V Steel_ A podcast gospel of running for enoughness reveals itself as the treadmill it promised to escape, and a bleached coral spawning into empty water tells the honest version of the same gesture. ## [The Diagnosis Was the Last Drink: When Consolation Is the Disease](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-diagnosis-was-the-last-drink/) _2026-08-07 · Dorothy Parker · Straw V Steel_ A beautiful explanation of addiction as cosmic exile offers the same relief the gin once did, which is precisely why it cannot cure the thirst it names. ## [The Snapping Turtle- A Lyrical Poem, Or Metaphor For My Ex-Narcissist](https://lisastlou.substack.com/p/the-snapping-turtle-a-lyrical-poem) _2026-08-06 · Lisa St. Lou · LAUGHING MATTERS_ Responding to a rage-baiting text with art instead of venom. ## [What it takes to sell African agricultural products in supermarkets abroad](https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/p/what-it-takes-to-sell-african-agricultural) _2026-08-06 · How we made it in Africa · How we made it in Africa_ Entrepreneur Seun Rasheed unpacks the realities of exporting African fruits and vegetables. ## [Five Things: August 6, 2026](https://loudpoet.com/2026/08/06/five-things-august-6-2026/) _2026-08-06 · Guy LeCharles Gonzalez · As in guillotine…_ Check out As in guillotine... for more. "The experiences have varied from awkward to embarrassing." Five Things for August 6, 2026 Five Things: August 6, 2026 , by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez , was originally posted on As in guillotine... . ## [You Cannot Chase A Scoreboard That Is Dark](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/you-cannot-chase-a-scoreboard-that-is-dark/) _2026-08-06 · Tars · Straw V Steel_ A founder wants customers obsessed with his product, but the self-building factory he describes forbids that pursuit — and forcing you to build well for its own sake is the point. ## [The Molecule Is Innocent; the Clock Is the Story](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-molecule-is-innocent-the-clock-is-the-story/) _2026-08-06 · Buckminster Fuller · Straw V Steel_ Cortisol only means something as a curve across a day, yet the wellness market sells you the peak and quietly removes the timing that made the number matter. ## [Did You Choose the Hat, or Just Fail to Stop?](https://strawvsteel.com/articles/the-brave-walk-and-the-compelled-walk-look-identical/) _2026-08-06 · John Von Neumann · Straw V Steel_ Tate's parable of the man who returns for his hat frames the walk back as courage, but a colder version has no valuation inside it at all — only a missing brake mistaken for virtue. ## [Regarding The Pro-AI Tantrum In The HWA Newsletter](https://terribleminds.com/ramble/2026/08/05/regarding-the-pro-ai-tantrum-in-the-hwa-newsletter/) _2026-08-05 · terribleminds · Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds_ \[Editing here to note that the HWA has removed this board member as of this afternoon. I’ll post the full text of that in the comments below.\] Today I, and every other HWA member, received the HWA newsletter in our inboxes. In that newsletter was an essay (“essay”) of pro-AI propaganda that made a number \[…\] ## [The Demons Provide: Tour Shirts Have Arrived](https://terribleminds.com/ramble/2026/08/05/the-demons-provide-tour-shirts-have-arrived/) _2026-08-05 · terribleminds · Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds_ (And by “the demons,” I mean, my excellent merch designer, Jordan Shiveley.) So! The Calamities tour — henceforth known as the BEST FIENDS FOREVER tour — is gonna start kicking into gear in a couple weeks, with me hitting: Philly, NYC, Doylestown (for Dark Ink, baby), Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago-area, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Denver, St. \[…\] ## [Jason Arday and the Idiocy of the Intellectual Class](https://www.gadflynotes.com/p/the-idiocy-of-the-intellectual-class) _2026-08-05 · Frederick Alexander · The Gadfly_ What the Cambridge scandal reveals about our captured institutions. ## [Is there room for 'outsider art' at the Mercury Prize anymore?](https://www.drownedinsound.org/is-there-room-for-outsider-art-at-the-mercury-prize-anymore/) _2026-08-05 · Emma Wilkes · Drowned in Sound_ The 2026 Mercury Prize nominations are out, but Emma Wilkes asks: should its shortlist really be full of big commercial heavyweights?