Espresso Shots 02-01-26

It's that time again for my weekly update, which includes a short collection of noteworthy finds, posts that inspire, as well as a few reflections from the past week or two. I'll aim to land these in your inbox by the weekend, in time to pair with your morning coffee (or your preferred cup of inspiration).

The 2026 Purge

Every year, I do a purge of apps, subscriptions, and most importantly, processes.

The purge isn't just about the apps I use that collect dust. It involves taking a hard, honest look at playlists, subscriptions, tools, and workflow in the entire ecosystem that encompasses my day-to-day computing devices and workflow.

While this has always been a great way to save some time and money, I thought Resist and Unsubscribe, recently posted by Scott Galloway, was particularly useful in helping me move from some of my previous subscriptions; his full article regarding the economics of consumer power can be found here.

The Latest Drippings ☕️

• Why Does No One Talk About The Bermuda Triangle Anymore?. Until I saw this post, frankly, I hadn't thought about the Bermuda Triangle since I was a kid. I had read stories about the mysterious disappearance of the USS Cyclops, Flight 19, or had been influenced by films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (it was referenced as the Devil's Triangle). People are generally attracted to mysterious occurrences like this. This article explores some reasons for the fading of interest. 'Pop culture shifted toward newer mysteries, UFOs, Area 51, true crime, AI fears, simulation theory, and space. The Bermuda Triangle started to feel like a retro 1970s topic rather than a fresh mystery.' Here's a thought 💡: Perhaps having more mystery boxes in our lives would be better for us collectively.
• The Coolest Person I'll Never Meet. I was saddened to hear about the sudden passing of Catherine O'Hara this week. She leaves behind a tremendous body of work and was known best for absurdist comedy (a term I recently learned). But I loved this tribute: 'She was effortlessly the coolest person you’ll never meet — or at least whom I’ll never meet. I don’t need to have that confirmed. I just know. We all know. We don’t know how we all know, but we do. She was the kind of person whose name, if mentioned as part of a dream dinner party or blunt rotation, would be greeted with, "Oh, damn, good choice."'
• The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: Uncommonly Lovely Invented Words for What We Feel but Cannot Name. I was reading a fantastic post from Rick Rubin on inventing new words. 'Invent a new word whose sound captures this emotion or experience. What combination of sounds feels right? Does it need hard consonants or soft vowels? Should it feel quick and sharp or slow and flowing? Let the phonetics reflect what you’re trying to capture. Define your new word.' It reminded me to resurface one of my favorite books, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and mention that I've been using the app Terminology to track my fun new words lately.
• Wonder Man Welcomes Back One of Marvel's Most Dangerous Companies. Before its release, there wasn't much buzz about Marvel's Wonder Man. But wow, what a treat. What's being called Marvel's most unusual Disney Plus story, I found a solid, character-driven story, with tremendous performances from Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Sir Ben Kingsley. I cannot recommend this show enough. 'There are moments that made me physically cringe, not because they were bad, but because they were so real.'
• Kindness Is Not A Weakness. 'We must choose kindness, even though it's the hardest path of all. We must do what is hard. We must do what is right. Because we are brave, because we are free.' While this post dives in and out of the current US political landscape, the message is an important one: 'Kindness matters. It’s not a weakness.'
• Your Life is the Sum Total of 2,000 Mondays. Nothing gets my interest more than a post that dials into morbid math (side note, since writing that original post, I'm statistically down to 39% if I get to 90). In this article, Joan pivots to an interesting question: 'Do you actually like your average Monday? The barely tolerated Monday is a down payment on a life that never arrives, a perpetual advance payment for goods that don't ship.' Food for thought.
• Maybe the Default Settings Are Too High. A good reminder to take things slow, and in the world of consumption, we're all like Lucy in the chocolate factory. 'At least see what happens when you reduce your consumption speed – of anything, but especially books, information, and food – by a half, or two thirds. Notice that (1) something in you really wants to plow through at the highest viable setting, and (2) how much more of the reward is released when you slow down anyway.'
• Phantom Obligation. I saw this post going around several of my usual conversation circles; it beautifully explores 'why do RSS readers look like email clients?' TLDR: He points to Brent Simmons of NetNewsWire fame and has come up with an insightful phenomenon: Phantom Obligation. 'The guilt you feel for something no one asked you to do.'
• The Appeal of Internet Radio. I have fallen back in love with internet radio over the last few years as a discovery mechanism for wonderful new music that I would never have heard if I stayed in my bubble. The app he references is Macrowave, which allows you to turn your Mac or iOS device into a private radio station for others to listen in. Kinda wild. Side note: I should put a page up with streams I listen to.
• Why Some People See Collapse Earlier Than Others. This post was fascinating, with the assertion that 'collapse awareness is fundamentally a pattern-recognition event.' I've always found it to be a super-power to 'see the cracks in the dominant story, to detect pattern breaks, and to register tipping points, even when they remain socially unacknowledged.' It also helps you avoid single points of failure.
• The World That Game Theory Built. Game theory is another area where I love spending time thinking about: the game about the game. This post dives into where AI tools are the ultimate 'game theoretic actor' and the risks involved since 'AI systems are designed to optimize. They measure, test, and iterate toward maximum effectiveness. They don't get tired of being strategic. They don't feel guilty about manipulation. They operate in permanent game mode.'
• The User-Generated Content Ruse. I have mostly gotten away from big tech social media platforms - the damage to mental health, our youth, and society in general is too apparent. 'The companies are not common carriers anymore; they’re media businesses. Yes, users still contribute posts and comments—though even those, in today’s era of influencers, creators, and AI, are often subsidized and actively shaped by the companies—but the essential content of social media is now the feeds produced by the platforms, not the individual messages posted by users.' Additional reading: understand what's going on with decentralized social media; it's fascinating.
• Challenger at 40: Lingering Guilt. I stayed home from school with a snow day, and I still remember the words right before the 1986 Challenger explosion: 'Go with throttle up.' But imagine if you had warned NASA the night before: 'The night before, Ebeling and other Morton Thiokol engineers tried to convince NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, that launching in cold weather could be disastrous. The Thiokol engineers had data, documents and photographs that they believed provided convincing evidence of the risks. And Thiokol executives agreed, at first. Their official recommendation to NASA: Do not launch tomorrow.'
• Revealed: Leaked Chats Expose the Daily Life of a Scam Compound's Enslaved Workforce (paywalled). 'The workers Amani was addressing were eight hours into their 15-hour night shift in a high-rise building in the Golden Triangle special economic zone in Northern Laos. Like their marks, most of them were victims, too: forced laborers trapped in the compound, held in debt bondage with no passports. They struggled to meet scam revenue quotas to avoid fines that deepened their debt. Anyone who broke rules or attempted to escape faced far worse consequences: beatings, torture, even death.' Horrifying.

Amor Fati ✌🏻