my favorite internet writers

Summary

A short list of internet writers I like a lot, and some reflections on why their thoughts are meaningful to me.

introduction

I read a decent amount of long-form content on the internet, mostly in the form of blog/Substack posts.

I enjoy this format because they deliver curated, complete thoughts while providing the option for nonlinear exploration. Many of my favorite essays online were discovered via some link in the footnote of a recommendation shoved halfway in the essay I was originally intending to read.

Here’s a list of patterns I’ve identified between the authors in this list. I am currently uncertain whether this is real signal for something, or if I’m overfitting.

• Most are goal-oriented and high agency.
• Most are not writers by trade— they just happen to have selected writing as their primary mode of communication. They very likely think in writing as a default mode of existence.
• Most are on Substack, have a blog on their own personal website, or both.
• Most have written about more than one of the Frameworks I’m currently thinking about.

the list

in no particular order. i’ve noted down a few selected pieces of their writing that I especially enjoyed.

Maggie Appleton writes about design engineering and digital anthropology.

• Her web design ideas have greatly inspired many aspects of this Garden: see her article on A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Gardenor her colophon.
• The Dark Forest and the Cozy Web (and its sequel, The Dark Forest and Generative AI) synthesize a compelling theory about why the public internet feels less alive than it used to be.
• A Brief History of Digital Anthropology got me into a very, very deep rabbit hole that I have yet to crawl out of.

Jasmine Sun writes about the anthropology of disruption.

• Before quitting her job at Substack and becoming a full-time writer, she wrote a few personal essays like tryhard and the scenic route which have had an outsized impact on how I’ve viewed my own life over the last year.
• Kernel Magazine / Reboot, which she cofounded, is also worth a follow if you like reading about tech culture. (For example, Jasmine’s opening essay for the magazine is an incredibly well-written introduction to techno-optimism.)
• Recently she’s been reporting on Silicon Valley history, AI politics, China, and a whole bunch of other topics that are very close to home for me. My favorite of her recent work is this podcast with Fred Turner exploring modern Bay Area tech culture from a historian’s perspective.

Cate Hall writes about agency.

• I discuss her main works extensively in my agency page so I won’t do it again here.
• Everyone here is in a cult gets interestingly close to Jasmine Sun’s world.
• Her post on the Enneagram is quite good.

Henrik Karlsson writes about writing (and nearly everything else).

• Looking for Alice is his most well-known piece of writing, and for good reason. It’s hard to describe, so you should go hear about it from the writer himself.
• How to think in writing is a foundational piece for me.
• I talk about this post on design process in my Frameworks page.
• Henrik also has a post on agency.
• I would strongly recommend A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox for all writers and terminally-online people. I talk about it a lot.

Jacob Geller creates video essays about video games, history, and politics. (He has a book now, so I can totally include him on this list!)

• I once wrote a Substack post about Who’s Afraid of Modern Art.
• Cities Without People introduced me to Football 17776, which imo deserves a spot in the all-time greatest pieces of science fiction.
• It’s hard to pick favorites, but Art for No One is a definite contender.

Kevin Kwok writes about the inner workings of startups and venture capital.

• My entire (albeit short) professional career so far rides or dies on The Mike Speiser Incubation Playbook .
• His next essay is on an absolute banger topic and has not yet been published yet. I am patiently waiting to link it here :)