Ben Fry
@benfry.com
An excellent piece by @kayserifserif.place about how we're thinking about Generative AI at @fathom.info, focused on the things we /want/ to build—from the artifacts we produce to the internal culture that makes it happen:
www.fathom.info/notebook/260...
www.fathom.info/notebook/260...
A culture of work we believe in | Fathom Information Design
Katherine reflects on how we've been thinking and talking about generative AI in the studio.
www.fathom.info
January 13, 2026 at 2:54 PM
An excellent piece by @kayserifserif.place about how we're thinking about Generative AI at @fathom.info, focused on the things we /want/ to build—from the artifacts we produce to the internal culture that makes it happen:
www.fathom.info/notebook/260...
www.fathom.info/notebook/260...
While trying to sort out and assemble my own thoughts about generative AI, it's been helpful to take in the work of others who are more articulate about it.
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
January 11, 2026 at 5:36 PM
While trying to sort out and assemble my own thoughts about generative AI, it's been helpful to take in the work of others who are more articulate about it.
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
“You open…an article on some subject you know well… You read & see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the ‘wet streets cause rain’ stories.”
January 10, 2026 at 1:36 PM
“You open…an article on some subject you know well… You read & see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the ‘wet streets cause rain’ stories.”
Couple years ago, I had like a one line quote in Wired about Apple's App Store policy hell. After the article got attention, they actually deployed comms people to lie & try to scare the writer into removing the quote.
So it's hilarious they can't seem to find aaaanyone to comment on this. 🙈
So it's hilarious they can't seem to find aaaanyone to comment on this. 🙈
New: Trio of Dem senators urge Apple and Google to enforce their own terms of service and ban X, Grok apps for their flood of nonconsensual sexual imagery.
I've repeatedly asked both Apple and Google about this for three days. They're completely silent, seemingly hoping the question just goes away.
I've repeatedly asked both Apple and Google about this for three days. They're completely silent, seemingly hoping the question just goes away.
Senators urged Apple and Google to remove X and Grok from app stores over sexual deepfakes
“Turning a blind eye to X’s egregious behavior would make a mockery of your moderation
practices,” three Democratic senators wrote to Apple’s and Google’s CEOs.
www.nbcnews.com
January 9, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Couple years ago, I had like a one line quote in Wired about Apple's App Store policy hell. After the article got attention, they actually deployed comms people to lie & try to scare the writer into removing the quote.
So it's hilarious they can't seem to find aaaanyone to comment on this. 🙈
So it's hilarious they can't seem to find aaaanyone to comment on this. 🙈
Reposted by Ben Fry
Holy fuck they actually did it
January 8, 2026 at 11:44 PM
Holy fuck they actually did it
Reposted by Ben Fry
Scottish gritter truck names are on another level
January 8, 2026 at 1:44 PM
Scottish gritter truck names are on another level
Reposted by Ben Fry
One of my favorite things about living in a city is catching all the different languages being spoken. What a treat.
In celebration of Mamdani's first day in office, the map from our 2016 NYC atlas celebrating Queens as the most linguistically diverse place on earth. (800 languages spoken in NYC, according to NY's Endangered Language Institute, which collaborated with us on this map.
January 3, 2026 at 1:05 PM
One of my favorite things about living in a city is catching all the different languages being spoken. What a treat.
Emily Bressler's “I Work For an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I’m Actually a Really Good Person” for McSweeney‘s might be one of the best things written this year, and the backstory only confirms and further elevates it: www.patreon.com/posts/top-25...
Top 25 of '25: Emily Bressler's "I Work For an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I'm Actually a Really Good Person" | McSweeney's Internet Tendency
Get more from McSweeney's Internet Tendency on Patreon
www.patreon.com
December 23, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Emily Bressler's “I Work For an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I’m Actually a Really Good Person” for McSweeney‘s might be one of the best things written this year, and the backstory only confirms and further elevates it: www.patreon.com/posts/top-25...
“6 or 7 characters should be plenty for a password, or maybe 8 if you must”
![Connect to the file server “borges” as:
( ) Guest
(x) Registered User
Name: [ a very large text field… ]
Password: [••••••••] [x] Add to Keychain](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3jxxtvxhel7vjozs4kg63mh4/bafkreiawqba3kf7qnfcdqmuszedu44wx4bya2chfc7xmt5xvwokant4zum@jpeg)
December 23, 2025 at 12:20 AM
“6 or 7 characters should be plenty for a password, or maybe 8 if you must”
For our holiday mailing, we gave our printers (inkjet, plotter, filament, and Paul) a break, and prepared an animated minisite with recipes from everyone in the studio.
Inspired by LEGO (or Minecraft, or pixels, or things that are blocky), it's a fun range of recipes & characters behind them.
Inspired by LEGO (or Minecraft, or pixels, or things that are blocky), it's a fun range of recipes & characters behind them.
This year we celebrated the holidays by gathering together our favorite cozy winter treats and comfort meals to share with our friends and families.
You can visit the charming animated cookbook Paul put together to read, print, and share our recipes: www.fathom.info/holiday/25/
You can visit the charming animated cookbook Paul put together to read, print, and share our recipes: www.fathom.info/holiday/25/
December 22, 2025 at 7:49 PM
For our holiday mailing, we gave our printers (inkjet, plotter, filament, and Paul) a break, and prepared an animated minisite with recipes from everyone in the studio.
Inspired by LEGO (or Minecraft, or pixels, or things that are blocky), it's a fun range of recipes & characters behind them.
Inspired by LEGO (or Minecraft, or pixels, or things that are blocky), it's a fun range of recipes & characters behind them.
Reposted by Ben Fry
A fun writeup from Ellory about what we've been up to at Fathom over the past year.
If we were good at the social, we might do this every few months like reasonable people. Instead we're going long form, and if folks don't read it, we're gonna go even longer in 2026.
If we were good at the social, we might do this every few months like reasonable people. Instead we're going long form, and if folks don't read it, we're gonna go even longer in 2026.
As is now tradition, Ellory put together a year end recap to keep our avid fans updated on all we’ve been up to (both in and out of the office) in 2025.
It’s now up on our blog if you would like to check it out: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...
Wishing you all a safe and restful holiday season!
It’s now up on our blog if you would like to check it out: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...
Wishing you all a safe and restful holiday season!
2025 at Fathom! | Fathom Information Design
2025 was a pretty mind-blowing year for our work in pandemic preparedness.
www.fathom.info
December 19, 2025 at 9:03 PM
A fun writeup from Ellory about what we've been up to at Fathom over the past year.
If we were good at the social, we might do this every few months like reasonable people. Instead we're going long form, and if folks don't read it, we're gonna go even longer in 2026.
If we were good at the social, we might do this every few months like reasonable people. Instead we're going long form, and if folks don't read it, we're gonna go even longer in 2026.
😍
December 19, 2025 at 7:13 PM
😍
Fascinating piece about the manifold problems with data centers in space: taranis.ie/datacenters-...
It's not just the heat problems, but it doesn't appear to make sense on any dimension… complexity, size, reliability, cost, anything.
It's not just the heat problems, but it doesn't appear to make sense on any dimension… complexity, size, reliability, cost, anything.
Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea.
There is a rush for AI companies to team up with space launch/satellite companies to build datacenters in space. TL;DR: It's not going to work.
taranis.ie
December 17, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Fascinating piece about the manifold problems with data centers in space: taranis.ie/datacenters-...
It's not just the heat problems, but it doesn't appear to make sense on any dimension… complexity, size, reliability, cost, anything.
It's not just the heat problems, but it doesn't appear to make sense on any dimension… complexity, size, reliability, cost, anything.
Super impressed with this extremely well-documented, and well-designed, open source hacking project. What a pleasant surprise: www.typeframe.net
Typeframe
A collection of open-source hardware and software for building writerdecks/cyberdecks.
www.typeframe.net
December 12, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Super impressed with this extremely well-documented, and well-designed, open source hacking project. What a pleasant surprise: www.typeframe.net
These are magnificent.
I was sent some screenshots of HTML sites around the 1994 election cycle, one of the really rare to find examples of websites playing a part in politics so early. I'll get them on the archive but now you get them too.
December 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM
These are magnificent.
“So yeah, I’m having a great time with Qobuz, both because the product is genuinely better than Spotify, and because it feels like sweet release to be free of that shitpit.”
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/a-complete...
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/a-complete...
How to quit Spotify
This Black Friday, here's a guide to finding the best Spotify alternative
www.bloodinthemachine.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:19 PM
“So yeah, I’m having a great time with Qobuz, both because the product is genuinely better than Spotify, and because it feels like sweet release to be free of that shitpit.”
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/a-complete...
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/a-complete...
Reposted by Ben Fry
BestChristmasSongOf '70, '71, '72, '73, '74, '75, '76, '77, '78, '79, '80, '81, '82, '83, '84, '85, '86, '87, '88, '89, '90, '91, '92, '93, '94, '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, '00, '01, '02, '03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14, '15, '16, '17, '18, '19, '20, '21, '22, '23, '24, '25
Donny Hathaway - This Christmas (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by RHINO
www.youtube.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:07 PM
BestChristmasSongOf '70, '71, '72, '73, '74, '75, '76, '77, '78, '79, '80, '81, '82, '83, '84, '85, '86, '87, '88, '89, '90, '91, '92, '93, '94, '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, '00, '01, '02, '03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14, '15, '16, '17, '18, '19, '20, '21, '22, '23, '24, '25
Down the rabbit hole of “what European countries are not part of NATO and why?” this morning.
The history of Irish neutrality: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_n...
The history of Irish neutrality: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_n...
December 5, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Down the rabbit hole of “what European countries are not part of NATO and why?” this morning.
The history of Irish neutrality: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_n...
The history of Irish neutrality: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_n...
Reposted by Ben Fry
A charming short film on how a Foley artist would sound design a day in an ordinary life. “Running hands through spaghetti noodles stands in for hair washing…” [kottke.org]
Sound Designing a Life
This is a charming short film on how a Foley artist would sound design a day in an ordinary life. Running hands through spaghetti noodles stands in for hair washing, a spray bottle sounds like rustling sheets, that sor
kottke.org
December 4, 2025 at 4:32 PM
A charming short film on how a Foley artist would sound design a day in an ordinary life. “Running hands through spaghetti noodles stands in for hair washing…” [kottke.org]
I'm terrible at marketing so I asked ChatGPT 5 to make an ad for rowboat.net
December 2, 2025 at 7:58 PM
I'm terrible at marketing so I asked ChatGPT 5 to make an ad for rowboat.net
Inverse Histogram of Seltzer Flavor Preference at New England-based Design & Software Development Studio (2025)
November 26, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Inverse Histogram of Seltzer Flavor Preference at New England-based Design & Software Development Studio (2025)