Ian Bogost
@ibogost.com
PREORDER The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life: http://bit.ly/49gyZmp
Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor at WashU; Contributing writer at The Atlantic; author of 11 books. https://bogost.com
Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor at WashU; Contributing writer at The Atlantic; author of 11 books. https://bogost.com
Pinned
Ian Bogost
@ibogost.com
· Nov 10
🚨 PLEASE PREORDER MY NEW BOOK 🚨
It's called The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life, and it's about the sensory enchantment of everyday life.
Click here: www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Sm...
… or go wherever you buy books
(More info in the next post)
It's called The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life, and it's about the sensory enchantment of everyday life.
Click here: www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Sm...
… or go wherever you buy books
(More info in the next post)
Reposted by Ian Bogost
A pet cow named Veronika can scratch her back with a broom, the first scientifically documented case of tool use in cows.
“Perhaps the absurd thing was not the absurdity of a cow using tools," one researcher said, "but the absurdity of us never thinking that a cow might be intelligent.”
“Perhaps the absurd thing was not the absurdity of a cow using tools," one researcher said, "but the absurdity of us never thinking that a cow might be intelligent.”
Cows Use Tools, Too, New Study Finds
A pet cow named Veronika can scratch her own back with a broom — the first scientifically documented case of tool use in cows, researchers say.
nyti.ms
January 19, 2026 at 6:20 PM
A pet cow named Veronika can scratch her back with a broom, the first scientifically documented case of tool use in cows.
“Perhaps the absurd thing was not the absurdity of a cow using tools," one researcher said, "but the absurdity of us never thinking that a cow might be intelligent.”
“Perhaps the absurd thing was not the absurdity of a cow using tools," one researcher said, "but the absurdity of us never thinking that a cow might be intelligent.”
I only want two things and they are desert modernism + life-size giraffes.
January 19, 2026 at 4:23 PM
I only want two things and they are desert modernism + life-size giraffes.
I was trying to remember the name of this absolute hellscape hotel I stayed at once and I tried the Google search term “Amsterdam art hotel children’s prison” and yup, first result.
January 14, 2026 at 5:21 AM
I was trying to remember the name of this absolute hellscape hotel I stayed at once and I tried the Google search term “Amsterdam art hotel children’s prison” and yup, first result.
Just had to 2FA into my Nintendo account to retrieve my Nintendo Switch Unwrapped, which basically says "Only Mario Kart is good now."
January 14, 2026 at 12:57 AM
Just had to 2FA into my Nintendo account to retrieve my Nintendo Switch Unwrapped, which basically says "Only Mario Kart is good now."
What the hell are we doing?
January 13, 2026 at 1:23 AM
What the hell are we doing?
Reposted by Ian Bogost
In the Palisades burn scar, I saw many banners and signs the community had placed where their homes and businesses used to be. I keep thinking about one on an elementary school: "Returning January 2028." My report on what my hometown looks like, one year later: www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...
The View From the Palisades
A year is only the beginning of recovery from disaster.
www.theatlantic.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:39 PM
In the Palisades burn scar, I saw many banners and signs the community had placed where their homes and businesses used to be. I keep thinking about one on an elementary school: "Returning January 2028." My report on what my hometown looks like, one year later: www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...
I'm an insider-outsider in the architecture universe, but I don't think most people realized how extremely specific and … let's say, disoriented toward the built environment architecture and planning education can be. Scarfworld.
Love this suggestion for more HS architecture and planning curriculum in NYC www.nytimes.com/interactive/... // wrote about a graphic novel used in Chicago a few years ago @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/culture/cult...
January 7, 2026 at 3:35 PM
I'm an insider-outsider in the architecture universe, but I don't think most people realized how extremely specific and … let's say, disoriented toward the built environment architecture and planning education can be. Scarfworld.
I don’t mean to pick on this article specifically, but I think “guardrails” is almost always the wrong metaphor for technological harm mitigation. Guardrails are barriers designed to prevent foreseeable physical calamity. These technologies are designed to throw their proverbial vehicles off roads.
What Guardrails Should AI Companies Build to Protect Learning? | Learning Curve
In the past few months new AI tools known as “Agentic AI” have emerged. These new browsers let users deploy AI assistants that can surf the web on their behalf. While they were designed to do things l...
learningcurve.fm
January 7, 2026 at 2:25 AM
I don’t mean to pick on this article specifically, but I think “guardrails” is almost always the wrong metaphor for technological harm mitigation. Guardrails are barriers designed to prevent foreseeable physical calamity. These technologies are designed to throw their proverbial vehicles off roads.
I've been trying iPhone camera apps because the built-in one is so terrible.
Leica Lux is close, but the simulated DOF is silly; I wish I could get the 35mm FOV presets without it. Expensive.
ProCamera is better, but exposure/focus lock wonky
Adobe Indigo has promise, not sure yet
Halide nah
Leica Lux is close, but the simulated DOF is silly; I wish I could get the 35mm FOV presets without it. Expensive.
ProCamera is better, but exposure/focus lock wonky
Adobe Indigo has promise, not sure yet
Halide nah
January 6, 2026 at 4:00 PM
I've been trying iPhone camera apps because the built-in one is so terrible.
Leica Lux is close, but the simulated DOF is silly; I wish I could get the 35mm FOV presets without it. Expensive.
ProCamera is better, but exposure/focus lock wonky
Adobe Indigo has promise, not sure yet
Halide nah
Leica Lux is close, but the simulated DOF is silly; I wish I could get the 35mm FOV presets without it. Expensive.
ProCamera is better, but exposure/focus lock wonky
Adobe Indigo has promise, not sure yet
Halide nah
If you search your memory, I bet you can still hear phone numbers you dialed regularly decades ago, by tone, back when dialing entailed hearing the tones through the handset.
January 6, 2026 at 4:29 AM
If you search your memory, I bet you can still hear phone numbers you dialed regularly decades ago, by tone, back when dialing entailed hearing the tones through the handset.
Entire multi-billion-dollar companies have done less to help people than this one tiny thing this one guy did forty years ago.
I think of Jim Moylan's invention every time I fill up my gas tank. Jim was a Ford engineer who noticed an issue & was inspired to solve it to make our customers' daily lives easier. Nearly 40 years later & his innovative idea still helps millions of drivers every day! www.wsj.com/business/aut...
The Genius Whose Simple Invention Saved Us From Shame at the Gas Station
On a rainy day in Detroit, a Ford engineer got confused, then soaked—and inspired. It took decades before he got any credit.
www.wsj.com
January 5, 2026 at 7:59 PM
Entire multi-billion-dollar companies have done less to help people than this one tiny thing this one guy did forty years ago.
Is it normal to have a baguette toilet paper holder?
January 2, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Is it normal to have a baguette toilet paper holder?
Two years ago, after an attack on Harvard's then-president Claudine Gay, I subjected my own dissertation to a test similar to the one that brought her down.
The Plagiarism War in academia was carried out in bad faith, but it foretold what was to come in 2025, on more fronts, once Trump took office.
The Plagiarism War in academia was carried out in bad faith, but it foretold what was to come in 2025, on more fronts, once Trump took office.
The Plagiarism War Has Begun
Claudine Gay was taken down by a politically motivated investigation. Would the same approach work for any academic?
www.theatlantic.com
January 2, 2026 at 6:05 PM
Two years ago, after an attack on Harvard's then-president Claudine Gay, I subjected my own dissertation to a test similar to the one that brought her down.
The Plagiarism War in academia was carried out in bad faith, but it foretold what was to come in 2025, on more fronts, once Trump took office.
The Plagiarism War in academia was carried out in bad faith, but it foretold what was to come in 2025, on more fronts, once Trump took office.
2025: Deleting X from your phone
2026: Deleting Bluesky from your phone
2026: Deleting Bluesky from your phone
January 2, 2026 at 4:48 PM
2025: Deleting X from your phone
2026: Deleting Bluesky from your phone
2026: Deleting Bluesky from your phone
Canvas has no built-in, automated attendance system so I "have to" create quizzes in which students attest, under honor-code penalty, that they are present in class. Then I have to manually copy each quiz, updating its settings.
Note how copying is queued, and I have to refresh to see it.
Note how copying is queued, and I have to refresh to see it.
January 2, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Canvas has no built-in, automated attendance system so I "have to" create quizzes in which students attest, under honor-code penalty, that they are present in class. Then I have to manually copy each quiz, updating its settings.
Note how copying is queued, and I have to refresh to see it.
Note how copying is queued, and I have to refresh to see it.
The first Angel stepped up and poured his bowl out on earth: Loathsome, stinking sores erupted on all who had taken the mark of the Beast and worshiped its image.
January 1, 2026 at 6:58 PM
The first Angel stepped up and poured his bowl out on earth: Loathsome, stinking sores erupted on all who had taken the mark of the Beast and worshiped its image.
People named Kimberly are now probably as old as people named Doris were when people named Kimberly were born.
January 1, 2026 at 6:12 PM
People named Kimberly are now probably as old as people named Doris were when people named Kimberly were born.