Jonathan Owens
@intjonathan.com
Life is short, and we have but little time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us. So be quick to love and make haste to be kind.
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
Proposed new media idea: The Recanter, a publication consisting entirely of people arguing against their own former positions, and/or admitting error in some way.
I think that would be a huge market for this. We’re all tired of reading people who are always right.
I think that would be a huge market for this. We’re all tired of reading people who are always right.
December 9, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Proposed new media idea: The Recanter, a publication consisting entirely of people arguing against their own former positions, and/or admitting error in some way.
I think that would be a huge market for this. We’re all tired of reading people who are always right.
I think that would be a huge market for this. We’re all tired of reading people who are always right.
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
If it were enough to be a powerful man, powerful men would be happy
i've said this before but i do think rw people understand that a blue haired barista has moral character despite being temporarily disadvantaged and a used car salesman tyrant has advantage but no character. it drives them insane
it's utterly wild how the Heritage Foundation president talks about other people
if you found a guy talking like this outside, you'd probably call the cops
if you found a guy talking like this outside, you'd probably call the cops
November 3, 2025 at 3:52 AM
If it were enough to be a powerful man, powerful men would be happy
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
When it comes to the landscape of the discourse, I believe that you should always lead with principles. Not because people are principled but because it's easier to reiterate core principles than policy, which can be complex and confusing.
October 27, 2025 at 7:58 PM
When it comes to the landscape of the discourse, I believe that you should always lead with principles. Not because people are principled but because it's easier to reiterate core principles than policy, which can be complex and confusing.
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
that's why you bring the US flag to protests, folks
HARDEST PHOTO OF 2025 JUST DROPPED
September 19, 2025 at 5:23 PM
that's why you bring the US flag to protests, folks
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
My dad first signed up for Twitter to follow live sports and he’s a freak about U of I. One day he said to me “Twitter is abuzz about Illini golf,” and I was like dude you only follow Illini sports accounts. And that’s how every reporter feels Charlie Kirk was the most important person in the world.
September 12, 2025 at 12:49 PM
My dad first signed up for Twitter to follow live sports and he’s a freak about U of I. One day he said to me “Twitter is abuzz about Illini golf,” and I was like dude you only follow Illini sports accounts. And that’s how every reporter feels Charlie Kirk was the most important person in the world.
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
It turns out that protecting hate speech did not create the conditions to protect other kinds of speech; instead, it protected hate and allowed hate movements to take over all the institutions of that might have defended the rest of us.
September 9, 2025 at 11:51 AM
It turns out that protecting hate speech did not create the conditions to protect other kinds of speech; instead, it protected hate and allowed hate movements to take over all the institutions of that might have defended the rest of us.
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
Fun fact: air conditioning takes less energy than heating and no less important. The belief that it's "decadent" is puritanism.
Air conditioning is an absolutely vital life-saving technology on a swiftly-warming planet, and people who claim it's somehow more shameful to cool a home than it is to heat one are idiots.
I wrote this a few years ago and still stand by it:
foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/16/c...
I wrote this a few years ago and still stand by it:
foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/16/c...
Climate Change Demands More Air Conditioning
An often-disparaged technology is a lifesaver, not a luxury.
foreignpolicy.com
June 23, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Fun fact: air conditioning takes less energy than heating and no less important. The belief that it's "decadent" is puritanism.
Probably not his usual beat, but I picked up these wipers from the dealer yesterday and immediately thought of @cabel.panic.com. Fantastic packaging that probably hasn't changed in 30 years.
June 14, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Probably not his usual beat, but I picked up these wipers from the dealer yesterday and immediately thought of @cabel.panic.com. Fantastic packaging that probably hasn't changed in 30 years.
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
Did you know someone reverse-engineered the Weather Channel computer system from the 80s/90s and now you can generate your own private weather channel for your location?
weatherstar.netbymatt.com
weatherstar.netbymatt.com
May 29, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Did you know someone reverse-engineered the Weather Channel computer system from the 80s/90s and now you can generate your own private weather channel for your location?
weatherstar.netbymatt.com
weatherstar.netbymatt.com
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
Tomorrow is May Day, when everyone in the world—except in the US—celebrates worker’s rights based on something that happened in the US.
Literally all your civil rights and freedoms exist because someone sometime said “fuck this shit” and fought to make it better.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymark...
Literally all your civil rights and freedoms exist because someone sometime said “fuck this shit” and fought to make it better.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymark...
Haymarket affair - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
May 1, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Tomorrow is May Day, when everyone in the world—except in the US—celebrates worker’s rights based on something that happened in the US.
Literally all your civil rights and freedoms exist because someone sometime said “fuck this shit” and fought to make it better.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymark...
Literally all your civil rights and freedoms exist because someone sometime said “fuck this shit” and fought to make it better.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymark...
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
A lovely post by @henrikkarlsson.bsky.social on learning people: www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/friends-mi...
Sometimes the reason you can’t find people you resonate with is because you misread the ones you meet
Sometimes two people will stand next to each other for fifteen years, both feeling out of place and alone, like no one gets them, and then one day, they look up at each other and say, “Oh, there you a...
www.henrikkarlsson.xyz
April 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM
A lovely post by @henrikkarlsson.bsky.social on learning people: www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/friends-mi...
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
Costco is a really popular subject for business-success case studies but I feel like business guys kinda lose interest when the upshot of the study is like "just operate with scrupulous integrity in all facets and levels of your business for four decades" and not some easy-to-fix gimmick
“You can’t say people are our most important product and then treat them like shit.” - Jim Sinegal, co-founder of Costco
April 20, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Costco is a really popular subject for business-success case studies but I feel like business guys kinda lose interest when the upshot of the study is like "just operate with scrupulous integrity in all facets and levels of your business for four decades" and not some easy-to-fix gimmick
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
I was raised with eschatology central to my life and I really can't emphasize enough how life-denying it is, and how much it infects every aspect of how you address the world.
April 16, 2025 at 3:41 PM
I was raised with eschatology central to my life and I really can't emphasize enough how life-denying it is, and how much it infects every aspect of how you address the world.
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
Does anyone else think it’s weird all the domestic manufacturing jobs obsessives don’t seem that interested in producing housing? The thing you absolutely have to make in the U.S., there is a severe shortage of it, a ton of pent up demand, and opportunities for good paying jobs producing it?
Alt headline: Trump takes a sledgehammer to housing construction.
April 8, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Does anyone else think it’s weird all the domestic manufacturing jobs obsessives don’t seem that interested in producing housing? The thing you absolutely have to make in the U.S., there is a severe shortage of it, a ton of pent up demand, and opportunities for good paying jobs producing it?
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
So … I’m really hoping the recent chaos and stupidity doesn’t interfere with the arrival of Lyme disease vaccine in 2026. It has become endemic throughout the maritimes, especially if you do anything in the outdoors
March 16, 2025 at 5:04 PM
So … I’m really hoping the recent chaos and stupidity doesn’t interfere with the arrival of Lyme disease vaccine in 2026. It has become endemic throughout the maritimes, especially if you do anything in the outdoors
Bret Victor's dynamicland.org meets hygge energy yarn art. Delightful.
March 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Bret Victor's dynamicland.org meets hygge energy yarn art. Delightful.
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
Brecht, Interrogation of the Good
March 10, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Brecht, Interrogation of the Good
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
Let's Create "Town Hall Night in America" washingtonmonthly.com/2025/03/07/l...
Let's Create "Town Hall Night in America" | Washington Monthly
It’s time for Democrats to institutionalize our oldest form of democracy. Regular town halls would give the resistance tone and heft.
washingtonmonthly.com
March 8, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Let's Create "Town Hall Night in America" washingtonmonthly.com/2025/03/07/l...
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
one thing I've become very convinced of is the need for the civil service to do waaayyyy more propaganda. like you should know about how NOAA makes the weather app on your phone work. you should know that Uncle Sam runs GPS. you should know how impressive the US census data collection effort is, etc
March 4, 2025 at 5:41 PM
one thing I've become very convinced of is the need for the civil service to do waaayyyy more propaganda. like you should know about how NOAA makes the weather app on your phone work. you should know that Uncle Sam runs GPS. you should know how impressive the US census data collection effort is, etc
Reposted by Jonathan Owens
SEEING LIKE A TECH BRO
HOW CERTAIN SCHEMES TO MAKE THE HUMAN CONDITION WORSE HAVE FAILED
HOW CERTAIN SCHEMES TO MAKE THE HUMAN CONDITION WORSE HAVE FAILED
Basic data literacy fail
Everyone should read Seeing Like a State, because, buddy, if you think that data reflects reality in anything like a straightforward way or gives you an uncomplicated tool to manipulate it, are you ever in for a rude awakening
Everyone should read Seeing Like a State, because, buddy, if you think that data reflects reality in anything like a straightforward way or gives you an uncomplicated tool to manipulate it, are you ever in for a rude awakening
Johnson: "Elon's cracked the code. He's now inside these agencies. He's created these algorithms that are constantly crawling through the data & as he told me in his office, data doesn't lie. We're gonna be able to get the information. We're gonna be able to transform the way federal govt works."
February 24, 2025 at 6:30 PM
SEEING LIKE A TECH BRO
HOW CERTAIN SCHEMES TO MAKE THE HUMAN CONDITION WORSE HAVE FAILED
HOW CERTAIN SCHEMES TO MAKE THE HUMAN CONDITION WORSE HAVE FAILED