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Leah Reich

@leahreich.com

4.2K followers 270 following 3.2K posts

I write about humans, tech, and culture, and about what I learned working for Slack, Spotify, and Instagram. But you’re probably here for photos of my cat Lumpy. You should go read my newsletter at www.leahreich.com

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Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 7d

My newsletter today is about algorithms, culture, and celebrity beef. It's about how we're all complicit in this current festering cultural moment of ours.

It features one of my spiciest theories ever that I do not want to spoil. So please click and read.

www.leahreich.com/algorithmic-...

Algorithmic Beef

Depending on the various internets you inhabit, you may not yet be aware that another virulent Twitter (please don't make me call it X) fight erupted last night between rap superstars Nicki Minaj and ...

www.leahreich.com

Reposted by Leah Reich

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2h

My newsletter this week is short. It's about content, context, and chronic pain (kind of).

www.leahreich.com/this-medium-...

a screenshot that reads:

We live in the era of content. Content! What the fuck is content? And what is all this content without its context? What are any of us without context? Without context, we can become divorced from the fullness of meaning. Sometimes we are even divorced from any meaning at all. I know that context isn't fixed, that the context in which I create something is not the context in which you will have your own experience of it. We all know that so much of what matters is unwritten, beyond view, out of frame, not gridworthy. But god, some days I feel as if I were drowning in an ocean and my only refuge a floating garbage island. Where am I even going with this? The drowning is how my context sometimes makes me feel, because of all the work that goes into dealing with it, because I deal with it alone, and because even if I didn't, no one else can see it. The floating garbage island is the assortment of shitty, half-baked content generating platforms—far less social, much more media—that make isolation feel so much lonelier. If you thought you and your problems were invisible before you unlocked your phone, boy howdy does that not compare with how you feel when you realize you're not even good at getting attention by shouting into the void.

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 1h

Story 2: I was at IG (laid off in 2023). After the first massive round of layoffs in 2022 they held a virtual town hall. Another SWE asked in the chat (aka publicly) if Meta pulling back from supporting employee clubs meant her boba club would no longer be funded. The day after 11,000 ppl lost jobs

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2h

You have never, EVER in your life seen such online engagement & activism as the response from the software engineers in the comments. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO WALK TO ANOTHER BUILDING 15 MIN AWAY TO PLAY FOOSBALL??" "This is how I de-stress, how DARE you" it was glorious, I wish I had screenshots

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2h

anyway, story 1: When I was working in Stockholm at Spotify, they opened a second office in the city, renovated, moved teams around. They posted on FB Workplace what amenities each bldg would have. Among these: a foosball table, a supported LAN gaming room (the other would be deprecated)

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2h

oh lol sorry I am dumb, I don't know anything about Cowboy Bebop so this was a real Who's on First of me wasn't it

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2h

Oh I mean what was it a drawing of!

And yes, that is really truly obnoxious. In return, I can tell you two of my favorite galling stories from my time working in tech. They aren't as good but combined they're almost as bad

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2h

That is the fun kind of insider nonsense I LOVE. Thank you for this. What was the original pencil drawing??

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2h

My newsletter this week is short. It's about content, context, and chronic pain (kind of).

www.leahreich.com/this-medium-...

a screenshot that reads:

We live in the era of content. Content! What the fuck is content? And what is all this content without its context? What are any of us without context? Without context, we can become divorced from the fullness of meaning. Sometimes we are even divorced from any meaning at all. I know that context isn't fixed, that the context in which I create something is not the context in which you will have your own experience of it. We all know that so much of what matters is unwritten, beyond view, out of frame, not gridworthy. But god, some days I feel as if I were drowning in an ocean and my only refuge a floating garbage island. Where am I even going with this? The drowning is how my context sometimes makes me feel, because of all the work that goes into dealing with it, because I deal with it alone, and because even if I didn't, no one else can see it. The floating garbage island is the assortment of shitty, half-baked content generating platforms—far less social, much more media—that make isolation feel so much lonelier. If you thought you and your problems were invisible before you unlocked your phone, boy howdy does that not compare with how you feel when you realize you're not even good at getting attention by shouting into the void.

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2h

I am a major George Michael head but lack the full knowledge and now must know pls

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2h

Oh I love how she painted the sky for you this morning. That's our grace, always so thoughtful.

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2d

straight to jail

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2d

Oh I know. But there's quirky and then there's tone-deaf. Are we really intellectualizing house cleaners and trad wives right now, please do not get on my last nerve

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2d

@mjmimages.bsky.social You are the only other person here I know who comments on fashion SOS SOS

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 2d

Imagine sending this look down the runway in 2025. Trad wife working class cosplay? In this climate? To buy this apron you'll probably spend the same amount a house cleaner makes in a month

Do not reply to this & tell me I'm too unsophisticated to understand the statement Miuccia Prada is making

An image of a woman walking down the runway in the Spring 2026 Miu Miu show by Miuccia Prada. She is wearing a blue apron with ruffles along the edges and tiny dots of color on it. The apron is the style a woman might wear around the house, or a cleaner-for-hire might wear. Beneath it she appears to be wearing a bra top.

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 3d

When I say I am fighting for the good, weird, human internet we once knew, THIS is the internet I am fighting for and I am not even joking

ariadnereviews.com/2025/10/05/b...

A screenshot that reads:

An Unofficial Chocolate Mousse Cup Ranking:
1. Iain’s Fistfuls of Gateau
2. Tom’s £7.60 Cup of Coffee
3. Aaron’s Drinkable Mousse
4. Jasmine’s Ferrero Rocher By Any Other Name
5. Nataliia’s Sippable Shag Van
6. Toby’s Mysterious Orange-shaped Chocolate Orange
7. Nadia’s Plain Sailing
8. Lelsey’s Tiramis-oops

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 3d

Why not take a break from doom scrolling and read my fav recaps of all time? I am never fully satisfied with my weekly GBBO viewing until I have reloaded @ariadnereviews.bsky.social's site 100 times, waiting for her to post a recap for the latest episode

ariadnereviews.com/2025/10/05/b...

Bake Off 2025, Chocolate Week: 3001st Death of Pompeii

TobyBot-3000 learns emotions can be… bad? Down with Handshake Capitalism!

ariadnereviews.com

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 3d

My reasoning was similar:

On Substack people are there for the content/people/buzzing hive vibe more than for the delivery mechanism/infrastructure

Federated folks want to change the delivery mechanism/infra, but getting them to agree on anything is a pain in the ass haha

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 3d

Thank you!!! I did not understand it for a long time and I still struggle sometimes too

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 3d

Was texting with @tinysubversions.bsky.social & I said the diff between a walled garden platform (Substack) & a federated social network (trying to link Mastodon, Ghost, and Bluesky, etc) is like the diff between trying to assemble liberals v trying to assemble leftists

I stand by this good analogy

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 4d

Oh good!! Thank god, mostly for me personally, as I need your recaps the most

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 4d

People are the worst. How can we (the non-assholes) help??

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 5d

I can’t tell if that’s a happy grimace or a bad one

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 5d

Ok I’m on the subway but how’s this:

Rip, rip, rip those chairs? Not yet
Shred, shred, shred, and there’s no way in hell you’ll get
Any treats from me or dad
‘Cause we’re gonna be real mad
If you go on ahead and rip those chairs just yet

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6lP...

Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)

YouTube video by Johnny Bond - Topic

www.youtube.com

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 5d

let me work on this, I might have something for you

Leah Reich @leahreich.com · 5d

Look out Stephen Sondheim!

Anyway we do this song and dance EVERY DAY starting between 3:30 and 4:30 pm