Leah Reich
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leahreich.com
Leah Reich
@leahreich.com
4.8K followers 290 following 3.8K 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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leahreich.com
Every time I open Bluesky there are so many posts from people fighting about Bluesky and what it should or shouldn't be, plus who should and shouldn't be banned. Guys.

Stop thinking about the problem in terms of the existing solutions. BE SMARTER. Here, read this.

www.leahreich.com/we-are-the-i...
Lately there have been a lot of hand-wringing articles about the impending death of Bluesky. Metrics are trending down, it's a giant progressive hellhole, it's a tedious earnest echo chamber, it's decidedly unfunny, etc. Whether any of this is or isn't true isn't important right now. What is important is pulling apart the behaviors and expectations that keep leading us to these same miserable experiences, over and over again. Does anyone stop to think that Twitter, now X, had a different trajectory from something like Bluesky or Mastodon? Twitter introduced a different blueprint and developed from there. The good stuff and the bad stuff, all that happened in real time, influenced both by the company that built it and by the people (and companies) who used it. The bad stuff won out in part because – like I have said before – when you are not intentional about culture, a culture will still take root. You just might not like the one that does. That intentionality requires tools and it also requires hard decisions about rules and modes of behavior. Don't believe me? How do you think the society around you functions? Why would you think a "town square" of 300 million people would somehow be any different?
December 22, 2025 at 5:54 PM
leahreich.com
I just looked at this post and there are three incredibly lovely comments there already, all of which feel very affirming. What a good way to wrap up a long ass year
A screenshot of three comments on my newsletter
December 18, 2025 at 3:43 PM
leahreich.com
You guys!! You helped boost my mom's book and give it more visibility. She texted to tell me this (yes, my parents still use Bear, my childhood nickname even tho I am 50)

Can we boost her books more? Please help, it would be such a gift.

Pain Killers: a.co/d/1cFQucf

Under Water: a.co/d/3JRA0kB
Hi bear! Your boost helped bring PK to #8 in Medical Fiction (Kindle Store) #12 in Humorous Literary Fiction #15 in Medical Fiction (Books)
December 17, 2025 at 4:38 PM
leahreich.com
Hello friends. I need to ask you a big favor:

If you have an e-reader, please buy this book, written by my mom. It will cost $0.99 and it will boost her visibility. This is the first book she ever wrote (a long time ago), an epistolary novel about an ER (TW: various forms of trauma)

a.co/d/icbEntH
A screenshot that reads: Pain Killers: A Year in an ER Kindle Edition by Rachel Callaghan (Author) 4.5 stars “A delightful medical drama that’s infused with gallows humor.” –Kirkus Reviews A nurse with a painful past. A doctor with his own baggage. A hospital full of stories no chart could capture. A found family created by the crazy quilt of an emergency room’s hectic year. Written by a former ER physician, Pain Killers is a sly, comic medical novel capturing the spirit of an emergency room in all its bureaucratic mess, profound tragedy, and gallows humor. The story is revealed in quick, addictive bites through the ephemera of true-to-life physicians’ notes, witty off-the-record logbook entries, posted ads for cars and puppies, and threats against lunch thieves. It’s an unusual love story that doesn’t end with a kiss—it begins with one. The year is 1978. Mary Grace Kelly flees to a new city with a set of scrubs, a nursing license, and a secret. She hopes to hide in this bustling blur of cranky patients and even crankier physicians.
December 16, 2025 at 3:52 PM
leahreich.com
Well, I guess we finally know who the drama is
A photo of a large fluffy gray and white cat with a pissy look on his face sitting in a box that says DRAMAS
December 13, 2025 at 5:20 PM
leahreich.com
In this week’s newsletter I wrote about AI and why it feels so alien to so many of us.

www.leahreich.com/maybe-the-a-...
No matter how it's packaged or described, it doesn't think or feel. It takes information you give it to generate guesses based on billions of pieces of data. It uses cognitive computational processing to mimic human output. I know that last sentence seems obvious. But stop and look at it without immediately rushing to all your assumptions about GenAI, whether good or bad. What do you see? Generative artificial intelligence elevates one type of intelligence and prioritizes it over the rest. It takes the intelligence that most closely mirrors the intelligence of the people who created it—brilliant computational minds—and gives it the tools to gesture towards what a lot of these people frankly struggle with. The so-called "soft skills." Connecting with other humans. Articulating themselves. Having feelings and feeling understood.
December 11, 2025 at 5:04 PM
leahreich.com
God I love the internet sometimes
a screenshot of a Reddit notification that reads "u/AllAnalBeadsAreBrown replied to your post: Lumpy is a cutie!!"
December 8, 2025 at 6:29 PM
leahreich.com
Honestly I haven't nailed a reference this well since Elon Musk in his ten gallon hat as Cornholio
All the puppets from the Land of Confusion video
December 8, 2025 at 1:17 AM
leahreich.com
Why does this photo look like a still from the Genesis “Land of Confusion” video
Technically a photo of Trump and the Kennedy Center recipients in the Oval Office A shot of the puppets from the Land of Confusion video
December 8, 2025 at 12:31 AM
leahreich.com
The look his Highness gives me when I dare to stop rubbing his belly do I can type
Sleepy fluffy giant gray and white cat next to me giving me a sleepy grumpy how dare you look
December 7, 2025 at 8:59 PM
leahreich.com
Have you ever seen a cozier coworker
A photo of a giant fluffy gray and white cat next to my lap with a laptop. My hand is on his soft warm scrumply belly
December 7, 2025 at 5:48 PM
leahreich.com
Hi I have an important science question: How does Lumpy become so small when he curls up? Where does the extra cat go

Please see photos for comparison
A photo of a fluffy gray and white cat curled up in a tiny ball on a bed with a white bedspread A photo of a fluffy gray and white cat stretched out to an absurd length with his front paws perched on a low table
December 5, 2025 at 6:35 PM
leahreich.com
Just going to leave this here, I hope you all enjoy my new theory about Pink Floyd, which is that they're the Ayn Rand of bands

have a nice evening
a screenshot of text messages in which I declare Pink Floyd the Ayn Rand of bands
December 5, 2025 at 12:04 AM
leahreich.com
Here he is yesterday, and I still don’t know what I did to deserve this look
December 4, 2025 at 1:58 AM
leahreich.com
This newsletter is half about Mad Men, half about AI podcasts, and all about being human. Go read it!!

www.leahreich.com/guy-with-a-v...
What I like best about that piece is the end (really, you should read it) because it's everything I've been saying for years about human connection and community. But the whole Mad Men thing has reminded me of something equally important: We do not and will not change at the speed of technology. You and I, human beings that we are, will change slowly. This is part of what makes us actual people, unlike the "AI people" with whom we'll supposedly share our planet very soon. We cannot just be reprogrammed, or suddenly process millions of pages of data, or fix our problems with some quick debugging. It's funny because so many of us strive for perfection and flawlessness, but now I see these AI "people" with their creepily smooth skin and their overly designed personalities, and I think I'll take pimples and broccoli farts any day over whatever that is: Slick avatars powered by desperation and fear and greed. Plus, GenAI creations aren't flawless! They just mimic some asshole's weird ideas of desirability and happiness! They're billboards screaming reassurance! Except you are not okay! None of us are!
December 4, 2025 at 1:21 AM
leahreich.com
My personal favorite is this quote:

IT IS AN EXTENSION OF THE CLOUD OF MY CONSCIOUSNESS
December 2, 2025 at 7:53 PM
leahreich.com
Can confirm this is true
November 25, 2025 at 11:31 PM
leahreich.com
Oh my sweet summer child. This is "Disney Girls," by an artist from Philadelphia named Salazar. He did it two years after I was born
an etching print of four Disney characters dressed as cute girls - Goofy, Daisy Duck, Donald Duck, and Minnie Mouse
November 20, 2025 at 6:28 PM
leahreich.com
My post has a moderation label!!! It's so silly! Although I guess if you can see it this means no one wants to see/share it for reasons that have to do with me and my writing lol
November 20, 2025 at 5:06 PM
leahreich.com
My newsletter went out last night. In it, I take apart Kyle Chayka’s unfortunately bad piece on follower numbers in the New Yorker. So far this screenshot seems to be everyone’s quote.

Bonus: sexy Karl Marx, which Bluesky will not let me show you

www.leahreich.com/community-fe...
Again, I am going to say this over and over again: The idea of a public square for 300 million people is a BAD IDEA. What did anyone think was going to happen if 300 million people were able to share all their thoughts with others 24/7, all at the same time?
November 20, 2025 at 1:44 PM
leahreich.com
Hey everyone just swinging by real quick to ask: What the fuck is going on here

Why is Yahoo! doing what seems to be a collab? with olive oil?
An Instagram ad for a Grazia x yahoo! olive oil...collab?
November 19, 2025 at 9:01 PM
leahreich.com
Oh man, look at that. I just love fluffy bellies. Here is Lumpy's
November 18, 2025 at 7:38 PM
leahreich.com
Do you know anyone in UX at Reddit? If so can you tell them:

1. If I block someone I don't want to see "blocked user" in a feed, which I can then expand. I want to FORGET THEY EXIST. Maybe you were thinking of mute?

2. This is depressing, I don't care about comment performance insights, pls stop
a screenshot of my notifications on Reddit that are just full of "Amazing! Your comment got 2 upvotes and 1 replies! Dig deeper on your comment's performance insights!"
November 17, 2025 at 9:55 PM
leahreich.com
One thing I love about living with a cat is sometimes having a pile of garbage on the floor in the middle of the apartment for days or even weeks without a second thought because it's like "well but that's Lumpy's special crinkle paper"
A photo of a very large gray and white fluffy cat with green eyes sitting on green tissue paper on a brown floor, near his bowl, turning to look at me and complain about how it's not dinner yet, becausewhile it is only 4:15 pm, it's my fault for not having more imagination about the flexible nature of time
November 17, 2025 at 9:16 PM
leahreich.com
Mostly social media is so terrible and I want OFF, but then I go on TikTok or Instagram and see something like this and it’s like, no wonder it’s so hard to quit
November 14, 2025 at 12:51 AM