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Co-creator of Django and creator of Datasette; writes daily at simonwillison.net.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Hiding the code and exact details of what an agent ran from the ChatGPT UI is an anti-feature.

  OpenAI

  Their words

  Frustratingly, the actual code it ran and exact details of what it did weren’t visible to me in the ChatGPT UI. I see this lack of transparency is an anti-feature.

  simonwillison.net

Graphic designer and type designer, who created the original Macintosh icons and typefaces at Apple from 1982 and has since designed interface graphics for NeXT, Microsoft, Facebook and Pinterest.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Even a poor sixteen-colour palette earns its keep, because colour is what lets someone tell things apart at a glance.

  Their words

  And color, even if 16 colors, and some of them weren't very good colors, but it was still so nice to have to be able to use red for alerts and to differentiate at a glance a little easier when you had color as another option.

  youtube.com

Physician and neuroscientist at the University of Washington; researches brain health, metabolism and athletic performance.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The 10,000-hour rule misreports its own source: 10,000 hours was how much expert violinists had practised by the age of twenty, and they were not experts yet.

  Their words

  The simple answer is what the study showed was that 10,000 hours was the average amount of time that an expert violinist had spent practicing by the time they reached 20 years old. That's what the study showed. They weren't even experts by that point.

  youtube.com

Mathematician and maker of the 3Blue1Brown YouTube channel, which explains mathematics through animation. Creator of the open-source Manim animation library and founder of the Summer of Math Exposition.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  It would be disappointing and surprising if the next five years of AI progress in mathematics produced no economically valuable improvements traceable to it.

  Their words

  but it would be a little bit disappointing and a little bit surprising if there weren't over the next 5 years like, uh, economically valuable improvements that were made that were directly like referable to the like AI progress in math.

  youtube.com

Software design writer and chief scientist at Thoughtworks; wrote Refactoring and Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Every earlier wave, the internet included, had to be argued for; AI is the first where nobody has to be persuaded that it matters.

  Their words

  but the thing about AI is that, you know, all of many of these things we were talking about how important they were and how valuable were and trying to persuade people of the importance of them. Yes, even the internet. That may sound surprising, but there were people who would weren't thinking that was important. Um but AI, there's kind of no argument about how important it is. People can't can I mean, you cannot put blinkers on to deny the importance of this thing.

  youtube.com

Psychologist and writer. Author of the memoir Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class, and of a newsletter on human nature, psychology, social class and what he calls luxury beliefs.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  A Story is a Deal: How to use the science of story to motivate and persuade

  Their words

  Best books I read in 2025: Just a note that these books weren’t all necessarily published this year (though some were). A Story is a Deal: How to use the science of story to motivate and persuade by Will Storr

  robkhenderson.com

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  Bringing Up Baby: An Evolutionary View of Pediatrics

  Their words

  Best books I read in 2025: Just a note that these books weren’t all necessarily published this year (though some were). A Story is a Deal: How to use the science of story to motivate and persuade by Will Storr Bringing Up Baby: An Evolutionary View of Pediatrics by Paul Turke

  robkhenderson.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up

  Their words

  Best books I read in 2025: Just a note that these books weren’t all necessarily published this year (though some were). A Story is a Deal: How to use the science of story to motivate and persuade by Will Storr Bringing Up Baby: An Evolutionary View of Pediatrics by Paul Turke Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up by Abigail Shrier

  robkhenderson.com

Assyriologist and curator at the British Museum; reads cuneiform, and wrote The Ark Before Noah and The First Ghosts.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The people of the ancient world were not less advanced than we are; they were probably indistinguishable from us.

  Their words

  I honestly believe that the people at this time were not stupid. They weren’t gorillas. They weren’t less advanced than we are. They were probably indistinguishable from what we are.

  youtube.com

Chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, which he has led since 2005 after turning around Bank One.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The banks earning the highest returns on equity before 2007 mostly went bankrupt, and earning less in the good years is what let JP Morgan survive.

  Their words

  if you look at the history of banks from up until 2007, a lot of banks were earning 30% equity. Most of them went bankrupt. We never did that much. Okay, but in '08 and '09, we were fine, and they weren't.

  youtube.com

Historian of the Second World War; wrote Normandy '44 and Brothers in Arms, and co-hosts the We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast.

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  Decapitate a strong leader without a solution for the power vacuum and bad elements sweep in very quickly — a lesson of the Second World War that Iraq ignored.

  Their words

  I think there are so many lessons from World War II that could have been brought into the history of the last 30 years, which weren’t, such as if you decapitate an incredibly strong leader, you get a power vacuum. And if you don’t have a solution for that power vacuum, lots of bad elements are going to sweep into that in very quick order, which of course, is exactly what happens in Iraq.

  youtube.com

Psychologist and writer. Author of the memoir Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class, and of a newsletter on human nature, psychology, social class and what he calls luxury beliefs.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

  Their words

  Best books I read in 2024: Just a note that these books weren’t all necessarily published this year (though some were). Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy Just as Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers by Marissa A. Harrison Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon

  robkhenderson.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Just as Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers

  Their words

  Best books I read in 2024: Just a note that these books weren’t all necessarily published this year (though some were). Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy Just as Deadly: The Psychology of Female Serial Killers by Marissa A. Harrison

  robkhenderson.com

Co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management. He wrote The Reformed Broker for over a decade, now publishes the Downtown Josh Brown newsletter, and co-hosts The Compound and Friends.

• Recommendstheir ownrcmnd.app

  You Weren’t Supposed To See That

  Their words

  No matter where you are in your investing journey, this book will help you reach a higher understanding of what’s really going on and why.

  downtownjoshbrown.com

Neuroscientist at UC Davis; studies memory and wrote Why We Remember.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Memory athletes were not born with extraordinary memories; they practise a handful of strategies until deploying one is automatic.

  Their words

  By all accounts, from people who become memory athletes, they weren’t born with some extraordinary memory, but they practice strategies over and over and over again. The strategy that they use for memorizing a particular thing, it can become automatic, and you can just deploy it in an instant.

  youtube.com

Investigative journalist; wrote Area 51, The Pentagon's Brain and Nuclear War: A Scenario, reconstructing what secret programmes actually did from interviews and declassified records.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Judgment and cognition are the two capacities the nuclear launch decision actually turns on, which is the standard a presidential candidate should be measured against.

  Their words

  Because why on earth there would be two candidates, one of whom has cognitive problems and the other of whom has judgment problems? These are the two biggest issues with the nuclear launch, judgment and cognition. And so where’s the young-ish, thoughtful, forward looking, wise, dedicated civil servant running for president? I know that sounds fantastical, but I wish it weren’t.

  youtube.com

Theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, working on particle physics, extra dimensions and dark matter.

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  String theorists were overly arrogant at the outset, promising to solve problems they were never going to solve.

  Their words

  I do think that string theorists were a bit overly ambitious… Not overly ambitious, but a little bit overly arrogant in the beginning, thinking they could solve many problems that they weren’t going to solve.

  youtube.com

Journalist; wrote We Are Eating the Earth on food and climate, and writes the newsletter Emissions.

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  Synthetic fertiliser is a serious climate and pollution problem and also the reason half the people alive are alive.

  Their words

  They suck! But they also feed the world. Half the people alive today would be very not alive if fertilizers manufactured from natural gas weren’t super-sizing our harvests.

  Farming Needs to Suck Lessmichaelgrunwald.substack.com