Will James

Reading @edzitron.com on how the rush to automate jobs using AI is a function of bosses being increasingly disconnected from what their companies actually produce, reducing every job to its outputs:

www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...

The Amtrak train that derailed in Dupont? I reported on that, but I don't remember the antifa conspiracies!

Hearing "antifa" in the news is a trip; To me, it's such a relic of 2017-2018, when many of us covered regular right-wing protests and leftist counterprotests in the PNW.

Appreciated this necessary refresher on antifa and all the mythologizing around it by @letsgomathias.bsky.social on @kuow.org:

Alternative view: What they actually built was a bunch of janky, addictive toys.

A point missing from years of “learn to code” taunts:

Building a career out of any kind of creative work requires a level of risk tolerance, scrappiness, and entrepreneurship that’s probably alien to anyone aspiring to graduate college directly into a six-figure job.

At what point do journalists get to start taunting tech people with “Learn to write”?

Dude… buzz off.

Finally checking out this William James guy to see what the hype is about.

I also have advice. Everybody loves reading advice on the computer, so I'll share it: the best thing you can do right now is log off as hard as you can. Go outside, talk to people in real life where it's actually kind of rude to talk about the news, try to actually see the friends you usually just text message. Go for a long drive and turn the phone off while you do it. Get back into your hobbies or pick one and learn it for a while. Watch one of those studio movies that reviews called "wildly miscalculated" and you haven't seen since high school. Play an album you like but find embarrassing. Go to free community events even if they sound stupid. If you take the freeway, try the surface streets. Go to a bad diner and just order some bad coffee because even bad coffee is good coffee. You can't help anybody when you're exhausted and keep posting one million college-educated rewordings of "I would love to be dead right now" on the computer. Walk away from the thing and try out some of those normal things you hear about and if you get bored that's wonderful because we're not supposed to get bored anymore. It turns out boredom is the Cadillac of feelings.

RIP Kaleb Horton
kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/

I'm so sorry, Josh. For Seattle's sake, I hope there is a way for you to keep reporting here. If I can help in any way as you figure out your next move, please hit me up.

Many Cascade PBS journalists I admire are losing their jobs. Seattle is also losing a valuable piece of its news ecosystem. I think of the many journalists scattered throughout local newsrooms who passed through Cascade PBS/Crosscut at some point, freelanced there, or got their start there.

I did not! Didn't know about it.

If I could make people understand one thing about the computer, it would be that if a piece of information feels too good — if it has that sweet, addictive pull — there's a good chance it's bad for you.

People have come to understand this about food. Maybe they can learn the same for information.

The Team That Made the Cult Hit 'Fantasy A Gets a Mattress' Learns About the Virtue and Danger of Whimsy Fantasy A is a Seattle icon whose face has decorated lampposts and phone poles for a decade.

I will not stop saying it: "Fantasy A Gets a Mattress" is the most authentically Seattle piece of art to come out in a decade. I hope the filmmakers get a distributer.

Some laugh out loud moments in this story by @vivmccall.bsky.social:

A few days later, I'm still surprised at how bleak this made me feel.

Sometimes a piece of writing manages to pull something ubiquitous out of the air and make it visible.

Hold on, getting a master’s degree real quick so I can understand why all protest is automatically good and never backfires.

I haven’t read this but I have read Jack Vance. Good handle.

Conservative Rallies In Liberal Cities: Part Free Speech Exercise, Part Provocation Several dozen right-leaning protestors gathered in front of Seattle City Hall this weekend for what was billed as a rally against traditional Islamic law,…

I’ve been observing this playbook since 2017, when Joey Gibson and Patriot Prayer were running it in Seattle, Olympia, and Portland, and counter-protesters almost always obliged.

www.knkx.org/news/2017-06...

Decoding Christian Supremacists' Playbook Before Sean Feucht Takes Over Gas Works Park Christian Supremacist worship leader Sean Feucht is heading back to Seattle for Revive in 25, and anyone paying attention should recognize this isn't just another stop on his revival tour. It's a calc...

In the lead-up to Sean Feucht's prayer rally in Seattle this weekend, @thestranger.com published this smart piece explaining how figures on the right intentionally provoke leftist counter-protest so they can farm the interactions for content.

Christian Supremacist Sean Feucht Flops at Gas Works At his Christian supremacist “Revive in 25” prayer rally at Gas Works Park on Saturday, there were no fist fights to film. No “trans terrorism,” or demonic forces. No suppressi...

Holy shit. The Stranger's @vivmccall.bsky.social attends the Sean Feucht prayer rally in Gas Works Park and walks away with one of the best pieces of magazine writing I've seen come out of Seattle in a long time.

@thestranger.com

Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think Here’s how to make the most of it.

People from whom death is more distant and hypothetical tend to think of it as scarier than people for whom death is closer and more real.

I made a joke about how it was fun to bully companies on Twitter and someone replied with a self-serious and chiding post about bullying. Unintentional parody of the archetypal school principal-type Bluesky user.

There's a history of conservatives using fear of crime and disorder in Democrat-run cities as a weapon. It had a moment in the 90s.

But right now we're watching the culmination of a discrete political project on the right, by activists and media figures, that started within the past decade.

A main difference between this site and Twitter is that a subtly different spice blend of personality disorders predominates here

Like flies to food, the Cluster B types have begun to arrive, so I’m shutting this down.

I was made aware there was another Will James there. I’m not sure I’ll make it tomorrow but if I do, I’ll swing by!

Booing the questioner

The person asking the question.

Amplifying the awkwardness: Brandon Sanderson was also on stage.