Clive Thompson

Writer, musician/songwriter, hobbyist coder. Contributing writer to New York Times Magazine and Wired. Author of "Coders". Blogging at clivethompson.medium.com, archive of writing at www.authory.com/clivethompson -- email: [email protected]; Signal: @clivethompson.98 -- #science #technology #coding #software #writing #literature #poetry [email protected]

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nprofile1qqsx4wtuqprvkxhlxez4fw4r627wk5zrnn5n2u46927j5y6l47pthrspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qz9thwden5te0wfjkccte9ekk7um5wgh8qatzgwxl0h

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Last Notes

2026-02-09 21:21:11 UTC

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@nprofile…q666
yes!

2026-02-09 15:10:54 UTC

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@nprofile…a638
aha, okay, that makes more sense!

2026-02-09 02:10:29 UTC

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@nprofile…r7tj
yeah, that tracks

2026-02-09 02:10:17 UTC

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@nprofile…4753
man, i bet so too

2026-02-09 02:09:51 UTC

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@nprofile…7npn @nprofile…4xpq
yeah, also a good point

2026-02-09 02:09:21 UTC

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@nprofile…vkla @nprofile…4xpq
yeah -- and of parties in general!
those early constitutional pioneers had seen enough of how parties exerted a massive gravitational force on British politics
they mostly thought parties would be super bad for the US

2026-02-09 02:07:16 UTC

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@nprofile…mv7s @nprofile…677v
yeah, good point -- nobody wants the denominator to get any bigger

2026-02-09 02:06:21 UTC

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@nprofile…d4d5
no worries!

2026-02-09 01:46:08 UTC

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@nprofile…677v
yeah, that's more or less the explanation I thought existed

2026-02-09 01:45:20 UTC

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@nprofile…d4d5
I can understand why it came off completely differently -- it's a product of White 1970s Canadian Head Canon that is obscure and meaningless to literally anyone else on the planet
i really shouldn't use it online, for precisely these reasons

2026-02-09 01:43:08 UTC

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@nprofile…d4d5
I'm canadian, and a product of 70s/80s canadian culture, when were still -- culturally -- in a sort of weird colonial crouch with respect to the british empire ...
... so satirists up there would mock the instinctive assumption by white canadians that british accents sounded fancy and important ...
... by using "veddy" in print as a substitute for "very", i.e. emulating the poncy upper class british accent

2026-02-09 01:40:54 UTC

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@nprofile…4xpq
I will do that in the near future!! I am currently in the final throes of writing the first draft of a reported piece about how LLM coding tools are affecting the way software is written/maintained ...
... which is likely something you HAVE THOUGHTS ABOUT 😂
you can tell I'm deep in the first draft because I'm i) at a bar, writing, while ii) also dicking around on mastodon

2026-02-09 01:39:07 UTC

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@nprofile…qgh0
truly

2026-02-09 01:37:48 UTC

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@nprofile…4xpq
aha, okay!
that's good to hear
I've been reading it very pessimistically for years, but i like the idea of seeing it another way

2026-02-09 01:36:42 UTC

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@nprofile…42av
yeah

2026-02-09 01:35:46 UTC

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@nprofile…4xpq
Aha, that's a great point, and a great essay -- thank you!
Ironically, the poem that "stay gold" refers to was by Robert Frost, and it's ... deeply, existentially pessimistic about the ability of anything to say gold lol: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/148652/nothing-gold-can-stay-5c095cc5ab679
he had a sort of entropic view of morality
I mean, *sort of*: Frost was an old-school self-reliance, the constitution-is-paramount conservative
Is suspect he'd be 100% livid at the behavior of today's republicans, and the white house
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/116/038/101/932/063/065/original/c323ddc5515f8a53.png

2026-02-09 01:28:26 UTC

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@nprofile…0zp4 @nprofile…2ch3 @nprofile…wkaa
oh, thank you, yes! good catch
and yeah, the mystery endures
I read a piece in the NYT this weekend about how a US military commander -- while wearing a red MAGA cap -- instructed his troops that they needed to show their loyalty to the president by seeing the movie
so maybe that was part of the $7 million

2026-02-09 01:24:40 UTC

I'm watching Bad Bunny perform on the TV (I'm a bar writing), and it's awesome and it's reminding me of how batshit it is that puerto ricans can't vote in federal elections in the US
what ... what is the putative argument for that? I mean know the actual reason is a historic and *radioactive* level of racism on the part of the republican party, but ...
... what's the polite reason, given out loud by supposedly Veddy Serious People?

2026-02-05 04:25:58 UTC

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@nprofile…2ch3 @nprofile…wkaa
To be clear, given how popular this theater is, in such a busy part of Brooklyn, even the worst-reviewed movie would have its showings partially sold several days in advance

2026-02-05 04:24:15 UTC

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@nprofile…2ch3 @nprofile…wkaa
I just checked the Alamo draft house here in Brooklyn
It’s a very popular theater
There is one ticket sold for tomorrow, Thursday, at 7:15
There are several showings per day on Friday and Saturday and Sunday, and no tickets are sold for any of those showings
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/116/016/101/254/602/753/original/1456f7353f9b8d53.png

2026-01-31 06:16:02 UTC

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@nprofile…k9k3 @nprofile…99ut
Unintentional Mobius strip, even better

2026-01-31 05:59:08 UTC

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@nprofile…cxp5 that piece is great!
Here's a web link in case anyone here isn't on apple news: https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/01/melania-trump-documentary-horror-movie/685843/
and an unpaywalled link just in case too: https://archive.is/Zfwez

2026-01-31 05:52:46 UTC

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@nprofile…k38h zomg zillions lolol

2026-01-31 05:49:58 UTC

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@nprofile…99ut omg for a second I thought this was a mobius strip shape and got super excited
It's very pretty, even so

2026-01-31 05:37:03 UTC

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@nprofile…k38h
I mostly use Metatext (I'm on iOS), very occasionally using Mona because I don't like Mona's UI as much but it has this nifty panel that shows me posts that are geting lots of reposts on my server
a fun discovery mechanism

2026-01-30 23:03:54 UTC

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@nprofile…aa5z
will not snip!

2026-01-30 23:03:44 UTC

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@nprofile…aa5z
yeah, the fit seems perfect! I'll know more once I've used it with a real load though

2026-01-30 23:03:17 UTC

A terrific essay by my friend @nprofile…g5cw ...
... in which he adds some useful new ideas to our understanding of enshittification
check it out! https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/the-fragmentation-flywheel

2026-01-30 21:34:13 UTC

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@nprofile…aa5z
my wife was dazzled by the squid fabric lolol

2026-01-30 21:33:57 UTC

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@nprofile…aa5z
I was just about to write you to say, it came in a bunch of packages yesterday and I didn't realize yours was amongst 'em -- I just opened it, it's GORGEOUS
Amazing work, thank you so much!
it fits my laptop perfectly

2026-01-29 05:11:16 UTC

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@nprofile…jpzy
Yes!!
I grew up in Canada, camping in the snow in the winter with the Boy Scouts, and a few years ago I wrote an essay describing an eerie scene of moon-shadows on the snow as precisely that – like a scene from a painting by Lawren Harris, a famous Canadian painter from the early 20th century
https://cottagelife.com/general/this-is-how-canadian-writer-clive-thompson-goes-wild-at-the-cottage/

2026-01-28 19:10:11 UTC

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@nprofile…tzdw
Absolutely

2026-01-28 05:44:05 UTC

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@nprofile…gpv3
Precisely!

2026-01-28 05:43:44 UTC

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@nprofile…df73
Totally

2026-01-28 05:43:10 UTC

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@nprofile…5xa9 @nprofile…gpv3
Right??

2026-01-28 05:42:42 UTC

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@nprofile…ccq6
Cool thank you!

2026-01-28 04:18:18 UTC

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@nprofile…zdz0
100%

2026-01-28 03:57:47 UTC

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@nprofile…k38h
it's good!

2026-01-28 03:44:54 UTC

Super piece by Adam Serwer, who reported on the everyday Minnesotans who are observing and protesting ICE's actions, while delivering food to their neighbors who are afraid to leave their houses
His key, bang-on point, is this: All assumptions the White House makes -- about how society works, how culture works, the nature of bravery and identity --- are completely wrong
it's why Trump's attack on Minnesota is foundering
The piece: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/the-neighbors-defending-minnesota-from-ice/685769/
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/TRsdI
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/970/657/166/336/710/original/008cd45a331f5d4d.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/970/659/181/606/712/original/f83e8d21feff2e66.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/970/660/706/810/286/original/f734d0749e2f386b.png
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/970/662/495/677/606/original/aba2c22cb1c5bfef.png

2026-01-27 05:34:41 UTC

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@nprofile…jsp4
😂

2026-01-22 22:49:48 UTC

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@nprofile…qxmd
I didn't see it in this one! But I'm positive it's gotta be in some of the coverage lol

2026-01-22 22:41:18 UTC

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@nprofile…tqe2
lol

2026-01-22 22:31:29 UTC

I'm fascinated by this evidence of a cow that uses tools: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0n127y74go
Makes me think of this Gary Larson comic, which apparently in an interview he said was one of his most famous
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/941/114/037/106/893/original/bcd1c0c072aa8b5d.jpg

2026-01-22 22:20:30 UTC

2026-01-21 21:44:35 UTC

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@nprofile…kc3p
that is a really tight and precise distillation of these trends!

2026-01-21 16:27:16 UTC

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@nprofile…aa5z
side to side!! love it

2026-01-21 16:15:03 UTC

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@nprofile…aa5z
Oooo yes, laptop — small one, 13 inches — would be great!!

2026-01-21 00:04:50 UTC

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@nprofile…c8gp
ugh, damn, yeah

2026-01-21 00:04:28 UTC

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@nprofile…2f46
ugh
in what ways is it poisoning the well, in both polarities, for you?

2026-01-20 22:33:37 UTC

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@nprofile…xhv0
yeah, that's something I've heard from some devs for sure!

2026-01-20 22:29:50 UTC

okay music lovers in the NYC area 🎶
my three-piece Lipstick Driver 🌋 is playing at Berlin next Monday 1/26
come OUT of the cold 🥶 and INTO the glorious noise 📣 🎸
tickets here https://www.ticketweb.com/event/lipstick-driver-the-edukators-berlin-tickets/14060474?pl=berlin (but if you're strapped just message me here and I'll get ya on the list 😅 )
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/929/777/635/337/917/original/383eb2cd372ee938.jpg

2026-01-20 21:20:50 UTC

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@nprofile…4hqr @nprofile…hqqf
yesss

2026-01-20 21:20:31 UTC

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@nprofile…4hqr @nprofile…mhe5 @nprofile…ph92
i would read those 50K words, FYI 😅

2026-01-20 18:51:53 UTC

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@nprofile…xhv0
Ah, interesting!
what medium-term impact do you think the AI coding tools are going to have on demand for dev labor? This is core to what I'm researching ultimately
i've heard predictions going in lots of directions

2026-01-20 18:34:43 UTC

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@nprofile…pj4c
yiiiiii!

2026-01-20 18:01:32 UTC

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@nprofile…0xu8
aha, gotcha!

2026-01-20 18:01:12 UTC

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@nprofile…8uwr
damn, yeah
Are you full-time at a company, or doing contracts?

2026-01-20 17:43:44 UTC

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@nprofile…0xu8
aha, excellent, that's good to hear!
Were you affected by the big hiring downturn that started roundabouts 2022?

2026-01-20 17:42:58 UTC

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@nprofile…kaj0
Yeah, I've heard a lot about the problems in both directions -- companies flooded with auto-applications, which they're all using AI to sort through, which means legit applicants are now dealing with AI sorting *and* the flood of crappy applicants alongside them

2026-01-20 17:41:16 UTC

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@nprofile…xhv0
yikes!!
are you full-time, or doing contracts, etc? Have any of these dynamics hit you yet?

2026-01-20 16:51:32 UTC

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@nprofile…dupy
oh that's a good idea! thank you!

2026-01-20 16:48:02 UTC

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@nprofile…vfwu
oh damn, yeah, I think he is alas in good company
I've heard some horror stories
would he be interested in giving me his 2 cents for this story? I'd enjoy learning more about what the experience is like these days
if he is, let me know and I can send you contact info!

2026-01-20 16:31:57 UTC

technology people!
what's the job market like out there for software developers?
I'm researching this right now, be interested to hear from folks who've been looking
is it still as tight as it was recently?

2026-01-20 03:53:48 UTC

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@nprofile…hqqf @nprofile…4hqr
yeah, I showed that paragraph to my wife -- it really resonated with my experiences with tech folks, even in silicon valley
a lot, probably most, are just trying to make useful warez
it's the guys at the tippy top who are wilding

2026-01-20 03:11:41 UTC

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@nprofile…sl6x
oh man I remember crazy taxi on the dreamcast
so incredibly addictive
“Let me play just one more”

2026-01-20 03:10:35 UTC

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@nprofile…gpv3
seriously
Every time you think this can’t get more idiotic, it gets more idiotic

2026-01-19 21:58:36 UTC

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@nprofile…aa5z
oh crap will do! so sorry, haven't had it open in a bit -- I need to turn on notifications for that

2026-01-19 21:46:14 UTC

If you haven't read @nprofile…4hqr's fantastic essay on Markdown -- its history, its impact, and what it tells us about truly useful bottom-up innovation -- then you really should
here 'tis: https://www.anildash.com/2026/01/09/how-markdown-took-over-the-world/

2026-01-13 18:00:14 UTC

What's it like applying for a job for ICE?
Over at Slate, a writer -- who's both a US veteran and has a long record of being very vocally anti-ICE online -- went to an ICE recruitment expo
Link if you subscribe to Slate: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/01/ice-recruitment-minneapolis-shooting.html
Free link, if you don't: https://archive.is/791rH
the tl;dr is ...
... they hired her, in a process that seemed so haphazard and sloppy that she concludes they're not doing serious background checks
as she puts it ...
as she puts it ...
https://cdn.hosted.spacebear.ee/sb-2393d180df251611821d77e6f02bf209/media_attachments/files/115/889/088/982/672/625/original/a1aad040e5e2324b.png

2026-01-13 16:03:52 UTC

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@nprofile…7x97 Good to see you in these here parts!

2026-01-13 01:33:50 UTC

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@nprofile…vs9m
you said it