People and resources added to my reading list in 2024

Welcome to the twelfth instalment of my annual overview of my most interesting discoveries made during the previous year. Traditionally, the structure of this kind of post includes different categories of resources: blogs, YouTube channels, cool stuff on the Web, and so forth. Such structure isn’t going to change, but if my previous instalment was perhaps unusually brief, I’m afraid the current one is going to be even briefer. There are a few reasons as to why:

One. For more than half of 2024, my attention was primarily focused on personal matters. Having to find a new place to live, the process of purchasing such place, the move, and finally settling in the new apartment was a time and energy sink for both my wife and I. My time online was mostly spent working and engaging in some light social media activity, and not much else.

Two. What I wrote last year speaking about 2023 didn’t change much in 2024: I’ve often mentioned this low tide brought up by a general feeling of ‘tech fatigue’; as a consequence, [during 2023] my interest in adding technology-related sources to my reads was rather low. I even neglected to stay up-to-date with the people and blogs I was already following. That feeling of tech fatigue started receding a bit towards the end of 2024, when I received a Nothing Phone 2a as a birthday gift — an event that gave me the final push to switch to Android as my primary phone platform, leaving my iPhone SE 3 as a secondary device.

Three. Another thing I wrote in the previous instalment of this series, was this:

This exhaustion stage, this tech burnout, is necessary as well. I’m more and more convinced that more people ought to reach this stage, to then try to approach tech in a different — hopefully healthier — way. Because the next stage is to focus on whatever good remains out there after the squeeze. That’s why I’m trying to approach 2024 with the goal of finding out who and what’s really worth following, who and what is truly distinctive, who and what is ultimately worth my (and your) time. Mind you, it’s what I’ve always been trying to do when compiling these yearly overviews; the only little thing that has changed is that from now on I’ll try to be even more selective.

You know what happens when you get even more selective? That maybe you follow a link to a blog article, and you like the article, but then you explore that blog further and you realise that such article — and perhaps a couple more — is the only highlight of that blog, and you start wondering, Is this website worth adding to my RSS feeds, or should I just share the link to that specific article and let others decide?

In most cases, I’ve ended up bookmarking & sharing articles instead of adding blogs to my reading list. But what if it turns out to be a mistake and I miss out on some good writers/bloggers? Well, if I bookmark something, chances are I’ll return to that article and website at a later date, and if I find enough stuff I like on my subsequent visits, I may decide to recommend the whole package. Also, if the author keeps writing good stuff, it’s very likely I’ll get other recommendations about them, so I don’t really miss out on anybody. And even if I do — let’s be real for a second — time is a finite resource; I’ll never be able to read or watch everything from everyone I cross paths with.

Another thing that happens when you get more selective is that you start looking harder and harder at the resources you’ve already discovered — all those RSS feeds, all those YouTube channels, etc. — and you reassess them with a fresh pair of eyes. This is why, during 2024, I’ve been subtracting rather than adding to my resources’ reservoir, so to speak. Interests change, people change (or don’t — and that, sometimes, can be a problem), the quality of a blog or YouTube creator’s output may become less consistent or patently decline… And so it’s time for some pruning and tidying up.

Blogs

Just two:

Passo Uno, by Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti. Fabrizio is a technical, UX, and programmer writer, and that should give you an idea of the main topics he covers in his blog. I like his clear, efficient writing style, and even when he talks about stuff I’m not super familiar with, I often feel stimulated to learn more about it. As for the blog’s name, as Fabrizio states in the About page: ’Passo uno’ is Italian for ‘stop-motion’. It also means ‘step one’.

The blog of Vitor Zanetti. I discovered it when Vitor started following me on Mastodon, as I’m always curious to check out other people’s profiles and websites when they follow me on social media. Vitor’s blog doesn’t seem to have a main focus: he may talk about technology in one post, then muse about design in another, or share observations sparked after watching a particular film. Like me, he doesn’t post frequently, but I find his writings to be inspiring and thought-provoking, and perhaps you will too.

Newsletters

I’m not typically a fan of the newsletter format; I can’t exactly explain why. The fact that, once you subscribe, the newsletter is something that comes to you instead of you going to it should be a convenient and preferable dynamic. Instead, I often end up treating it like advertising email, and ultimately ignore it or just skim the part that’s visible in my email client. Over the years I’ve subscribed to many newsletters on a whim — they were genuinely interesting and well written — but I’ve also ultimately unsubscribed from most of them due to lack of time and engagement.

The sole exception I made in 2024 was for Ed Zitron’s Where’s Your Ed At? which I basically treat as a long-form blog. I receive the email updates, but I’m also subscribed to the feed. If technology and the tech industry are your main interests, you should already know who Ed Zitron is. But if you don’t, well, it’s best if I link to the newsletter’s About section. You’ll find everything you need to know. I really, really recommend Ed’s newsletter. Each instalment is generally a long read, but very worth your time.

I started following Ed on pre-Musk Twitter years ago, and was reminded of his work again in recent times when I was looking for materials and information about ‘AI’. And I found out that Ed and I share basically the same (negative) views about it, only Ed has the know-how to talk about it with much more clarity and authority that I have on the subject. A lot of people have asked me to talk more often and more at length about ‘AI’, LLMs, the industry, and why I think it’s largely bullshit. My advice is to subscribe to Ed’s newsletter if that’s a subject of particular interest to you. You’ll find a lot of information, and you’ll know that Ed and I are on the same page.

YouTube channels

Around September 2024 I looked at my YouTube subscriptions list and was horrified to realise that I was following 136 channels. Yeah, things had got rather out of hand, and so I started unsubscribing from a lot of channels I had added simply after discovering a single video or following a recommendation for a single video. Despite being a mature platform, I’m routinely baffled by how rudimentary YouTube’s tools are for organising content. For instance, I’d love to have the ability to categorise my subscriptions and put them in separate folders, like one does with RSS feeds, so that I can more easily get to those creators whose content could be filed under ‘photography’ or ‘tech’ or ‘gaming’ or ‘lifestyle’ or ‘cooking’ or ‘architecture’, and so forth. Instead, all YouTube offers is an unsorted list on the left sidebar of the home page, vaguely organised by creator activity/frequency of uploads. It gets messy, fast.

After spending the best part of an afternoon reviewing my subscriptions and mercilessly remove a lot of unwanted or uninteresting ones, I ended up with half the initial amount — which is still a lot, but becomes way more manageable. Again, follow my self-imposed Be more selective guideline, the only discovery really worth sharing is, in my opinion, Howtown.

The channel description is perhaps a bit terse: The “How Do They Know” show from journalists Adam Cole and Joss Fong. So it’s better if you watch their short introduction video. Essentially, Cole and Fong create video essays on different subjects to answer the question How do they know or How do we know about this particular fact or topic? In their words:

We want to tell you our guiding principles so you can hold us to them. First, we approach our stories with curiosity above all. So this isn’t a commentary channel. We’re here to make sense of the evidence. We rely on primary sources and interviews, and we’ll share those sources with you with each video. If we make any factual errors, we will post corrections that explain exactly what we got wrong. Finally, we never take money in exchange for coverage. Our sponsors don’t have any control over what we make.

I find Cole and Fong to be entertaining, personable, and likeable; their videos are well researched and produced, and the fact that they don’t upload content frequently is a good sign in my book, because it means they’re taking time to do their homework before presenting a new essay. If you’re an intellectually curious person as I am, I think you’ll like their channel.

Podcasts

Another year, another round of copying-and-pasting the same quote from a few years ago:

In 2019 I unsubscribed from all the podcasts I was following, and I haven’t looked back. I know and respect many people who use podcasts as their main medium for expression. My moving away from podcasts is simply a pragmatic decision — I just don’t have the time for everything. I still listen to the odd episode, especially if it comes recommended by people I trust. You can find a more articulate observation on podcasts in my People and resources added to my reading list in 2019.

If you’re wondering why I keep the Podcast section in these overviews when I clearly have nothing to talk about, it’s because to this day I receive emails from people un-ironically asking me for podcast recommendations.

My RSS management

Yet again, nothing new to report on this front. I’m still using the same apps I’ve been using on all my devices for the past several years, and I haven’t found better RSS management tools / apps / services worth switching to. In my previous overviews, I used to list here all the apps I typically use to read feeds on my numerous devices, but ever since I broke my habit of obsessively reading feeds everywhere on whatever device, I’ll only list the apps on the devices I’ve used over the past year or so. If you’re curious to read the complete rundown, check past entries (see links at the bottom of this article):

On my M2 Pro Mac mini running Mac OS 13 Ventura: NetNewsWire.

On my 17-inch MacBook Pro running Mac OS 10.14 Mojave, and on my 13-inch retina MacBook Pro running Mac OS 11 Big Sur: NetNewsWire 5.0.4 — A slightly older version of this great RSS reader.

On my other Intel Macs running Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra: Reeder and ReadKit.

On my iPad 8: Unread, Reeder, NetNewsWire for iOS, and ReadKit.

On my Android phones — Nothing Phone 2a and Microsoft Surface Duo: the Feedly app.

On my iPhone SE 3, iPhone 8, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5, iPad 3: Unread. (Though on the iPad 3 Reeder seems to be more stable and less resource-hungry).

On all my more recent Windows machines I use FeedLab. It’s not a bad app at all, but I’m still looking for something more elegant visually. Nextgen reader used to be a great client, but development appears long discontinued.

Past articles

In reverse chronological order:

People and resources added to my reading list in 2023

People and resources added to my reading list in 2022

People and resources added to my reading list in 2021

People and resources added to my reading list in 2020

People and resources added to my reading list in 2019

People and resources added to my reading list in 2018

People and resources added to my reading list in 2017

People and resources added to my reading list in 2016

People and resources added to my reading list in 2015

People and resources added to my reading list in 2014

People I added to my reading list in 2013

Some interesting resources I discovered in 2012

I hope this series and my observations can be useful to you. Also, keep in mind that some links in these past articles may now be broken. And as always, if you think I’m missing out on some good writing or other kind of resource you believe might be of interest to me, let me know via email, Mastodon, or Bluesky. Thanks for reading!