What I'm into
this week.
A self-updating page of records, books, films, places, and small obsessions. The taste log behind every essay. Updated every Friday — sometimes sooner if a record breaks me.
Reflection
The books.
3 ACTIVE · 3 FINISHED YTD · PHYSICALWorking in Public
★★★★★Nadia Eghbal · 2020“The book I most often hand to founders. Maintenance > novelty.”
The Mom Test
★★★★★Rob Fitzpatrick · 2013“Customer interviews without the lying. Re-read every six months.”
Working
★★★★★Studs Terkel · 1974“What every job sounds like from the inside. Read once a year, slowly.”
The rotation.
3 ALBUMS · TOP OF MIND THIS WEEKPromises
★★★★★Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders · 2021“Best ambient album of the decade. Writing music; thinking music.”
All Melody
★★★★★Nils Frahm · 2018“I have written more words to this album than any other.”
Avalanches — Since I Left You
★★★★★The Avalanches · 2000“Sample-based maximalism that aged perfectly. Joy as engineering.”
The screen.
SHOWS THIS MONTH · 3 FILMSSeverance
★★★★★Apple TV / Dan Erickson · 2022–“A show about software people written by someone who knows software people.”
The Bear
★★★★★Christopher Storer · 2022–“Operations as character study. Required viewing for founders.”
Slow Horses
★★★★★Apple TV / Mick Herron · 2022–“Office politics + spycraft. The best 'work' show on TV.”
Small obsessions.
THE THINGS I KEEP RECOMMENDINGTaste is the price of admission. Without it, every recommendation collapses into noise.— FROM ESSAY 144 · “ON BUILDERS & LIBRARY OF BABEL”
What you're into.
Subscribers can submit one pick per week. The best ten land here on Fridays. No bad takes — just things you'd hand to a friend without hedging.
The Blue Flower. Quiet historical fiction about silent fevers. 100 pages. Devastating.
Caroline Polachek live at Roundhouse. The vocal control is absurd.
Fiamma Figura, Dollar Wine. Better than the eight-dollar wine.
David Lynch's Catching the Big Fish. 80 pages on creativity and TM. Underrated.