Author: Max

  • Johannes Klingebiel – Love the design of this personal website, especially the Bookstack section. Via Kyle.

  • The Mindset of More – The first part in a series from Tracy Durnell. “I want my desire to possess to drive me less. I want to be satisfied with what I have. I want to feel safe letting go of possessions I don’t need.”

  • The Whole Earth Index – “Here lies a nearly-complete archive of Whole Earth publications.” OMG, yes. Via Rachel

  • Notes from Amsterdam – “If the motto in New York is ‘survival of the fittest,” he said, then the motto here is “live, and let live.’”

  • The timeline apps are here, and they’re awesome.” One app for all of your feeds, including social, news, and RSS. After reading this article I tried out a few of the suggested apps. Liking Feeed so far.

  • A programming note from Kottke: “I have pivoted to posting almost exclusively about the coup happening in the United States right now.”

  • Maurice

    Maurice

    by E.M. Forster

    Buy on UK.Bookshop.org

    From the publisher:

    This illustrated young adult edition of a bold novel is one of defiance and bravery. As beautifully crafted as it is heartwrenching, this love story transcends time and generations.

    From curious schoolboy to studious scholar, Maurice Hall grows with all the confidence his privileged status allows. The path to success is measured and assured, as long as he follows the rules dictated by society. But things quickly change as he finds himself increasingly attracted to his own sex. First through Clive, a fellow student he meets at Cambridge, and then through Alec, the gamekeeper on Clive’s country estate, Maurice experiences a profound emotional and sexual awakening, one which his contemporaries cannot condone. 

    Maurice is widely considered a founding work of modern gay literature. Although completed in 1914, this groundbreaking novel could not be published in Forster’s lifetime. Fittingly, it acts as a piercing critique of the suffocating ideals that permeated British society at the time. Forster himself said: ‘I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood.’

  • Fully Automated Luxury Communism

    Fully Automated Luxury Communism

    by Aaron Bastani

    From the publisher:

    A revolutionary new kind of politics – beyond work, scarcity and capitalism.

    Fully Automated Luxury Communism promises a radically new left future for everyone. New technologies will liberate us from work, providing the opportunity to build a society beyond both capitalism and scarcity. Automation, rather than undermining an economy built on full employment, is instead the path to a world of liberty, luxury and happiness. Solar power will deliver the energy that we need, while asteroid mining will deliver the necessary resources, allowing us to end the devastation of our environment. Innovations in AI, gene editing, food technology will leads us to new ways of living better lives. 

    In his first book, radical political commentator Aaron Bastani conjures a new politics: a vision of a world of unimaginable hope, highlighting how we move to energy abundance, feed a world of nine billion, overcome work, transcend the limits of biology and build meaningful freedom for everyone. Rather than a final destination, such a society heralds the beginning of history.

    Buy on Verso

  • Everyday Utopia

    Everyday Utopia

    by Kristen R. Ghodsee

    Bookshop.org

    From the publisher:

    In the 6th century BCE, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras—a man remembered today more for his theorem about right-angled triangles than for his progressive politics—founded a commune in a seaside village in what’s now southern Italy. The men and women there shared their property, lived as equals, and dedicated themselves to the study of mathematics and the mysteries of the universe.

    Ever since, humans have been dreaming up better ways to organize how we live together, pool our resources, raise our children, and determine who’s part of our families. Some of these experiments burned brightly for only a brief while, but others carry on today: from the Danish cohousing communities that share chores and deepen neighborly bonds, to matriarchal Colombian ecovillages where residents grow their own food; and from Connecticut, where new laws make it easier for extra “alloparents” to help raise children not their own, to China where planned microdistricts ensure everything a busy household might need is nearby.

    One of those startlingly rare books that upends what you think is possible, Everyday Utopia provides a “powerful reminder that dreaming of better worlds is not just some fantastical project, but also a political one” (Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of Good and Mad). This “must-read” (Thomas Piketty, New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Equality) offers a radically hopeful vision for how to build more contented and connected societies, alongside a practical guide to what we all can do in the meantime to live the good life each and every day.

  • mmm.page

    mmm.page – “Dead simple, drag & drop websites for anything” feels like an understatement. These sites feel like if KidPix and GeoCities had a baby in the most awesome way. I hope we see more websites like this.