Always fun. Unlike the last two I made the entries explicit and tried to include a link in each one, because this isn’t Instagram.

• Dec 15 - Frost
• Dec 16 - Cozy
• Dec 17 - Firelight
• Dec 18 - Evergreen
• Dec 19 - Beard
• Dec 20 - Sparkle
• Dec 21 - Solstice
• Dec 22 - Grinch
• Dec 23 - Baking
• Dec 24 - Travel
• Dec 25 - Feast
• Dec 26 - Home

More end-of-year lists coming in the next few days, as ever.

📺 Pluribus (2025) was a perfectly paced masterpiece of cinematography and acting that raised questions which were at once urgent and eternal. Would it surprise anyone that so many people online identified with the hive mind and thought Rhea Seehorn’s character was the villain?

Season 2 coming 2027!

📸 Day 12: Home.

This year I learned that storks made their home in my hometown since I was last there. The creek that runs through it is a frog-ridden bog for most of the year, so they made the right choice.

Bret Terpstra’s Marked 3 Beta is out. As powerful as BBEdit is, I still have to deal with many .docx documents without any reliable way to convert heavily tracked and commented versions to markdown and back. After a quick test, Marked 3 seems to fit the bill. I will happily be a paying customer as soon as Terpstra gives me the opportunity, so here is to a successful launch!

• Dan Frank: 15 theses on the optimization crisis: or why so many are dissatisfied with society, despite our prosperity. I can but nod along, as I have noted these soul-deadening tendencies myself a few times before. Point number 9 was particularly salient as I read about Robert De Niro’s hotel chains and George Clooney’s old tequila business, perpetuating the cycle of greed and envy.
• David Cain: Maybe the Default Settings Are Too High. An argument for slowing down most things you do, with an emphasis of reading. Pairs nicely with Alan Jacobs' advice on reading, particularly the second paragraph.
• Andrew Gelman: How much of an NBA team’s won-loss record is from skill and how much is luck? Gelman provides a neat step-by-step account of a statistical exploration which you will appreciate even if you are not a basketball fan. Note his advice on slowing down and thinking about what to expect before performing an analysis. After this you will have an idea of how much the practitioners of journalist science leave out in their final write-ups.
• Steve Dylan: How Gemini Gives Me Hope for a Future Internet. No, not Google’s LLM, but a text-based protocol that reimagines how hypertext on the Internet could work. And if it seems cumbersome compared to even “surfing the web” — let alone mindlessly thumbing down a social feed — well, there lies much of the point!
• Charlie Buckland for BBC Wales: We invited a man into our home at Christmas and he stayed with us for 45 years. Just a feel-good story for the holiday season, to be read slowly and enjoyed.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

📸 Day 11: Feast.

We have made countless food spreads for ourselves and the kids, but here is one that they made for us. And it was delicious!

📸 Day 10: Travel.

Of which we did a lot this year. The first trip was to San Francisco to see some of its tilted houses or, in this case, a tilted hotel.