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In late July, America was briefly enthralled with “Unsolicited Seeds from China,” which started showing up in mailboxes in all 50 states. via Pocket

Sometimes you should just stop everything and look at some new big digital artifact to see what it tells you about the world. That’s how I feel about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. It has things to tell us. via Pocket

It was a gray day in late 2005. I was sitting at my desk, writing code for the next year’s iPod. Without knocking, the director of iPod Software—my boss’s boss—abruptly entered and closed the door behind him. He cut to the chase. “I have a special assignment for you. via Pocket

It's a normal afternoon in July. I'm at work in my little corner, speaking into the camera. The children are in their rooms, regressing. I leave the bedroom-office to get more coffee. My spouse is in our small kitchen, kneading dough while on a video call of her own. I eavesdrop for a minute. via Pocket

Eliza Earle twisted her ankle for the umpteenth time while filming “World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji. via Pocket

Imagine your body starting to fall apart. You have heart palpitations, headaches, recurrent infections, painful fingers and toes, crippling brain fog, and body aches. You’ve become sensitive to light and have started wearing sunglasses indoors. via Pocket

Accountability comes up a lot when talking about engineering organizations. Everyone wants to know how to hold engineers accountable. And, in my exploration of this topic with folks, I’ve found that the term accountability means something different to everyone. via Pocket

On September 26, 2019, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam held her first listening session after seventeen weeks of protest. via Pocket

Back in the 1960s, a Harvard graduate student made a landmark discovery about the nature of human anger. At age 34, Jean Briggs traveled above the Arctic Circle and lived out on the tundra for 17 months. There were no roads, no heating systems, no grocery stores. via Pocket

Steve Jobs stepped onstage 10 years ago today to introduce the world to the iPad. It was, by his own admission, a third category of device that sits somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop. via Pocket

In 1999, Professor Baba Shiv (currently at Stanford) and his co-author Alex Fedorikhin did a simple experiment on 165 grad students.They asked half to memorize a seven-digit number and the other half to memorize a two-digit number. via Pocket

New York’s Explorers Club has inspired adventurers, aquanauts, and astronauts for more than a century. But it’s now evolving to inspire everyone to make the world a better place. The Explorers Club’s New York headquarters houses around 1,000 artefacts collected by its members. via Pocket

Stratechery.com is supported by subscriptions to the Daily Update. The Daily Update consists of substantial analysis of the news of the day (~2000 words) delivered via three daily emails, in addition to the free Weekly Article (four total articles per week). via Pocket

People I’ve talked to have mixed feelings about the JavaScript ecosystem. Some of them express how they are tired of the JavaScript fatigue. Others claim we live in a JavaScript Renaissance. via Pocket

On Saturday I went to join the march up in To Kwa Wan. Throughout August, the police had been growing more skittish about granting the once routine “no objection” letters that make a protest legal. via Pocket

Cinema is an art form that brings you the unexpected. In superhero movies, nothing is at risk, a director says. Mr. Scorsese is an Academy Award-winning director, writer and producer. via Pocket

What the Amazon founder and CEO wants for his empire and himself, and what that means for the rest of us. Where in the pantheon of American commercial titans does Jeffrey Bezos belong? Andrew Carnegie’s hearths forged the steel that became the skeleton of the railroad and the city. John D. via Pocket