Sign the petition: JD Shadel launches campaign to convince JD Vance to change his name
It's for the good of JDs everywhere that today ESC KEY .CO, the only lifestyle newsletter on the internet, simply asks you to share your email address.
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The future of handwriting is, well, illegible: What do our brains lose when we stop using pens?
My hand hurts. Ouch! I take a break to read research about handwriting’s much-publicized (alleged) death spiral. I then proceed to finish drafting the latest in the experimental BTS @ ESC series entirely with a pen — leaving you with something poetic to talk about at your next power lunch. *Wink*
On Power Lunch: Alicia Kennedy, queen of essays and newsletters, tries to decide on a restaurant
She sold her first book on a lie. The lie? That she cared about tech burgers. Now, in the middle of a move back to New York City, a move off Substack, and her memoir, we set the table to discuss the mess of media work— covering everything from Carrie Bradshaw’s per word rates to martini tattoos.
Attention slot machines, now with open protocols! What is the “fediverse” actually achieving?
Your TL;DR Briefing on things worth tracking — and talking about over your next power lunch. *Wink.* This time the thing is engagement casinos, attention slot machines and the fediverse rebels hustling for a social web no lone billionaire can own.
The Muskologist will see you now: Paris Marx on 5 years of diagnosing Big Tech’s delusions
Silicon Valley’s sharpest critic, Paris Marx marks 5 years of Tech Won’t Save Us, telling ESC KEY .CO how he pushed through early anxiety to make the essential podcast on the subject. We set the table to discuss exiting U.S. tech, the state of criticism and one guest who made him a little nervous.