I thought college football fans were intense on social media. F1 fans are on a different planet. Goodness…

The economics of academic publishing are strange. The whole thing seems powered by lots of free (or low paid) labor in the name of service to your field.

Hanging out on the back porch and enjoying a glass of bourbon after a long week.

Seth Godin on leadership today:

Weak leaders (bosses, parents, captains and shift managers) resort to authority because they don’t trust themselves and their team enough to actually lead.

This is so incredibly true. And just because someone has lots of “experience,” it doesn’t mean they know how to lead.

Maybe longevity isn’t a liability. (If you know, you know.)

Me: I can’t believe no one is talking about Clemson losing to Syracuse.

Also Me: I forgot that I blocked “Clemson” and “Dabo” in my social media apps so I didn’t have to listen to people talk about Clemson.

Centralization of media was a mistake.

We live in a world now where our media outlets are owned by a small number of conglomerates. And while this is possibly a more profitable set up for the corporations that own these outlets, it also makes it easy for them to be manipulated by billionaires and governments.

Our distribution channels are corrupted as well. Social media and newsletter platforms are controlled by a small number of players all motivated by advertising profits. We find sites through search engines that increasingly favor AI summaries over original content.

It shouldn’t be like this. No venture-capital-funded start up is going to provide a solution. No existing player is going to erode their own platforms. Instead, it’s going to be a grassroots effort to embrace the open standards we have (for example, RSS). We need to promote discussion by sharing stories that are meaningful and powerful. We need to support platforms and creators who are trying to address these issues without trying to build the next Google. We need to embrace technologies that make society better.


Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

F1 Qualifying is sometimes more exciting than a regular race. Today’s quali was incredible. Going to be tough to beat Max tomorrow.

Every year at the USC State of the University address, I get a selfie with Cocky.

It’s finally cool enough that I can drink my coffee on the back deck.

Home today for a warranty repair to our AC unit that developed a slow leak over the summer. Service is expected to take 3-5 hours. Goodness, they must be disassembling the whole thing.

I think I’ll likely stick with the base model iPhone 17 this year. It will be a massive upgrade from my iPhone 12 Pro. I’ll probably pick up a new Apple Watch, too, to replace my ancient Series 4, which I still wear every day.

Happy 18th birthday, Jilly!

Looking forward to the iPhone event tomorrow. I’m in the market for an upgrade… and whatever they announce will be a big step up from my iPhone 12 Pro.

The end of the Bills-Ravens game was wild. What a comeback.

Scout Motors partnered with local coffee shops to buy coffee for Columbia today. Pretty cool event, and we are happy to have Scout in our community. Thanks for the free drink today! (And the stickers.)

A coffee cup with an orange sleeve and a "Scout" sticker is placed on a wooden table in a cozy café setting.

I bought a wireless CarPlay adapter for my car and it’s awesome. I can’t believe I didn’t buy one earlier.