Nerd Stuff

Some of the more or less random stuff I've stumbled across and keep coming back to.

Work in progress... :-)

Last updated: March 2020

Misc.

Bret Victor did two of the most inspirational somewhat recent talks on Human Computer Interaction I've seen: "Inventing on Principle" about providing immediate feedback and direct interaction to make things understandable, and "The Humane Representation of Thought" about how we interact with technology and dynamic media, and what's missing from it.
Paul Ford's "What is Code?"

The Pudding (yes, really) has really cool interactive data stories.
increment is an online magazine on technology published by stripe. It's really good.
Logic Magazine is like a skeptical social scientist's look at all facets of technology and innovation - great perspective!
Longform has you covered if you want something a bit more in-depth than the next piece of clickbait in your LinkedIn feed.

Marginal Revolution - I don't know how two econ professors have time to post about 20 things a day, but you're sure to find some interesting stuff here.
Slate Star Codex has philosophy, psychology research, and book reviews.
Adrian Colyer reads a lot of computer science papers so you don't have to. Or so you can pick which ones to read.
Devon Zuegel covers all kinds of stuff from tech to economics to urbanism.
Nadia Eghbal spent the last few years researching the world of open-source software and also has some interesting perspectives on independent research..
Gwern writes up all kinds of interesting research. And apparently also whether cloning good police dogs would make economical sense? Gotta love the internet...
Overcoming Bias is Robin Hanson's blog about economics and decision science.
Crooked Timber is a group blog of mostly political scientists.

99% Invisible is an audio podcast about hidden design details and stories behind everyday things. Ever wondered what happens when a country switches from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right (including a super catchy pop song), how custom ringtones got started in the 90s, or what happens when a student finds out a building in NYC is not all that stable? Look no further.
Reply All calls itself "A Show About The Internet". While that sounds incredibly generic, the (very human) stories they tell are absolutely fascinating. Start with the time they tracked down a scam callcenter all the way to India, or listen to this story about the NYPD for a take on Goodhart's Law in practice.
I am usually not too big on longform interviews, but the guests and rapid-fire questions asked by Tyler Cowen make Conversations with Tyler a great exception and one of my more regular listens.

La Blogothèque film all kinds of unconventional live performances, mostly in Paris, a lot of them outdoors. Some favourites include Lianne la Havas playing "No Room For Doubt" while walking through the streets of Montmartre or this incredible unplugged concert by Alicia Keys at some bar.
NPR Music hosts artists for short concerts in their office which they call "Tindy Desk Concerts". Check out Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Chance the Rapper, or Lianne La Havas again.
Seattle's KEXP radio station also has all kinds of gems. How about some american rock (I remember this song being preloaded on the first MP3 player my parents bought), psychedelic folk-rock from Turkey, or some beautiful Icelandic electronica?

Definitely more to follow here... :-)

Art of the Title collects interesting movie title sequences, including background information on production etc.

Bêka & Lemoine wanted to do a documentary about a private residence designed by Rem Koolhaas. Instead of going for the usual glossy shots and grandiose expert statements, they followed the cleaning lady around and show a lot of its flaws and idiosyncrasies with some really subtle humor - Trailer & Streaming on Vimeo.
Freunde von Freunden is one of my favourite interior design blogs. They follow a classic "homestory" format, but all of the apartments/houses are incredibly cool. Some personal favorites: This architect couple in Switzerland, this incredible view on top of an old silo, and one of the craziest places I've ever seen, Karen & Christan Boros' art-filled loft on top of an above-ground bunker in Berlin.

Atlas of Places collects... a lot of different things? It includes architecture, cinema, photography, and more.

Fron Nand to Tetris is a series of two courses that take you through building a small CPU from basic logic gates, building an assembler, all the way to a small high-level language. Tons of fun, especially if you don't have a background in low-level stuff but are curious about it!
The Coding Train, run by NYU Professor Daniel Shiffman, has really fun coding tutorials. They are mostly focused towards creative coding for some appealing visual output (using processing or p5.js), but cover some basic CS topics and interesting simulations along the way.
3Blue1Brown makes great math explainer videos, focused on providing intuitive ways to understand things and showing unexpected connections between topics.