When The Writing Is Very Good That Doesn't Matter

The most popular link last time was this list of things that aren't doing the thing, with this piece wondering if you are Actually Trying second.

1. Somehow, the most insightful thing I have read/seen about contemporary social media usage is this Google Slides presentation. It's got over 400 slides but they're really quick to tap through; it's almost like a flipbook. The primary takeaway is: be weird and don't care about what everyone else is doing.
2. May you never be too old or jaded to have a good cry at an xkcd comic.
3. I was surprised to find myself both gripped and moved by this essay by Brandon Taylor about starting playing tennis because he was lonely and then going to a fancy tennis camp in the south of France instead of celebrating Thanksgiving. I don't care about this sport or celebrate that holiday, but when the writing is very good that doesn't matter. I really recognised this bit: "At one point, I had what I thought were friends, and at another, seemingly overnight, no one spoke to me or tried to see me, and what I had were in fact reciprocal story likes on Instagram."
4. It is essential that you watch this video all the way through.
5. On virtuosity vs "performing" virtuosity.
6. A report on a visit to the "Bop House", a three-storey penthouse in Florida where six attractive young women are turbo-charging their OnlyFans operation.
7. If you have even the slightest interest in how the internet works, this is a good click.
8. An enumeration of all the different types of scams out there targeting writers. I would add, these also exist for podcasts — the number of emails I get offering me "free promotion on Apple Podcasts for the low starting price of $50" is quite astonishing.
9. An antidote to the greatest scam of them all: Spotify's harvesting of your personal data and then somehow convincing you to do free marketing for them at the most lucrative time of year! This phenomenon also goes by the name of "Spotify Unwrapped". I've got back into using LastFM this year and I highly recommend it if you like data about your music consumption.
10. The Last Video Rental Store Is Your Public Library. I co-sign this! DVD/CD players are very cheap these days, and you can borrow all the audiobooks and films you like without paying a monthly fee.
11. A random Wikipedia page I enjoyed: Ice cream barge.
12. The first of a four-part essay on "the devoid", a twenty-first century Gothic space.
13. MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, is quietly disrupting the world of high-level philanthropy by... just giving worthy organisations money without attaching any conditions. A revolutionary thought!