What I've Been Reading Lately

14 Sep 2025 - William Van Der Laar

Updated daily from my StoryGraph and Pinboard profiles.

On The Web

Last Updated: 2026-05-09 11:00:43

• Your Software Is Not Sentient
• Rift · For thirty years I programmed with Phish on, every day. In 2026, the music is out of phase with the work. | Christopher Meiklejohn
• No one can force me to have a secure website!!! - Tom 7, Sigbovik 2026
• Google Drops Out of Pentagon Drone Swarm Contest After Advancing - Bloomberg
• Wexner, redacted – Matter News
• Everyone Survives White House Correspondents' Association Dinner | Defector
• Kill Yr Substack | Jason Cosper
• On the acceptance of GenAI | Joep Schuurkes
• Who Goes AI?
• I used AI. It worked. I hated it.: Taggart Tech
• The 49MB Web Page | thatshubham
• How to build a distributed queue in a single JSON file on object storage
• Acting ethically in an imperfect world
• Why LeBron James Ignores Genocide and Stands With Israel | The Nation
• Google is stifling anti-ICE speech in the workplace as 1,200 employees call on the company to cut ties

Books

Last Updated: 2026-05-09 11:00:23

• Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever by Joseph Cox
• The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid I. Khalidi
• Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar
• When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency by Anna Zivarts, Dani Simons
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource by Chris Hayes
• The AI Con by Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna
• How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World by Deb Chachra
• How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them by Jason Stanley
• Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
• Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck
• The Jagged Orbit by John Brunner
• Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
• Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam
• Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant