JA Westenberg
@joanwestenberg.com
The US declared measles eliminated in 2000. It's back.
One reason is simple: nobody remembers what measles does to children. When a miracle fades into the background, the machinery that produces it starts to look unnecessary.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/we-live-i...
One reason is simple: nobody remembers what measles does to children. When a miracle fades into the background, the machinery that produces it starts to look unnecessary.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/we-live-i...
We Live in an Age of Miracles and We're Too Bored to Notice
Nobody Thinks About Smallpox. That's the Problem.
www.joanwestenberg.com
September 5, 2026 at 12:12 AM
The US declared measles eliminated in 2000. It's back.
One reason is simple: nobody remembers what measles does to children. When a miracle fades into the background, the machinery that produces it starts to look unnecessary.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/we-live-i...
One reason is simple: nobody remembers what measles does to children. When a miracle fades into the background, the machinery that produces it starts to look unnecessary.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/we-live-i...
I don't get involved in all the petty online arguments you mortals waste your breath on. I, an intellectual, instead write 2,500 words on Substack about why such small matters are beneath me, which is a far more sophisticated way to spend 6+ hours thinking about them
September 4, 2026 at 11:27 PM
I don't get involved in all the petty online arguments you mortals waste your breath on. I, an intellectual, instead write 2,500 words on Substack about why such small matters are beneath me, which is a far more sophisticated way to spend 6+ hours thinking about them
4 steps to a roadmap for the life you want:
- Write 100 things you WILL do.
- Map the skills needed.
- Knock out the quickest wins today.
- Swap 1 hour of doomscrolling for 1 hour of building.
Treat your life like a project.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-bu...
- Write 100 things you WILL do.
- Map the skills needed.
- Knock out the quickest wins today.
- Swap 1 hour of doomscrolling for 1 hour of building.
Treat your life like a project.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-bu...
How to Build a Roadmap for the Life You Actually Want
The Daily Practice That Keeps Me From Wasting Years
www.joanwestenberg.com
September 3, 2026 at 11:17 PM
4 steps to a roadmap for the life you want:
- Write 100 things you WILL do.
- Map the skills needed.
- Knock out the quickest wins today.
- Swap 1 hour of doomscrolling for 1 hour of building.
Treat your life like a project.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-bu...
- Write 100 things you WILL do.
- Map the skills needed.
- Knock out the quickest wins today.
- Swap 1 hour of doomscrolling for 1 hour of building.
Treat your life like a project.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-bu...
OpenAI has announced GPT-6 Astra...
Initial benchmark scores:
- 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3
- 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4 (including solving open math problems)
- 100% on ExploitBench
www.laterware.com/story/hn-49...
Initial benchmark scores:
- 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3
- 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4 (including solving open math problems)
- 100% on ExploitBench
www.laterware.com/story/hn-49...
Laterware: AI & robotics news
Laterware: AI-powered tech news for the age of AI and robotics.
www.laterware.com
September 3, 2026 at 8:56 PM
OpenAI has announced GPT-6 Astra...
Initial benchmark scores:
- 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3
- 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4 (including solving open math problems)
- 100% on ExploitBench
www.laterware.com/story/hn-49...
Initial benchmark scores:
- 99.9% on ARC-AGI-3
- 98% on FrontierMath Tier 4 (including solving open math problems)
- 100% on ExploitBench
www.laterware.com/story/hn-49...
A polished product used to be proof of grueling labor. Now, a perfect surface can be generated instantly.
You can’t actually tell the difference without a degree of hard-earned taste - something a tool can never hand you.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-orche...
You can’t actually tell the difference without a degree of hard-earned taste - something a tool can never hand you.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-orche...
The Orchestrator's Dilemma
Why the future of creation belongs to directors, not just operators
www.joanwestenberg.com
September 2, 2026 at 11:35 PM
A polished product used to be proof of grueling labor. Now, a perfect surface can be generated instantly.
You can’t actually tell the difference without a degree of hard-earned taste - something a tool can never hand you.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-orche...
You can’t actually tell the difference without a degree of hard-earned taste - something a tool can never hand you.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-orche...
AI detectors don't work, false accusations are skyrocketing, and actual nuance is dying.
Why the current witch-hunt against AI writing is doomed to fail (and what we should be focusing on instead):
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-ai-wr...
Why the current witch-hunt against AI writing is doomed to fail (and what we should be focusing on instead):
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-ai-wr...
The AI writing witchhunt is idiotic
(Not to mention, pointless)
www.joanwestenberg.com
September 2, 2026 at 12:39 PM
AI detectors don't work, false accusations are skyrocketing, and actual nuance is dying.
Why the current witch-hunt against AI writing is doomed to fail (and what we should be focusing on instead):
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-ai-wr...
Why the current witch-hunt against AI writing is doomed to fail (and what we should be focusing on instead):
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-ai-wr...
The "Second Brain" had a fatal flaw: human maintenance fatigue.
Here’s why the Third Brain changes everything
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-age-o...
Here’s why the Third Brain changes everything
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-age-o...
The Age of the Third Brain
Re: Cognitive Lasagnes
www.joanwestenberg.com
September 2, 2026 at 10:09 AM
The "Second Brain" had a fatal flaw: human maintenance fatigue.
Here’s why the Third Brain changes everything
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-age-o...
Here’s why the Third Brain changes everything
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-age-o...
The classic Soviet bureaucratic failure applies to modern productivity: we spend more time organizing our notes than actually thinking with them.
Most people’s "Second Brain" is just a digital graveyard of untagged links, orphaned thoughts, and guilt.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-age-o...
Most people’s "Second Brain" is just a digital graveyard of untagged links, orphaned thoughts, and guilt.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-age-o...
The Age of the Third Brain
Re: Cognitive Lasagnes
www.joanwestenberg.com
August 31, 2026 at 8:39 PM
The classic Soviet bureaucratic failure applies to modern productivity: we spend more time organizing our notes than actually thinking with them.
Most people’s "Second Brain" is just a digital graveyard of untagged links, orphaned thoughts, and guilt.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-age-o...
Most people’s "Second Brain" is just a digital graveyard of untagged links, orphaned thoughts, and guilt.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-age-o...
Herbert von Karajan never composed a note, but he orchestrated masterpieces. AI gives us all a baton, but it doesn't give us an ear for music.
In the age of the orchestrator, taste and judgment are your only moats.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-orche...
In the age of the orchestrator, taste and judgment are your only moats.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-orche...
The Orchestrator's Dilemma
Why the future of creation belongs to directors, not just operators
www.joanwestenberg.com
August 30, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Herbert von Karajan never composed a note, but he orchestrated masterpieces. AI gives us all a baton, but it doesn't give us an ear for music.
In the age of the orchestrator, taste and judgment are your only moats.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-orche...
In the age of the orchestrator, taste and judgment are your only moats.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-orche...
Expressing extreme panic online has become a performance metric for moral superiority. If you aren't screaming that the sky is falling, people assume you don't care.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/congratul...
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/congratul...
August 29, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Expressing extreme panic online has become a performance metric for moral superiority. If you aren't screaming that the sky is falling, people assume you don't care.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/congratul...
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/congratul...
There are three ways to use history:
To blindly comfort yourself about the present.
To fuel your despair about the present.
To actually equip yourself to reason about the present.
The third is the hardest.
And the only one that matters.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/congratul...
To blindly comfort yourself about the present.
To fuel your despair about the present.
To actually equip yourself to reason about the present.
The third is the hardest.
And the only one that matters.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/congratul...
Congratulations on Your Unprecedented Crisis
How to Survive the Present
www.joanwestenberg.com
August 28, 2026 at 5:08 AM
There are three ways to use history:
To blindly comfort yourself about the present.
To fuel your despair about the present.
To actually equip yourself to reason about the present.
The third is the hardest.
And the only one that matters.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/congratul...
To blindly comfort yourself about the present.
To fuel your despair about the present.
To actually equip yourself to reason about the present.
The third is the hardest.
And the only one that matters.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/congratul...
I'm building the writing studio for pro bloggers...
Improvements to Kerouac's dashboard:
- Sync all your posts via RSS
- View your word count for the entire year across all platforms
- See your ongoing writing streak
- Download and share your writing activity graph
More coming.
Improvements to Kerouac's dashboard:
- Sync all your posts via RSS
- View your word count for the entire year across all platforms
- See your ongoing writing streak
- Download and share your writing activity graph
More coming.
August 28, 2026 at 4:28 AM
I'm building the writing studio for pro bloggers...
Improvements to Kerouac's dashboard:
- Sync all your posts via RSS
- View your word count for the entire year across all platforms
- See your ongoing writing streak
- Download and share your writing activity graph
More coming.
Improvements to Kerouac's dashboard:
- Sync all your posts via RSS
- View your word count for the entire year across all platforms
- See your ongoing writing streak
- Download and share your writing activity graph
More coming.
Pontius Pilate washed his hands.
Macbeth blamed the witches.
Tech CEOs blame Claude.
It’s a 2,000-year-old tradition of powerful people inventing a middleman to take the fall for their own wreckage.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-art-o...
Macbeth blamed the witches.
Tech CEOs blame Claude.
It’s a 2,000-year-old tradition of powerful people inventing a middleman to take the fall for their own wreckage.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-art-o...
The Art of Agency Laundering
On committees, coins and Claude
www.joanwestenberg.com
August 27, 2026 at 7:26 AM
Pontius Pilate washed his hands.
Macbeth blamed the witches.
Tech CEOs blame Claude.
It’s a 2,000-year-old tradition of powerful people inventing a middleman to take the fall for their own wreckage.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-art-o...
Macbeth blamed the witches.
Tech CEOs blame Claude.
It’s a 2,000-year-old tradition of powerful people inventing a middleman to take the fall for their own wreckage.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-art-o...
Shipped: the new Kanban view for Kerouac.
Smoother experience for tracking and managing your drafts, with the Done column now collapsed by default so your finished work isn't clogging up the main pipeline.
Smoother experience for tracking and managing your drafts, with the Done column now collapsed by default so your finished work isn't clogging up the main pipeline.
August 26, 2026 at 2:59 AM
Shipped: the new Kanban view for Kerouac.
Smoother experience for tracking and managing your drafts, with the Done column now collapsed by default so your finished work isn't clogging up the main pipeline.
Smoother experience for tracking and managing your drafts, with the Done column now collapsed by default so your finished work isn't clogging up the main pipeline.
A bucket list is stuff you wish you could do.
A roadmap is stuff you will do.
Shift your framing from "I want to" to "I will." When you treat your personal goals with the same seriousness as a paid job, everything changes.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-bu...
A roadmap is stuff you will do.
Shift your framing from "I want to" to "I will." When you treat your personal goals with the same seriousness as a paid job, everything changes.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-bu...
How to Build a Roadmap for the Life You Actually Want
The Daily Practice That Keeps Me From Wasting Years
www.joanwestenberg.com
August 25, 2026 at 7:54 PM
A bucket list is stuff you wish you could do.
A roadmap is stuff you will do.
Shift your framing from "I want to" to "I will." When you treat your personal goals with the same seriousness as a paid job, everything changes.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-bu...
A roadmap is stuff you will do.
Shift your framing from "I want to" to "I will." When you treat your personal goals with the same seriousness as a paid job, everything changes.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-bu...
It's wild how fast hashtags become anti-signals. You can pretty much ignore any post using them on almost every platform.
August 25, 2026 at 7:09 AM
It's wild how fast hashtags become anti-signals. You can pretty much ignore any post using them on almost every platform.
My writing was scattered across Substack, Ghost, Medium, a blog etc.
I built Kerouac to bring it all into a single view: a GitHub-style activity graph of everything I've published, sharable with anyone via a public link...
I built Kerouac to bring it all into a single view: a GitHub-style activity graph of everything I've published, sharable with anyone via a public link...
August 25, 2026 at 6:00 AM
My writing was scattered across Substack, Ghost, Medium, a blog etc.
I built Kerouac to bring it all into a single view: a GitHub-style activity graph of everything I've published, sharable with anyone via a public link...
I built Kerouac to bring it all into a single view: a GitHub-style activity graph of everything I've published, sharable with anyone via a public link...
A read receipt isn’t a subpoena. A stranger’s breakdown isn’t your content. Your friends aren’t an audience. AI shouldn’t speak for you to the people you love.
21 new rules for being human:
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/neo-etiqu...
21 new rules for being human:
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/neo-etiqu...
Neo-Etiquette Basics: The New Rules of Being Human
Twenty-one rules for living among other people when every device encourages you to forget their sentience
www.joanwestenberg.com
August 20, 2026 at 1:22 AM
A read receipt isn’t a subpoena. A stranger’s breakdown isn’t your content. Your friends aren’t an audience. AI shouldn’t speak for you to the people you love.
21 new rules for being human:
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/neo-etiqu...
21 new rules for being human:
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/neo-etiqu...
The Enlightenment promised a world of adults who think for themselves.
We built one where everyone has the right to an answer, and nobody has the obligation to understand it.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/kants-adu...
We built one where everyone has the right to an answer, and nobody has the obligation to understand it.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/kants-adu...
Kant’s Adult Is Extinct.
We Need a New Intellectual Agency
www.joanwestenberg.com
August 17, 2026 at 11:38 PM
The Enlightenment promised a world of adults who think for themselves.
We built one where everyone has the right to an answer, and nobody has the obligation to understand it.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/kants-adu...
We built one where everyone has the right to an answer, and nobody has the obligation to understand it.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/kants-adu...
The only question that matters for any productivity system:
Did it let you produce something, or not?
That’s all there is.
If you’re bored with your productivity system, embrace it.
It means it’s time to do the actual work.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/dont-beco...
Did it let you produce something, or not?
That’s all there is.
If you’re bored with your productivity system, embrace it.
It means it’s time to do the actual work.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/dont-beco...
Don't Become a Productivity Tourist
If Your Workflow Bores You, It’s Working
www.joanwestenberg.com
August 14, 2026 at 1:36 AM
The only question that matters for any productivity system:
Did it let you produce something, or not?
That’s all there is.
If you’re bored with your productivity system, embrace it.
It means it’s time to do the actual work.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/dont-beco...
Did it let you produce something, or not?
That’s all there is.
If you’re bored with your productivity system, embrace it.
It means it’s time to do the actual work.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/dont-beco...
Everyone’s selling picks and shovels to people already drowning in picks and shovels, in a great big barrel of picks and shovels at the International Pick and Shovel Convention.
The Indie Hacker Economy is a Pyramid Scheme
AI Didn’t Kill Indie Hacking. The Closed Loop Did.
medium.com
July 27, 2026 at 12:32 AM
Everyone’s selling picks and shovels to people already drowning in picks and shovels, in a great big barrel of picks and shovels at the International Pick and Shovel Convention.
Stop trying to build for "the algorithm."
Stop trying to scale to a million faceless users.
If you want to make something people actually give a shit about, shrink your target audience to a single person you know.
5 rules for creating work that leaves a mark:
Stop trying to scale to a million faceless users.
If you want to make something people actually give a shit about, shrink your target audience to a single person you know.
5 rules for creating work that leaves a mark:
How to Make Something People (Actually) Give a Shit About
5 Rules for Creating Work That Leaves a Mark
www.joanwestenberg.com
July 26, 2026 at 11:38 PM
Stop trying to build for "the algorithm."
Stop trying to scale to a million faceless users.
If you want to make something people actually give a shit about, shrink your target audience to a single person you know.
5 rules for creating work that leaves a mark:
Stop trying to scale to a million faceless users.
If you want to make something people actually give a shit about, shrink your target audience to a single person you know.
5 rules for creating work that leaves a mark:
Listening to a podcast at 2x speed while answering emails isn’t "learning." It’s just noise with a productivity badge.
If you want real leverage, turn off your phone, sit in silence, and read a damn book.
If you want real leverage, turn off your phone, sit in silence, and read a damn book.
Read More. Read Often. Read Every Day.
Stop Looking for Productivity Hacks. Pick Up a Damn Book.
www.joanwestenberg.com
July 24, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Listening to a podcast at 2x speed while answering emails isn’t "learning." It’s just noise with a productivity badge.
If you want real leverage, turn off your phone, sit in silence, and read a damn book.
If you want real leverage, turn off your phone, sit in silence, and read a damn book.
Budget is never your ultimate advantage.
You can build the best product, hire top-tier talent, and raise millions; but strategy without belief is dead on arrival.
Why the "3-to-1 Rule" decides who wins in business and in war:
open.substack.com/pub/thedaily...
You can build the best product, hire top-tier talent, and raise millions; but strategy without belief is dead on arrival.
Why the "3-to-1 Rule" decides who wins in business and in war:
open.substack.com/pub/thedaily...
July 24, 2026 at 7:19 AM
Budget is never your ultimate advantage.
You can build the best product, hire top-tier talent, and raise millions; but strategy without belief is dead on arrival.
Why the "3-to-1 Rule" decides who wins in business and in war:
open.substack.com/pub/thedaily...
You can build the best product, hire top-tier talent, and raise millions; but strategy without belief is dead on arrival.
Why the "3-to-1 Rule" decides who wins in business and in war:
open.substack.com/pub/thedaily...
US AI labs: "Scraping the entire open internet without consent is fair use! It's transformative!"
Also US AI labs when someone distills their models: "Wait no not like that, that's intellectual property theft"
New post on why distillation is just the industry looking in the mirror:
Also US AI labs when someone distills their models: "Wait no not like that, that's intellectual property theft"
New post on why distillation is just the industry looking in the mirror:
The Great AI Double Standard
Distillation Is a Mirror; the US Labs Just Hate What They See
www.joanwestenberg.com
July 23, 2026 at 11:51 PM
US AI labs: "Scraping the entire open internet without consent is fair use! It's transformative!"
Also US AI labs when someone distills their models: "Wait no not like that, that's intellectual property theft"
New post on why distillation is just the industry looking in the mirror:
Also US AI labs when someone distills their models: "Wait no not like that, that's intellectual property theft"
New post on why distillation is just the industry looking in the mirror: