JA Westenberg
@joanwestenberg.com
The moderates make sense, so they're boring. The extremists are insane, so they're viral. Every movement gets defined by its worst members because outrage is the only thing that scales...
November 11, 2025 at 5:59 AM
The moderates make sense, so they're boring. The extremists are insane, so they're viral. Every movement gets defined by its worst members because outrage is the only thing that scales...
There's always a tiger. Infinite tigers.
The tigers respawn faster than you can track them.
Most of the tigers are imaginary or happening to someone else on a different continent.
But your brain still treats each one as urgent...
youtu.be/dVBIeMm7-CA
The tigers respawn faster than you can track them.
Most of the tigers are imaginary or happening to someone else on a different continent.
But your brain still treats each one as urgent...
youtu.be/dVBIeMm7-CA
You're Wasting 17 Weeks a Year on Mental Clutter
There's a famous experiment where researchers showed people a video of two teams passing basketballs and asked them to count the passes. About half the viewe...
www.youtube.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:01 AM
There's always a tiger. Infinite tigers.
The tigers respawn faster than you can track them.
Most of the tigers are imaginary or happening to someone else on a different continent.
But your brain still treats each one as urgent...
youtu.be/dVBIeMm7-CA
The tigers respawn faster than you can track them.
Most of the tigers are imaginary or happening to someone else on a different continent.
But your brain still treats each one as urgent...
youtu.be/dVBIeMm7-CA
Wild that "Lean In" became "Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss" became "actually maybe rest is radical" became "tradwife softgirl era" in about eight years.
November 11, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Wild that "Lean In" became "Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss" became "actually maybe rest is radical" became "tradwife softgirl era" in about eight years.
Sanity is expensive, and extremism pays dividends.
We talk a lot about polarization as if it were a disease that infected society, but we’re missing a key data point:
Polarization is a growth hack, and it works.
It delivers results.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-st...
We talk a lot about polarization as if it were a disease that infected society, but we’re missing a key data point:
Polarization is a growth hack, and it works.
It delivers results.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-st...
November 11, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Sanity is expensive, and extremism pays dividends.
We talk a lot about polarization as if it were a disease that infected society, but we’re missing a key data point:
Polarization is a growth hack, and it works.
It delivers results.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-st...
We talk a lot about polarization as if it were a disease that infected society, but we’re missing a key data point:
Polarization is a growth hack, and it works.
It delivers results.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-st...
You spend ~730 hours per year consuming news.
95% of it is completely forgettable within a week.
That's 17 full work weeks spent filling your brain with information that evaporates by Tuesday...
youtu.be/dVBIeMm7-CA
95% of it is completely forgettable within a week.
That's 17 full work weeks spent filling your brain with information that evaporates by Tuesday...
youtu.be/dVBIeMm7-CA
You're Wasting 17 Weeks a Year on Mental Clutter
There's a famous experiment where researchers showed people a video of two teams passing basketballs and asked them to count the passes. About half the viewe...
www.youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:37 AM
You spend ~730 hours per year consuming news.
95% of it is completely forgettable within a week.
That's 17 full work weeks spent filling your brain with information that evaporates by Tuesday...
youtu.be/dVBIeMm7-CA
95% of it is completely forgettable within a week.
That's 17 full work weeks spent filling your brain with information that evaporates by Tuesday...
youtu.be/dVBIeMm7-CA
Somewhere around 2016 I noticed the smartest people I knew started saying increasingly stupid things.
The common thread: their extreme positions got them more of what they wanted.
Sanity was expensive.
Extremism paid dividends.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-st...
The common thread: their extreme positions got them more of what they wanted.
Sanity was expensive.
Extremism paid dividends.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-st...
November 9, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Somewhere around 2016 I noticed the smartest people I knew started saying increasingly stupid things.
The common thread: their extreme positions got them more of what they wanted.
Sanity was expensive.
Extremism paid dividends.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-st...
The common thread: their extreme positions got them more of what they wanted.
Sanity was expensive.
Extremism paid dividends.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/how-to-st...
Skill issues are a skill issue
November 8, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Skill issues are a skill issue
That thing you said wasn't political enough.
And if it was, it wasn't focused on the right issue.
And if it was, it wasn't worded right.
And if it was, it wasn't loud enough.
And if it was, it was too little too late, and you should have done it sooner, which means it's still your fault.
And if it was, it wasn't focused on the right issue.
And if it was, it wasn't worded right.
And if it was, it wasn't loud enough.
And if it was, it was too little too late, and you should have done it sooner, which means it's still your fault.
November 8, 2025 at 12:41 PM
That thing you said wasn't political enough.
And if it was, it wasn't focused on the right issue.
And if it was, it wasn't worded right.
And if it was, it wasn't loud enough.
And if it was, it was too little too late, and you should have done it sooner, which means it's still your fault.
And if it was, it wasn't focused on the right issue.
And if it was, it wasn't worded right.
And if it was, it wasn't loud enough.
And if it was, it was too little too late, and you should have done it sooner, which means it's still your fault.
Every generation thinks their decade had "real" culture and everything after is fake. The 90s kids say this about the 80s. The 2010s kids will say it about the 2000s. The pattern is so reliable it's boring. Culture isn't actually "worse" now. You just got older and stopped being the target demo.
November 8, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Every generation thinks their decade had "real" culture and everything after is fake. The 90s kids say this about the 80s. The 2010s kids will say it about the 2000s. The pattern is so reliable it's boring. Culture isn't actually "worse" now. You just got older and stopped being the target demo.
There's a whole generation that learned irony before sincerity and now they're trapped. Can't be earnest without a layer of self-deprecation. Can't be enthusiastic without signaling awareness of how cringe enthusiasm is.
The price of never being vulnerable is never connecting.
The price of never being vulnerable is never connecting.
November 8, 2025 at 4:18 AM
There's a whole generation that learned irony before sincerity and now they're trapped. Can't be earnest without a layer of self-deprecation. Can't be enthusiastic without signaling awareness of how cringe enthusiasm is.
The price of never being vulnerable is never connecting.
The price of never being vulnerable is never connecting.
Good taste used to mean knowing where to pay attention.
Now everything's attention, and good taste means knowing what to ignore.
Now everything's attention, and good taste means knowing what to ignore.
November 8, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Good taste used to mean knowing where to pay attention.
Now everything's attention, and good taste means knowing what to ignore.
Now everything's attention, and good taste means knowing what to ignore.
The older I get, the clearer it becomes that most advice fails for a simple reason: the version of you who needs it most literally can’t absorb it yet.
Understanding requires experience. Integration requires pain.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/letters-t...
Understanding requires experience. Integration requires pain.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/letters-t...
Letters to Your Younger Self Are a Scam
The Futility of Trying to Tell Your Younger Self Anything Useful
www.joanwestenberg.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:43 PM
The older I get, the clearer it becomes that most advice fails for a simple reason: the version of you who needs it most literally can’t absorb it yet.
Understanding requires experience. Integration requires pain.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/letters-t...
Understanding requires experience. Integration requires pain.
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/letters-t...
No one writes documentation. No one reads documentation. Everyone complains about lack of documentation. The equilibrium is mutual suffering. But sure, your startup is going to solve documentation.
November 7, 2025 at 11:12 PM
No one writes documentation. No one reads documentation. Everyone complains about lack of documentation. The equilibrium is mutual suffering. But sure, your startup is going to solve documentation.
Every complex system is one black swan away from revealing it was duct tape all along. Supply chains, financial systems, social trust. It works until suddenly it extremely very much doesn't.
November 7, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Every complex system is one black swan away from revealing it was duct tape all along. Supply chains, financial systems, social trust. It works until suddenly it extremely very much doesn't.
We have parasocial relationships with people we'll never meet and transactional relationships with our neighbors and we still read 2000 word thinkpieces about "What Went Wrong"
November 7, 2025 at 10:16 AM
We have parasocial relationships with people we'll never meet and transactional relationships with our neighbors and we still read 2000 word thinkpieces about "What Went Wrong"
Every crisis is "unprecedented" because we only prepare for precedented ones. Because - and bear with me - they're precedented.
November 7, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Every crisis is "unprecedented" because we only prepare for precedented ones. Because - and bear with me - they're precedented.
The lag between inventing something and understanding its consequences is roughly 10 years. Social media (2010→2020), smartphones (2007→2017).
That lag is about to get shorter.
That lag is about to get shorter.
November 7, 2025 at 4:12 AM
The lag between inventing something and understanding its consequences is roughly 10 years. Social media (2010→2020), smartphones (2007→2017).
That lag is about to get shorter.
That lag is about to get shorter.
One person with a laptop can now do what took a company 20 years ago. Unfortunately, that one person is launching 47 mediocre SaaS products and a crypto scam.
November 7, 2025 at 1:04 AM
One person with a laptop can now do what took a company 20 years ago. Unfortunately, that one person is launching 47 mediocre SaaS products and a crypto scam.
People with no skin in the game give confident advice. People with skin in the game say "it's complicated." Twitter is 99% the former explaining things to each other.
November 6, 2025 at 11:13 PM
People with no skin in the game give confident advice. People with skin in the game say "it's complicated." Twitter is 99% the former explaining things to each other.
Nobody believes x until suddenly everyone believed it all along.
November 6, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Nobody believes x until suddenly everyone believed it all along.
Why does OmniFocus feel different than every other productivity app?
I asked the founder.
His answer: 30 years of craftsmanship.
youtu.be/T7LMSzdarno
I asked the founder.
His answer: 30 years of craftsmanship.
youtu.be/T7LMSzdarno
This Guy Shipped Apps Before You Knew What an App Was
Ken Case has been building productivity software since 1992. That's before most developers today wrote their first line of code. His company, Omni Group, has...
www.youtube.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Why does OmniFocus feel different than every other productivity app?
I asked the founder.
His answer: 30 years of craftsmanship.
youtu.be/T7LMSzdarno
I asked the founder.
His answer: 30 years of craftsmanship.
youtu.be/T7LMSzdarno
Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely block you in the morning.
November 6, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely block you in the morning.
New Members Only Q&A is up!
This month: Is civilization unsustainable, whether productivity culture is making us less human, what happens when machines get smarter than engineers, and why I bought a Remarkable tablet.
Pro members can read it here:
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/members-o...
This month: Is civilization unsustainable, whether productivity culture is making us less human, what happens when machines get smarter than engineers, and why I bought a Remarkable tablet.
Pro members can read it here:
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/members-o...
November 5, 2025 at 9:19 PM
New Members Only Q&A is up!
This month: Is civilization unsustainable, whether productivity culture is making us less human, what happens when machines get smarter than engineers, and why I bought a Remarkable tablet.
Pro members can read it here:
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/members-o...
This month: Is civilization unsustainable, whether productivity culture is making us less human, what happens when machines get smarter than engineers, and why I bought a Remarkable tablet.
Pro members can read it here:
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/members-o...
Today on The Internet is Stupid: people are convinced my screenshots are fake because the date says November 5 when it's November 4 in America.
Reader: it is November 5 in Australia.
May I introduce you to the concept of timezones
Reader: it is November 5 in Australia.
May I introduce you to the concept of timezones
November 5, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Today on The Internet is Stupid: people are convinced my screenshots are fake because the date says November 5 when it's November 4 in America.
Reader: it is November 5 in Australia.
May I introduce you to the concept of timezones
Reader: it is November 5 in Australia.
May I introduce you to the concept of timezones
"I'm self-aware about my biases" is itself a bias. Thinking you're less biased than average means you're exactly average. Welcome to humanity, population: everyone.
November 5, 2025 at 10:15 AM
"I'm self-aware about my biases" is itself a bias. Thinking you're less biased than average means you're exactly average. Welcome to humanity, population: everyone.