very interesting !
What if Readers Like A.I.-Generated Fiction?
If economic and technological transformations have changed our relationship with literature before, they could do so again.
www.newyorker.com
December 24, 2025 at 1:03 AM
very interesting !
30 lists and 15,000 words to round out the year from (among others) @tomscocca.bsky.social ! @bcmerchant.bsky.social ! @caseyjohnston.bsky.social ! @taylorlorenz.bsky.social ! @choire.bsky.social ! @rilaws.bsky.social ! @libbycwatson.com ! @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social !
The Read Max year in review 2025
Over 30 lists and 15,000 words from Read Max friends, foes, and family
maxread.substack.com
December 23, 2025 at 3:32 PM
30 lists and 15,000 words to round out the year from (among others) @tomscocca.bsky.social ! @bcmerchant.bsky.social ! @caseyjohnston.bsky.social ! @taylorlorenz.bsky.social ! @choire.bsky.social ! @rilaws.bsky.social ! @libbycwatson.com ! @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social !
Reposted by Max Read
really really enjoyed talking about this with the great @maxread.info felt like we got to a place at the end where some broader attention economy stuff locked into place! www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...
Prediction Markets and the ‘Suckerifcation’ Crisis, With Max Read
Everyone’s betting; nobody’s winning.
www.theatlantic.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:20 PM
really really enjoyed talking about this with the great @maxread.info felt like we got to a place at the end where some broader attention economy stuff locked into place! www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...
what is slop? wrote up this short tweet thread at only slightly greater length: maxread.substack.com/p/what-is-sl...
December 19, 2025 at 5:54 PM
what is slop? wrote up this short tweet thread at only slightly greater length: maxread.substack.com/p/what-is-sl...
one thing about roger ailes i feel like people sometimes lose track of is that in addition to being a propagandist he was a genius tv producer
Bari Weiss’ Next CBS News Move: Town Halls With JD Vance, Sam Altman and Debates About God and Feminism
The news division is also planning a town hall with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore in the 'Things That Matter' series, with Bank of America lined up as a sponsor.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
December 18, 2025 at 3:17 PM
one thing about roger ailes i feel like people sometimes lose track of is that in addition to being a propagandist he was a genius tv producer
if you went to an ivy league school and traveled out to LA with a pilot in the peak tv/streamers era and couldn't get a solitary job in a writers room you must have been an UNBELIEVABLY bad hang
December 16, 2025 at 6:21 PM
if you went to an ivy league school and traveled out to LA with a pilot in the peak tv/streamers era and couldn't get a solitary job in a writers room you must have been an UNBELIEVABLY bad hang
went to see pirates of the carribbean with two really beautiful older girls from my high school and they taught me the trick where you pour reeses pieces into your bag of hot popcorn and get a sort of makeshift peanut-butter candy popcorn. nothing happened otherwise but it was a life highlight
Raising the always fun question: What are your most memorable theater-going experiences?
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
Mine also include The Matrix, Blair Witch, and being way too stoned in Belgium when Fellowship of the Ring was sold out so we sat in the back row for Mulholland Drive instead.
It was hands-down one of the most memorable theater-going experiences I can remember, a collective 30-minute butt-clench/armrest-grab for the final climb. And we knew he lived! Wild.
December 13, 2025 at 12:18 AM
went to see pirates of the carribbean with two really beautiful older girls from my high school and they taught me the trick where you pour reeses pieces into your bag of hot popcorn and get a sort of makeshift peanut-butter candy popcorn. nothing happened otherwise but it was a life highlight
I'm live with Ganz right now open.substack.com/live-stream/...
LIVE NOW: Read Max x Unpopular Front
Max Read on Substack
open.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 7:06 PM
I'm live with Ganz right now open.substack.com/live-stream/...
literally don’t think my 5 y/o would believe me if I told him that Santa is not real. I don’t have the credibility
Noticing a lot of other toddler parents going hard on telling their 3 and 4 year olds that "Santa is not real.". I get the impulse but I don't know: myth is pretty foundational to imagination? They need to be allowed to believe in things that are mysterious and perhaps a little bit dark.
December 9, 2025 at 3:45 PM
literally don’t think my 5 y/o would believe me if I told him that Santa is not real. I don’t have the credibility
Reposted by Max Read
An interesting shift in perspective: LLMs not as replacements for individual workers, but as replacements for the output of a whole industry (from maxread.substack.com/p/will-ai-wr...)
December 8, 2025 at 11:06 AM
An interesting shift in perspective: LLMs not as replacements for individual workers, but as replacements for the output of a whole industry (from maxread.substack.com/p/will-ai-wr...)
Reposted by Max Read
feel like an ethnography of the people who get paid by the piece to "rank" LLM outputs would also explain a lot about the kind of prose the models are optimized to generate
maxread.substack.com/p/will-ai-wr...
maxread.substack.com/p/will-ai-wr...
December 5, 2025 at 9:10 PM
feel like an ethnography of the people who get paid by the piece to "rank" LLM outputs would also explain a lot about the kind of prose the models are optimized to generate
maxread.substack.com/p/will-ai-wr...
maxread.substack.com/p/will-ai-wr...
read max paid subscribers were put on to los thuthanaka two weeks before pfork's review. 'being on the cutting edge of culture' not even a listed subscriber benefit!!
A unique history of Paris' underbelly, a fluffy '90s heist thriller, and a new album from the best act I saw live last year
Roundup 03/22/2025
maxread.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:56 PM
read max paid subscribers were put on to los thuthanaka two weeks before pfork's review. 'being on the cutting edge of culture' not even a listed subscriber benefit!!
as a kid who also went to CTY, it's crazy how recognizable the culture of late silicon valley (thinking not just of yarvin but of like "tpot" and the "post-rats") is identifiable as and identical to "gifted-kid camp" culture
December 3, 2025 at 4:40 PM
as a kid who also went to CTY, it's crazy how recognizable the culture of late silicon valley (thinking not just of yarvin but of like "tpot" and the "post-rats") is identifiable as and identical to "gifted-kid camp" culture
here's this week's work friend, about racist jokes and italian dreams. please submit your work-related advice questions to workfriend at nytimes dot com !
I Made an Offensive Joke. But So Did Everyone Else! Why Did I Get Fired?
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 6:15 PM
here's this week's work friend, about racist jokes and italian dreams. please submit your work-related advice questions to workfriend at nytimes dot com !
circling around a definition of 'slop' as something like 'fully optimized to the point of texturelessness/characterlessness'... RLHF'd ai product but also: save the cat is scriptslop, aerodynamically efficient crossover suvs are carslop, three true outcomes is baseballslop, crabs are crustaceanslop
December 2, 2025 at 2:25 PM
circling around a definition of 'slop' as something like 'fully optimized to the point of texturelessness/characterlessness'... RLHF'd ai product but also: save the cat is scriptslop, aerodynamically efficient crossover suvs are carslop, three true outcomes is baseballslop, crabs are crustaceanslop
oh you think the jokes in thomas pynchon novels are corny? the names? you don't like the songs? you might like the single greatest stylist of the 20th century and the one novelist who almost grasps the totality if he wasn't so "cringe" for you? should we throw a party? call the papers?
November 27, 2025 at 3:30 AM
oh you think the jokes in thomas pynchon novels are corny? the names? you don't like the songs? you might like the single greatest stylist of the 20th century and the one novelist who almost grasps the totality if he wasn't so "cringe" for you? should we throw a party? call the papers?
really funny thinking comparatively about how little trump was successfully charmed by elon or jd vance
November 21, 2025 at 9:34 PM
really funny thinking comparatively about how little trump was successfully charmed by elon or jd vance
Reposted by Max Read
like Bernie Sanders got there by doing #3, Bill Clinton is #2, and I think Donald Trump is probably the defining version of #1.
they all work, and obviously you can mix and match in various ways, and it's a matter of a politician figuring out which kind they are and how to leverage it
they all work, and obviously you can mix and match in various ways, and it's a matter of a politician figuring out which kind they are and how to leverage it
November 21, 2025 at 6:20 PM
like Bernie Sanders got there by doing #3, Bill Clinton is #2, and I think Donald Trump is probably the defining version of #1.
they all work, and obviously you can mix and match in various ways, and it's a matter of a politician figuring out which kind they are and how to leverage it
they all work, and obviously you can mix and match in various ways, and it's a matter of a politician figuring out which kind they are and how to leverage it
thought this was really interesting though i tend to think it would be useful to tug apart some of the different senses of "ideology" being used here (and in the ongoing 'moderation' discourse more generally)
Good morning. I've got a banger new post out today that develops a new method for placing voters on the left-right ideological spectrum, and adds a new, "non-ideological"/affordability axis to usual way we chart & think about US voters (esp swing voters). www.gelliottmorris.com/p/not-just-l...
Not just left vs right: Most voters think about affordability and material wellbeing, not in ideological terms
Most voters want a party that emphasizes cost of living issues and makes the world a better place. Few Americans think in solidly ideologically terms. "Moderates" are mostly non-ideological.
www.gelliottmorris.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:56 PM
thought this was really interesting though i tend to think it would be useful to tug apart some of the different senses of "ideology" being used here (and in the ongoing 'moderation' discourse more generally)
Reposted by Max Read
I'm going LIVE on "Substack" with @lioneltrolling.bsky.social in 10 minutes. Tune in at the link below; recording will be available to paying subscribers at 9am tomorrow.
LIVE SOON: Live with Max Read
Starting Nov 19 at 2:00 PM EST
open.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:53 PM
I'm going LIVE on "Substack" with @lioneltrolling.bsky.social in 10 minutes. Tune in at the link below; recording will be available to paying subscribers at 9am tomorrow.
I'm going LIVE on "Substack" with @lioneltrolling.bsky.social in 10 minutes. Tune in at the link below; recording will be available to paying subscribers at 9am tomorrow.
LIVE SOON: Live with Max Read
Starting Nov 19 at 2:00 PM EST
open.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:53 PM
I'm going LIVE on "Substack" with @lioneltrolling.bsky.social in 10 minutes. Tune in at the link below; recording will be available to paying subscribers at 9am tomorrow.
as someone who subscribes to defector SOLELY for jaguars junction i'd love to know exactly what the uptight college boys in charge think is so "befuddling" about it
I don't know how to make it stop
November 19, 2025 at 4:37 PM
as someone who subscribes to defector SOLELY for jaguars junction i'd love to know exactly what the uptight college boys in charge think is so "befuddling" about it
Reposted by Max Read
jeff epstein and so many ai guys just barely missed each other
November 18, 2025 at 10:12 PM
jeff epstein and so many ai guys just barely missed each other
epstein would've loved chatgpt so much. he wouldve gotten ai psychosis immediately and sent a million emails to sam altman. tragic he missed all this
November 18, 2025 at 9:53 PM
epstein would've loved chatgpt so much. he wouldve gotten ai psychosis immediately and sent a million emails to sam altman. tragic he missed all this