JA Westenberg
@joanwestenberg.com
Every week, I try to make sense of how we build, create, and connect.
If you're looking for thoughtful writing about technology, culture, and what it means to do meaningful work, I'd love to have you as a reader.
www.joanwestenberg.com
If you're looking for thoughtful writing about technology, culture, and what it means to do meaningful work, I'd love to have you as a reader.
www.joanwestenberg.com
Westenberg.
Where Builders Come to Think.
www.joanwestenberg.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Every week, I try to make sense of how we build, create, and connect.
If you're looking for thoughtful writing about technology, culture, and what it means to do meaningful work, I'd love to have you as a reader.
www.joanwestenberg.com
If you're looking for thoughtful writing about technology, culture, and what it means to do meaningful work, I'd love to have you as a reader.
www.joanwestenberg.com
The existentialists had a word for this kind of life. They called it bad faith. We have a different word for it now. We call it hustle.
youtu.be/mFWzoeZTbHY
youtu.be/mFWzoeZTbHY
The Existential To-Don’t List: 10 Things You Must Stop Doing If You Want a Life Worth Living
Most productivity advice is a trap. It teaches you how to climb faster without asking why the ladder is leaning on a burning building.I spent years as a prod...
www.youtube.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:35 PM
The existentialists had a word for this kind of life. They called it bad faith. We have a different word for it now. We call it hustle.
youtu.be/mFWzoeZTbHY
youtu.be/mFWzoeZTbHY
“We don’t talk enough about” sir let me stop you there we talk enough about everything, all we do is talk on the internet 24 hours a day 7 days a week we don’t shut the fuck up enough
November 13, 2025 at 10:04 AM
“We don’t talk enough about” sir let me stop you there we talk enough about everything, all we do is talk on the internet 24 hours a day 7 days a week we don’t shut the fuck up enough
I'm not usually given to envy or jealousy but I've never wanted to be a human-made object so much in my life
November 13, 2025 at 2:53 AM
I'm not usually given to envy or jealousy but I've never wanted to be a human-made object so much in my life
New post for paid members - why every family has these intractable disagreements about what really happened during Thanksgiving dinner in 1998...
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/we-re-all...
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/we-re-all...
November 12, 2025 at 11:06 PM
New post for paid members - why every family has these intractable disagreements about what really happened during Thanksgiving dinner in 1998...
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/we-re-all...
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/we-re-all...
When you're inside a moment of change, you can't see its full shape. The entrepreneurs of 1985 didn't know they were living through a golden age because they were too busy wrestling with 300 baud modems.
(Via Kevin Kelly)
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/you-are-n...
(Via Kevin Kelly)
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/you-are-n...
You Are Not Late
www.joanwestenberg.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:14 AM
When you're inside a moment of change, you can't see its full shape. The entrepreneurs of 1985 didn't know they were living through a golden age because they were too busy wrestling with 300 baud modems.
(Via Kevin Kelly)
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/you-are-n...
(Via Kevin Kelly)
www.joanwestenberg.com/p/you-are-n...
Good enough, consistently applied over time, beats brilliant but fragile.
Every. Single. Time.
youtu.be/v_o_V0tPKvI
Every. Single. Time.
youtu.be/v_o_V0tPKvI
Invert to Win: Why Thinking Backwards Solves Hard Problems
Charlie Munger liked to tell people to "invert, always invert." He borrowed the phrase from Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, a nineteenth-century mathematician who ...
www.youtube.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Good enough, consistently applied over time, beats brilliant but fragile.
Every. Single. Time.
youtu.be/v_o_V0tPKvI
Every. Single. Time.
youtu.be/v_o_V0tPKvI
At 13, I joined a Wolfenstein 3d modding forum. 22 years later, my posts are still there - and still searchable.
The discussion I had in Discord 2 years ago?
Not so much.
We chose this. We can choose better.
blog.discourse.org/2025/11/the...
The discussion I had in Discord 2 years ago?
Not so much.
We chose this. We can choose better.
blog.discourse.org/2025/11/the...
The Death of Community Memory
I recently spent forty minutes searching through Slack trying to find a technical decision — made eight months ago — about an app that 60% of my creative life depends on...I eventually gave up and just asked someone to explain it again, which they did, poorly, because they didn’t quite remember either.
blog.discourse.org
November 11, 2025 at 10:58 PM
At 13, I joined a Wolfenstein 3d modding forum. 22 years later, my posts are still there - and still searchable.
The discussion I had in Discord 2 years ago?
Not so much.
We chose this. We can choose better.
blog.discourse.org/2025/11/the...
The discussion I had in Discord 2 years ago?
Not so much.
We chose this. We can choose better.
blog.discourse.org/2025/11/the...
Every week I publish essays on technology, culture, and what it means to stay human in a world that rewards insanity.
Subscribe to Westenberg: joanwestenberg.com
www.joanwestenberg.com/
Subscribe to Westenberg: joanwestenberg.com
www.joanwestenberg.com/
Westenberg.
Where Builders Come to Think.
www.joanwestenberg.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Every week I publish essays on technology, culture, and what it means to stay human in a world that rewards insanity.
Subscribe to Westenberg: joanwestenberg.com
www.joanwestenberg.com/
Subscribe to Westenberg: joanwestenberg.com
www.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.