JA Westenberg
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joanwestenberg.com
JA Westenberg
@joanwestenberg.com
8.9K followers 330 following 4.8K posts
I write about tech + humans + philosophy

https://www.joanwestenberg.com/
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joanwestenberg.com
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...
November 11, 2025 at 12:30 AM
joanwestenberg.com
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...
November 9, 2025 at 11:31 PM
joanwestenberg.com
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...
November 5, 2025 at 9:19 PM
joanwestenberg.com
When people ask how my career is going
November 5, 2025 at 7:54 AM
joanwestenberg.com
The magpie doesn't follow a system. It doesn't read books about optimal nest-building techniques or watch YouTube videos about the Marie Kondo method for corvids.

It sees something that works, takes it, and uses it...

www.joanwestenberg.com/p/be-a-magp...
November 4, 2025 at 3:11 AM
joanwestenberg.com
Honestly a real estate agent doing business with a blood sucking monster without thinking about any of the long term implications of his actions felt very real and believable to me 10/10
November 1, 2025 at 5:07 AM
joanwestenberg.com
I don’t like asking for money and I never expect financial help from anyone but due to circumstances outside of my control I’m about €230,000,000 short this month to pay for this yacht any assistance would be amazing and I will absolutely pay it forward (I won’t)
Two photos of the luxury superyacht Lady Lara cruising in open blue water near rocky coastlines. The sleek white yacht spans 298 feet (91 meters) with multiple decks and a modern, aerodynamic design. The listing below the images reads: “Yacht for Sale – LADY LARA. Length 298’7’’ (91m) | Builder: Lürssen | Build: 2015/2023. Guests: 12 | Cabins: 8 | Crew: 28. Asking €230,000,000,” alongside a “Contact A Broker” button.
October 29, 2025 at 8:40 AM
joanwestenberg.com
"i mean that from the bottom of my heart" the bottom of your heart is just a dark pit where your sense of self used to be before it got replaced by a weird parasocial relationship with assholes who view you as livestock
Alt text: A screenshot of a tweet by user Stepfianie Tyler (@wildbarestepf) replying to a tweet by James Talarico (@jamestalarico). Stepfianie’s tweet reads: “i’d rather pay taxes to these 3—who actually provide real value to me—than to the government and i mean that from the bottom of my heart.” The embedded tweet from James Talarico says: “Three men — Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos — now own more wealth than 165 million Americans combined. They own the media. They own the algorithms….” Below is an image of James Talarico speaking at a podium under stage lights, with subtitles that read “Three men:”. The post shows it was made at 3:01 PM on October 28, 2025, and has 13.2K views.
October 28, 2025 at 12:06 PM
joanwestenberg.com
I feel like it's not a great sign that Pixelmator Pro still doesn't have an up to date app icon
October 27, 2025 at 11:47 AM
joanwestenberg.com
they are trying to cancel me for saying poor people should simply stop being poor. THIS IS WHAT JESUS WOULD WANT. he was always going on about how charity is bad actually. read the bible idiots
A tweet from Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) posted on October 27, 2025, at 10:59 AM reads: “EBT should just be abolished outright. 95 percent of the people on the program could easily feed themselves. They just don’t feel like making the effort. The other 5 percent can rely on charities, soup kitchens, food drives, churches, etc. The program is a disaster. Get rid of it.” The tweet has 697,000 views.
October 27, 2025 at 10:51 AM
joanwestenberg.com
This guy just nailed it
A tweet from Jeremiah Johnson (@JeremiahDJohns) reads, “Every startup now is like ‘We found a cool way to monetize undermining the social contract!’” The tweet quotes another post by @nearczyan that says, “a16z-backed DoubleSpeed lets you control 1000s of social media accounts with AI, ensuring they look as human as possible – ‘never pay a human again’!” Below is an image showing a marionette hand controlling multiple smartphones with strings. The text on the image reads, “Control is all you need. The doublespeed TERMINAL allows you to orchestrate actions on thousands of social accounts through both bulk content creation and deployment. Never pay a human again.” A smaller line of text adds, “It’s never been easier to create and deploy content without human cost. Stay up to date with changes and strategies in our community.” A “Join Discord” button appears at the bottom.
October 26, 2025 at 2:29 AM
joanwestenberg.com
Absolutely obsessed with framing your employees sleeping on the floor as a humble brag

“Look how hard my team works” no dude you’re just bad at project management.

Competent companies ship products without cosplaying being homeless
A tweet by Mark Kretschmann showing two photos of the xAI office on Grokipedia release day. The office is filled with small camping tents set up between desks and along hallways, suggesting that engineers have been sleeping there while working late. The caption notes it’s early morning and the engineers are still in their tents, joking that a good night’s sleep does wonders.
October 23, 2025 at 6:30 AM
joanwestenberg.com
Take this for exactly what it is: proof that the republicans know MAGA is a bubble that pops with Trump and they have nobody to replace him
Alt text: Screenshot of a Newsweek article headline that reads “‘Trump 2028’ Talk is Ramping Up Among Republicans.” The subheader indicates it’s categorized under “News” with related topics “Donald Trump” and “Steve Bannon.” The article was published on October 13, 2025, at 8:23 AM EDT and updated at 11:24 AM EDT.
October 14, 2025 at 1:07 AM
joanwestenberg.com
‘good design’ is a psyop by people who are terrified of seeming uncool. maybe the nothing phone is tacky as hell, maybe it tries too hard and that’s why it works. bring back weird gadgets. bring back fun.
tweet by Maxime (@maximecperoumal) quote-tweeting another post by U.S. Graphics Company (@usgraphics). U.S. Graphics Company’s tweet shows two Nothing Phone 3 models — one black, one white — and says, “Nothing Phone (3) looks cool af.” Maxime’s tweet above reads, “Nothing Phone is what tasteless people think design is. Random shapes, there for no reasons, trying hard to look cool, etc.” The image shows the backs of the two phones, featuring circular and rectangular shapes, visible screws, and LED light patterns, with a minimalist industrial aesthetic.
October 12, 2025 at 4:30 AM
joanwestenberg.com
Ah yes that’s what was missing from open plan offices: more people talking all the time
Alt text: A tweet from Allie K. Miller reads: “This is absolutely insane and proof that voice is about to transform the workplace. At Wispr, employees use voice hundreds of times a day to multitask across their entire workflow. Here’s one dev using Cursor and Gmail simultaneously, all through WHISPERING, on a $10 mic.” Below the text is a photo of a man seated at a desk in a modern open-plan office, speaking softly into a small desktop microphone while looking at a wide computer monitor that displays code and an open Gmail inbox. The workspace has large windows, high ceilings, and exposed ventilation ducts.
October 10, 2025 at 4:43 AM
joanwestenberg.com
TO WHAT END SIR
Tweet from Andy Fang (@andyfang) with a DoorDash logo next to his name. The tweet reads: “Coming soon… @DoorDash integration with @OpenAI’s ChatGPT. We’re eager to explore how it can make discovering and ordering from local businesses even more seamless.” Below the text, there’s an image showing a phone screen mockup. The interface displays “ChatGPT 5” at the top and a chat bubble that says: “DoorDash is entering the chat soon.” followed by “Getting your order ready 🧺.” The time on the phone shows 9:41, and a small “GIF” label appears at the bottom left. The tweet timestamp reads 6:57 AM · Oct 8, 2025 · 623K Views.
October 9, 2025 at 12:50 AM
joanwestenberg.com
Sauron wasn't expecting the one ring's will to dominate drama
A social media post from The Verge with the caption “OpenAI wasn’t expecting Sora’s copyright drama.” The attached image shows a cowboy standing on horseback in a wide green valley with mountains and blue sky in the background. It appears to be a still from a video generated by OpenAI’s Sora.
October 8, 2025 at 10:44 PM
joanwestenberg.com
my uncle gary has been burping since 1987 and we dont call scientists about it SNOWFLAKES
October 8, 2025 at 12:12 PM
joanwestenberg.com
This seems responsible

What harm could it possibly do
The image shows a woman sitting at a desk with a laptop, notebook, and a cup of coffee in her hand. She appears relaxed, dressed casually in beige pants and a white top. Text over the image reads: “I asked chatGPT to write me a 32 page guide called ‘breastfeeding for new moms,’ sold 326 copies at $14. you can copy this too…”
October 8, 2025 at 1:57 AM
joanwestenberg.com
The biggest problem here isn't that they used ChatGPT or anything else.

The problem is that they clearly don't have a culture of quality, or a culture of checking their work, or a culture of giving a s**t about their customers.

If they cared, this crap wouldn't happen.
A screenshot of an article from the Financial Review website titled “Deloitte to refund government, admits using AI in $440k report,” written by Edmund Tadros and Paul Karp on October 5, 2025. The article states that Deloitte Australia will issue a partial refund to the federal government after admitting that AI was used to create a $440,000 report containing multiple errors, including three nonexistent academic references and a fabricated quote from a Federal Court judgment. A portion of the text mentioning “littered with errors including three nonexistent academic references” is highlighted in blue.
October 8, 2025 at 12:37 AM
joanwestenberg.com
Looking good guys
A tilted, earthquake-damaged building is being propped up by several wooden beams. The building is labeled “NVIDIA” in large bold letters, and each of the support beams is also labeled “NVIDIA.” The image humorously implies that NVIDIA’s massive success is being held up by itself alone, suggesting circular hype or self-reinforcing momentum.
October 7, 2025 at 10:27 AM
joanwestenberg.com
Why does this look like every dude under 30
A fresh head of broccoli with dark green florets and a thick, light green stalk, isolated on a white background.
October 7, 2025 at 9:28 AM
joanwestenberg.com
Just do things
A man with glasses (Hannibal Buress) sits against a yellow curtain backdrop, eyes closed and speaking in a relaxed tone. Yellow subtitles at the bottom read: “Get yourself together man. Move to Philly. Buy a loft. Start a noise band. Get six or seven roommates… Eat hummus with them. Book some gigs. Burn down an Applebee’s. Listen to Animal Collective. Start some kinda salsa company.”
October 5, 2025 at 1:35 PM
joanwestenberg.com
I know local hxc bands celebrating 200 Spotify plays with better merch.
A tweet by Sam McAllister (@sammcallister) reads: “GOOD MORNING NEW YORK CITY COME DO YOUR BEST THINKING AT OUR THINKING SPACE IN THE WEST VILLAGE SAY NO TO SLOP.” Below the text are four aesthetic film-style photos arranged in a grid: 1. A close-up of a person wearing a faded brown baseball cap embroidered with the word “thinking.” 2. A sidewalk sign for “Claude — The AI for problem solvers,” featuring an orange background, the Claude logo, and a QR code with text offering “Free coffee with the Claude app.” 3. A hand holding a book titled Machines of Loving Grace next to a white coffee cup labeled “Claude.” 4. A person sitting against a bright red wall and yellow curb, wearing a blue cap and brown jacket, head bowed in thought.
October 5, 2025 at 1:07 PM
joanwestenberg.com
It’s a fucking noun Garry
A tweet from Startup Archive (@StartupArc…) reads: “YC CEO Garry Tan: ‘Moat is not a noun. It’s a verb.’ Popular belief says startups win because they have one big, game-changing insight. But Varun Mohan (Windsurf CEO) argues that’s a myth. ‘Every single insight we have is a depreciating insight.’ In other words: the value of…” followed by a “Show more” link. Below the tweet is an image showing two men seated at a podcast-style discussion table with microphones and water glasses. The man on the left, wearing glasses and a dark green sweater, is speaking animatedly, while the man on the right, wearing glasses and a black shirt, listens. The video caption reads: “tech advantage that keeps existing.”
October 5, 2025 at 2:35 AM