Matt Kelland
@mattkelland.bsky.social
Work: consultant, ghostwriter, marketer
The real me: writes stories and a blog about neuroscience, loves cooking, hiking, & audio dramas, has eclectic tastes in music, books, & movies, makes vintage model kits, does tai chi & yoga, and plays viola badly.
The real me: writes stories and a blog about neuroscience, loves cooking, hiking, & audio dramas, has eclectic tastes in music, books, & movies, makes vintage model kits, does tai chi & yoga, and plays viola badly.
Americans are not nearly as divided as you think on issues such as diversity, immigration, civil rights, and inequality.
www.axios.com/2025/11/18/a...
www.axios.com/2025/11/18/a...
New poll finds most Americans fear civil war and democratic decline
The results depict worsening race relations and rising concerns about white supremacy.
www.axios.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Americans are not nearly as divided as you think on issues such as diversity, immigration, civil rights, and inequality.
www.axios.com/2025/11/18/a...
www.axios.com/2025/11/18/a...
I've believed this for a long time now. Humans aren't mentally or physically equipped to be modern city dwellers. I'm sure as hell not. Living in cities messes with our brains and bodies.
phys.org/news/2025-11...
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Humans are evolved for nature, not cities, say anthropologists
A new paper by evolutionary anthropologists Colin Shaw (University of Zurich) and Daniel Longman (Loughborough University) argues that modern life has outpaced human evolution. The study suggests that...
phys.org
November 19, 2025 at 1:21 PM
I've believed this for a long time now. Humans aren't mentally or physically equipped to be modern city dwellers. I'm sure as hell not. Living in cities messes with our brains and bodies.
phys.org/news/2025-11...
phys.org/news/2025-11...
"Do your own research!" Not so easy when you don't know how to evaluate actual scientific papers. At least 400,000 fraudulent papers have been published in the last 20 years and it's accelerating.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Doing your own research isn’t a bad thing, I tell my patients. But just how will they spot the fraudulent papers? | Ranjana Srivastava
While every self-aware doctor knows no one is an expert on everything, the average person turning to the internet cannot distinguish evidence from gloss
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:18 PM
"Do your own research!" Not so easy when you don't know how to evaluate actual scientific papers. At least 400,000 fraudulent papers have been published in the last 20 years and it's accelerating.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Matt Kelland
If you’ve ever struggled with getting an LLM to do what you tell it to do, this explains why in a succinct and eloquent form. They don’t follow instructions, they take suggestions.
arstechnica.com/ai/2025/11/f...
arstechnica.com/ai/2025/11/f...
Forget AGI—Sam Altman celebrates ChatGPT finally following em dash formatting rules
Ongoing struggles with AI model instruction-following show that true human-level AI still a ways off.
arstechnica.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:19 PM
If you’ve ever struggled with getting an LLM to do what you tell it to do, this explains why in a succinct and eloquent form. They don’t follow instructions, they take suggestions.
arstechnica.com/ai/2025/11/f...
arstechnica.com/ai/2025/11/f...
“I think the following is incontestable: the only way to get rid of all opinions that are different from yours is by carrying out unthinkable human rights atrocities.”
How to cope with information overload that our brains & social structures aren’t equipped for.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...
How to cope with information overload that our brains & social structures aren’t equipped for.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...
Don’t argue with strangers… and 11 more rules to survive the information crisis
Feeling overwhelmed by divisive opinions, endless rows and unreliable facts? Here’s how to weather the data storm
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:16 PM
“I think the following is incontestable: the only way to get rid of all opinions that are different from yours is by carrying out unthinkable human rights atrocities.”
How to cope with information overload that our brains & social structures aren’t equipped for.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...
How to cope with information overload that our brains & social structures aren’t equipped for.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...
Reposted by Matt Kelland
“Someone with a 1-hr car commute needs to earn 40% more to be as happy as someone with a short walk to work. On the other hand, if someone shifts from a long commute to a walk, their happiness increases as much as if they’d fallen in love.” #CityMakingMath
50 reasons to want more walkable cities.
50 reasons to want more walkable cities.
50 Reasons Why Everyone Should Want More Walkable Streets
From making you live longer to making cities more resilient: If you want a reason to make your city more walkable, it's in here.
www.fastcompany.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:40 AM
“Someone with a 1-hr car commute needs to earn 40% more to be as happy as someone with a short walk to work. On the other hand, if someone shifts from a long commute to a walk, their happiness increases as much as if they’d fallen in love.” #CityMakingMath
50 reasons to want more walkable cities.
50 reasons to want more walkable cities.
Gardens Aglow, Boothbay. The Botanic Gardens lit up, featuring giant trolls, wolves, and so much more. A wonderful evening out.
November 16, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Gardens Aglow, Boothbay. The Botanic Gardens lit up, featuring giant trolls, wolves, and so much more. A wonderful evening out.
Next up on the workbench: Maria from Metropolis. It's unusual to find a model of her in human form, not the Maschinenmensch. Resin model about 4" high from Blackheart.
November 16, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Next up on the workbench: Maria from Metropolis. It's unusual to find a model of her in human form, not the Maschinenmensch. Resin model about 4" high from Blackheart.
The models to the left of my desk: 1908 Voisin-Farman III (first to achieve more than 100 mile flight), 1909 Avro Triplane (first all-British aeroplane)and 1908 Antoinette V (first to reach 1,000m altitude).
Renwal kits from the early 1960s, which makes them slightly older than me.
Renwal kits from the early 1960s, which makes them slightly older than me.
November 16, 2025 at 7:09 PM
The models to the left of my desk: 1908 Voisin-Farman III (first to achieve more than 100 mile flight), 1909 Avro Triplane (first all-British aeroplane)and 1908 Antoinette V (first to reach 1,000m altitude).
Renwal kits from the early 1960s, which makes them slightly older than me.
Renwal kits from the early 1960s, which makes them slightly older than me.
I turned sixty yesterday, so I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my life. Books, of course, have played a huge part in that: I have no idea how many books I’ve read so picking my top ten was challenging. In fact, I couldn’t do it: there are eleven in this list.
open.substack.com/pub/mattkell...
open.substack.com/pub/mattkell...
My favorite books
These are the ones I read again and again and again
open.substack.com
November 15, 2025 at 3:04 PM
I turned sixty yesterday, so I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my life. Books, of course, have played a huge part in that: I have no idea how many books I’ve read so picking my top ten was challenging. In fact, I couldn’t do it: there are eleven in this list.
open.substack.com/pub/mattkell...
open.substack.com/pub/mattkell...
TIL The Karate Kid and Rocky were directed by the same person. Not sure how that fact passed me by for 40 years.
November 14, 2025 at 12:11 AM
TIL The Karate Kid and Rocky were directed by the same person. Not sure how that fact passed me by for 40 years.
Reposted by Matt Kelland
Reposted by Matt Kelland
There was a time I would have loved this idea. Now a) I'm too old and my eyesight sucks and b) the idea of flying things without proper training or a license appals me. I've done just enough flight training to know how terrifying that is.
www.jalopnik.com/2018896/pers...
www.jalopnik.com/2018896/pers...
How A Loophole Lets You Fly This Electric VTOL Without A Pilot's License - Jalopnik
The FAA has a loophole that allows pilots to fly ultralight aircraft without a license. The planes must meet specific weight and speed requirements to qualify.
www.jalopnik.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:56 AM
There was a time I would have loved this idea. Now a) I'm too old and my eyesight sucks and b) the idea of flying things without proper training or a license appals me. I've done just enough flight training to know how terrifying that is.
www.jalopnik.com/2018896/pers...
www.jalopnik.com/2018896/pers...
"Tangerine Dream have released more than 100 studio albums..." I think I know about 30 of them. Oh, and that doesn't include soundtracks, compilations or live albums, let alone any of Franke or Froese's solo albums. I think that makes them officially more prolific than Willie Nelson.
November 10, 2025 at 10:34 PM
"Tangerine Dream have released more than 100 studio albums..." I think I know about 30 of them. Oh, and that doesn't include soundtracks, compilations or live albums, let alone any of Franke or Froese's solo albums. I think that makes them officially more prolific than Willie Nelson.
Absolutely stopped in my tracks by this goth metal take on Albinoni's Adagio by Dark Princess. Not as powerful as the version on American Prayer, but still, enough that I had to step away from my desk and get my head together before I could carry on with work.
open.spotify.com/track/7CNQrj...
open.spotify.com/track/7CNQrj...
The Pyre's Song
open.spotify.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Absolutely stopped in my tracks by this goth metal take on Albinoni's Adagio by Dark Princess. Not as powerful as the version on American Prayer, but still, enough that I had to step away from my desk and get my head together before I could carry on with work.
open.spotify.com/track/7CNQrj...
open.spotify.com/track/7CNQrj...
“The more we focus on our productivity, the further we drift from the small human rituals that ground us.”
witwisdom.tomgreene.com/p/when-did-t...
witwisdom.tomgreene.com/p/when-did-t...
When Time Became the Enemy
How Productivity Hijacked Our Lives
witwisdom.tomgreene.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:43 PM
“The more we focus on our productivity, the further we drift from the small human rituals that ground us.”
witwisdom.tomgreene.com/p/when-did-t...
witwisdom.tomgreene.com/p/when-did-t...
Dems: people need affordable healthcare.
GOP: they're not gonna get it, but let's say we'll talk about it later.
Dems: oh, okay then.
Thanks, Congress.
GOP: they're not gonna get it, but let's say we'll talk about it later.
Dems: oh, okay then.
Thanks, Congress.
November 10, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Dems: people need affordable healthcare.
GOP: they're not gonna get it, but let's say we'll talk about it later.
Dems: oh, okay then.
Thanks, Congress.
GOP: they're not gonna get it, but let's say we'll talk about it later.
Dems: oh, okay then.
Thanks, Congress.
The models to the right of my desk: 1909 Bleriot XI (first to cross the Channel), 1909 Curtiss Golden Flyer (first to achieve 50mph), 1904 Wright Flyer (where it all started). Renwal kits from the early 1960s, which makes them slightly older than me, though not the oldest in my collection.
November 9, 2025 at 7:24 PM
The models to the right of my desk: 1909 Bleriot XI (first to cross the Channel), 1909 Curtiss Golden Flyer (first to achieve 50mph), 1904 Wright Flyer (where it all started). Renwal kits from the early 1960s, which makes them slightly older than me, though not the oldest in my collection.
Ten people who changed my life. Just three of them are still alive.
mattkelland.substack.com/p/my-mentors
mattkelland.substack.com/p/my-mentors
My mentors
An acknowledgement of some of the people who made me who I am
mattkelland.substack.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Ten people who changed my life. Just three of them are still alive.
mattkelland.substack.com/p/my-mentors
mattkelland.substack.com/p/my-mentors
Reposted by Matt Kelland
If Tesla is still around in 10 years. I hear their products are flying of the shelves. 🫠
If Musk meets all the benchmarks of his new $1 trillion pay package from Tesla he will be paid $274 MILLION EVERY DAY FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS
This is his part-time job
This is his part-time job
November 7, 2025 at 7:56 PM
If Tesla is still around in 10 years. I hear their products are flying of the shelves. 🫠
Our circadian rhythms are at odds with our economy: while other species prepare for rest and social bonding, we keep plugging away at the same 9-5 schedule whether it’s June or January.
www.importantnotimportant.com/p/winter-is-...
www.importantnotimportant.com/p/winter-is-...
Winter is coming (and your body knows it)
The biological reality your work schedule denies
www.importantnotimportant.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Our circadian rhythms are at odds with our economy: while other species prepare for rest and social bonding, we keep plugging away at the same 9-5 schedule whether it’s June or January.
www.importantnotimportant.com/p/winter-is-...
www.importantnotimportant.com/p/winter-is-...