Mike Paul
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Mike Paul
@mikepaul.com
500 followers 200 following 210 posts
Technomancer of learning. Running on caffeine, sci-fi, and the radical notion that students should actually enjoy learning. Probably plotting a rebellion. Blog at https://mikepaul.com
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Tonight's reading materials...
New comic books
September 8, 2025 at 9:09 PM
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Nice little milestone this evening.
1,000 days in a row reviewing highlights from Readwise
August 31, 2025 at 2:34 AM
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Saturday mornings are ruff...
Bassett hound asleep
August 30, 2025 at 5:52 PM
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More students (and teachers) should grasp this concept. School is a great thing, to be sure, but so is learning on your own. If we can bring that type of learning into our schools… oh, what a time we could have.

open.substack.com/pub/austinkl...
School is one thing. Education is another. The two don’t always overlap. Whether you’re in school or not, it’s always your job to get yourself an education.
August 26, 2025 at 2:16 PM
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"Fear tends to come from ignorance. Once I knew what the problem was, it was just a problem, nothing to fear." (Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind)
"Fear tends to come from ignorance. Once I knew what the problem was, it was just a problem, nothing to fear." (Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind)
August 24, 2025 at 3:19 PM
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"Knowledge is limitless. Therefore, there is a minuscule difference between those who know a lot and those who know very little." (Leo Tolstoy and Peter Sekirin, A Calendar of Wisdom)
"Knowledge is limitless. Therefore, there is a minuscule difference between those who know a lot and those who know very little." (Leo Tolstoy and Peter Sekirin, A Calendar of Wisdom)
May 13, 2025 at 11:51 AM
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"Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late." (Seth Godin, Tribes)
May 12, 2025 at 12:50 PM
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On doing the thing you’re meant to do, even if very few people, or no one, ever sees it:

“The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.” - Brian Eno
The Velvet Underground, 1965
May 5, 2025 at 12:59 PM
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This week's newsletter is out: open.substack.com/pub/mikepaul...
Long way home newsletter image, looking at the milky way at night
April 18, 2025 at 3:17 PM
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"Things have changed. There are even fewer edges now than there were before. The world is less wild. There are fewer magics, more secrets, and only a handful of people who know the name of the wind." (Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear)
April 14, 2025 at 12:39 PM
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Wise words we should all consider.
We shouldn’t ask kids what they want to be when they grow up. It encourages them to define themselves in terms of work. Who we become is not a question of career—it’s a matter of character. The highest aspiration is to be a person of generosity, integrity, humility, curiosity, and wisdom. - Adam Grant
April 9, 2025 at 3:57 PM
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Previewing tomorrow's newsletter...
A list of ten topics for a newsletter, written in a pocket notebook.
March 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
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This week's newsletter is out and filled with some good, some bad, and some great things.

www.eclecticeducator.com/p/the-depart...
Newsletter image for the Eclectic Educator showing a stencil about thinking and reading before you speak
March 22, 2025 at 1:36 AM
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The real issue in Fahrenheit 451 is scarier than you may think...
The thing people tend to forget about Fahrenheit 451 is that Bradbury is pretty clear about how by the time they started burning books no one was reading them anyway. That, not the censorship, is the really relevant part.
March 18, 2025 at 11:51 AM
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Silos, Acts, and Money... this week's newsletter is out!

open.substack.com/pub/mikepaul...
March 15, 2025 at 12:30 AM
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Good morning, #kyste25!
A view from inside the Kentucky International Convention Center
March 14, 2025 at 12:27 PM
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Always a symptom.

archive.ph/VamLM
Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Goering’s alleged statement (“When I hear talk of culture I reach for my gun”) to the frequent use of such expressions as “degenerate intellectuals,” “eggheads,” “effete snobs,” “universities are a nest of reds.” - Umberto Eco
March 12, 2025 at 11:58 PM
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Thoughts on why avoiding the inevitable is not so easy and often fruitless. You don’t have to dive in all the way, but blocking and banning (i.e. cellphones in classrooms) doesn’t really work. At least, not the way you’ll want it to work.
"Our first impulse when we confront extreme technology surging forward in this digital sphere may be to push back. To stop it, prohibit it, deny it, or at least make it hard to use. (As one example, when the internet made it easy to copy music and movies, Hollywood and the music industry did everything they could to stop the copying. To no avail. They succeeded only in making enemies of their customers.) Banning the inevitable usually backfires. Prohibition is at best temporary, and in the long run counterproductive." (Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable)
March 12, 2025 at 3:35 PM
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Afternoon thoughts.
“We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that death will tremble to take us.” — Charles Bukowski
March 10, 2025 at 8:26 PM
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Some fresh "ink" for the lappy...
Laptop stickers
March 10, 2025 at 7:29 PM
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Tech, politics, and education are colliding in ways we can’t ignore. This week’s newsletter unpacks how AI is actually helping teachers, the eerie prescience of Stephen King, and why TechDirt is now a democracy blog. Get caught up:

buff.ly/y3twOd7
Mike Paul's weekly newsletter
March 7, 2025 at 5:36 PM
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I am inexplicably excited about this...
March 5, 2025 at 6:31 PM
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An appropriate thought for our current times...
"It was strange, how readily authority could be conjured with nothing but a bit of strutting jackassery." (Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora)
March 4, 2025 at 9:55 PM
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Well... here we go...
Image of a print copy of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States
March 1, 2025 at 6:14 PM
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Gene Hackman the royal tenenbaums
February 28, 2025 at 5:02 PM