Matt Gross
@worldmatt.bsky.social
I'm a writer, editor, and digital strategy/ops guy. Also a runner, climber, cook, traveler, and dad. Generally ironic, with brief bursts of earnestness. ❤️ 🌶️ Subscribe to Trying!, my daily newsletter of ideas: https://mattgrossistrying.com/
It's been a long while since I spent some time actively, joyously hating on things in Trying!, so today's is all about the unbearable awfulness of the Avatar movies, cryptocurrency, and Travel + Leisure — and about how loathing, truly and deeply expressed, is not much different from love.
August 14, 2025 at 5:20 PM
It's been a long while since I spent some time actively, joyously hating on things in Trying!, so today's is all about the unbearable awfulness of the Avatar movies, cryptocurrency, and Travel + Leisure — and about how loathing, truly and deeply expressed, is not much different from love.
Zionism? Anti-Zionism? From the river to the sea? These phrases get reinterpreted by anyone and everyone to mean anything and everything — they are now meaningless and useless.
August 11, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Zionism? Anti-Zionism? From the river to the sea? These phrases get reinterpreted by anyone and everyone to mean anything and everything — they are now meaningless and useless.
Children are truly terrible, but if you're only opposed to what Israel is doing in Gaza because kids are starving, well, have I got an essay for you!
August 8, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Children are truly terrible, but if you're only opposed to what Israel is doing in Gaza because kids are starving, well, have I got an essay for you!
Yes, the world is ending. But no, I'm not going to rant and rave about it anymore. Instead, I'm going to live my life, enjoy the collapse of human civilization as much as anyone can, and be psychologically prepared to flee when the end is truly nigh.
What are you going to do?
What are you going to do?
August 5, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Yes, the world is ending. But no, I'm not going to rant and rave about it anymore. Instead, I'm going to live my life, enjoy the collapse of human civilization as much as anyone can, and be psychologically prepared to flee when the end is truly nigh.
What are you going to do?
What are you going to do?
After the shooting in NYC yesterday, I wasn't sure I wanted to publish this essay about guns, which I'd mostly written before that news broke. It's called "If I had a gun," and it's a bit of a weird meditation on my own relationship to firearms.
July 29, 2025 at 2:36 PM
After the shooting in NYC yesterday, I wasn't sure I wanted to publish this essay about guns, which I'd mostly written before that news broke. It's called "If I had a gun," and it's a bit of a weird meditation on my own relationship to firearms.
I'm not a polyglot—not even really bilingual—but I live a multilingual life, one that shades from English into Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Vietnamese and more. And it all began with a truly terrible book of puns.
July 24, 2025 at 3:28 PM
I'm not a polyglot—not even really bilingual—but I live a multilingual life, one that shades from English into Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Vietnamese and more. And it all began with a truly terrible book of puns.
There's a lot of Condé Nast nostalgia in the air, so I figured I'd indulge with a memoir of my time at @bonappetit.bsky.social, back in 2012–2014. What was it really like there?
July 17, 2025 at 2:19 PM
There's a lot of Condé Nast nostalgia in the air, so I figured I'd indulge with a memoir of my time at @bonappetit.bsky.social, back in 2012–2014. What was it really like there?
Why I wear women's clothing: mattgrossistrying.com/p/why-i-wear...
July 14, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Why I wear women's clothing: mattgrossistrying.com/p/why-i-wear...
What's the difference between AI slop and AI sludge? And which one will make your life worse?
mattgrossistrying.com/p/ai-sludge-...
mattgrossistrying.com/p/ai-sludge-...
July 3, 2025 at 7:33 PM
What's the difference between AI slop and AI sludge? And which one will make your life worse?
mattgrossistrying.com/p/ai-sludge-...
mattgrossistrying.com/p/ai-sludge-...
I've always had an issue with the concept of pride—not only does it court the wrath of the gods, it's too showy, too one-note, too boring. Me, I prefer shame, the most delicious and interesting of emotions, the one that makes us truly human.
July 1, 2025 at 2:42 PM
I've always had an issue with the concept of pride—not only does it court the wrath of the gods, it's too showy, too one-note, too boring. Me, I prefer shame, the most delicious and interesting of emotions, the one that makes us truly human.
Twenty-five years ago I went to a restaurant that totally changed—or maybe clarified—my culinary philosophy, changing how I cook and eat.
June 19, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Twenty-five years ago I went to a restaurant that totally changed—or maybe clarified—my culinary philosophy, changing how I cook and eat.
A few months ago, my dad asked me to write a Trying! essay in the mode of a naturalist, so this is what I came up with: a piece that talks about birds, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and what it means to pay attention to the world around us.
June 17, 2025 at 3:27 PM
A few months ago, my dad asked me to write a Trying! essay in the mode of a naturalist, so this is what I came up with: a piece that talks about birds, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and what it means to pay attention to the world around us.
The authorities push the myth of nonviolence as the only legitimate form of resistance, even as they use violence to punish the nonviolent.
June 13, 2025 at 12:48 AM
The authorities push the myth of nonviolence as the only legitimate form of resistance, even as they use violence to punish the nonviolent.
Look, we all know there's no reason Andrew Cuomo should be running for NYC mayor—nor that he should be doing as well as he has been. And while it may seem like there's nothing we can do to stop him, I have actually found a solution: The solution is me.
June 10, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Look, we all know there's no reason Andrew Cuomo should be running for NYC mayor—nor that he should be doing as well as he has been. And while it may seem like there's nothing we can do to stop him, I have actually found a solution: The solution is me.
Last November, I tripped during a long run with Old Man Run Club and landed hard on my shoulder. While I shook it off and kept going, it took me _months_ to fully recover. I'm 50, after all—I don't heal overnight anymore.
June 5, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Last November, I tripped during a long run with Old Man Run Club and landed hard on my shoulder. While I shook it off and kept going, it took me _months_ to fully recover. I'm 50, after all—I don't heal overnight anymore.
Back in the mid-1990s, I spent a lot of time at Q Bar in Saigon. I was a bit out of place, was never an insider, but I loved it for what it was, and for the future it imagined for Vietnam.
May 29, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Back in the mid-1990s, I spent a lot of time at Q Bar in Saigon. I was a bit out of place, was never an insider, but I loved it for what it was, and for the future it imagined for Vietnam.
I have loved Stanley Tucci ever since the 1996 movie The Daytrippers, but I just will not—I cannot—watch him go to Italy and eat wonderful things.
May 28, 2025 at 2:39 PM
I have loved Stanley Tucci ever since the 1996 movie The Daytrippers, but I just will not—I cannot—watch him go to Italy and eat wonderful things.
I've been absolutely loving Andor, and when it turned out the final three episodes were written by my old friend Tom Bissell, I called him up to talk about narrative structure, quick deaths, and getting T-boned by Star Wars history.
mattgrossistrying.com/p/andor-tom-...
mattgrossistrying.com/p/andor-tom-...
We all have a place on the Wheel of Fate
A Q&A with 'Andor' writer Tom Bissell on narrative structure, quick deaths, and getting T-boned by Star Wars history.
mattgrossistrying.com
May 27, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I've been absolutely loving Andor, and when it turned out the final three episodes were written by my old friend Tom Bissell, I called him up to talk about narrative structure, quick deaths, and getting T-boned by Star Wars history.
mattgrossistrying.com/p/andor-tom-...
mattgrossistrying.com/p/andor-tom-...
This is a 1906 self-portrait of Henri Matisse wearing THE STRIPED T-SHIRT OF MY DREAMS.
May 22, 2025 at 2:30 PM
This is a 1906 self-portrait of Henri Matisse wearing THE STRIPED T-SHIRT OF MY DREAMS.
A special this week: Five mini Trying! essays for the price of one! They are:
![“[Family Portrait']” (ca. 1855), W.L. Germon](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:w3ypihyhjrt6367xkx34awke/bafkreibyn7ebp7afg4aabl3ydrvf6wgfhqz5sf4ptuynftbdqbehb77xa4@jpeg)
May 20, 2025 at 2:56 PM
A special this week: Five mini Trying! essays for the price of one! They are:
Remember when bloggers blogged about blogging on their blogs? Me too—I was one of them. But that word, "blog," has haunted me ever since, giving me a complex about my current project, Trying! What am I even trying to do here?
May 13, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Remember when bloggers blogged about blogging on their blogs? Me too—I was one of them. But that word, "blog," has haunted me ever since, giving me a complex about my current project, Trying! What am I even trying to do here?
Let’s just pretend for a moment that we are not living in a simulation. The cosmos that surrounds us is real, and the laws of physics, whether we understand them or not, apply, universally and indifferently, to the workings of the flesh in which our consciousnesses reside.
May 8, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Let’s just pretend for a moment that we are not living in a simulation. The cosmos that surrounds us is real, and the laws of physics, whether we understand them or not, apply, universally and indifferently, to the workings of the flesh in which our consciousnesses reside.
All my life, I had a complicated relationship with music—what I liked, what I didn't, what I was willing to tell people. Until, that is, I discovered Portishead, whose spooky-sad tunes wound up defining my life. Last month I saw their singer, Beth Gibbons, perform—so I had to write about it.
May 6, 2025 at 2:36 PM
All my life, I had a complicated relationship with music—what I liked, what I didn't, what I was willing to tell people. Until, that is, I discovered Portishead, whose spooky-sad tunes wound up defining my life. Last month I saw their singer, Beth Gibbons, perform—so I had to write about it.
More than any other event in history, the end of the Vietnam War determined the course of my life. On this 50th anniversary of April 30, I'm reflecting on the unpredictable strangeness of cause and effect—and wondering what comes next.
April 30, 2025 at 2:09 PM
More than any other event in history, the end of the Vietnam War determined the course of my life. On this 50th anniversary of April 30, I'm reflecting on the unpredictable strangeness of cause and effect—and wondering what comes next.
As we ALL know, the best way to explore a new city is on foot. Or is it? After years of trekking this way and that, I'm starting to think there's a better approach—and it's one I never would've expected.
April 24, 2025 at 2:17 PM
As we ALL know, the best way to explore a new city is on foot. Or is it? After years of trekking this way and that, I'm starting to think there's a better approach—and it's one I never would've expected.