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Hello friends! You likely signed up for this after reading one of my essays on Medium or seeing something on . I send this thing every few months, mostly a wrap-up of stuff I'm working on, thinking about, and the best reading from around the web — all ending with a sweet flag. See past issues    Regular readers will know that I care deeply about our discourse and all of our roles in making it better. And, lately, I think we’ve turned a corner to something new and better. Seriously! A case for optimism!   To catch you up: I think the incentives of our news environment and distribution methods are contributing directly to the divisiveness in our country. And it seems that we’re beginning to reckon with that fact. It’s messy. It’s not anywhere close to be solved. But we’re talking honestly about it. And there's some actual movement and wide recognition of the problems. Which is the first step in solving them.   I know it’s hard to stay upbeat in the current media and political climate. So allow me to (hopefully) cheer you up!     Platforms have gotten away with the “we’re neutral!” defense for too long when it comes to bullying, abuse, and misinformation. More people are realizing that no platform can afford to be neutral. That even the choice of "neutrality" has consequences. Platforms must have what They must make (or be forced to make) choices. Example: As our president uses Twitter to saber-rattle, should Twitter ban him? Lots of people say "yes." I say "omg-no-do-you-realize-what-that-will-mean?" . Basically: I think these platforms are in a new regulatory category that we haven't defined yet. So let's not set bad precedent. I’d love your thoughts.   The horrific shooting Las Vegas is no cause for anything short of despair. But the reaction to it has gone beyond the all-too-typical choreography around mass shootings. More of our conversation is how our platforms seed misinformation for partisan ends. Mozilla even held a "" (I GUESS MY INVITE GOT LOST IN THE MAIL, GUYS)   Google indexed 4chan as a leading news source when the suspect’s name was searched. YouTube was surfacing unspeakably abhorrent results. Facebook was .   That’s led to some condemnations from The Atlantic (and others): .     After thinking it was “pretty crazy” to think that Facebook swung the election, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is singing a difference tune, including … and even .     Can we regulate our way out of this issue? Should we? We’re starting to grapple with this now. It's suspected that Facebook isn’t releasing any of the because of .   And now both left and right are circling ... there has even been a bi-partisan policy paper .     It’s become clear that Twitter . Along with Facebook and Google, Twitter representatives will be appearing in front of the SIC on Nov 1. It has already turned over suspected .     After Rose McGowan was suspended from Twitter many users revolted, boycotting Twitter for a day using the #WomanBoycottTwitter hashtag. Normally, such hashtag activism would go nowhere. But Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded, acknowledging they must do better and .     More serious thinkers than ever are publicly grappling with the complexity and intractable nature of this issue. Some examples:

Hello friends! You likely signed up for this after reading one of my essays on Medium. I send this thing every few months, mostly a wrap-up of stuff I'm working on, thinking about, and the best reading from around the web — all ending with a sweet flag. See past issues  I’ll be honest, I’ve sat on this newsletter for a few weeks because I’m worried about how it will read. But here we go anyway.   I’ve been pretty angsty about the current media environment in the U.S. and all of its side effects. You could even say I’ve been old-man cranky about it all. It feels like things are fundamentally broken, that the incentive structure for online media is poisonous, and that we’re suffering for the problem with our politics. I’m bummed because I feel like a fatalist — like the solutions are impossible because it requires a total rethinking of the way things work, especially around revenue models .   So, I’ve taken to asking friends if they feel the same, and the answer is almost always a resounding and relieving “yeah, me too.”  So, I’d like to expand the question to you:   I can’t help but think that all of this unhappiness will bring some sort of cataclysm to relationship between publishers, platforms, and advertising — and that's the theme of this issue. The rumblings are there (as you’ll see in the links below), and I suspect that the ad-pocalypse is near.   Okay, whining over.   (Just kidding, the whining shall continue.)     I have a handful of half-completed essays about online editorial and the news ecosystem that don’t quite deserve 1,000 words. So, a new semi-annual tradition here: I’m going to empty out my draft folder and share them with you, each containing a prediction about the months to come.     Those of us that write things on the internet assume our readers have the same hyper-complex mental model of how the web works that we do. But to the average reader, the nuances aren’t as obvious.   Both opinion and reported news articles are on nytimes.com with the masthead. The TV cable pundit who is a paid party operative is on the same network as the serious investigative journalist. The consequences of this confusion are compounding as the editorial ecosystem matures, leading to broader confusion around the credibility of EVERY news outlet. Prediction: News outlets will begin to take steps to protect their newsrooms from complaints lobbed at their opinion sections. This will result in news sites that only, well, report the news while analysis is spun off into wholly separate brands. And when you see these brands on social media or on television there will be no ambiguity.     now routinely publishes political essays (). ESPN is for (and its puzzling, from a mission perspective, investment in ). Russ Douthat before the election, “Institutions that were seen as outside or sideways to political debate have been enlisted in the culture war” and his observation seems more prescient each day.   I have a half-baked theory: Most writers, at the end of the day, want to create things their friends like. To beat a dead horse: most writers at these publications are from a narrowing number of backgrounds. They also need content to spread on social media, a medium that rewards emotion. What better way to do that than writing about political issues? But what's important or "right" to writers doesn't always line up with public opinion. (One case: That "controversial" Pepsi ad? It worked. .)   Brands like and ESPN are ceding the apolitical ground and thus, some of their audience. I suspect there will be a group of next generation media companies that pick up what publications like these are leaving behind, serving audiences that are not being served well by modern online media. The apolitical backlash is coming. (Or, worst case, there will be a coastal and heartland version of everything).     The recent news about Nautilus’ struggles (more below) are just another reminder: the current economics of the web often don't support labor-intensive editorial strategies that focus religiously on quality. If you want to play the sponsored content or scale advertising game, you may be in luck. But if you’d rather not cater to the whims of social media and SEO practices, it gets difficult.   However, the economics of the web DO support small staffs with focused missions and audiences. I expect that more people will spin off more “micro-brands” with less than 20 staff all focusing on a specific niche or audience (i.e. no “general interest” brands). These brands will take little or no venture capital money, and will derive a significant portion of revenue from direct reader payments (events, subscriptions, products, courses). They will rely less on platforms like Facebook, Google, and YouTube and attempt to reclaim websites as destinations largely using email.     : Publishers are starting to revolt against platforms (remember kids, always own your platform). writes how Facebook . Publishers like the when they “found that links back to the Times’ own site monetized better than Instant Articles.” But guys, don’t worry, Facebook . 🙄     : Yahoo’s demise is a sign of things to come. With Google and FB collecting 85 percent of all ad revenue, what’s left for the rest of us? : “If you run a business that relies on digital-advertising revenue for an outsized portion of your funding, you need to find new streams of revenue. Now. It may already be too late.”   : Its writing has won a number of awards, its site is well-trafficked, its articles boast incredible design and depth, and the brand is much-respected amongst both scientific and media communities. Yet, the magazine is  and if it doesn't receive additional funding, could be in serious trouble.   that are at the end of most articles? Chances are, those articles were served up via Outbrain or Taboola, who are now . , the combined entity would be the second biggest player in the space. Less competition = not good for publishers.   which is avoiding scale while . As with any media brand there are still questions: Who, exactly, is the audience for Outline? Haven’t seen many many other people claim they have “better ads” only to retreat to the mean? Haven’t readers shown to be ambivalent about a well-designed article page? The current triumph of The Outline isn’t its "success." It’s that somewhere out there a group of smart people are trying something different. As founder Josh Topolsky writes “No one has all the answers, but very few people are even trying to get them.” We could use more people trying to get them.     and is attempting to change the economy of the web with something it calls “.” I’ve used it on and off for the past two weeks. So far so good!   as text message conversations. The company calls it “chat fiction” and they have been rewarded with .   . My friend Sapna Maheshwari writes in the how Chase cut the sites it was advertising on from 400,000 to 5,000 and .     when all context is lost. In a word: brand.   . But the effects reverberate beyond writers and journalists. The resulting budget crunch has centralized much of our media production on the coasts. And, well, .   . In music, .   . Should we ?   *cut to me nodding aggressively*     My new gig as the editor in chief of and is moving along swimmingly. More insights from this process to come soon. But in the meantime, I’m in search of guest posts for both sites. Things I’m looking for in particular: Sound like you? Respond to this email and let’s talk. I have a budget to commission pieces.       We like to tell children to be anything they want to be, and to live the life they want to live. Whitney Smith . Obsessed with flags since he was a young boy, Smith dedicated his entire life to studying and promoting the things. He gave the study of flags its official name (vexillology), designed the official flag of Guyana, founded the , and edited the Flag Bulletin. Pictured above, his design for the Antarctic flag lost out to as the official continent emblem in 2002. According to Wikipedia, it was designed to look unlike any other nation’s flag, to signify Antarctica’s location on a standard globe, and to stand out in the snow.   Dear reader you stand out better than any orange flag Whitney Smith could come up with. Thank you for getting to the end of the longest-ever edition of this newsletter. <3   -Sean    

Hello friends! You likely signed up for this after reading one of my essays on Medium. I send this thing every few months, mostly a wrap-up of stuff I'm working on and the best reading from around the web—all ending with a sweet flag. See past issues here. Now, to the newsletter:   I’d guess that you, like me, can’t stand the news anymore. I’ve spent a lot of time wondering why and I think you can draw a straight line from the bad business models of news to the current state of discourse in America. I’m tired of news outlets playing to our worst instincts and I’m tired that Americans now default to harming one another rather than helping one another. .   ...The piece has been up for a week and the main criticism, especially from folks that work in the media, is that there’s no solution offered. I suppose that was kind of the point, I wanted to point out how systemic these issues were. Especially to people who don’t stare at media/tech landscape every day. But otherwise feedback has been good, and the piece was the number 1 read piece on Medium for parts of last week. So if you shared or commented or emailed me to share your thoughts, thank you!   ...But, after seeing reaction, I wish I better hammered home how it all leads to divisiveness. I really really really can’t stand how Americans assume the worst in one another.   _   The end of my trip is in sight, and so my quest to return to the working world is getting serious.     . But such an ambitious undertaking didn’t happen easy. . Which, even if you’ve never heard of the game, is a great look at how complicated creative projects happen (and yet a single staff member wrote most of the game’s translated English text…) Also, shoutout to all my gamers that beat the Ruby and Emerald weapons.     . But, like most things, this depends on your level of education and income. Poor children are more likely to use technology to play games. Wealthy children are more likely to use technology to find “practical information.” Like careers, technology is a case of “you don’t know what you don’t know.” From the piece, “disadvantaged students are .”   by .    So leave it to a computer programmer to keep detailed records on his job search and how he received eight offers ranging from $60-125k in salary. The main takeaway? A good job search requires with . I can't believe I just typed that sentence. Hopefully it leads to more pieces that seek out commonality. Hopefully. Maybe. . For the American edition, organizers made clear that . Many folks have pointed out that winning elections requires aligning with people you may not always agree with. So how does one balance ideological purity end and inclusion? Especially when including the group would have likely been .   . Gawker killer and seemingly the tech world's only Trump supporter. He's either so smart he’s crazy or so crazy he’s smart. is a pretty good litmus test for which side of that equation you fall on. At least read it for this sick burn of Twitter’s role in the election: “I think the crazy thing is,” he says, “at a place like Twitter, they were all working for Trump this whole year even though they thought they were working for Sanders.”   Which is why I enjoyed this candid look at the process from Caterina Kostoula. , she decided to use her savings to move her family to Greece and Thailand for six months. As my own little mini-sabbatical winds down I appreciated the financial realtalk, about how any time off is likely a huge hit to any of your future earnings and there’s . that, since both companies went public in 2004, ?  

Above: Though the Hong Kong skyline is certainly jaw-dropping, while there I found myself transfixed more by the symmetry   This week, Amazon announced a . Which, of course, would mean millions more jobs that stand to be automated in the foreseeable future. This has me pondering: ? And how can we best prepare for this new age?   So, I'd like your help to be a "beta reader" of something I'm working on. . I promise to read and respond.      , it’s affecting Wall Street too. The consensus to surviving all of these? Learning how to learn. :

Hello friends! If my numbers are true, this is the first newsletter for many of you. I send this thing every few months, mostly a wrap-up of stuff I'm working on and the best reading from around the web—all ending with a sweet flag. See past issues here. Now, to the newsletter: Two weeks later, and I’m sure you’re tired of reading takes on the election. So I’ll be brief and, hopefully, unique:   An election is a headcount. A chance for (usually) two competing world views to make their case, and for people to subsequently line up behind the one they identify with most. If the results of an election surprise you, it’s a good time to do some introspection: How’d I miss this? What can I do differently to make sure I better understand? How can I ensure my desired outcome happens next time?   The most frustrating aspect of our post-election world for me is the lack of such introspection. Those that got it so wrong are seemingly disinterested in reassessing their worldview, instead preferring to engage in dead-end squabbles on stuff that absolves everyone from asking hard questions (!). The result also was a judgement of sorts on the effectiveness of certain social networks and news outlets. It's clear that the same people are talking to the same people in a feedback loop that puts one in an alternate universe. As a result, for the next few weeks I hope to do less broadcasting online and more one-on-one chats in-person or over email. In that spirit, if you feel ways about this election,. I’d love to hear your take. Were you surprised? Vindicated? Terrified? Totally stoked? Let me know.      But it's in your interest to (when you're ready) open back up to your counterparts and reassess your world view. Why?So you're heard (even if you think the Other Side is absolutely awful). From the 's :

: Last week, I turned 30. On Friday, . And next week I'm getting married (!!!). And then on October 9th, I board a plane with my soon-to-be-wife for a five month trip across the the Southern Hemisphere — one I've been thinking about since I've been in high school.  . In March I'll be back in NYC and likely looking to work on or for another awesome publication. Communities built around editorial are still my favorite thing to think about. In the meantime, I hope to dabble in some side projects like , do some consulting, and lots of writing. I also still think a bunch about careers and career advice and hope to write more there. Don't worry, I will not start a travel blog and this newsletter will keep on coming.  Updates here as they come! : . Competency is cool. "Adulting" is lame. Fagan: "It should not be a source of Zooey Deschanel-esque pride to be wobbling through life with an oversized lollipop in one hand and an iPhone in the other, unsure of how to open a checking account." I'd add that all of those awful Instagram memes about being "flawed" () normalize this ignorance. Also, get off my lawn. 🚨🚨  The alert is back! Specifically, I've thinking about how embracing identity politics affects the way we talk (or don't) about certain issues. A few essays I've been stewing over: 

Earlier this month, I spent a week touring the Mississippi Delta and exploring its blues tradition. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of blues. If you’re into it, . —

. We totally relaunched and redesigned 99U.com. . Editorial nerds can peep the 6-month long process from conception to redesign . In short, we're focusing 99U further on the creative community, a choice that has manifested itself in a revamped magazine (above) a new website and a few more projects. Strategically we're making use of 99U's deep evergreen service article archives and driving email conversions.  . Speakers included Project Greenlight's Effie Brown, 's Tristan Walker, Treehouse's Ryan Carson and many more. Read our recap . Videos to come! It's about how I've noticed a .  : Or, if you're dramatic: Is capitalism broken? Two schools of thought:  What are the odds that we happen to be living through the end of our particular economic system? It's arrogance to assume now is more important than... any time since the beginning of capitalism. Also, jobs have been automated before, income has been unequal before. The system survives and thrives.   We are creating lots of value in the information/network economies and not being rewarded for it. ? . I've seen calls to nationalize monopolistic data sets like the ones held by Apple and Google for the public good. After all, thats where a lot of the value we're creating is being stored. Shouldn't we all benefit? I've also seen calls to raise minimum wage to automate "" and force companies to innovate to make up the difference in revenue. Basically, the only reasons humans still do some jobs is because they are cheaper than robots. (If you're obsessed with this as much as me, I highly suggest reading by Paul Mason. And  (). Currently reading , available for free .) — We have 1000 career books and career coaches and no one is discussing the elephant in the room. Does this interest the hell out of you, too? Reply to this email and let's talk! – . The real benefits of wealth is not material (per se) . This, to me, is the real benefit of growing blessed with some degree of wealth. You know what success looks like and have a clear idea on what it takes to get there. . So, and recognize that the average 29 year old didn't graduate from college and doesn't live in a coastal city. Why the untrue media perception of the coddled millennial? Shocker: It's because reporters are blind to how insular their world is. 's Derek Thompson : "Well-educated journalists in these dense cities [like NYC and SF] wind up with a skewed impression of the world, a 'majority illusion' based on the extremely unrepresentative cross-section of the country that’s immediately around them." Consider that you may not have all of the information. . That you may have . Or   - Also, beware of false narratives this election cycle. There's evidence to suggest that Americans . And Trump voters . They actually are more wealthy (median household income: $72,000) than Clinton and Sanders voters ("around $61,000 for both"). - Also, also: if you read and write things on the internet  and . Stop doing that. Hold on while I admire this mirror. One reason, , and work more hours. "The cultural expectation that men be the top providers proves to be an insurmountable force, even (or especially) among the best educated households"   (Hold on while I knock on every piece of wood in this room). Here's what works: . Service a very specific niche. Gather email addresses. Add value to their lives and become indispensable. . In fact, . ! : ; ; ; ; and The Financial Diet because, . The flag of Vieques, Puerto Rico. I had the pleasure of spending last week there. The island was a US Navy bombing site until 2003 when (as with most things in the world, .) The island features miles of largely untouched beaches + nature reserves and a jaw-dropping Bioluminescent Bay. The Vieques flag features a simplified coat of arms of the island and is one of the few flags I've seen that features red on green on blue. You never make me blue, dear reader, — Sean  

I spent Fourth of July weekend in Miami. Highlight: The Wynwood Walls where street artists have taken over large swaths of the neighborhood. The "Octophant" above is by Alexis Diaz.  I've written two things recently. I've been obsessed with sites that compete above the daily social media scrum and solve a real problem by publishing content that builds on itself like chapters to a never-ending book. It's a direction I hope to take 99U. I've been calling this strategy Resource-Focused Editorial and . . I've been interviewing entrepreneurs for six years now, and Walker is one of the most focused I've ever spoken with. In my favorite part of the conversation he speaks about how to find your "big idea." So many people I chat with know they want to start a company, but not quite sure of the product. Sound like you? Walker's journey . , which is part of Zoofest in Montreal. Big thanks to for inviting me. Another big thanks to poutine.  And now, to the links!  and how that is sabotaging our ability to empathize and understand one another . for anyone that likes to think about the future of work and technology. In 2007 he published a "Guide to Career Planning" that still holds up today. I spend most of my waking hours at 99U trying to surface good advice, and this is chock full of it. . ? For media junkies John Herrman's take on the industry in his column "" is a must read. Also, the is a great example of what a publication should be: devoid of outside investment, tightly run, for a very specific audience. The will outlast  Mark my words. (I'll admit: I really didn't "get" the until I moved to New York. I don't know what that says about me. Or New York. This is embarrassing, let's just move on.) - Reason 5,326 why event-driven content business are better: . . and it was created by a former Tinder employee to reduce the, well, unsavory-ness of the typically-male opening salvo.    : no internet, no ATM acess, to cell phone usage. The culprit? . Saipan's cable is connect to Guam's, which is connected to the SEA-US cable that . There's . And, since its hard to monitor cables thousands of meters below the ocean's surface, they are .  (so says its new editorial director Amy O’Leary ).  Fiji (like New Zealand) is wising up to the pitfalls of the Union Jack and creating a new flag. .  (Though the new flag may , says The )  Did you know it has a massive ? Did you know that the reason the circle in the flag is positioned slightly to the left is so it appears to be centered when the flag is waving? () Get a wonderful 10-minute primer on this nation . The reason you're positioned slightly to the left is because you're in my heart. Thanks for reading. -Sean

I spent last weekend in the UK attending the where 60 people camp in a field at night and attend talks in a nearby barn during the day. Random highlights:

Remember when, during episode 1 of season 2 of , Frank Underwood goes the entire episode without his trademark breaking of the fourth wall? And then at the end, just when you think he won't do it anymore, ? Well, friends, I didn't forget about you. Perhaps you think I had? Welcome back. Two weeks ago, we produced our seventh 99U Conference here in NYC , and many many more. You can read our recaps . There, ThinkUp founder Anil Dash challenged the audience to share who "opened the door" for them in their careers. Why? Because not only is it nice to thank those that helped you, it shows others your path. So, I took his advice. Here's my latest: . I also recently spoke about "rethinking the career" at the in Minneapolis. You can check the reactions . It's a talk I've been working on for more than a year now, with the hopes of better arming us all to navigate the new career landscape. Big thanks to the kind folks at the conference who told me their career story afterward. To the links! HBR . of this piece is heartbreaking. One story: 

Hello friends!

I just spent the weekend in Puerto Rico and learned that PR doesn't observe daylight savings time. Then I learned Hawaii, Arizona, also do not observe. But the Navajo nation (mainly ) does. So if you have a Navajo friend, they'll be an hour ahead of you all winter. Weird. Also can we talk about Indiana's ? There . Also also: Jim from the Newsroom is in that clip. . The book is a no-bullshit guide for those of us who like making stuff more than being a manager. And it's not just your average collection of paper, the book is designed in-house at Behance by our crack team of world-class designers. It's truly a beautiful object. So far so good, the book debuted at number 96 on Amazon. . First Uber violated the privacy of its users, . Then at a maybe-sorta "off the record" dinner, an Uber executive declared his intentions to launch an "offensive" by using Uber data of media members . I'll save you the outrage. You know it's messed up. I know it's messed up. Mainly, I want to praise Ben Smith of Buzzfeed for reporting this (there were other journalists in the room as well). From Mitt Romney's 47% to Donald Sterling we should know that nothing is off the record anymore. The Uber exec should have known he had no privacy when discussing his attempts to violate the privacy of journalists around journalists. And it's that brazen arrogance with our data which should bother us most. :  One rival team executive said the Nuggets called to propose a trade that was obviously unkosher under league rules, something that rarely, if ever, happens because no general manager wants to betray ignorance of such a rudimentary part of the gig. Most have the good sense to call the league to fact-check potential acquisitions." For most of us, the answer is yes. High school dropout rates, college enrollment, drunken driving, traffic deaths, infant mortality, life expectancy, and male-female wage equality . To quote Louis C.K.:  Why? Because when you have the option of running a tech company or a content company, . So what happens when Vox Media, the content company that has its own fancy CMS named Chorus, runs out of investor cash? . Fun fact: at least three people have told me that they have spotted Ive in SF riding with his chauffeur that takes him to work everyday. . They told him to go pound sand. . Typical NY.  Guy starts company and.... he's just a guy. ? How the maniacal focus on productivity .  . A bunch of scientists simulated a universe which only contained 1,000 particles. They found that the particles would inevitably clump together in a single ball and expand again. Sound familiar? It's possible that our "Big Bang" . And that time moves backwards and forwards from that point resulting in similar events. And so many people did, without hesitation, or requiring anything in exchange." Why everybody, yes, even you, . (this link is totally NSFW) . My most common career advice to friends usually relies on this stat. When you're young, opportunity costs are low and the upside is high. If you don't like your job, quit. It may be winter, but you warm my heart. --Sean  

Hello friends! You look fantastic today.

Quick halloween recap: I saw 4 Bob's Burgers group costumes, 3 Squints and Wendy couples, and 2,321 superheroes. Best costume: a cowboy with his clothes on backwards. A reverse cowboy! Hope your halloween was full of sugar and good times. And now, the reader's equivalent of a pillow case full of candy: You wanna make the raw materials or be the reseller, and not in between. This is the "smile curve" and it appears to be coming to the world of online content. You want to be a writer or a focused publication (the raw materials) or you want to be Google or Facebook (the resellers). I highly recommend . It's one of the smartest things I've read about publishing. —: . —: the people behind the magical and frustrating .  : If you were dating someone and after a month and you discovered they had a six-figure debt, how would that affect the relationship? Money and relationship are . . Guess what two issues the site ? I, for one, welcome our corporate overlords. . So what happens when we ? — : Uber claims its drivers make $90,000 a year. . — : Will Bunch is a columnist and reporter for the . UberX is coming to Philly, illegally. When an UberX car was towed away, Bunch wanted to send a reporter out to cover it. But then, he realized . "I found myself covering 'the sharing economy' of transportation—thanks to the 'sharing economy' of news." — : Philly Mag . Selected quote: "I had one guy jump in and look at me and say, 'Hey, you scared?' And I fucking floored it. Floored it. I tore around the corner and then looked at him and said, 'No, are you?'" . Are ? But with "affirmative consent" laws hitting the books, ? . . The reason? Global warming. (and how "untraditional" paths motherhood are becoming more common). . Bruce Buschel sums up why PTI is the best sports show on TV: "[Hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon] are just two good friends who sit and talk. With exquisite timing. Without punchlines tread upon. When one gets hot, the other goes cool. Yin juggles yang. Yang jiggles yin. They agree or disagree with equal fervor; they hold back nothing, ." How many Americans are Muslim? Christian? Immigrants? Your answers to all those questions . . Now there are 28. By 2030, the UN predicts there will be 41. And these "mega cities" will control most of the world's financial resources. ? Also, .  and leaked the assassination story to Danny Concannon on the ? No? Well, .  This is a story about how an Emmy-award winning, bestselling author and Harvard grad . This is also a reminder that most people . even though you don't live within 30 miles of them. This is the "modern friendship" and it .  you're . Jimmy Eat World, . --Sean PS. Respond to this email with any awesome links you think I missed. You receive credit in the next edition! 

Last week I turned 28. I recently discovered that my health insurance allows me to get 30 free massages a year from my chiropractor's office. So on the morning of my birthday, I decided to take them up on that. I had been to the office before. My doctor, Samuel Tarrant, was a spry older man. He told me to take care of myself because he was over 50, and felt great. He looked like he was in late 30s and would bounce off the walls and ask me about my week and check in on me—basically everything you'd want from a doctor. But when I visited the office that morning, I was greeted by another doctor, a younger woman.
"Where's Dr. T?" I asked. Her expression went blank. "He passed away," she said, emotionless from a month's worth of grieving. "Hit and run. He was my buddy, and it's honestly been really tough around here lately." Dr.  I'm not going to act like I was particularly close to the doctor I only saw occasionally. But to hear about the death of a perfectly healthy man on the morning of your birthday granted me (and, in turn, I hope you) some perspective. I know you didn't know Dr. T, but if you'd like to do something good and are feeling charitable, his family is asking for . When you donate, there's a little space where you can write Dr. Tarrant's name.  And now, the links. Well, Larry Ellison is . Dude just purchased an entire island with 3,200 residents. How's that work? Well, . that will never be breached by us mere peons. Surprisingly, 12% of the population will find themselves in the top 1% for at least a year and a 73% of us will spend a year in the top 20%. That's straight from the IRS. So lets . : 27% of first time home buyers . That's lower than I expected.  . Events are the way forward for monetizing content.  : Writer leaves town. returns, discovers a new sports bar on her street. writes: "I was horrified ... ." That faint crashing sound you hear is me flipping a table. and I'd even watch him if he were just reading ingredients from a box of cereal. But for now, we'll settle with .  on your articles. But there's a budding movement . A look at some sites reveals the dregs of humanity in the comments section (hi YouTube!). My take? Thoughtful content and a narrow niche are the elements that create great discussion. If you're a "general interest" site or are just pumping out clickbait, no comments. But if two lines from me in a newsletter doesn't satisfy your desire to learn every freakin' thing you possibly could about comments, . . So what happens when the internet famous stop being a person and start becoming a symbol? Jason Kottke, explores being internet famous and how common dynamics   . What we choose to "get outraged about" says a lot about ourselves. () And rarely is someone in the trenches willing to give us real talk about how hard it can all be. You should read Rand Fishkin's gripping essay on . We often marvel that only a few people can run a business making iPad cases. Or jewelery. Or furniture. But often there's a entire ecosystem that supports businesses like these. ? You're awesome, --Sean P.S. 99U Conference ticketing is now open. It's 4/29-5/1 in NYC. .

Happy football season everyone! A football blowout preview spectacular is below. Don't care about football? Happy second week of September! You did it!

And now the links: It's highly likely your job didn't exist 10 years ago, so the answer is a bit squishy and the explanation is long. But I think the harder it is to explain your job, the better. So I wrote this thing about how .  It's another venture capital-baked content startup ! (As an aside, I once interviewed a VC who said he'd only invest in content if it was based on user generated content. Bootstrap your content startups, people.) should we just be ? : Peter Thiel (best known as the man behind PayPal and Palantir, investor in Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, among may others) was on the fast track form Stanford, to law school, to a prestigious finance job. .  with the modern amenities of a smart phone .   who gives a shit ?  . , and some even suspect they are actively making the world a dumber place, as they very well may be." . My thought: quality always always always wins in the end. It just may take longer than we had hoped.   Did you know that NFL players are twice as likely to face weapons charges but ?...  is Jim Cramer in an Eagles jersey. See? Not Eagles fans are obnoxious ... We are judging kickers ... Want to know what it's like for billionaires who have been successful their entire lives to finally regress to the mean?  ...  and are in favor of keeping the name of the Washington professional football team ... No one cares .... "I wouldn't have any idea where to get a Molly ." ... For the record: is the most vicious hit in NFL history... If you want to know how good a football team really was, . And now my official preview: I'm going to go chalk and say the Seahawks repeat, the Eagles go 8-8 after Foles or McCoy get hurt, and the nation will collectively know all the words to approximately 145,121 stupid beer and car commercials. As always, thanks for making space in your inbox for this little ol' letter. --Sean

Happy Labor Day, yo! I'm honored you have allowed a small place in your inbox for this little ol' newsletter. I'll be eating a cheeseburger in your name today. On a potato roll. Or maybe a pretzel roll. Those are the roll rankings, everyone knows this. 

. I wrote about what I see as a growing trend: . After I wrote that post, I interviewed DuckDuckGo founder Gabe Weinberg for 99U on his . He views content as one of the 17 "" that businesses can use to draw attention to their product. His caution to me: when you're a hammer, everything can look like a nail. Don't assume content is the best or only way to build an audience. Tough medicine for us writer/journalist types. : GE runs a pretty robust content shop. . innocuous either fight like hell to try and go to an Ivy League school (the networking, man, the networking!) or save your money and go to a cheap public school that allows you to have a life and explore your interests. Well, the New Yorker contends I . . Did you know Belgium to sabotage a German advance? Did you know there was an ? Did you know Franz Ferdinand was killed hours after surviving another assassination attempt in what has to be ? I've spent 12 hours these past two weeks  about how truly gruesome/interesting/relevant WW1 really was. Seriously, I was nearly late to work on Tuesday because of it. "It was their early rush into what Dr. Allen calls pseudomature behavior that set them up for trouble. Now in their early 20s, many of them have had difficulties with intimate relationships, alcohol and marijuana, and even criminal activity.  Why being the cool kid in middle/high school : . In what year was it written? The answer may surprise you. # . Like usual, Quartz is ahead of the curve with .  : People are moving to places like Texas and Georgia  there. Also people are . And with that, . Thoughts? Complaints? Links for next week? Reply to this newsletter. I promise I'll read and reply to every email. -Sean P.S. You should know, this edition was written live on an Amtrak train from Wilmington, Delaware to New York, New York. Go Amtrak.

Hello friends,

You're getting this either because you signed up for my editorial jobs list or my general newsletter. Well, there's no more editorial jobs newsletter. It became too hard to connect all the interested applicants with the people that are hiring. So I'm rebooting this sucker as a sparingly sent general update will all my latest writings and other whimsy. Not for you? No hard feelings. . Still on board? Great. On with the first issue. . So launching a print magazine for 99U was out of my comfort zone. We aren't the first to go the online to print route yet no one seems to be talking about this, so I shared 5 things I learned .  . Choice excerpt: "You think it’s maybe a bit cavalier to walk away like nothing happened when the greatest basketball player ever just vanished down a golf hole? You don’t want to call the police?" I enjoyed this one so much .  . The article leans Maciej Cegłowski who founded a Delicious-like bookmarking service called Pinboard. The dude has long been an outspoken critic of the VC / advertising system we've seemed to find ourselves in. Basically: The costs of experimentation online ore negligible. So charge directly for your product and you wont need to raise millions of dollars in VC. In fact, . . To put it lightly, the local media scene . My friend and Technical.ly co-founder Christopher Wink has .   as suggested by master thinker . This book is by two long-time university professors and is reshaping the way I approach learning new subjects. This one will take you three or four settings and is written clearly and actionably. Recommended. Next up is . But nine of the ten fastest-growing large metropolitan areas are in the sun belt.  "Few urbanists wax poetic about Dallas or Des Moines ... but these 'opportunity cities' offer what Descartes called 'an inventory of the possible' — ." In case you want to get mad at NY, here's a trend story about married couples . In case you want to get mad at SF, visit. . on his advice for 20-somethings . . Even if you're not into football I'm sure you can dig someone who is shaking up a stale industry. And . If you dug this, forward to a friend. I promise to high-five you the next time I see you. - Sean