I’m starting a series where I will post links and short descriptions to articles I’ve read, my progress in the books I’m reading, and other interesting media that I would like to share but otherwise won’t dedicate a whole blog post about. This is partly to keep myself accountable to retain what I’ve read, rather than passively consume things. I’ll see how the weekly format goes for me and adjust accordingly.
Articles I’ve Read
Tech
Fighting human trafficking with self-contained applications
by Daroc Alden | September 15, 2025
Chain-of-custody is really important for evidence, and that doesn’t disappear when that evidence is digital. This is an interesting background behind the motivation and development choices of Folsum, an application written in Rust developed by Brooke Deuson that tracks file modifications in digital evidence and can be used for proof of chain-of-custody. She’s really inspiring!
Altoids by the Fistful
by Scott Smitelli | September 21, 2025
Are you the type of person who would paint the back of cabinets, even if no one else would know they were painted? You might resonate with this. I really recommend reading through the whole thing.
Science
Real-time molecular recorders expose the inner lives of cells
by Elie Dolgin | September 22, 2025
Using prime editors tied to stimulus-responsive promoters and transcribing events in DNA is a really elegant way of recording cell signalling activity and shows a lot of potential. I’ve always thought using DNA as an information storage medium is pretty clever – take advantage of the molecular mechanisms that already exist!
TransFactor—prediction of pro-viral SARS-CoV-2 host factors using a protein language model
Yang An, et al. | September 10, 2025
This is a really cool framework to identify host factor proteins in viruses, which could be investigated further in understanding viral diseases and developing antiviral treatments. It’s still definitely in its early stages.
Famous Cognitive Psychology Experiments that Failed to Replicate
Marco Giancotti | August 20, 2025
There are a lot of pop psychology myths perpetuated as fact from studies that are flawed and had failed to been replicated with the same results. I knew about ego depletion being a myth, as How to ADHD covered that willpower is not a finite resource [YouTube link], but many of them surprised me, including the Marshmallow Test & Long-Term Success Effect and Growth Mindset Interventions failing to replicate.
Other
The dawn of the post-literate society
by James Marriot | September 19, 2025
I’m currently drafting a blog post that discusses the brainrot induced from short-form video content and references Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. (Stay tuned.) Marriot goes a much further and connects the downfall of literacy from screens to the end of democracy itself. He stresses the importance of the written word being one of the most successful systems of capturing complex human thought and vital for sustaining liberal democracy. I think this is a worthy successor to Postman’s caution against televised media to apply to video media as a whole. I do think smartphones destroying our attention spans is also playing a crucial role.
Books I’m Reading
God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert
I’ve been hooked on the Dune series recently and managed to get through Children of Dune completely unspoiled this year. God Emperor is set 3500 years after Children, and I love how Herbert uses the ecology of Arrakis to reflect the states of characters. I’m still early on in the book and I’m really interested to see what exactly Leto II has planned for Siona.
Videos I’ve Watched
The Perfection Trap: Why Perfectionism Is Your Enemy - World Expert Professor Thomas Curran
Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal | June 29, 2023
Professor Curran shared a lot of great points about the different parts of perfectionism and how it’s harmful. He also touches on how the “growth mindset’ too can lead to perfectionistic tendencies.