I come here for your take on things, so I want to hear from you about the good and bad news stories that matter to you. No more and no less. There are plenty of news organizations, but only one blog that you run.

My two cents in general is that the amount of information we're processing daily is unnatural, yet we have been trained in relatively few years to have the feeling that if we're not keeping up we are missing out, or not doing our part, or wanting in some way. But if you go back barely 20 years, we were still in an era where the news you got came in the morning paper or the evening news, maybe an extra source here or there, but not this constant stream. It can't be healthy and I'm not sure that ultimately it is helpful either as we simply become fatigued.

As someone whose job requires to follow the news closely (and a former reporter/editor), I'm not sure I need this site to hear what's going on. I want a specific Kottke take that sticks with me. But generally, I'm not sure this is the place to closely follow regular news events. I ask for editing to sift out noise for the one or two most important events. If you have strong thoughts, target them so we have something to take away that provides a Kottke signal through that noise.

i love your curation of the need-to-read political stuff (and appreciate the task you do of sifting through the noise). i think a couple important stories a day mixed with "other stuff" is a nice balance.

I'm not sure what the compulsion is, whether it's FOMO or feeling a need to bear witness, to know truth, while history is being rewritten or erased. There are so many competing narratives, and what used to count as mainstream media is so watered-down and anemic, that finding truth means following those who are dedicated to the truth—the academics, lawyers, researchers, and independents pushing back against the narrative being written. How do you selectively follow what's unfolding in real time? Reaction time is in proportion to action and everything, everywhere, happens faster and faster. A curator can only do so much.

For every December 7 or September 11 clear historical turning point, there are hundreds of December 8s and 9s and September 12s and 13s where history changes by very slow accumulations of gradual decisions that are much harder to discern in the moment.

In reading your blog daily for well over a decade (maybe two...?), you have inspired and shaped me in immeasurable ways from what you have shown me around the internet and world. but beyond what you've delivered through your blog, is the person behind it who i've grown to respect immensely.

you are a curator, a teacher, a writer, a worldly citizen and so much more. i'm in awe of what you've done in transforming your blog to cover what you perceive as mattering the most, and have inspired me to do so through my own network, business and social media reach.

do not burn out because this is the time that america needs its critical thinkers and problem solvers to work harder than ever.... but do monitor your mental health, as social media and the news cycle can become a waterfall of incessant toxicity, especially with Trump and his buffoonery occupying the majority of it.

thank you for checking in with us, and thank you for being you.

MM

Stay Calm And Carry On.

The wonder of your work over the years has been, to me, your incredible taste. That hasn't changed. You've been my first page-o-the-day for so long. That's hasn't changed either. And it won't. I love coming to visit your community in this troubling time knowing that my fellow Kottke fans share a lot in common and it give me hope we'll get through this together.

My dad and his buddies were drafted by the US government to fight a pointless war in Vietnam. He came home with less living friends, and America turned its back on him. A compationate man gave him and one of his vet friends construction jobs when they couldn't find work because, and here's my point, A Lot Of Americans Sucked. So I am comforted a little bit by history in that a lot of Americans have ALWAYS SUCKED. Here they are again, in a different form. We can beat them. We just have to keep looking them in their eyes as they hurt the country. Be empowered by being on the right side, and try not to despair. It's gotten hard not to do, but we have to try. Thanks for your excellent work!

Where you go, we go (and thanks for the update - balance is good)

I think you and others in tech (Wired, 404, TechDirt) have done a good job of raising the alarm about the penetration of government systems. Anyone who is still with you will probably accept some updates, even if they are redundant (which they mostly are for me), but I would think hard about where and how you are adding value or helping to focus attention.

I think people have always turned to Kottke to feed their curiosity and stretch their minds and find moments of delight. The emergency is far from over, and people will need these things too through ongoing crisis. But I understand this is hard to do when you're not feeling open to delight.

The only 100% politics thing I follow is The Weekly Sift, which sticks to a schedule of publishing ~3 pieces once a week on Mondays, no matter how urgent the news may feel. He writes some about the motivation for this here https://weeklysift.com/who-is-the-weekly-sift-for/.

I find it helpful to remind myself sometimes that 24 hour news is only 45 years old, and the modern concept of "being informed" is a fake idea invented by Ted Turner to sell ad time. Doesn't always keep me from scrolling, but it helps.

I started off the year reading everything all the time. All of the news. All of the opinion. And I'm not sure that's helpful or healthy. I think you've maintained a good balance of picking out important stories to highlight thus far.

But yesterday scrolling through Bluesky, it all seemed like too much. The same handful of awful stories through 100 lenses. On endless repeat, for each new horror of the day. Coupled with anger and resentment towards the people who should be attempting to counter it all, but are too feeble, or feckless, or bought off, to do anything beyond coordinating outfits or tiny signs.

I think at this point, I'd like to take Mr. Rogers' advice and look for the helpers. Focus on the stories of the people who are doing something, whether elected officials, or ordinary people. Amplify those voices. Their actions. What we all can do in our own ways to help feel a little less overwhelmed and insignificant and exhausted.

Maybe focus on what opposition tactic are working.

I think your standard ethos for deciding what to post is still as good as ever- you can trust that we're seeing the headlines or news about a lot of this right along with you, and when a specific piece of news, or an opinion piece really speaks to you or prompts new ideas or ways to interpret that information, we all deeply appreciate your curation and takes. I do also really appreciate when you find and surface gift links for articles that are driving the conversation online. If you are concerned about not posting about some specific item just because it's important I hope you feel like you can let that pass without too much guilt.

My related issue is that I've somehow managed to set up a bluesky feed for myself that is 95% politics. I've made small changes to improve the ratio (following endless jeopardy for example), but it's way more doom and gloom than before. It's largely because politics is intruding in a concrete way like never before on the various communities I follow, but it can be overwhelming at times, and I add on a little guilt that I'm bothered by this when politics is so important. I miss and hope someday to get back to the situation where we could go days or weeks without thinking about the President at all.

I'm reading your stuff more than ever.

You've been doing this since last century - I'm not saying you can't get it wrong, but trust your judgment.

You are reflecting the world to us through your lens - the world isn't normal right now.

First, thank you. One, for all you have contributed to the lives of your readers over the life of kottke.org. Second, for sensing the need to focus on events, perspectives and strategies in this time of great need.

Having said that, there are many ways for your readers to get the information specific to the political events occurring daily and, although you provide an excellent curatorial filter for meaningful content, you need to consider your own needs as well, and I think this post in particular indicates that you may want to mix in the content that brings joy as well as the content that is needed, if not welcomed. Just my two cents.

Maybe it makes sense to have one post per day that rolls up all the most important coup-related links in one place? Fark.com has had a daily Ukraine thread for three years now - different format site, to be sure, but keeping it daily seems optimal.

In a similar conversation with friends a few weeks ago, about what we consume and how we engage with it all, one said, "Dystopia is always easy. What’s interesting is precisely the opposite!" So maybe this is something to give a try: where are the positive stories, the solutions, the dreams? Not of resistance necessarily, but of building something good despite it all. Or because of it. Something that looks towards a future that you want to see. As in Timothy Snyder’s positive freedom: freedom for what, rather than from? Show us the world you’d like to see.

Ultimately though, as people have mentioned above, we are here for you and your take on the world. You’ll find your balance and we will follow you. Or not, and that is also fine. You do you! :)

I don't know, but trying to devise a fixed point on the line between the extremes of covering everything or covering nothing may simply be too hard right now. Winging it by the day or week may be it, for now. Going with your intuition without trying to hold yourself to the standard of being able to explain all decisions against some set of rules, may be what'll help keep a sane mind.

(Also, and forgive if all of this is a non-answer, but it may not be helpful to feel responsible for your readers' feeling of overwhelm with the news)

Appreciate you, Jason. Maybe together, we can structure a way of processing and responding to the news (categories, cadence, celebration habits, coordinated actions)? Your readership community is an asset and a group of allies, not just an audience.

There already do exist some good news aggregators.
'The Conversation' does a daily newsletter, it's more than just politics.
Maybe there's a few more that could be a blog entry with a short list.
I liked the idea where someone basically said please 'write about you've seen or know about that works.' Whatever that is.
Otherwise -- it's your blog, please you will figure out your particular focus as time goes on -- right now it seems to be kind of reporting mixed with other topics and we can trust you to work your way along and try and do different things along the way...every little bit helps.
For myself personally I more or less quit reading Bluesky...no real reason I can think of other than seeing same stuff repeatedly. Haven't found anything I really like or want to deal with on the Internet all that much except work reading (technical stuff)...other than Apple News several times daily. Thanks everyone for reading this.

Just one person's opinion but: the reason I have visited Kottke daily for the last 20 odd years is because you introduce me to things here that I would not be introduced to anywhere else. It's not the "world's best source of [design|culture|whatever]", but it's where the best "stuff you might have missed" is. It's literally the best site in the entire world at that... for my tastes at least.

When you first proclaimed you were going to cover The Shitshow To End All Shitshows, I understood where you were coming from. After all, it IS the existential issue of the foreseeable future, and certainly more important than tiny sewn cats the size of your fingernail, but at the same time, I would love to see the site continue to stay true to its unique virtue: show me the most important stuff — political or not — that I quite likely missed in the maelstrom of News Like Information™ out there. Not the Pretty Good New York Times Editorial, but the first-person account from someone no one has ever heard of who just lost their job at the National Park Service. That sort of thing.

Anyway, just my two cents! Will continue my loyal readership no matter what you publish... as long as it's broken up by the occasional dietary rantings of one Aaron Cohen. :)

I think you have a good nose for the things that matter, in many different domains and this one as well. I appreciate that.

That said, like others here have said I've been gradually shifting towards people who highlight what we can do. (I'm not saying you aren't one of those.) As an expat, there's so little I can do on those lists, but I appreciate the reminders that people are DOING things, are taking action.

At any rate, do what you need to do for you. Follow your instinct. I think most of us know your instinct is good and will follow as well.

I read the NYTimes, Economist, and Fox News very regularly. I am guessing many of your readers have a similar set of go to big news sites. They all cover most of the same stuff (through very different lenses). So I do think you can assume your reader base is well informed on standard news, and find the crossover of what you enjoy posting and what might be on the edges for us. Your findings from the edges are why I've read this blog forever.

I think the mix of current events and the more "traditional" KDO topics is a good blend of keeping engaged and properly angry at the state of things, while also finding joy, beauty, etc. in the world. I, and I suspect many others, need both since the joy and beauty fuel the anger and can help focus it productively. I hope. Or at least the reminders of cool things going on is a buoy in a storm.

From my current personal experience, I think you should prioritize your own mental health over the needs of us readers. What do you feel the need to write about?

As someone who has spent a lifetime processing childhood trauma, I perceive everyone in our country has being in the middle of being traumatized by events. And that’s when I turn to the distress tolerance skills of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.

And one of the first rules of distress tolerance is that a person has to take care of themselves before they can take care of others.

So, I guess one suggestion would be to keep writing about your personal experience and emotions of what is happening. If that feels relieving to you, I think it would help readers by having someone they trust share emotions they may be feeling themselves.

I'm a regulatory scientist. I'm American, but I live and work abroad. I've turned off my access to "the news" outside of purchasing a paper copy of a Big Sunday Newspaper here. That's more than sufficient. I supplement that with input from a handful of trusted voices whose editorial vision and noise-filtering functions help me consolidate a sense of relevance from the higher value materials that I don't have time or sanity enough to identify myself.

I appreciate the role you've taken as a conduit with a unique audience. Please do keep up the good work.

I don't have a strong desire to over-feed my anxiety (it is already overweight). I'm reading headlines. I count on others to point out the "bottomless pits of doom" so that I can walk around them rather than falling through. If my anxiety level is low enough, I might lean in and look further. But generally I think there is way, way too much horror to reasonably digest.