The hottest Technology Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Apple v The World in Two Charts

Tim Culpan’s Position • 59 implied HN points • 12 Sep 24
💼 Business Technology
  1. Apple is ahead of its competitors like Samsung and Xiaomi when it comes to making money from smartphone sales. Revenue is the key measure of success.
  2. The smartphone market is starting to grow again, but Apple is still the leader despite some doubts from critics.
  3. Apple's high market value shows that their business strategy is working well, even if the overall smartphone market isn’t expanding as rapidly as before.

Video Game Thoughts Bonus Bag #8

The Bottom Feeder • 509 implied HN points • 11 Dec 25
🎭️ Culture Technology
  1. Avernum 4 has been well-received and is now available for iPad, allowing players to enjoy it on-the-go. The team is also starting on new projects, showing their continued growth.
  2. Borderlands 4 continues to follow the same gameplay pattern, but it faces issues like bugs and a lack of polish. It's frustrating to deal with these problems, yet playing together can be part of the fun.
  3. Many indie games are still enjoyable and bring happiness despite the industry's changes. Recent releases are delighting players, proving that quality experiences can come from indie studios.

Reading List for 11/30/24

Construction Physics • 9186 implied HN points • 30 Nov 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Technology
  1. High-rise construction is booming in Canada, with many Canadian cities leading in the number of skyscrapers being built compared to US cities.
  2. Mild hybrids, which are cars that use a small electric motor to support a gasoline engine, are becoming popular in Europe due to stricter emissions regulations.
  3. Offshore oil drilling is seeing a revival, as companies invest heavily in new technologies and seek new sources of oil in response to rising energy prices.

Onchain Landscape (Part 1)

DeFi Education • 839 implied HN points • 08 Jun 24
🔮 Crypto Technology
  1. There are different blockchain ecosystems called Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3, and each has its own use and benefits. Understanding these layers can help you decide where to invest your time and money.
  2. Layer 2 solutions help blockchains process more transactions efficiently by using off-chain data to save on resources. This means faster transactions and lower costs, making them a hot spot in the crypto world.
  3. Layer 3 is a newer concept that sits on top of Layer 2, focusing on specific apps and improving their functionality. While still experimental, investing in Layer 3 can present unique opportunities.

Icesteading: Executive Summary

Transhuman Axiology • 178 implied HN points • 11 Sep 24
🔬 Science Technology
  1. Icesteading is the idea of creating colonies on artificially insulated icebergs in warm ocean waters. These 'ice-islands' could serve as places for living, working, or even launching space missions.
  2. The insulation around these icebergs can make them last for decades or even centuries before melting. This involves using materials like air or foam to keep the ice from warming up too fast.
  3. Building on these ice-islands avoids the legal and political issues on land. They offer more freedom and the chance to create underground spaces, making them a unique alternative to traditional islands.
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A bunch of handy charts about climate change

Noahpinion • 21882 implied HN points • 13 Feb 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Technology
  1. Climate change is becoming increasingly severe, evidenced by events like record-breaking heat, melting sea ice, and more frequent natural disasters.
  2. Efforts to address climate change are promising, with advancements in green technologies like solar power and batteries offering hope for managing the crisis.
  3. The responsibility for carbon emissions is shifting, with developed countries like the US and Europe reducing emissions significantly, while countries like China remain major contributors.

The Saturday Selection, Vol. 90

Why is this interesting? • 120 implied HN points • 31 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Technology
  1. Watching football on television isn’t just more convenient—it’s often the only way to see the whole game and understand what’s happening on the field.
  2. Restaurants can use loss-leading deals like very cheap oysters to bring customers in, who then spend on drinks and other higher-margin items.
  3. Recent iOS updates are increasingly frustrating for users, highlighting how phone software changes can damage the everyday user experience.

new beginnings — on leaving the pavement behind

antoniomelonio • 135 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
📖 Philosophy Technology
  1. Sustained critique and constant anger can hollow a person out, so it's healthier to step away from living inside rage and reclaim curiosity.
  2. AI is becoming a real trajectory, not just a gadget, and could end many forms of artificial scarcity and obsolete "bullshit" jobs, but the transition will be turbulent with job loss and institutional strain.
  3. Rather than performative doom, it's better to orient toward possibility — to write and work on building and exploring futures while honesty about the risks remains central.

The Hunger Beneath the Hunger

Anima Mundi • 288 implied HN points • 07 Jan 26
📖 Philosophy Technology
  1. Most people who feel lonely also feel their lives lack meaning, so loneliness is often about feeling insignificant rather than just wanting more friends.
  2. Modern life gives us lots of surface-level connections that scale, but not the scarce, unscalable communion that makes us feel witnessed and real.
  3. Meaning can’t be manufactured alone; it emerges when you participate in something larger than yourself, and quiet, attentive practices or simply being present with others can help that remembering and ease the hunger.

📈 The most underrated trend of the 2020s

Faster, Please! • 365 implied HN points • 06 Jan 26
💼 Business Technology
  1. U.S. productivity, which was slow in the 2010s, has quietly sped up since 2020.
  2. Output per hour rose at roughly 2% annualized from 2020 to mid‑2025 compared with about 1.5% from 2007–2019, showing a clear improvement.
  3. That improvement undercuts the Great Stagnation story and points to growing productivity momentum even before AI fully changes work.

What we lose when AI creates art

Subtle Digressions • 559 implied HN points • 30 Jun 24
🎭️ Culture Technology
  1. AI art lacks the emotional depth of human-created art. Art reflects human experiences, feelings, and suffering that AI does not possess.
  2. There's a difference between art and content. True art comes from deep human connections and experiences, while content is often just a product of efficiency.
  3. Using AI in art risks commodifying creativity. If we let machines create art, we lose the value and meaning that come from the human struggle and process of creation.

SEC Sues Consensys (Metamask) over Swap and Staking + Q&A

DeFi Education • 559 implied HN points • 29 Jun 24
🔮 Crypto Technology
  1. The SEC has sued Consensys, which owns Metamask, over issues related to swapping and staking Ethereum. This means there are legal problems in the way these services operate.
  2. There seems to be a contradiction in the SEC's actions, as they recently approved an ETH spot ETF while also targeting staking services. This might confuse many in the crypto community.
  3. Some believe that the SEC's actions can actually help clarify regulations for decentralized finance (DeFi). It could discourage companies from trying to act like traditional middlemen in crypto.

How The Dossier will stand out in a sea of AI slop

The Dossier • 89 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
🎙 Podcasts Technology
  1. AI is flooding the internet with quickly generated, low-quality content that often looks like human writing, so creators must adapt or get lost in the noise.
  2. Authentic video and audio—especially podcasting—are the clearest ways to prove a real human is behind the work and to stand out from AI-generated “slop.”
  3. Pairing traditional writing with verifiable multimedia keeps journalistic quality while highlighting genuine human insight, turning the AI surge into an opportunity for creators who can prove they’re real.

Declining trust in Zeus is a technology

Experimental History • 20553 implied HN points • 31 Jan 24
🔬 Science Technology
  1. Randomized-controlled trials are a relatively recent method in the history of scientific evidence.
  2. Challenging old beliefs, such as trust in ancient gods like Zeus, can lead to important scientific advancements.
  3. There is a need for more transparency and accessibility in expert knowledge to earn public trust in institutions and experts.

☞ Innovation Biopics

Cabinet of Wonders • 254 implied HN points • 13 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Technology
  1. Innovation biopics are a popular film and TV genre that dramatizes how products and companies came to be.
  2. These films are often not fully accurate, but they push people to learn more and spotlight the messy, human side of innovation and success or failure.
  3. There’s a broader curiosity about obscure jobs and complex systems, illustrated by examples like insurance archaeology and a curated roundup of links on technology, design, and cultural history.

The unbreakable urge to Google

The Rectangle • 141 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Technology
  1. Googling is a normal, modern part of chatting and many people instinctively look things up on their phones.
  2. The technology you grow up with shapes how you consume and share information, so different generations form different habits around searching and listening.
  3. It’s okay to look things up during a conversation if you say you’re going to check, talk through what you find while searching, and then return to the conversation.

UFOs are a soft sci-fi genre

The Intrinsic Perspective • 7615 implied HN points • 20 Dec 24
🔬 Science Technology
  1. UFOs are often seen as a type of soft sci-fi that mixes imaginative stories with poor evidence. This suggests that many UFO enthusiasts focus more on fantasy than reality.
  2. Real first contact with aliens is more likely to be through indirect evidence over long distances, rather than physical visits. Scientists think we might find signs of alien civilizations from far away.
  3. As science progresses, we might enter a stage of uncertainty about aliens, leading to debates without clear answers for a long time. This means we could be questioning the existence of aliens for hundreds of years.

Everything Looks Like A Nail

Where's Your Ed At • 25075 implied HN points • 19 Oct 23
💼 Business Technology
  1. Marc Andreessen wants to portray himself as a victim despite his immense success and wealth.
  2. Andreessen promotes a vision of continuous technological advancement, but his actions and investments often prioritize maintaining the status quo.
  3. Andreessen's manifesto is filled with contradictions and hypocrisy, advocating libertarian economic thinking while benefiting from government intervention.

#50 - Why AI Won’t Magically Flip Your Bank’s Spend Pattern

OSS.fund Newsletter • 56 implied HN points • 26 Feb 26
💰 Finance Technology
  1. AI won’t magically flip a bank’s spend from run to change because banks are tightly governed and face real costs like compliance, dual-run tax, and mandatory testing that prevent a quick switch. These constraints mean savings come slowly and require human-controlled policy and evidence gates.
  2. Treat modernization as a spectrum and manage it as a portfolio: Operate, Comply, Harden & Simplify, and Compete & Grow. Use a Good Bank/Bad Bank approach with a policy-driven bridge, deterministic routing, and continuous reconciliation so migrations are auditable, reversible, and lead to real decommissioning.
  3. Use AI as an assistant to cut toil, automate evidence, speed analysis, and help translate legacy code, but don’t give it authority to change policies or skip validation. Capture the realistic savings to fund simplification and growth, aiming for practical targets (for example ~50/50 over five years) rather than expecting an immediate 60/40 to 40/60 flip.

Avoiding Deportation? There’s an App for That.

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 199 implied HN points • 20 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Technology
  1. Many immigrants are turning to apps and social-media groups for information and help as immigration enforcement ramps up.
  2. A government border app was renamed and repurposed to guide people through self-deportation and even offers to pay for plane tickets plus a $1,000 exit bonus.
  3. Judge-tracking tools and online sleuthing communities are being used to follow cases and plan responses amid legal uncertainty.

🤖👴 AI vs. age: The great offset

Faster, Please! • 548 implied HN points • 09 Dec 25
💼 Business Technology
  1. Many people expect AI to cause a huge economic boom and rapid change across society.
  2. A JPMorgan analysis suggests aging populations will subtract from growth roughly as much as AI can add, so the two forces could cancel each other out.
  3. That means AI might mainly keep economies from shrinking rather than spark a new golden age. So investors and policymakers should temper overly rosy expectations.

Top Links 938 America's great divergence. The birth of "Electrotech" out of the digital revolution. Desertification in Inner Mongolia & "cultural workmen".

Chartbook • 529 implied HN points • 01 Dec 25
💼 Business Technology
  1. America's economy changed a lot due to the Volcker shock and the Reagan revolution. These events reshaped how society and the economy developed.
  2. There is a growing field called 'Electrotech' that developed from the digital revolution. This new area focuses on technology-related industries.
  3. Desertification in Inner Mongolia is an important issue. It affects the environment and the livelihoods of people living in that region.

The CTO’s Consulting Rate Calculator

The CTO Substack • 499 implied HN points • 29 Jun 24
💼 Business Technology
  1. Determine your consulting rate based on client revenue and C-Suite salaries. This helps set a fair price for your services.
  2. Consider the complexity of the company and its engineering team size. A larger or more complicated organization may require a higher fee due to increased work.
  3. Always get paid before starting the work. This ensures that clients respect your time and commitment right from the beginning.

Our climate change debates are out of date

Noahpinion • 25588 implied HN points • 08 Sep 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Technology
  1. Climate change debates need to adjust to the reality of cheap renewable energy like solar and batteries
  2. Solar and batteries are leading a true technological revolution that is changing the energy landscape
  3. The solar and battery revolution is reshaping climate debates towards optimism and away from outdated ideas like degrowth

How a local newsletter company is leveraging AI to cover hundreds of counties across the US

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 399 implied HN points • 12 Dec 25
💼 Business Technology
  1. 6AM City uses AI to launch newsletters in smaller cities without hiring editors right away. This approach helps them start at low cost and grow until they can add human editors later.
  2. Their newsletters focus on local news and community events, using a friendly tone and avoiding divisive topics. This strategy helps attract advertisers and maintain a loyal subscriber base.
  3. Instead of just relying on traditional reporting, 6AM City uses technology to gather and compress information from local sources. This allows them to produce accurate content quickly while keeping costs down.

Enemy Aliens and (Freudian) Displacement

Thinking about... • 352 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Technology
  1. Tech billionaires often blame migrants in ways that don’t match the facts, which can be a form of displacement that shifts responsibility away from themselves.
  2. Social media algorithms act like alien forces that change minds, relationships, and politics, and tech leaders have helped open the gates for those harms.
  3. To understand public claims we should look beyond literal words and consider motives and context, because the misperceptions of powerful people have wide and real consequences.

Guide to Historic Iron Making

Erik Examines • 134 implied HN points • 01 Feb 26
💾 History Technology
  1. Names like pig iron, cast iron, wrought iron and steel are all iron‑carbon alloys, not pure elemental iron. People never really used pure iron; the different labels mostly reflect carbon content and how the metal was processed.
  2. Steel wasn’t invented in the 1850s — people made steel long before then for things like swords and armor — but the Bessemer process (mid‑1800s) made steel cheap and easy to mass‑produce. The mid‑19th century change was about industrial scale and cost, not the first appearance of steel.
  3. Different iron‑carbon alloys have distinct uses because of their properties: wrought iron is soft and malleable, cast iron is cheap and brittle, and steel sits between them. Historically, producing useful iron or steel was an artisan skill because getting the carbon level and impurities right required careful work.

On digital walls, Mark Carney and narrative authority

Taipology • 96 implied HN points • 30 Jan 26
🌍 World Politics Technology
  1. Digital walls are going up in the West as platforms and authorities tighten moderation, ban content, and shadowban dissenters. Some users will jump to new apps, but most people stay put out of inertia.
  2. Narrative authority — the power to set the agenda and "name reality" — determines which issues get attention, and the West’s default control of that power is eroding as other platforms and countries gain influence.
  3. This shift means a global decentralization of narrative power: expect more opaque censorship and defensive measures in liberal countries while China keeps strict speech controls, not a sudden turn toward universal free speech.

The New Oracles: QAnon, AI and Divination

The Bigger Picture • 718 implied HN points • 31 May 24
🎭️ Culture Technology
  1. The QAnon movement, despite failed predictions, remains a significant force with millions believing in its prophecies.
  2. Movements like Reichsbürger share an interest in divination, with some using occult practices like astrology and fortune-telling.
  3. Artificial intelligence, through generative AI models, is becoming a modern oracle on the internet, mediating between us and the virtual world.

50% Off Lunduke Journal for August

The Lunduke Journal of Technology • 1723 implied HN points • 11 Aug 25
💼 Business Technology
  1. The Lunduke Journal is having a 50% off subscription sale for the entire month of August. This is a great chance to save money while supporting independent tech journalism.
  2. You can choose between a monthly or yearly subscription, with prices starting as low as $3 a month or $27 a year, making it very affordable.
  3. There's also a special Lifetime Subscription available for half price this month, allowing you to pay once for lifetime access to all content from The Lunduke Journal.

Delete social media

The Rectangle • 226 implied HN points • 16 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Technology
  1. Delete social media apps from your phone — it usually frees up time and cuts the low-level dread that comes with endless scrolling.
  2. Don’t get sucked into the cult of optimisation; making yourself more efficient should let you enjoy life, not turn living into an endless self-improvement project.
  3. Be pragmatic and kind to yourself: deletion can be flexible (use a spare phone or redownload briefly), but do it to make real time for the things you actually care about.

Why you need to (re)read 1984 -- ASAP

Unreported Truths • 45 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics Technology
  1. 1984 still matters because modern tools like mass surveillance and AI-generated propaganda are recreating many of the book’s warnings about pervasive state control.
  2. Orwell imagined totalitarian regimes as economically stagnant, but recent history shows an authoritarian state can combine political repression with rapid economic and technological growth.
  3. China’s rise undermines the idea that economic engagement will automatically produce democracy and creates strategic risks for democratic countries, making vigilance about authoritarian power urgent.

Pre-Class Assignment for Tuesday: 2026-01-27 :: Econ 196 :: Productivity & Technology

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 69 implied HN points • 10 Feb 26
🚌 Education Technology
  1. The demographic transition radically changed population trajectories: a small change in long-run growth rates produces huge differences in population over centuries, so modern population levels are far higher than they would have been under the old growth regime.
  2. Using capability-specific measures—like photons or lumen-hours for lighting—shows that technological improvements have raised practical living standards far more than conventional real-output or real-wage measures imply.
  3. Measuring prosperity requires both these capability-based metrics and attention to distribution, environment, and nonmarket welfare, and hands-on quantitative exercises (e.g., Python arithmetic) are a powerful way to teach what technology and growth actually mean.

Culture Links, 1/2/2026

In My Tribe • 227 implied HN points • 02 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Technology
  1. Conservatism is split over whether its purpose is to preserve a universal moral order or to defend a particular civilizational identity. This debate boils down to whether politics should be grounded in universal rights and duties or in protecting a specific way of life.
  2. Social media use is shifting from public, performative posting toward passive, TV-like consumption and private group chats, which could reduce public shaming and attention-seeking. Dating apps are losing users while young people revive real-world connections, suggesting some tech disruptions are tempering over time.
  3. There is a biological window for safer, healthier childbearing, and delaying parenthood raises the risks of fertility and pregnancy problems. Cultural pressure to postpone marriage and children until after extended education and career-building may therefore be harmful.

I interviewed the Jubilee CEO on platforming bigotry

Taylor Lorenz's Newsletter • 2149 implied HN points • 22 Jul 25
🎭️ Culture Technology
  1. Jubilee is a popular YouTube channel known for its debate-style videos. They cover a wide range of topics, including sensitive issues like body image and political beliefs.
  2. The CEO of Jubilee has shared that they have a big team and a large office in Los Angeles, which helps them produce high-quality content consistently.
  3. One of their videos, featuring a debate between a Republican and multiple Kamala Harris voters, became one of the most-watched pieces during the last election, showing their influence in online discussions.

Kidnapped by Russia. Plus. . .

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 384 implied HN points • 17 Dec 25
📰 News Technology
  1. Thousands of Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia since 2022, and investigators and families are desperately trying to track and reunite them despite many cold leads.
  2. AI companies are hiring professional writers — sometimes for very high pay — to make chatbots more persuasive and to avoid poor, robotic output.
  3. Global tensions and instability are rising, with arguments that China wages a stealth campaign, alongside high-profile legal battles, mass shootings, and economic worries that are increasing public anxiety.

I've Been Watching These 17 YouTube Videos

The Honest Broker • 6416 implied HN points • 14 Dec 24
🎭️ Culture Technology
  1. YouTube has become a major platform, making more money than Netflix and attracting billions of user hours daily. It's like the new TV for many people.
  2. There is a lot of low-quality content on YouTube, but you can still find great videos if you know where to look.
  3. Artist exploitation in the music industry is still a big issue, with many musicians not earning money from their own work, and changes in technology are bringing past musicians back into the spotlight.

Crypto Market Update

DeFi Education • 1039 implied HN points • 26 Apr 24
🔮 Crypto Technology
  1. Crypto Twitter sentiment doesn't really affect the market directly. It's important to look beyond social media to understand the real market trends.
  2. Understanding where we are in the market cycle can help in making better investment decisions. It's helpful to break down complex ideas for clearer insights.
  3. Being aware of the overall market sentiment is crucial, but it shouldn't be the only factor when thinking about crypto investments. A well-rounded perspective is key.

TGIF: The Client List

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 2077 implied HN points • 18 Jul 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Technology
  1. The content is satire, which means it uses humor to comment on real issues. So take it lightly and enjoy the laughs.
  2. There's a new app for The Free Press, designed to be user-friendly and visually appealing. It's aimed at making it easier for readers to access their content.
  3. Supporting independent journalism is important, and subscriptions help fund this work. By subscribing, you can unlock more investigative stories and opinions.