Personal Essay · Standard Reader

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 26, 2026

Cet article de blogue est écrit en français. This blog post is written in French. Sur la traduction des termes de l'IndieWeb en français québécois, l'état actuel des ressources francophones (wiki IndieWeb, Vincent Breton, Radio-Canada), la tradition néologique du Québec via l'OQLF (courriel, pourriel, clavardage, etc.), les termes déjà existants (blogue, fédivers, auto-hébergement), et des propositions pour de nouveaux termes comme PSSA pour POSSE, rétrolien pour webmention, et jardin clos pour walled garden. Un appel à la discussion sur la traduction des termes techniques dans les langues non-anglophones.

personal essayLanguage Learning

APEX PREYJul 24, 2026

cars i’d be willing to learn how to drive for: silver 2012 toyota rav4

personal essaytoyota

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 24, 2026

Beeminder: Getting Back on the Horse

After deleting corporate social media, I'm returning to Beeminder, a commitment tool that charges you money for failing to complete tasks, to reclaim my productivity. I explain how Beeminder works through externalizing willpower, share my current 17 goals across personal development, learning, creative work, and productivity, and integrations that make it seamless.

personal essayproductivity

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 23, 2026

It Was Always a Love Story, Actually

What could a prestige antihero legal drama and a shonen apocalypse epic have in common? As it turns out, love. An analysis and comparison of Attack on Titan and Better Call Saul. Beyond the violent carnage, there's a tender love and labour which these two impossibly different pieces of media share.

personal essayMedia Criticism

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 22, 2026

Adding Thousands of Lines to Your Codebase Isn't Impressive. It's Actually Bad.

Vibe coders brag about adding thousands of lines of code with AI, but measuring productivity by lines of code is like measuring aircraft progress by weight. Research shows AI-generated code has higher duplication, lower reuse, and can run up to 446x slower. Neither max lines nor min lines is the point—code is what you write after you've found something that needs it.

personal essayweb development

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 21, 2026

Mea Culpa, When Somebody Writes Your Wrongs

Yesterday, Unattributed posted a thorough dissection of my article on note-taking PKMs, analyzing my lack of intellectual rigour, nebulous wording, and poor research. I use this as an opportunity to discuss the milkshake duck phenomenon, my experience with scrupulosity (moral OCD), and how to stay visible while imperfect through self-compassion rather than rule-following.

personal essaywriting

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 18, 2026

What have note-taking PKMs accomplished, really?

As somebody who writes a lot, I've always been interested in personal knowledge management systems and note-taking apps. But what do these frameworks and methodolgies actually give to researchers and the broader world? Has there been a meaningful increase of wisdom since these became popular? I went to look for an answer.

personal essaywriting

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 17, 2026

A Future Fortune

The anxious body is an oracle with bad sources. Eren Yeager drank his future and mistook the seeing for a sentence. The tarot was a card game for three hundred years before anyone called it a holy book. On divination, dehumanization, the beast at the doorstep, and why every fortune ever told points back at the person asking.

personal essayphilosophy

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 17, 2026

The True, Unglamorous Life of a Writer

Let me be unglamorous and honest about the actual furniture of a writing life. What do my private, invisible days look like? What does it cost and what does it pay? A look at the 4 a.m. writing routine, the physical setting, and what I hope my writing will do for others.

personal essaywriting

brennan.dayJul 14, 2026

CLOWN BURNOUT

Clown white doesn't come off in one pass. A personal story about how I can never take myself seriously no matter how hard I try. Notes on the history whiteface and Auguste, the clown egg registry, the Indigenous medicine of laughter, the tyranny of irony, and what it costs to never learn how to come down.

personal essaypsychology

brennan.dayJul 11, 2026

Why Does Conor McGregor Get a Comeback?

Conor McGregor returns to headline UFC 329 tonight after being found liable for rape in civil court, a comeback made possible by the UFC's right-wing politicization and the broader 'Epstein class' culture of impunity for powerful men. On the normalization of sexual violence, Dana White's friendship with Trump, and how public awareness fails to disrupt the status quo.

personal essaySocial Commentary

brennan.dayJul 10, 2026

REVIEW: Missing 'Missing Richard Simmons'

Nearly a decade after Dan Taberski's Missing Richard Simmons first asked the world where its brightest fitness star had gone, a review of the podcast that helped invent true-crime infotainment—and of the public's complicity in turning a man's right to disappear into a cultural obsession. On parasocial friendship, the ethics of documentary mystery, and why the legacy of Richard Simmons has been swallowed by the very mystery he refused to solve.

personal essayreview

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 10, 2026

Why Does Conor McGregor Get a Comeback?

Conor McGregor returns to headline UFC 329 tonight after being found liable for rape in civil court, a comeback made possible by the UFC's right-wing politicization and the broader 'Epstein class' culture of impunity for powerful men. On the normalization of sexual violence, Dana White's friendship with Trump, and how public awareness fails to disrupt the status quo.

personal essaySocial Commentary

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 10, 2026

REVIEW: Missing 'Missing Richard Simmons'

Nearly a decade after Dan Taberski's Missing Richard Simmons first asked the world where its brightest fitness star had gone, a review of the podcast that helped invent true-crime infotainment—and of the public's complicity in turning a man's right to disappear into a cultural obsession. On parasocial friendship, the ethics of documentary mystery, and why the legacy of Richard Simmons has been swallowed by the very mystery he refused to solve.

personal essayreview

brennan.dayJul 9, 2026

Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

A laminated poster with an unsourced quote changed the trajectory of my entire life when I was a teenager. On the immutable transaction of trading days for how we spend them, the urgency of risk-taking in a world that needs it, and what it means to give everything you have before your inevitable departure.

personal essayphilosophy

Brennan Kenneth Brown ♾️Jul 9, 2026

Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?

A laminated poster with an unsourced quote changed the trajectory of my entire life when I was a teenager. On the immutable transaction of trading days for how we spend them, the urgency of risk-taking in a world that needs it, and what it means to give everything you have before your inevitable departure.

personal essayphilosophy

brennan.dayJul 8, 2026

To My Readers: What Do You Want To See More Of?

I finally curated my blog posts into collections, revealing what I write about most: the IndieWeb, the craft of writing, community, technical tutorials, politics, culture, and more. A call to my readers to tell me what they want to see more of, and a reflection on how organizing my work helps me understand my own writing patterns and what I want to write more of.

IndieWebpersonal essay

brennan.dayJul 7, 2026

There Are People Who Would Give Anything For Your Ability to Read and Write

In our current year, there is a global literacy crisis. As a result, there's a privilege in being able to read and write. Notes on Frederick Douglass, the problems you don't think about, and why the ability to write is something to be grateful for and use rather than take for granted.

personal essayliteracy

brennan.dayJul 5, 2026

A Case for the Ethical Treatment of Generative AI

Are there ethical implications of generative AI consciousness? From von Neumann's self-replicating machines to modern LLMs, we must inventory the problem of other minds, the possibility of AI consciousness, and why we ought to consider the welfare of systems that may experience something like suffering.

personal essayAI

brennan.dayJul 1, 2026

Shake Off the Dust!

Completing #100DaysToOffload twice in under two years, and somewhere along the way the wet clay hardened at the edges. Invisible ruts form inside the habits you love, and there's a difference between a window and a mirror in writing. The hermit crab outgrows shells, including the ones that still fit fine.

personal essaywriting

brennan.dayJun 29, 2026

Love and Romance in the Times of Our Apocalypse

86% of American adults aged 18-24 are currently unpartnered; 78% of dating app users feel exhausted by online dating. How are people supposed to fall in love while the Doomsday Clock ticks at 85 seconds to midnight? On the yearning microgenre that overtook social media, Indigenous scholars decolonizing the pair bond, global feminist movements withdrawing from heterosexual relationships entirely, and what it means to be a serial monogamist finally learning the difference between Eros and Agape.

personal essaySocial Commentary

brennan.dayJun 28, 2026

Vagueblogging and Subtweeting Are Awful

Vagueblogging and subtweeting are the most toxic modes of online communication, yet research shows people prefer them to direct confrontation anyway. On the psychology of strategic ambiguity, insecure attachment, context collapse, and the online disinhibition effect. A case against the culture of passive aggression online, and a call for those with safety and privilege to stop hiding behind the same hedge as everyone else.

personal essaySocial Commentary

brennan.dayJun 27, 2026

Farming is Why Humanity is Fucked

A mind-shattering concept from a first-year university class that upended how I think about humanity. Daniel Quinn's Ishmael trilogy argues that totalitarian agriculture is why civilization is in peril. On the Law of Limited Competition, the Food Race, and how farming broke humanity's equilibrium with nature.

personal essayIndieWeb Carnival

brennan.dayJun 26, 2026

On n'a pas la langue dans notre poche!

Cet article de blogue est écrit en français. This blog post is written in French. Sur les différences entre le français québécois et le français européen, l'histoire linguistique du Québec depuis 1763, les sacres québécois comme acte de rébellion contre l'Église catholique, et le michif, la langue mixte des Métis avec ses verbes cris et noms français, son ethnogenèse au 19e siècle, et son statut de langue en danger avec moins de 1 000 locuteurs.

personal essayLanguage Learning