Featured essays
Dark Forests and the internet
The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet (2019). Defines the “dark forest” as the private, semi-private, and non-indexed spaces where people retreat from the risks of the public platforms.
Beyond the Dark Forest Theory of the Internet (2019). Extends the original metaphor, exploring what might be lost as life moves into dark forests and how to think about public voice in that shift.
The blessing and the thirst (2021). Reflects on the Dark Forest essay, my own retreat from public posting, and the trade-off between reach and psychological safety.
The internet feels small here (2023). On the experience of intimate, well-curated online spaces that feel like towns rather than feeds, and the emotional texture of the cozy or dark forest web.
The internet is dying on the outside but growing on the inside (2025). A six-years-later revisitation of Dark Forest: the mainstream web as battleground, the flourishing of real life in private, “inside” spaces, and how it relates to Dead Internet Theory.
The post-individual and group life
The post-individual (essay and “director’s cut” release, 2024). A deeply researched essay arguing that the age of the strict individual is giving way to more entangled, networked selves. Released as a collectible bundle with notes, audio, and slides.
The dangers of self expression with Adam Curtis (2017). Dialogue on self-expression, media, and how systems absorb and neutralize dissent with the journalist Adam Curtis for The Creative Independent.
The dark forest and the post-individual (2024). A companion release bundling the essay, talk slides, and commentary, framing the post-individual as a natural evolution of my Dark Forest thinking.
Defining groupcore (2025). Ongoing work naming and exploring “groupcore” — groups as the primary creative unit — across theory posts, case studies, and DFOS and Metalabel context.
Why Artist Corporations? (2025). Explains A-Corps as the culmination of decades of trying to give creative people more structural power.
Metalabel and the creator economy
Rethinking labels (2022). Introduces “metalabels” as labels for ideas and shared values rather than just products, setting the conceptual foundation for Metalabel.
Introducing Metalabel (2022). Outlines Metalabel as a structure for collective releases and shared value among artists, and gathers early research and manifestos into a collectible archive.
The internet culture era (2022). Frames the current moment as an internet culture era, with metalabels as a potential new form for cultural production.
How culture is made (Metalabel Magazine, 2023). Uses historical case studies (Dischord, The Royal Society, Guerrilla Girls, and others) to show how small, aligned groups shape culture.
Reinventing the record (2022). On releasing work in networks rather than as lone-artist drops.
On competition (2022). Reframes competition in culture and business as a design choice rather than a default.
Metablogging (2022). On using internal blogging to create a collective brain.
What’s after the creator economy? (2023). Argues that the creator economy frame is exhausted and points toward collective structures.
The onchain era (2022). Looks at onchain tools as infrastructure for new cultural forms and group economics.
Climbing out of the rabbit hole (2023). A private Google Doc sharing our reasons for leaving crypto.
Creative practice, resilience, and time
Worldbuilding is creative resilience (2023). On how artists build worlds, not just works, and how worldbuilding provides resilience across a career.
Time and the creator (2025). On creative time-scales and how different practices stretch or compress time.
How to long game (2025). On learning to play a long game with your practice.
The ever-expanding focused life (2025). On focus, expansion, and rebalancing attention across projects.
Some things are worth the wait: Diary of a TED talk (2025). Diary-style reflections around my TED talk and the tension between process and outcome.
What we lose when we start with the ending (2025). On how outcome-obsession can distort process and meaning.
The law of fads and trends (2025). A compact model: the faster something grows, the faster it can die, applied to memes, scenes, and creative careers.
How to get where you need to be when you don't know where you're going (2025). On resilience and adaptation.
Bentoism, values, and time
The Bento (2019). Core explainer that introduces Bentoism as a theory of multi-dimensional self-interest across Now Me, Future Me, Now Us, and Future Us, and the Bento as a visual decision tool.
The origins of Bentoism (2019). Narrative of how the Bento emerged during my Kickstarter years as a response to financialization and near-termism.
How the Bento box can change how we see the world (TIME, 2019). How expanding self-interest beyond the immediate individual changes decisions in work and life.
Post-capitalism for realists (2019). Sketches a pragmatic route toward “after capitalism” rooted in changing what we value and how we account for it, rather than pure utopian rupture.
This is how long it takes to change the world (2019). How durable change happens on longer timelines — thirty years — than we tend to imagine.
Rethinking self-interest (2020). Builds out a more pluralistic, values-driven notion of self-interest, linking Bentoism to broader economic and social questions.
The values stack (2020). Explores how different layers of value interact and conflict.
Theories of time (2020). A look at different experiences of time and how they shape our choices.
The ownership crisis (2020). On structural issues around ownership, power, and the need for new forms.
Early criticism and personal essays
Why we started Kickstarter (2009). The canonical origin story of Kickstarter: motivations, constraints, and the values built in.
The object offline (2014). Early essay about resistance, physicality, and objects in a digital world.
Resist and thrive (2015). Talk and essay about money, culture, and resisting monoculture pressures.
Taxonomy of a Top Ten (2005) and Finding myself as a writer (2005). Early meta-writing about lists, taste, and learning to write.
Nobody cares about you (2017). A short essay about ego, attention, and why realizing that nobody cares can be freeing.
Early music criticism for Pitchfork, Village Voice, and Spin (2000 to 2005).