Medium Daily Edition

Issue #77: OpenAI comes for Siri, a new study on H5N1 avian flu, and life with Long Covid

Issue #76: a musician’s guide to punctuation, a chaplain’s advice on what not to say after someone dies, and a storytelling tip

Issue #75: A philosophy of LLMs, the moments leading up to famous photos, and how to Slack

Also today: Autism inclusion on Broadway, the science of groove, and when to walk the talk at work

Also today: Seeing through Wes Anderson’s eyes, fearless leadership, and writing good sentences

Also today: Why T. Rex’s arms are so tiny, Kendrick vs. Drake, and the power of unconditional positive regard

Also today: Swimming through the Manhattan Project, how to send good emails, and the value of imperfection

Also today: Live-drawing the Trump trial, cautionary design, and strategic impoliteness

Also today: Why are 9-volt batteries rectangular? And how not to jump to conclusions

Also today: the mighty ellipsis and a terrifying lifespan chart

Also today: Finding freedom in constraints, font pairings, and why assumptions are not your friends

Also today: the truth about virality, pushing Medium to its limits, and how to be the type of person everyone wants to know

Also today: Storytelling tips from a lawyer, rattlesnake facts, and how to avoid awkward meeting endings

Also today: The 25th anniversary of The Matrix, re-examining the JFK assassination, and strategic small talk

Today: Why big hits stay hits longer, first aids myths, and taking inspiration from Steve Martin’s career

Plus: how to find magic in the everyday

Plus: how to give the best compliments

Happy World Book Day!

An urgent Earth Day warning

Plus: Taming your smartphone

Today: A wrenching recollection, and advice on how to make requests that actually get heard

Also today: Julian Assange, an AI music experiment, not your same-old Wordle starter words, and the power of bracing for the worst

Also today: Post less, write more

Plus: The 50/30/10/10 rule

Plus: One amazing (and amazingly stinky) cheese

Also: The power of cold emails

And: A fish recipe

Also today: How flying really works, a meditation on why Sears stores are still in operation, and how to be your own friend.

Plus: Leading a meeting does not mean talking the most

🍾 It’s Friday, y’all! Plus: Typing on a 100-year-old Royal portable

Also this week: Don’t try to be happy, just be useful.

Plus: A window into Barack Obama’s decision-making process

And how to master work-appropriate honesty

A prank-free April 1 experiment

Also today: The antitrust case against Apple and a guide to making good career choices.

And how to look inward for creative inspiration

And a strategy for beating writer’s block

And the secret to telling a good story

Plus: 7 ways to spot a liar

Plus: A legal look at TikTok’s privacy policy and a rational look at your odds of dying

Plus: An internal memo from Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield

And how our memory changes as we age

And a strategy for curbing impulse shopping

And the shadow side of software optimization

Ireland’s anti-slavery history, Zen Buddhist shoshin, and the three types of tech workers

Pi Day, the web turns 35, and knowing when to work less

The psychology of small talk, an alternative to job interviews, and Kate conspiracies

And a system for getting more out of what you read

The story behind Microsoft’s new default font

Plus: A bad system will beat a good person every time

Plus: Disruption comes for Google

Plus: A meditation technique to boost self-compassion

Plus: Why company celebrations are so strategically important

Plus: Interviewing for a job? Focus on being useful

Plus: Why you didn’t get that job as a senior software engineer

Plus: Would it be morally acceptable for us to eat extraterrestrial life?

And: How Black artists are reclaiming “country”

Plus: Netflix’s cofounder on Taylor Swift’s growth tactics

…and a Twitter cofounder’s lessons for conquering fear

Plus: A brief history of art on the moon

Plus: Deciphering James Brown’s algorithmic rhythms

And how to write delightful copy

Plus: The most overlooked rule of dating

And a glimpse into the future of electric vehicles

🍄 Once again, it’s Friday! Congratulations, you made it

Also: 16 strange but beautiful paradoxes

Plus: Usher’s ode to southern Black culture

Plus: Why boring is beautiful in software engineering

Plus: Embrace being inefficient

Plus: Celebrating the Year of the Dragon

Plus: Apple’s ecosystem advantage

Plus: Why people end up in leadership for the wrong reasons

Plus: Nature photography from the Pacific Northwest

Plus: How to avoid ‘conspicuous contribution’ at work

Plus: A rodent predicted early spring, and 10 tricks to appear smart in meetings

“Apple has a long history of coming in late to the game, doing it (and marketing it) better, and creating an industry.”

Today: The lesser-known origins of Dry January