Janky, wobbly models of everything from philosophy to technology and everything in-between.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Freemium | Publishes | Twice weekly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 458 | Founded | 7 years ago | Last Issue | 10 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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contraptions.venkateshrao.comLatest Issues
Mindmap June 6, 2026
Don’t have time for a proper post this week, but I thought I’d share a recent mindmap that I think is a pretty good view of stuff I’m thinking about right now. It’s nice having a whiteboard up on a wall again.
The little red circled ?? arr...
From Cannons to Chronometers to Factories
The conventional history of industrialization is usually told through textiles. The story begins with spinning jennies, water frames, and power looms in eighteenth-century Britain, then proceeds through steam engines, factories, railroads,...
Time, Enlightenment and Romanticism Between Modernity and Divergence
Last month, in the book club, we read Inventing Nature by Andrea Wulf, about the life and work of Alexander von Humboldt. This month, I ended up also reading Wulf’s earlier book on the Jena set, Magnificent Rebels, which is on our side ques...
Commodity Intelligence
In a doh moment last week, I realized I was missing a key dynamic in my thinking about AI: commodification.
The specific problem was that vgr_zirp, the RAG bot I’ve been training and tuning on my older writing, was acting boringly omnisci...
Many Act 2 Games are Afoot
I have a bunch of actual newsletter-type personal news update items I need to share, so I figured I’d share them all at once as a kind of life update. Taken together it feels like a definite phase shift. I guess this might be my Act 2 final...
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