iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 01/10/2026

It's time to end mandatory homework (hooray!). andrewglassner.substack.com/p/goodbye-ho...

Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 22/09/2026

Two boys, a challenging task, and then a jerk comes along to make it even harder. Does it all turn out okay? Find out in this month's Castle Tales: The Bogsweep. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/castle-tal...

A stained-glass window showing a man dressed in green in a boggy swamp, standing in front of a wagon.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 17/09/2026

AI is showing up throughout our culture. How do we thoughtfully choose when this is desirable and when it's not? Consider the purpose, process, and payoff of the activity. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/purpose-pr...

Two sunlit hikers walking along a mountain crest, seen from behind. We see the mountains and the cloudy sky above.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 08/09/2026

Book club! Novels I've enjoyed and recommend: swashbuckling adventure on the high seas, misadventures of stealing a saint's bones in 1087, a quiet story of time travel, lunatic adventures in Florida, and an incredible mystery-solving duo in another world. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/book-club-...

Covers of three novels: The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, Nicked, and Sea of Tranquility

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 01/09/2026

Yes friends, it's the month's first Tuesday and that means another thrilling adventure from Jack Hammer, America's Best-Dressed Gumshoe! Today's mystery: The Actress of Doom. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/jack-hamme...

An open-backed fruit delivery truck on a dirt road in a dry climate, filled with melons. Sleeping in the back of the truck is a 1950's detective, fully dressed in his suit, tie, and hat.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 26/08/2026

The conclusion of Dogs Big and Small, in which our narrator evens the score. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/castle-tal...

A stained glass window showing a joyful young prince the moment after he has pushed a young peasant boy into a mud puddle

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 25/08/2026

New series! A rogue tells tales of his extraordinary life, starting with his childhood at the Castle Canigulus, the estate of His Glorious Misbegotten Majesty, Luis d'Esplosiva Manticorean, the Fussy Duke. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/castle-tal...

A stained-glass window of a young boy in a castle courtyard. He holds a bucket and shovel as he contemplates a small lump of dog feces.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 18/08/2026

New series! The Aesop’s fables you know was not originally for kids. These stories was written by Aesop when he was runnin’ a crime syndicate to teach new blood comin’ into the gang how things really work. The link's got the real Ant and the Grasshopper. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/true-aesop...

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 12/08/2026

Every day we're surrounded by beeps, from toasters and microwaves to cars and elevators. And they're all the same beep! Here's why: andrewglassner.substack.com/p/beep

A row of identical robins singing an identical note

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 05/08/2026

There's a beautiful idea called partial measurement. It comes from a cool new field called quantum computing. This post shares the idea with you, but there no math and no physics - all you'll need is imagination. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/partial-me...

A row of identical blue shirts hanging in a closet.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 29/07/2026

New! The transcribed case files of Jack Hammer, America's Best-Dressed Gumshoe. Today's story: The Man Who Reached Too Far andrewglassner.substack.com/p/the-case-f...

A 1940's private eye sleeping on the floor of a wooden elevator. He is fully dressed in his suit, shoes, tie, and hat.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 15/07/2026

There are beautiful mosaics laid into the sidewalks of Vancouver, BC. Here's a new roundup of those I've found. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/mosaics-of...

Two colorful sidewalk mosaics from Vancouver, BC.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 08/07/2026

In "Five Habits That Will Transform Your Wretched Shell Of A Body Into An Atomic Dynamo!" I will show you, for free, the health secrets that will change your life! andrewglassner.substack.com/p/five-habit...

A young woman who is happy, ecstatic, thrilled, exuberant, deli rious, head thrown back, shouting with overwhelming happiness, fists pumping in waves of joy

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 01/07/2026

New Substack post! Have you ever had trouble opening a container with wet hands? It's a problem that's easy to solve - and lots of designers have done it! Let's look at some solutions. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/one-good-t...

Three containers with smooth plastic lids that need to be turned.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 25/06/2026

What's up with AI "hallucinations"? Are they a just a temporary annoyance that we're gradually cleaning up? Nope! "Chatbots Hallucinate Everything, Always" on Substack. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/ai-halluci...

A photograph of a market stand featuring many varieties of apples.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 17/06/2026

Another new Substack post? Yes indeed! "For Your Security" asks the questions that really matter to protect your identity. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/for-your-s...

A color photograph of multiple stairways at strange angles heading down to an observation point over a body of water

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 10/06/2026

New Substack post! "Writing A Novel, Part 1: Discovery" describes my process for writing the first phase of my new novel. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/writing-a-...

A color photograph of a woman in a kayak in open water, with high rugged mountains in the distance.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 03/06/2026

New Substack post! "Mosaics of Vancouver, BC." Some of the beautiful, hand-made mosaics embedded in the city's sidewalks. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/mosaics-of...

Left: A mosaic of the Lion's Gate Bridge, with a boat passing underneath. Right: A mosaic of a huge red-and-gold dragon being carried aloft by many people in a parade.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 27/05/2026

New Substack Post! "Who Am Us, Anyway?" When you're playing a video game, are you the character, or are you you? andrewglassner.substack.com/p/who-am-us-...

A color synthetic photo of a scarecrow in an elevator that has mirrors in front of him and behind him. He is taking a selfie. We see the endless chain of images of the scarecrow's front and back creating reflections.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 13/05/2026

New Substack post! "Home Slopping Network" - bring AI into your home! andrewglassner.substack.com/p/home-slopp...

A composite color photograph of a sheep with a wolf's head, standing in a field.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 06/05/2026

New Substack post! Car talk. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/car-talk

A color photo of a bridge over a river. It's winter, and snow is falling. Photo by Spencer Shellborn, https://www.pexels.com/photo/bridge-above-river-in-winter-landscape-15325640/

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 29/04/2026

New substack post! "Do Chatbots Have Emotions?" andrewglassner.substack.com/p/do-chatbot...

A photo of two pieces of burnt toast on a white plate with blue stripes. The text above reads "Do Chatbots Have Emotions?" The text below reads "Open Season" and "andrewglassner.substack.com".

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 22/04/2026

New Substack Post! The Babblemumble Cube. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/the-babble...

A photo of an old-fashioned typesetter's box showing the wood-and-metal slugs for different letters.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 15/04/2026

New substack post! The crazy naming system in Borderlands games. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/baroque-no...

A color photo from inside a ridiculously ornate building. Gold filigree and marble excess is everywhere.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 08/04/2026

New Substack post! Book Club, Volume 1. andrewglassner.substack.com/p/book-club-...

Three book covers, all written by Ursula K. Le Guin: The Lathe of Heaven, The Dispossessed, and The Left Hand of Darkness.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 04/04/2026

"Place pizza on a baking sheet," the box said. "Nah," I said, "It'll be fine."

A photo of a pizza disaster, showing the inside of an oven. A frozen pizza was placed directly on the top wire shelf and it melted down to the bottom of the oven. Most of the outer crust remains on the shelf, with streamers of cheese hanging down from it. On the bottom of the oven is a molten glob of cheese and other pizza stuff.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 12/03/2026

Since the dawn of time, people have thought about interesting ideas and wondered, "What does Andrew think about this?" We can finally answer that question! Check out Open Season, my new Substack, at andrewglassner.substack.com Tech, games, ideas, art, humor, and no politics.

A cartoon image of a tree in a forest. A wooden board is nailed to the tree at a slight angle. On the board are the words "Open Season". Below that is the URL andrewglassner.substack.com. The image is a collage of modified public domain art from the web. The typeface is Mirisch, regular weight.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 03/03/2026

Just finished The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry. Beautiful. It feels the way I imagine it would feel to be in a dim Irish bar, rain falling outside, a fire in the corner, and someone next to you, with a glass of drink and a gorgeous gift of language, turned and told you a story.

The cover of the novel The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry. It shows small silhouettes of man and woman on a horse on a brown field. Behind them the field rises in to a mountain, and the sun is visible to the side, all together forming an abstracted heart.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 27/12/2025

New project! My test/debug image became my first image, and I'm super happy. Onward! (Fine print: Houdini w/ custom nodes running my own code. No reaction-diffusion sim, no textures, no transparency.)

A 3D image rendered in Houdini. A yellow ball sits inside a larger, red ball. The yellow ball has a texture like thick paste. The red ball seems to be made of many small and large worms on its surface.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 27/12/2025

Here’s a Vancouver house I passed today near Davie and Bute streets.

A house near Davie and Bute streets in Vancouver BC.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 03/12/2025

I just finished Moonbound by Robin Sloan. A delight from start to finish, a combination of epic fable, science fiction, and fantasy. Every word honed, every sentence weight-bearing, nothing wasted. Characters that mattered. Sparse and lovely.

The cover of Moonbound by Robin Sloan. It shows a low-contrast view of a cloudy sky, with a tear revealing the inky blackness of space, and a faraway planet.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 28/11/2025

I came home with a new friend yesterday. Looks gorgeous, and sounds beautiful.

A Yamaha FG800 guitar on a stand near an apartment wall. The top of the guitar has a distinctive vertical grain.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 25/11/2025

AI seems everywhere today. Curious how it works? My friendly book explains it all clearly, with no math and tons of pictures. Get 25% off until Dec 25 with code DLVA25 from nostarch.com/deep-learnin...

Cover of Deep Learning: A Visual Approach by Andrew Glassner, showing a cartoon robot. The robot has pulled back the top of his head to reveal a "brain" full of light bulbs. With his other hand, he is inserting an additional, even larger lightbulb.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 04/11/2025

An over-the-door coat hook I bought yesterday. Right: the back of the packaging presumably showing how to use it. What the what?

A pair of photos. On the left is a white coat hook hung over a door. On the right is the illustration from the back of the hook's packaging, showing a strangely curved and bent hook over a broken door with jagged lighting bolts in its frame, where the top doesn't line up with the side, and a strange circle (out of perspective) might be doorknob.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 01/11/2025

Either very old dogs, or the editor needs more sleep.

Photo of a magazine article reading "Palaeontologists have discovered around two dozen fossil specimens of dogs ranging in age from 35,500 to 13,000 years old across..."

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 14/09/2025

I discovered the wonderful Book Warehouse on Broadway in Vancouver BC yesterday, and came home with 4 diverse recommendations from David! New books! What a great day!

Four book covers: Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry, Moonbound by Robin Sloan, and The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 16/08/2025

This book was written by me, not AI. From the introduction to my new book "Quantum Computing: From Concepts to Code" from No Starch Press nostarch.com/quantum-comp...

A section of a page from "Quantum Computing: From Concepts to Code." It reads as follows:

"Who Wrote This Book?

As of 2025, AI-based systems that are capable of producing text (in addition to generating other media) are changing the landscape of writing. People are using chatbots to write office memos, term papers, business proposals, newspaper articles, technical reports, and probably anything else that’s based on text, from love letters to birthday cards.

It can be hard to know whether you’re reading something written by a person or the output of a program trained to produce text that is statistically similar to that written by a person. The result is that it can be challenging to know how much trust we can place in anything we read: Are we reading something produced by a real person, or a clever simulation?

So, I think it’s important for you to know where this book came from. It came from me, Andrew, the guy whose name is on the cover. Every word, every letter, every comma and parenthesis came from me (or one of my won- derful human editors). With the exception of plots showing actual data and circuit diagrams produced by a library following my explicit instructions, I drew every figure by hand. I used a wide variety of software tools to help me write text, create images, run quantum programs, check the math, and provide other support, but none of them wrote any of the book."

The cover of "Quantum Computing: From Concepts to Code" by Andrew Glassner. The cover art is a line drawing of an arcade claw machine reaching into a box of different robots. They are reacting with various degrees of worry, concern, escape, distraction, and goofiness.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 30/07/2025

Interested in #QuantumComputing? My book just came out and it looks beautiful! This is exciting, mind-stretching stuff. Don't worry that it's too hard - if you remember high-school math, you're all set. Get a printed or e-book now from nostarch.com/quantum-comp... or from your favorite bookstore.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 23/07/2025

A course on quantum computing? Yes! At #SIGGRAPH2025 in beautiful Vancouver, BC! This math-free introduction will bring you up to speed on this super cool technology, and you'll be more than ready for the hands-on Lab on Wednesday. Everyone is welcome!

A photo of Vancouver Harbour, showing a boat gas station and a seaplane ready to take off. The text reads, "SIGGRAPH 2025 Presents a math-free course for everyone: An Introduction to Quantum Computing. Instructor: Andrew Glassner. Monday 11 August, 2:00-3:30PM PDT. Vancouver Centre West, Ballroom C. Great prep for the Quantum Teleportation Lab & hands-on programming: Wednesday, 3:15 - 4:45 pm"

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 21/07/2025

Coming up! My math-free introductory course to the Fourier Transform, at #SIGGRAPH2025 this August in beautiful Vancouver, BC. No math, just the key ideas for computer graphics. Everyone is welcome! 12 August, 9-10:30 PDT, Vancouver Centre rooms 301-305.

A photograph of a small building on stilts on the Vancouver, BC shoreline. Text in the upper right, against a lightly clouded sky, reads, "SIGGRAPH 2025 Presents a math-free intro course to the Fourier Transform. Instructor: Andrew Glassner. Tuesday 12 August, 9:00 - 10:30 AM PDT. Vancouver Centre West, Rooms 301-305"

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 09/07/2025

Come to my HANDS-ON Lab at SIGGRAPH 2025 and teleport a quantum state! Wednesday 13 August, 3:15-4:45, in the beautiful Vancouver Convention Center, West Exhibit Hall B s2025.conference-schedule.org/presentation...

Poster for a Lab at SIGGRAPH 2025. The voxel whale sculpture at the Vancouver Convention Center is on the right. On the left is text reading "SIGGRAPH 2025 presents a hands-on lab for quantum teleportation. Instructor: Andrew Glassner. Wednesday, 13 August 2025, 3:15-4:45 PM PDT." At the bottom is text reading, "Vancouver Convention Center West Building, Exhibit Hall B"

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 16/06/2025

W00t! My latest book, "Quantum Computing: From Concepts to Code" is off to the printer's! You can grab the PDF from the publisher right now at 25% off (nostarch.com/quantum-comp...) or hold on and buy the physical book in a month or so.

The cover of "Quantum Computing: From Concepts to Code." The illustration, in yellow, black, and white, shows a box full of cartoon robots looking up at a claw-machine grabber that appears ready to pick up one of them at random.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 07/05/2025

It doesn't look like the Vancouver Public Library has tote bags. Drat! My library card has a list of all the local branches. Maybe one day they'll make it a map with bright dots for the branch locations.

A photo of a Vancouver Public Library card next to a pen on a wooden table.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 04/04/2025

I have a new library card! It's one of the greatest joys in moving to a new city. Being part of the library means being a part of the community. #VancouverPublicLibrary

A photo of a desktop showing a pen and a library card from the Vancouver Public Library in British Columbia, Canada

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 08/02/2025

Yesterday it snowed in Seattle, and in the morning I saw these tracks in the fresh snow in front of my door. Does anyone know what made them?

A photograph of tracks in freshly-fallen snow in Seattle. I don't recognize what kind of animal made these.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 07/02/2025

I saw a photo of a ring-tailed lemur. I have zero knowledge of its anatomy, but I thought for fun I'd make a constructive drawing of it, and it kinda-sorta worked out!

A pencil construction drawing of a ring-tailed lemur from a photo, by someone with no knowledge of its anatomy. Rough drawing in orange Colerase pencil, selections in blue Colerase.

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 07/01/2025

The National Pornbot Center assigns names to pornbots just as the World Meteorological Organization assigns them to hurricanes, in alphabetical order. We're still working through the Ale... section.

A screenshot of the most recent three recent followers to my account. They are all fake pornbot accounts with similar names: Aleexa, Alexianne, and Alexxandria

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 06/01/2025

Pencil sketch for previous post #art

Pencil sketch of an abstract human person leaning to the right, against a wall, looking down. The head, chest, and pelvis are shown. Each limb appears in two places (arms above and below the elbow, legs above and below the knee). The shapes are minimal tapered cones with some radius variation. The viewpoint is at the side and there's no perspective, so the image appears flattened, as a collection

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Andrew Glassner @glassner.com · 06/01/2025

Artists: How do you distinguish different grades of pencils, particularly when you have several from one manufacturer? They look identical and the grade markings are small. I've put these big labels on my woodless pencils. Is there a better way?

Four woodless pencils. Each is black or dark gray, making them hard to distinguish. I wrapped a piece of yellow tape around the end of each one, labeling it with the grade of the pencil's lead. The labels are H, 2, 4, 6 (for HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B).

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