John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 13/09/2026Curb cuts are a common, but over used, example of how an accessibility feature meant for one group (wheelchair users) makes life better for many others (parents with strollers, people on crutches, small children, etc) Alt text on pants comics will be my new example going forward. 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 13/08/2026“irony is the order of the day at the Obama Center.” @katewagner.wehwalt.net nails the eerie feeling of visiting. Our ironic moment: our visit led us to discover the Osaka Garden right next to it. A 130 year old, exquisitely designed (free to visit!) gift from one of Chicago’s sister cities. 100
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 13/08/2026It’s striking how many people described fixing a specific problem as if doing so would fix ALL PROBLEMS. Some were big problems! Clean running water whenever you want, remember every loved one forever, etc. It’s a reminder of the “one weird trick” fallacy. Fix a big problem ≠ utopia 010
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 18/07/2026“It’s 480 BCE, our Spartan warriors have been beaten by the Persians and everyone is talking about Homer’s Odyssey. It’s 2026…” 010
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 06/06/2026Denis Villenueve’s adaptation of Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea cycle 020
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 27/05/2026I highlighted a bunch of passages when I read @tricialockwood.bsky.social’s No One is Talking About This years ago, and every now and then one will pop up again and I am forced to pause and sit in awe of just how perfectly she puts her finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist. 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 04/05/2026no one: me: funny you should mention that. I've memorized all the lyrics to Tom Lehrer's The Elements - there's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium... 100
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 02/05/2026Farce is one of my favorite genres because when done well, it’s superficially silly but underneath is a profound exploration of the human condition. It’s enjoyable the way people enjoy watching those intricate rolling ball sculptures. The intricate mechanics that all make weird sense together. 100
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 21/04/2026A type designer walks into a bar, with thick black lines accentuating her eyes, nose, and mouth. The bartender says “why the boldface?” 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 21/04/2026Why did we call it “microblogging” when “take fountain” was right there? 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 19/04/2026Ursula K. LeGuin, in the afterword to A Wizard of Earthsea. Wowee. 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 18/04/2026@visakanv.com‘s description of good work having “an idea in the car” echoes the feeling of reading a lot of AI writing. The human impulse towards efficiency strips all the dynamic life from the writing. Lots of interesting parallels between the photocopier and LLMs as well, prob not a coincidence. 151
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 26/03/2026@visakanv.com “The lotus of my optimism grows out of the mud of my despair.” 🔥 It’s like the serenity prayer for the person blessedcursed with an overactive mind. 010
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 08/03/2026This reflects the difference between a “technology” and a “product.” Technology is how something functions. It’s amazing and fascinating to people who are into how things work (which is not everyone) Product is how something functions in a person’s specific context. Very different things! 120
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 08/03/2026meta-note There’s a lot that is tragic (in the Greek sense of the word) about what happened to Twitter, but 1 of the most profound is the lost potential for it to be the medium for something like this. Not a post with a screenshot of a book. But another strand in a great web of connected thought 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 08/03/2026(Re-)reminder to stop writing for everyone and write for someone instead, whoever that someone is for you (for me). Via @visakanv.com 041
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 07/03/2026Absolute gem in @visakanv.com‘s FAN. To paraphrase: Ppl who are blindly confident are unlikely to worry about being blindly confident So if you worry about being blindly confident, you likely don’t need to worry about it as much as you do (esp if worrying holds you back from doing what want to do) 161
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 06/03/2026plot twist: the tech CEO is the child and the venture capitalist is a hallucination, they're actually a surgeon and tech CEO is on the operating table and the surgeon is saying "I can't operate on this person, they're my child" and the surgeon is the mom 020
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 05/03/2026My favorites are the ones I've seen in action (coincidentally, one by kids, one for kids). Titus Andronicus put on by high schoolers. What they did with the over the top violence was 😚👌 Comedy of Errors when done right, the jokes had an audience of middle schoolers falling out of their chairs 010
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 25/02/2026Are we talking about people writing stuff in books today? Sweet! That means I can share one of my all time favorite poems: Marginalia by Billy Collins 0124
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 20/02/2026being a Mets fan is enough of an adventure, thankyouverymuch 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 17/02/2026’Twas brillig, and the NPCs Did mog and rizz in their drip: All skibidi were the delulu OPs, And the looksmaxxers did simp. 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 02/02/2026Groundhog Day | noun | a situation in which the same usually negative or monotonous experiences occur repeatedly or are felt to occur repeatedly with no change or correction 110
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 22/11/2025Honestly saying “I don’t know” is such a power move. If you think about it, it also creates a sympathetic bond with the audience because it’s highly likely many of THEM don’t know as well. After all, you’re the one on stage and they came to watch you speak. 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 07/09/2025Any game designers out there? Specifically focused on deck building games? 010
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 07/08/2025The hilariousness and brilliantness of this website reinspires my confidence in what is possible with this whole internet thing ✅✅✅ 030
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 28/07/2025RIP Tom. You were one of the first to show me that humor and truth were great friends. Thanks for everything. 010
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 22/06/2025He died in 2002, well before social media transformed everything, but I know Chuck Jones would have had an account just to repost stuff like this 020
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 20/06/2025The “personal FAQ because I’m being milkshake-ducked by AI slop for engagement” is going to be the new “link in bio,” isn’t it? 110
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 13/06/2025This is an interesting angle I hadn’t considered before. One of the reasons we converse with other people is to ground ourselves in reality. It’s hard to see the truth when we only have a single point of reference, we choose another perspective to orient ourselves. 110
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 10/06/2025It seems like a cruel irony that when a problem in a relationship is that one person isn’t listening, the most direct way to fix it revolves around telling that person “you’re not listening.” Which would work if …you know… that person were listening. 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 25/05/2025LLMs are averagers by nature. A below average writer? It’ll help. An above average writer? It will bring you down. It pushes all writing towards the average. On every dimension: originality, perspective, syntax… Tell it to be weirder? It’ll give you the most average weirdness you can think of. 110
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 23/05/2025Thoughtfulness, empathy, self-awareness, and the desire to express himself clearly No one is perfect, but I have to imagine that wherever this student is right now, he’s doing ok 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 23/05/2025If you were a skilled at plumbing, electrical, or HVAC and a good teacher (and enjoyed those things), you could make a really nice business charging a premium for fixing stuff and teaching people how to do it (or even just cogently explaining what you’re doing) 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 21/05/2025Alt text won't be able to do it justice, but the italicization in this section makes @chuckwendig.bsky.social's point best. Generative AI is not writing. If you want to see what writing looks like, check this out. This is writing with a capital WRITE. 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 21/05/2025One of the funny(?) things about all this is it FEELS new and different, but it is one of the oldest human truths: it’s about the journey, not the destination. Explored in every culture for all of human history. Of course “this time it’s different, no actually it’s not” is also one of those truths 010
Reposted by John StokvisRon Marz @ronmarz.bsky.social · 21/05/2025I will never understand people who make things -- films, stories, art, music -- abdicating the making of those things in favor of a machine doing it. The joy is in creating something, not in avoiding the work of creation. 1327350
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 20/05/2025This jibes with my sense that most complaints about “AI” (whatever that is) are actually complaints about the effects of capitalism. The problem is they can’t consider any alternatives to capitalism (feels too big, don’t want to, don’t know any, etc) Btw this what the Luddites were on about too. 000
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 18/05/2025Be wary of taking parenting advice from anyone, esp someone on the internet, but @visakanv.com is speaking to the “Not sure I’m ready” question. Whatever you think your limitations are, you’re probably wrong. Parenting shows you reserves of strength, grace, and patience you didn’t know you had. 110
John Stokvis @johnstokvis.com · 18/05/2025Someone who’s lived in Chicago for a few years glancing up at any random street addressmedia.tenor.coma woman looking at a screen with a netflix logo in the cornerAlt: a woman looking at a screen doing cool moves to manipulate a map with a netflix logo in the corner 083
