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Justin Pot

@justinpot.com
277 followers 89 following 472 posts

I am a freelance journalist and a person. I believe that tech is a tool, not a way of life, and that we should use it to connect with each other. I currently write for Lifehacker, WIRED, The Atlantic, PopSci, PCMag, and The Wall Street Journal.

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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 17/09/2026
it's like that time Apple put a U2 album on everyone's phones except instead of being a meh album from an aging band it's actively harmful to trans people good times
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 14/09/2026
Red sky in the morning (but only at certain latitudes) and other weather myths I wrote about for PopSci: www.popsci.com/environment/3-myths-…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 11/09/2026
not that they suffer any consequences for it or anything
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 11/09/2026
Somehow this is the most popular thing I've ever posted on the Fediverse (also like four people saw it on Bluesky). If you think I'm funny considering signing up for my newsletter, it's a good time possibly: buttondown.com/justinpot
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 10/09/2026
pro tip: tell your boss the AI said you’ll be more efficient at home and see which one of their irrational beliefs wins out
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 08/09/2026
I didn’t exactly enjoy writing this for PopSci, but I did learn a lot: www.popsci.com/health/how-gross-is-…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 04/09/2026
Might be hard for me to test that, specifically, but I'll try to pay attention!
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 04/09/2026
The free options keep getting better and better! I'm going to have to dig into this some more in a few months I think.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 04/09/2026
It's like a Temu listing for a lake.
justinpot.com
Layers of stupidity
Calling Lake Ontario "Lake America" is stupid for the obvious reasons, yes, but also for historical ones.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 03/09/2026
What’s the most complex “app” you’ve replaced with a text document?
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 03/09/2026
"what the fuck are we even made about here" is the level at which i absorb all comic book news
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 31/08/2026
My Canadian heart feels strongly about this, my latest piece for PopSci: www.popsci.com/health/how-gross-is-…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 28/08/2026
It's a mystery...
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 27/08/2026
Get your timeline back.
justinpot.com
How to actually see posts from your friends and family on Instagram
Instagram is a hostage situation. It has photos and videos from the people in your life, but it will only show them to you occasionally—most of the time you get algorithmically-chosen slop. This means you can scroll for hours on this so-called social network and learn very little about the people you care about. Maybe...
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Reposted by Justin Pot
Andrew Hedges 🦔 @segdeha.com · 26/08/2026
“It might sound like I’m demeaning the executive class, and I am.” 😂
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 26/08/2026
One thing I do not miss about Twitter is the brands. I hope they never find us here.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 24/08/2026
What I learned from the most depressing conversation of my life.
justinpot.com
The one thing no CEO will ever understand
What I learned from the most depressing conversation of my life.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 24/08/2026
Worried about toilet germs on your toothbrush? You can relax (mostly). www.popsci.com/health/how-gross-is-…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 20/08/2026
Most of the internet is bad, yes, but some of it is Actually Good™.
justinpot.com
Free graph paper, an online drum machine, and a few other Actually Good Websites™
Stop doom scrolling and start creeping on the location of every boat on earth.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 19/08/2026
Lately I’ve been drifting in the morning instead of finding joy in my writing. What helps you find yourself at the beginning of the day?
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 17/08/2026
I’m never dragging an icon to /Applications again. Ever. www.wired.com/story/easydmg-finally…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 13/08/2026
Transcription, the best tool the AI age has brought us, doesn’t need to cost anything. www.wired.com/story/meetily-lets-yo…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 11/08/2026
Google doesn’t make it easy to ditch Gemini in Googel Docs, but you can do it. I outlined how for WIRED: www.wired.com/story/how-to-disable-…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 10/08/2026
it's a good lil nose (you don't have to read the article if you don't want to)
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 10/08/2026
My latest newsletter is out! Subscribe to get all my posts here delivered to your inbox, if you like that sort of thing. buttondown.com/justinpot
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 07/08/2026
That's the general idea!
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 07/08/2026
Enough is enough.
justinpot.com
Why I left Mastodon
​​It’s not click bait: I left Mastodon last month. But it’s also kind of clickbait, because you can still follow me there. Is that confusing? A friend of mine, also a tech journalist, recently told me it is, so I thought I’d try to explain. One of the nice things about Mastodon, and social networks...
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 07/08/2026
I'll look into doing a writeup about this, though. Thanks for the idea!
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 07/08/2026
But in general search for you want and ignore any playlist that say "Made for" followed by your username. NPR's New Music Friday is great—it's a weekly podcast about new releases but they also put out a playlist every week. I also love online radio. KEXP, Soma.FM, CBC music.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 07/08/2026
Honestly? The only solution I've found to this is human curation. You need to search for playlists created by actual people. I've found a few maintained by the Spotify staff that are decent—Lorem, for example.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 06/08/2026
Friends: I'm considering writing more guides like this. Which websites or services would you like to learn to make less of a time sink?
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 05/08/2026
Share with with anyone who wants to spend less time on YouTube.
justinpot.com
How to turn YouTube into a tool (instead of a giant time sink)
Don't passively consume—take control over what you see.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 03/08/2026
It turns out sirens have a pretty interesting history, as I wrote for PopSci: www.popsci.com/technology/history-o…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 03/08/2026
I've only been active-ish here for a couple months so it's totally understandable. Nice to be in touch again.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 31/07/2026
sincerely wish more people posting were this thoughtful
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 31/07/2026
You don't have to put up with it.
justinpot.com
How to get the old Google back
A lot of people ask me how to get rid of the AI suggestion box at the top of Google's search results. And I personally have my own beef with the feature, even while understanding it can occasionally be useful. There's a lot of bad advice for removing the feature out there. Some people recommend...
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 30/07/2026
What a beautiful mess. Could you use it for anything productive?
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 30/07/2026
Friction is fun, actually.
justinpot.com
Tech is better when it kinda sucks
On the joy of tinkering and figuring things out.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 25/07/2026
Humans are very bad at knowing what they want. A dive into the science of happiness, for PopSci: www.popsci.com/health/ways-science-…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 24/07/2026
I could probably write a whole piece about the enshitification of meditation
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 24/07/2026
Finally, a meditation app that doesn’t bombard you with pop-ups and upsells: theintelligence.com/43688/meditatio…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 20/07/2026
Annoyed by all the animations and music videos in Spotify? I explain how to turn them all off over at WIRED: www.wired.com/story/how-to-disable-…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 14/07/2026
The only teams left in the World Cup are England and countries who upset about England controlling nearby islands.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 14/07/2026
What’s your most unnecessarily elaborate tech workaround?
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 14/07/2026
Plex keeps getting worse but Jellyfin, the main open source alternative, has a few real downsides. I break things down for WIRED: www.wired.com/story/plex-keeps-gett…
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 13/07/2026
Cursive isn’t faster, and a few other handwriting myths I debunked over at PopSci: www.popsci.com/diy/cursive-myths
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 10/07/2026
Science shows rest makes you more productive (but that's not why you should rest).
justinpot.com
Rest is the most underappreciated productivity tool
Science shows rest makes you more productive (but that's not why you should rest).
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 10/07/2026
USA Today may pull their articles from search results to avoid feeding the AI machine. Other publications could follow.
justinpot.com
Google is strip mining the web. Publishers might leave.
USA Today may pull their articles from search results to avoid feeding the AI machine. Other publications could follow.
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 10/07/2026
hedonic adaptation means that they perceive such luxury as normal and don't really enjoy it all all
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Justin Pot @justinpot.com · 08/07/2026
I spent way too much time thinking about a video game from 1993 and now you have to read about it. Sorry. justinpot.com/zork-and-the-social-i…
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