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Mark O’Connell

@mrkocnnll.bsky.social
3.5K followers 403 following 67 posts

Writer and so forth

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Reposted by Mark O’Connell
Patrick Radden Keefe @praddenkeefe.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
I'm hugely grateful for this deeply considered and beautifully written review of LONDON FALLING from a writer I admire, @mrkocnnll.bsky.social. @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
nybooks.com
London’s Brutal Underground | Mark O’Connell
In Patrick Radden Keefe’s London Falling, an ordinary boy’s deadly obsession with the ultrarich reveals deeper corruption at the heart of modern London.
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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
By far the funniest part of this insane post is that even the maniacs who believe this stuff are so media-pilled they refer to it as a 'leaked photo'. As if God, CEO of Heaven Studios, had included it in a press kit for awards season, but embargoed it til January 27th.
Tweet by Nandi showing a bizarre snowy(?!) fantasy city under a dark, cosmic sky, along with the text;

"Leaked photo of heaven is going viral on social media. No wonder Christians are so determined to get there.
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Rick O'Shea @rickoshea.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
We'll be doing a live Arena show at @dublinbookfest.bsky.social celebrating 100 issues of @thedublinreview.bsky.social. We'll have editor Brendan Barrington, contributors Sara Baume, @patrickfreyne.bsky.social, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, and @mrkocnnll.bsky.social. Do come, it's going to be special...
dublinbookfestival.com
The Dublin Review at 100 - Dublin Book Festival
The Dublin Review, Ireland’s quarterly magazine of essays, memoir, reportage and fiction, is celebrating its 100th issue. Join us for a special live broadcast of RTÉ Arena on Radio 1 in conversation w...
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Ed Morrish @edmorrish.com · 16/09/2025
[me, a journalist who spends all day every day on a social media app where the discovery algorithm is personally controlled by its owner, captain birdseye] you know, a lot of people are talking about fish fingers, we should probably cover that
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The New York Review of Books @nybooks.com · 13/09/2025
“It is often said that many nonfiction books should really have been magazine articles; this one feels like a LinkedIn post mercilessly stretched to nearly three hundred pages.” —Mark O’Connell on Palantir’s founder’s first book
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The War App | Mark O’Connell
Last year, according to a recent report in The New York Times, Alexander Karp received a total of $6.8 billion for his services as CEO of the data
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Jason Kirk @jasonkirk.fyi · 12/09/2025
Discovering computer as an adult makes you go crazy. Discovering computer as a baby makes you go crazy. In all of human history, there will only ever be one generation to discover computer at the correct age: 13
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John Merrick @johnmerrick.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
Yeah man, keep being patronising snobs, that’ll get liberalism back on the road
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Terrible book, terrible guy, great magazine
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Yes, in the same way your thermostat suffers from the pain of burning
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Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...
What’s a technology that you think is overhyped?

I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry.

Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto.

It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Instagram ads have gotten exponentially worse recently, right? Just an endlessly encroaching tide of slop and cheap scams
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
The NYT talked to @jenniferwalshe.bsky.social and me about MARS, which opens tonight at Galway Arts Festival
nytimes.com
An Opera Takes A.I., Pronatalism and Hustle Culture to Space
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Rob Palk @robpalk.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Oo remembers lying awake after dinner at Combray for maman to give you a goodnight kiss?
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Don’t tell me about a thing being “downstream of” another thing. I don’t want to hear it, and I won’t listen to it!
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Shamim Malekmian @shamimmalekmian.eurosky.social · 28/06/2025
This is an X screenshot I can get behind. No more J.K. Rowling screengrabs, just Bryan Johnson being delusional about how well his age reversal project is going
X post by Bryan Johnson: I'm 18 years old and have a 19 year old kid. Pretty wild.
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Patrick Collison here, illustrating a mindset that is, in many ways, a simple misunderstanding of life itself
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
For those of you who were simply too lazy to read my essay about MrBeast and the attention economy yourselves, here's me reading it for you www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...
theguardian.com
‘The Mozart of the attention economy’: why MrBeast is the world’s biggest YouTube star – podcast
He’s spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive – and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast’s videos simply very savvy clickbait – or acts of avant garde ge...
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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
thinking again about this 2018 cover
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Seems a little drastic, he could just shut them down in the normal way
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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 17/06/2025
(sliding out from under The Gyre on a mechanic's creeper, covered in grease) okay, bad news
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Rick O'Shea @rickoshea.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
This is on Thursday, and my last gig until after the Summer. @urchinette.bsky.social @mrkocnnll.bsky.social and @prasifcat.bsky.social Tickets went in a couple of days but as there are frequently cancellations, @booksupstairs.bsky.social keep a wait list: booksupstairs.ie/all-events/w...
Writehawks poster
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
‘Postliberalism’ is mainly books with titles like ‘The Fate of Civilisation and the Death of God at the End of the West’ by men with backgrounds as investment analysts
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
I worked in a hotel during a golf tournament when I was 18, and brought room service to Tiger Woods, who was sitting on a couch in his underwear watching himself play golf on tv
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Jeffrey Vagle @jvagle.me · 08/06/2025
This essay is the best description of Mr Beast I have ever read: His oeuvre is “a Hobbesian gameshow of all against all,” and he “may not be the genius we need, or the genius we want, but he may be the genius we deserve.” via @mrkocnnll.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...
theguardian.com
‘The Mozart of the attention economy’: why MrBeast is the world’s biggest YouTube star | Mark O’Connell
The long read: He’s spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive – and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast’s videos simply very savvy clickbait – or acts of...
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Patrick Cosmos @veryimportant.lawyer · 06/05/2025
every year there is a new pr blitz about a hardcore band whose gimmick is Not Being a Hardcore Band
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Al Kennedy @alkennedy.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
This is basically like Christmas morning for me, the guy who goes around posting "and this surprises you how?" under people's political tweets
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
This is just deeply, deeply sad
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Kyle M. @kyleismoody.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Sweet Christmas, this is a good piece on somebody that I don't really enjoy. These fragments from @mrkocnnll.bsky.social really speak to the primacy of MrBeast and how he may be the perfect emblem of Where We Are Now. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...
theguardian.com
‘The Mozart of the attention economy’: why MrBeast is the world’s biggest YouTube star | Mark O’Connell
The long read: He’s spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive – and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast’s videos simply very savvy clickbait – or acts of...
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
A problem with The Mountainhead is that it’s kind of a stretch to believe billionaire tech founders coming out with the kind of viciously witty lines Jesse Armstrong writes, in a way that it somehow wasn’t with the Murdoch-style old media bastards in Succession
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
One of the great editors. Not only did David countenance 5,500 words of MrBeast exegesis, he suggested the idea and made the piece the best version of itself it could have been. He also let me be just a shade more pretentious than he was comfortable with, for which I'm also grateful
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Brandy Jensen @brandyjensen.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
I did not wake up this morning looking for profound insight into MrBeast’s whole deal but @mrkocnnll.bsky.social has provided it
theguardian.com
‘The Mozart of the attention economy’: why MrBeast is the world’s biggest YouTube star | Mark O’Connell
The long read: He’s spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive – and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast’s videos simply very savvy clickbait – or acts of...
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Ed Caesar @edcaesar.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
If you woke up this morning longing to read an essay about MrBeast that quotes Walter Benjamin, you're in luck. @mrkocnnll.bsky.social on the Junklord of Misrule is depressing, hilarious, bang-on: www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...
theguardian.com
‘The Mozart of the attention economy’: why MrBeast is the world’s biggest YouTube star | Mark O’Connell
The long read: He’s spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive – and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast’s videos simply very savvy clickbait – or acts of...
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Rick O'Shea @rickoshea.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Definitely closing off the ticket list for this later today as we're pretty much full as it is. Last call to come see me have fun with @prasifcat.bsky.social, @mrkocnnll.bsky.social and @urchinette.bsky.social...
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
You know the way you've always wanted to read a 5,500 word critical close-reading of the oeuvre of MrBeast? Well I have written exactly that www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...
theguardian.com
‘The Mozart of the attention economy’: why MrBeast is the world’s biggest YouTube star | Mark O’Connell
The long read: He’s spent 24 hours immersed in slime, two days buried alive – and showered vast amounts of cash on lucky participants. But are MrBeast’s videos simply very savvy clickbait – or acts of...
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Books Upstairs @booksupstairs.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
🔥 WRITEHAWKS at Books Upstairs 🔥 Thurs 19 June @rickoshea.bsky.social with another wonderful panel of writers: @urchinette.bsky.social @mrkocnnll.bsky.social & @prasifcat.bsky.social to wax lyrical about some of their favourite books, booking essential : booksupstairs.ie/all-events/writehawks4/
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
My column this week is about the Trump administration’s farcical attempt to accuse South Africa of a “white genocide”
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
The American right is simply going to have to try harder if it’s going to produce a counterculture
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Jennifer Walshe @jenniferwalshe.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Want to come to the Royal Irish Academy and hear @mrkocnnll.bsky.social Brian Rossney & myself discuss AI & creativity? Sold out but a few returns now available for tonight www.ria.ie/events/disco...
ria.ie
Discourse Series | AI and creativity: boosting innovation or limiting originality? - Royal Irish Academy
AI is opening up exciting new possibilities in the creative arts offering innovative ways to generate music, visual art and literature, sparking fresh ideas and ways to collaborate. However, it also r...
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
I wrote about the government’s quiet capitulation to the anti-immigrant right’s tactic of violence and intimidation www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
irishtimes.com
Mark O'Connell: Government has sent a clear message to the far right: what works is arson, threats and violence
It may be that the decision to stop locating accommodation centres in parts of the country takes the heat out of anti-migrant protests. But given the victory they have just been handed, I wouldn’t bet...
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Maynooth University English Department @maynoothenglish.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
We're looking forward to hosting award-winning author Mark O'Connell next Thursday 27 March 2pm. Come and join us! This event is free and open to the public. @maynoothuniversity.ie @muahi.bsky.social @oonaf.bsky.social @mrkocnnll.bsky.social @flordtk.bsky.social
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James Kelleher @jameskelleher.pilcrow.ie · 20/03/2025
“Mangione gave the Unabomber manifesto four stars, which in relative esteem places it below Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens (five stars) and above Steve-O from Jackass’s memoir A Hard Kick in the Nuts (three stars).”
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Mark O’Connell @mrkocnnll.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
I wrote about ole Luigi www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
I wrote this on young men, and why we need to stop lying about why they're easy prey for reptiles like Andrew Tate. www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle-co...
irishexaminer.com
Séamas O'Reilly: We need to stop lying about what makes lost boys such easy marks for cons
Economically depressed young men are aggressively targeted with the oldest, most seductive pitch there is — money for nothing — by bad faith actors with enormous wealth
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Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Believing humans can be reduced to one "smart" score that translates across disciplines--so someone who is "smart" at, say, running a tech start-up or being a reality TV star must inherently be "smart" at international diplomacy--is one of the most childish worldviews you can have. Truly juvenile.
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Rico Charges @nochorus.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
in some ways being the richest man in the world is already kind of like doing the biggest seig heil possible at all times
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David Forum @zlinger.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
international global system international global system international global system
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Sam Slote @samslote.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Pretty much the first I thing I do on Saturday mornings is read @mrkocnnll.bsky.social 's latest for the Irish Times. This week's is essential reading. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
irishtimes.com
Mark O'Connell: Peter Thiel, big tech’s chief conspiracy theorist, says the state is keeping big secrets from us. And he should know
The ramblings of the Palantir Technologies founder are worth taking seriously because of what they reveal about the future direction of the tech elite, and therefore global politics
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Brandy Jensen @brandyjensen.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
incomparable
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