Links

Hyperlinks to projects and websites.

My Favorites

• The Tao of D&D, by Alexis Smolensk (along with his Patreon-members-only blog The Higher Path, of which I am a supporter.) I consider Alexis the world’s foremost practitioner of DMing. He has written skillfully and at length on every topic related to running roleplaying games.
• Gwern Branwen is an independent writer and researcher with deeper and wider interests than anyone else I know of. I admire him for his peerless productivity on a vast range of topics.
• Meaningness, by David Chapman. An ongoing book/blog about better ways of thinking, feeling, and acting–around problems of meaning and meaninglessness; self and society; ethics, purpose, and value. The website’s organization may confuse you at first, but if you start here and proceed linearly, you’ll have no problems.
• The Scholar’s Stage, by Tanner Greer, is well worth your time. In the author’s words, this blog is a forum to discuss the intersections of history, behavioral science, and strategic thought, with an emphasis on East and Southeast Asian affairs.
• Strandbeests are wind-powered mechanical creatures invented by Theo Jansen. He engineers these enormous creatures out of plastic tubes and air bottles, then sets them free to walk, wiggle, slither, and roll along the beach.

Worth Diving In

• Slate Star Codex (SSC), by Dr. Scott Alexander, who writes on politics, medicine, history, science, rationality, and more. SSC has a vigorous commentariat, with each post drawing hundreds of responses; you can always be sure of having a conversation partner, no matter your take on a given topic.
• The Digital Antiquarian, by Jimmy Maher, is a fascinating chronological exploration of the history of adventure games, including essays on contemporaneous trends in hardware, culture, companies, and celebrities.
• The Chinese Text Project. Ancient texts, modern technology, edited and programmed by Professor David Sturgeon. A unique resource for students of the Chinese classics. My favorite feature is the ability to view different versions of a text, as well as near-identical passages from different texts. Here it is in action for the 诗经 (Classic of Poetry). The reader is empowered to observe, at a glance, the process of textual changes during long centuries of scholarly transmission.
• Justin Erik Halldór Smith is a philosopher. He writes stupendously well. Go read him.

Worth Keeping in a Back Pocket

• The Black Vault. John Greenewald, Jr. has amassed an enormous collection of declassified government documents by exercising rights granted under the USA’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
• Ron Garret wrote Lisp code that got sent off-planet onboard Deep Space 1. Then he debugged and patched it from millions of miles away.
• Political Graveyard: the Internet’s Most Comprehensive Source of U.S. Political Biography. This website collects and archives biographical data on the lives, deaths, and families of over 300,000 US politicians.
• Daniel S. Wilkerson. I read, with much interest, his introduction to music theory from physical and psychometric first principles.
• Abandoned and Little-Known Airfields, by Paul Freeman.
• ctrlcreep makes lovingly detailed visual art, and writes Twitter-length microfiction.
• Hiroshige.org.uk collects information about master ukiyo-e printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige. The site also has straightforward, minimalist Web galleries of his prints.
• Bartleby.com publishes free, full-text, online editions of classic works. I won’t link to their main page because (as of 2019-11-19) it tries to sell you on their study-help product. Instead, see their index pages for (1) reference works, (2) verse and poetry, (3) fiction, or (4) nonfiction. (Poetry fans, try A. E. Housman.)
• Paper Republic publishes and popularizes Chinese literature in translation.
• The Public Domain Review is a non-profit digital journal which publishes essays on unusual works from the public domain. Each essay links to the document or documents which inspired it.
• Apple Search documents Tom Brown’s quest to find and preserve heritage varieties of apple. So far, he has saved over 1000 varieties!
• t3x.org, by Nils M Holm, hosts an array of books and tutorials on computer science topics – all written by the author himself! Worth a look for anyone interested in Lisp, compilers, or language design.
• rs.io, including the articles Expert Memory and Core Human Values. I also liked the friendly and inviting contact page.
• Of Two Minds, by Charles Hugh Smith.
• Jacob O’Neal creates interactive graphical explanations.

Websites for Websites’ Sake

• Aaron Parecki has one slick website, on which he shares his cool projects (and globetrotting professional life.) A hobbyist’s hobbyist, Parecki has turned his interests into a public journey that might inspire you to make something cool yourself. It happened to me.
• Doug Koellmer has a unique interface for exploring his eclectic portfolio of projects. Reminds me of an Utahan friend of mine. Give him a look.
• Tetramorph, by Rob Kelly.