STATUS // operational
Westenberg. | v1.0 | 2026
DEFINITION_

Westenberg.

Field Notes on Now.

TYPE // publication STATUS // active POSTS // UPDATED // 2026-04-29

$ cat ./posts/latest

On wintering.

The winterer is out of the loop; they're not maintaining a position because they don't have a position to maintain. They can do work that takes longer than a quarter, longer than a year, longer than 5 years, because nobody is auditing the line item.

$ ls ./posts/

$ cat ./posts/* --sort=date --order=desc
2

The Loop: everything has happened before, and everything will happen again

We keep replaying the same human mistakes -bubbles, strongmen, scapegoats, and panics -because the operating system in our skulls hasn’t updated in ten thousand years.

2026-04-27 19 min read
3

Why prediction markets are a sure sign that our civilisation is in decay

Prediction markets are the clearest single sign our civilisation has entered a late and decadent stage. The reason isn't that they're new or sinister. It's that the case for them is defensible, the technology works, the outputs are useful, but the long-term effect is corrosive anyway.

2026-04-23 19 min read
4

How we lost the living Now

Before 1840, noon in Bristol happened about ten minutes after noon in London, and nobody much cared. The railway needed a common minute or it couldn't run - and that common minute is now a common nanosecond, shipped in real time.

2026-04-20 7 min read
5

I truly hate mostpeopleslop

In 2006, Joe Sugarman published a book called The Adweek Copywriting Handbook - and an axiom stuck... "The sole purpose of the first sentence in an advertisement is to

2026-04-16 6 min read
6

Sometimes powerful people just do dumb shit

This newsletter is free to read, and it’ll stay that way. But if you want more - extra posts each month, no sponsored CTAs, access to the community, and

2026-04-13 7 min read
7

Optimism is not a personality flaw

This newsletter is free to read, and it’ll stay that way. But if you want more - extra posts each month, no sponsored CTAs, access to the community, and

2026-04-12 7 min read
8

Why I quit "The Strive"

This newsletter is free to read, and it’ll stay that way. But if you want more - extra posts each month, no sponsored CTAs, access to the community, and

2026-04-10 9 min read
9

The Hacker News tarpit

This newsletter is free to read, and it’ll stay that way. But if you want more - extra posts each month, no sponsored CTAs, access to the community, and

2026-04-06 7 min read
10

The AI writing witchhunt is pointless.

Alexandre Dumas ran what was essentially a content production house in 19th century Paris. His most famous collaborator was Auguste Maquet, who wrote substantial portions of The Three Musketeers and

2026-04-04 10 min read
11

The "Passive Income" trap ate a generation of entrepreneurs

I had coffee last year with a guy - I won't use his real name - who told me he was "building a business." I asked

2026-04-03 8 min read
12

Time is a User-Interface

2026-04-02 4 min read
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