Act 1 & Stories In Motion
What’s He Writing In There?
CultureTech
Scenes with Simon.
Simon de la Rouviere on creativity, culture, and the internet's effect on both.
Recent essays
24 of 24Touching Grass in Azeroth
Trading Off Social Dynamism Against Quality of Life
Intuition (I Think)
On Creativity, Intuition, and Mastery.
Writing a Novel in 2026 Feels a Bit Insane (In a Good Way)
Thoughts on wrapping up 3 years of work on my second novel, getting ready to query.
On The Invention of Hallways, Incidental Life, and Enfilade Shaped Futures
A long entry through all. Walk with me.
A Trip Through the Venice Biennale, Interregnums, and Protocol Art
May 2026 is about Venice, Art, and Protocol Art.
A Roadway Design Detour Into Protocol Resolution and When To Do Nothing
April 2026 is about: roads, protocol resolution, ZIRP, and plotting.
How to Be Illegible In The Age of Slop
March 2026 is about: being a creator today, minimal legible forms, and compound culture.
This Essay Shouldn't Go Viral
February 2026 is about: power-laws in culture, antimemes, and sincerity.
A Long Drive Back to Non-Algo Time
January 2026 is about: algorithms, boredom, AI coding, seriousness, and aesthetics in the 21st century.
Things I Enjoyed In 2025 and Looking Ahead to 2026
Thanks for reading!
The Critique of the Algocene Through Beeple's Regular Animals and Intimate Systems
Sunday Edition #28: Also, Aesthetics Matters, Top Records of 2000-2025, and new Knives Out
Starmirror, Charli XCX, and What We Are Really Creating
Sunday Edition #27: A shorter edition.
Interruption Nostalgia
Sunday Edition #26: Also, Cozyweb Animals, Ranked Choice Voting, and some 2010s electro pop.
Aesthetics Over Time
Sunday Edition #25: Also, Churches, Trains, and White Lies
What To Do About Distribution
Sunday Edition #24: Also, Disney+ AI, Canon, and Table Mountain!
‘Save The Cat’ is About Agency
Sunday Edition #23: Also, Getty vs Stability, Planet-Sized Cities, and Pluribus
UMG Deals and Generative AI in Music
Sunday Edition #22: Also, Amtrak, Lemons, and Revisions, Revisions, Revisions
Sunday Edition #21 - Dissecting Substack’s Inverted Revenue Curve
Also: The Streets of Queens, One Battle After Another, and Night Tapes (again)
Sunday Edition #20 - Play in Storytelling
Also: History of the Braai, The Lobster, and Naming Conventions
Sunday Edition #19 - On The Crisis of Cool
Also: Meditation, Gambling, and Jadu Heart
Sunday Edition #18 - Social Media Use Really Is Declining
Also: Mass Stablecoins and Burning Money as Art, Ocean Vuong, and Hades 2
Sunday Edition #17 - Too Much Information and the Loss of Dynamism
Also: Rifts by Hashrunner, Hades 2, and Metalcore Shoegaze
Sunday Edition #16 - Social Systems Scaling
Also: History of Japanese Urbanism, Art Shows, and Adolescence