John West

I had the privilege of art directing the cover for this fantastic book. Check it out in the Atlantic!!!

If you've been curious about my book, THE INTERNET WILL DIE, AND SO WILL YOU, but haven't yet purchased, check out this excerpt, which I'm so grateful the @theatlantic.com let me published: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2....

We all do harm by being.

Honored to have the first excerpt of my book published by @politico.com! Out everywhere on Oct. 27. politico.com/news/magazine/2026/10/03/abortion-doctors-politics-roe-dobbs-01105039

philosophers should have simply *answered* the deepest and most intractable questions ever posed. instead they've chosen to fuck around. disappointing

It's true: we used AI to see just how much Americans hate AI, and if you leave us enough comments, I'll try to use AI to see how much y'all hate us using AI to see how much Americans hate AI. (From me, @jjw.bsky.social, Sabrina Rodriguez, and @jamesbenedict.bsky.social) www.wsj.com/politics/ele...

NEW from me, @neilmhta.bsky.social and @sabrod123.bsky.social. Mentions of Trump on MAGA podcasts have fallen off a cliff since the 2024 election. With the midterms right around the corner, what are they talking about now? If you've been near TikTok lately, then you've probably got a guess.

Here's a deeply generous review of my book on Bill Tammeus's blog, "Faith Matters." He compared me to Annie Dillard, a hero of mine who sadly recently passed, and I can imagine few higher compliments. Here's the review: substack.com/home/post/p-... Here's the book: bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

Happy Publication Day to John West, MFA '18 (Nonfiction)! His book, THE INTERNET WILL DIE, AND SO WILL YOU: On Learning to Live in Our Digital Age, is out today from Here Below Books. vist.ly/5hyd8

There's link rot and then there's link rot: www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Thanks to @kofinas.bsky.social for being such a thoughtful interlocutor in this conversation about my book! It's the dream of pretty much every author (I think) to talk to someone who's so willing to dig into the text--and draw on such broad expertise about what you're writing about.

Want a free copy of THE INTERNET WILL DIE, AND SO WILL YOU? Well, there's a Goodreads giveaway through the end of August for fifteen copies of it! (Don't worry, you're still welcome to purchase a copy, even if the Goodreads gods fail you.) www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...

I've listened to PJ Vogt's podcasts ever since TL;DR, through REPLY ALL, and all the way to SEARCH ENGINE. Here's what he said about my book, THE INTERNET WILL DIE, AND SO WILL YOU. You can preorder it here: bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

The first review of THE INTERNET WILL DIE, AND SO WILL YOU is out from Publishers Weekly: "His wide-ranging meditations, which touch on everything from Bach to TikTok, will appeal to readers who want to search for meaning rather than scroll for distraction." www.publishersweekly.com/9780802885425

I can’t remember who said this, but it’s true: the LLM future looks a lot like endlessly communicating an idea by inflating and deflating it with computers—at great cost.

this is an incredible story (and my colleagues are incredible reporters).

MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND comes out in one week and I am certainly not freaking out about it! There's still time to get 20% off the hardcover by preordering from Hachette with the code MYBAD20. All my June tour dates are below! www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/hugh-...

RETVRN to computers with integral bench seating

Attention is precious. The Internet Will Die, and So Will You (by John West) #HereBelowBooks #CoverReveal

This is what journalism is supposed to be about.

I went to the Met (for the first time ever!). My partner and I decided to pick a piece to sit and stare at for at least 15 minutes. We picked “Old Woman Cutting Her Nails” by someone who isn’t Rembrandt. It was wild to feel how rusty my attention is—and to see how applying it still drives wonder.

This is incredible reporting from my colleague @georgiawells.bsky.social www.wsj.com/us-news/chat...

1. I'm working on EPITAB: a browser extension that helps you memorize poems. If you add poems to your browser, it quizzes you on lines each time you open a new tab. Here, for example, after I opened a new window in Firefox, it's asking me for the line "The season's ill—" I have an ask though...

I’ve been practicing again. Here’s a sarabande from one of the perfect Bach cello suites played imperfectly on the recorder. (Also pictured: my 3D-printed recorder gun rack.)

I blogged again: this-republic-of-letters.fly.dev/posts/5/toge.... This time, on the many uses and abuses of poor Walter Ong.

The birds are in motion today.

millennial: iykyk plato: NOT SO FAST

My six-year-old daughter is in her Lion King moment, and I'm meme-ing through it.

Oh, every one is always nostalgic for the geocites era web but when somebody actually makes a platform that crashes every 10 minutes, suddenly everybody wants future technology, I see how it is.

A little post from my social media neetwork/web-based performance piece, HOMER at internaut.club

I set up a Raspberry Pi with a webcam and pointed it at my bird feeder, and I have a local ML model tell me if there's a bird every 10 minutes. I'm pretty sure this one is GLARING at my set up.