{D} Adapt, migrate, or perish
Vol. 6, Issue 182 // pics + links // maybe try clicking the pics too
Hey there from the high valley of Mexico City.
After a few months of work, we’ve just soft-launched our first YouTube video for Scribd, the repository of human-sourced documents.
This is the first in an ongoing, weekly series devoted to exploring, as the channel’s about page says:
the documents, sources, and hidden frameworks behind the stories shaping everyday life — from culture and technology to business, science, law, education, and public policy.
We go beyond quick takes by tracing claims back to the reports, manuals, filings, studies, archives, policies, and expert sources that help explain how the world actually works.
Our goal is simple: help you build understanding you can trust — and use.
The first video digs into legal records to answer the question if an AI company stole your likeness, how might you protect yourself? The answer involves a legal precedent set in the 1950s during the first years of Topps Baseball Cards. It’s a breezy 90 seconds, have a look!
In the coming weeks, we’ll be exploring the data behind Hollywood’s pivot to blockbusters, the truth about crime statistics, the billionaire behind America’s UFO obsession, whether school phone bans improve grades, and why Swifties aren’t to blame for the decline in mid-sized festivals, among much more.
As we get our feet under us, we’ll be expanding into longer-form videos, interviews, and other platforms. Subscribe and stay with us!
stay frosty,
-s.
Last week’s most-clicked links:
Developing creative identity [Michael’s Notebook]
The AI Search Manifesto: Why Every Company Needs to Become a Publisher or Disappear From the Conversation [State of Brand]
People insist on having free will, and that’s terribly inconvenient for billionaires [Cory Doctorow]
Friend of the letter Noah Brier announced the next Brxnd conference Nov. 5th in NYC, “A day at the intersection of marketing and AI.” Early bird tickets now available.
Strategy + creativity
“A curated collection of strategy frameworks, creative provocations, and planning tools — compiled from years of practice in brand strategy and advertising.” // From Strat Scraps author Alex Morris // The Strategy & Planning Scrapbook [STRAT_SCRAPS]
“I made it. I watched the edit, I made sure it was great. But the data is not my job. The data trap, in my opinion, can suppress creativity.” Subway Takes’ Kareem Rayma on ignoring the data [Adweek]
“If you treat AI as a tool, you ask: how do I get the right answer? If you treat it as a medium, you ask: what happens if I push this?” AI as a Design Medium [Harvard Design Magazine]
Can it not perhaps give you more joy remaining a hobby?” How to Make a Living as an Artist [fnnch Essays]
“The task is to think about the thing, not generate some words.” Don’t fetishize friction, that’s not the point [Russell Davies]
Work + career
“Figure out who is seeking value and create it for them.” Value creation, bullshit jobs and the future of work [Seth’s Blog]
“What happens when the thing you used to sell becomes almost free?” // Taste is a dead end, but this advice does reflect a biological reality: adapt, migrate, or perish. // You can’t beat AI. [How to AI]
“Remember: they’re not smarter than you, they’re just convinced they are.” Management consultants are the looksmaxxers of the business world [TikTok]
Curiosity + research
“Designers are using double the number of off-the-shelf tools than they did in 2025, and they’re building custom software with AI that matches how they like to work.” AI in Design Report 2026 [State of AI Design]
2026 Most Valuable Brands [Kantar]
Decks + other artifacts
AI eats the world: Ben’s latest presentation analyzing AI as the next major platform shift in technology. [Benedict Evans]
After the Feed: “If trust is the new economy, thick reputation is the new currency.” // Perspective on the agentic future by Eli Parisier, who coined “filter bubble”. // [New_ Public]
Dark Forest OS: Yancey Strickler’s new private communities internet // I am super intrigued by this // [DFOS]
Thinking Tools: A collection of tools that are useful in creative problem solving. [Wikiversity]
Grainrad: Free WebGPU-powered ASCII, dithering, and retro effects at 60fps [Grainrad]
ASCII Art playground: An homage to all the artists, poets and designers which used and use text as their medium [ertdfgcvb]
Dot Font Tool v4: A typography tool for creating dotted letterforms [Cargo]
Brik.space: Lovely AI animation and app builder [Brik AI]
What Color Is This: App for identifying colors [IOS App Store]
LLMinality
“The use of AI among my peers is really seen as low-status behavior.” // Friend of the letter Ben Dietz and his film student son quoted inside // What AI Slop Means for Good Taste [GQ]
“This new wave of AI empowerment is a dream for them, but a nightmare for their employees.” Dear Vibe-Coding CEO: Please Stop [Rich at Aboard]
“The anti-technology romantic is almost always: 1) wrong, and, 2) mistaken in his arguments.” // Never miss a moment with Stewart Brand // Stewart Brand on ‘Maintenance of Everything’ [Reason]
“When investment ecosystems lose contact with delight, they lose sensitivity to fragile emerging futures.” // For sunk cost reasons, I find it hard to disagree with anything that calls for more delight // Capital Must Seek Delight [Contraptions]
Culture + handwringing I guess
“We’ve locked ourselves in the stupidest possible version of Plato’s cave, where what looks like the spontaneous consensus of the hive mind is often just shadows on the wall.” The Feed Is Fake [Vulture]
Games people play
Simulation Toys [Microcosm Industries]
Bongo Cat [Steam]
Love or the absence of it
“Nobody teaches you how painful it feels to slowly lose access to someone who once knew your inner life intimately.” The Quiet Grief of Adult Friendship [Times of India]
“It could only be explained as men trying to disguise their wants as ours.” Let’s Hear It for Small Dicks and Short Sex! [Playboy]
“I’ve asked my friends, ‘Is it weird we take our kids to Hooters?’” she said. “They’re like, ‘Yeah.” Hooters Restaurant Chain Is Trying to Rebrand as Family-Friendly [The New York Times]
The love of your life is 5’7” [TikTok]
Delightful is a 100% organic, free-range, desktop-to-inbox newsletter with links and things, usually. 1x weekly posts (free), occasional tools and research posts (paid). Your host is Steve Bryant, friendly neighborhood insights and content strategist. Let’s work together or go on a hike or something. steve@thisisdelightful.com
{ 🔒 archive }
Creativity, illustration, language, stuff like that
What did you learn about yourself today?
Notes on picking up drawing 30 years later26 things I’ve learned while learning a language
Notes from someone who’s working at itHow to write
Notes on moving and watching and paying attentionCuriosity and Research 101
Notes on how to find out about thingsA map of what you meant to say
Notes on the 3D space of languageThe A.I. isn’t a moron. She’s your wife.
Notes on making ads with AI
Brand strategy, content strategy, etc
Observational and Culture Study Cheat Sheet
A template and tools for researching people and communitiesMy content strategy toolkit
14 tools for organizing, measuring, and creating contentMy concept diagram template
A Figjam for diagramming the complex relationships between conceptsProduct Content Strategy 101
For anybody who’s creating a product that requires editorial contentThe Bento Box Method for developing topical content
A cute and useful way to structure your content topics
Thanks for reading. Be seeing you.
You can’t try to live safely, there’s no such thing as safety. Stick your neck out of your shell, then, and live fully!
— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
That first Scribd video is great, congrats!