Polymathematics

I write at readpolymathematics.substack.com I write about my learning process, creativity, and how I try to pursue multiple interests successfully. Each month I also send a roundup of the best podcast eps and reading from my month. This is a thread of every post from 2026.

happy friday, happy summer. blessed are the curators. summer roundup is up <3

@vamsibatchuk inspiring as I am prototyping interactions for the magazine rack in @getPrinternet !

@onlyfootnotes thank you :) need to bring back these to life 😅

this interaction was super fun to build and even more fun to explore. bringing that 90s CD 💿✨collection nostalgia to digital covers of newyorker archives with an updated "Stacked Deck" interaction. it kinda feels like flipping through a basket of physical magazines - complete with vertical spring pops and a "cinematic focus" mode that dims the rest of the stack.

@caleb__guy you're gonna have to explain this to me haha

onchain markdown posting net art research everyday from @rhizome’s net art anthology

what are some of the coolest "notes" / "notebook" UIs of the past?

the reason you know this can't be right is because it's so annoying to find a truly great restaurant, cafe or public space

@mylenesmind the birds eye warped desk view is so sick!

i was dared to create with a new medium so i tried making things i’d usually just buy it led to this whole exploration of: what is it that we lose when we stop making things by hand?

@visakanv and mothers, the other portal into and out of this world! but on the hospital portal, "Lenox Hill" is a fantastic docuseries that captures this point very well

hospitals really ought to receive more love considering that they are literally the portals into and out of this world

@lalizlabeth we read Invisible Cities in my book club this summer. love all of this.

back to the basics with a design team typography workshop today

the LLMs suggested: 'Scribbling: A.S. Byatt' and 'Imagine: Ian Rankin and the Case of the Disappearing Detective'

does anyone know of a documentary which follows a professional novelist from the very start of a new novel to the publication of the novel?

just read @catehall's awesome post on "default shapes" in my @getPrinternet issue this week. congrats Cate!

@tobyshooters apparently the novelist Andrew Hunter Murray writes his novels in excel: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/and…

Do you know anyone who writes their diary, or notes, or anything non-numerically really in a spreadsheet?

this is why design schools like RISD emphasize prototyping and tools so heavily, you want to get really good at trying a lot of things

this captures *one* of the unlocks for me as someone who is a amateur / self-taught designer. a lot of good design is just exploring a massive section of the possible design territory, rather than trying to throw a bullseye on your first few tries.

Fantastic podcast

not sure how to feel about this but I think I've realized my unique expertise at startups: collapsing context and "managing up" after 7 years at startups... realizing those things are very critical too. which is fortuitous.

@spookyusr 🙏 glad you liked it Caleb! Matt's the best. Episode 2 should be coming this weekend.