Latest find in my favourite nerdy subgenre «the in-depth profile of stuff our modern world runs on». This one tells the story of the barcode, which for half a century has been the «plumbing of global capitalism», and now faces a slow death.

From Weekly Filet #473, in January 2024.

The Barcode Engineered Its Own Downfall

theatlantic.com

💔 Some older links might be broken — that's the state of the web, sadly. If you find one, ping me.

The world is running out of sand

The New Yorker

Where Does All the Cardboard Come From? I Had to Know.

nytimes.com

Seeing like a spreadsheet

davidoks.blog

The discovery of copper

worksinprogress.co

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Book recommendations

2025 Book Club Books curious minds wished they discovered sooner Our most popular crowd-curated book recommendations thus far. Read the post →

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