Ring’s new AI feature be like: British pregnant lady walking past your garage with a Shih Tzu and a Stanley cup in her right hand.

Confuse people, lose people. Content should be clear, with every word earning its place—while holding attention and staying relevant.

Clunky human writing or AI clang loses readers and customers.

What works instead:

Write like your audience speaks.

And tell stories.

I messed up. I told the doctor I had white collar syndrome, not white coat syndrome.

But maybe that’s a thing too?

If you want to communicate clearly and effectively, read essays.

If you want to increase connection and charisma, listen to music with powerful lyrics.

For the practical and pragmatic:

In business or career…

If you want to read between the lines, study poetry.

If you want to understand nuance, increase empathy, and grasp sonder, read literature.

We need more used book stores.

What a bad pepper costs us On spice, soil, and the slow erosion of what we eat

I thought paprika was just a coloring agent; bland. Turns out: I just never tasted real paprika.

That realization led somewhere bigger: a bad pepper is a symptom of what industrial food has cost us; in flavor, nutrition, & connection to what we eat.

open.substack.com/pub/curiouss...

We are so excited to welcome our baby boy to the world! ❤️

Analog coffee sessions are the best sessions

Knowledge from books accumulates not just in your daily memory but also in your subconscious.

These learnings mature in your mind. You’ll have conversations and perform actions that feel second nature, yet you initially have no idea where they came from.

In many ways, Alcarràs parallels what’s happening with AI and the Information Age.

The film is about agriculture and the green tech movement uprooting traditional ways of life. But it feels raw and familiar a few years later, as AI has changed so much.

What a damaged, used book taught me about reading Used books, margins, and footnotes—and why it’s the scribbles that add another dimension

Mass-market paperback books might be disappearing. But used, damaged books—and the notes they carry—have always been here. And they might be the perfect replacement.

open.substack.com/pub/curiouss...

“Novel-writing can be a cold-blooded business.” -J.L Carr

The reader who uses footnotes reads a different book.

ThriftBooks is such a hit or miss for the “acceptable” copies. They should have a lower category called “deplorables.”

I predict AI movies will cause a new effect: the desire for better stories that don't have explosions in every scene. Great writing and dialogue.

One of the reasons I picked up a @mubi subscription because I'm so tired of shallow movies.

Same! Another is its single-use designation so I only focus on the most important thing: writing.

I studied 500 opening lines. Here’s what separates humans from machines. On earning attention through human storytelling

With the age of AI, there’s more content out than ever. That’s why your 1st line matters more today… with nuance.

Before, an opening only had to be a good hook. I studied 500 best selling lines to learn. But it changed.

Now it needs to connect with your soul. open.substack.com/pub/curiouss...

Nice! What has been your favorite part of using a typewriter like this?

Duolingo should have sponsored the halftime show. Missed opportunity.

How going 72 hours without food freed me from control And why you can’t optimize your way out

I did a 72 water fast for the first time. This was my experience.

www.curioussardine.com/p/how-going-...

Substack SEO: A guide to grow newsletter reach and visibility With the rise of social search, Substack SEO acts as an opportunity to boost discoverability. Find out how to improve your SEO on Substack and search engines.

Check out this piece on Substack SEO I published with Sprout Social! You'll learn how to publish valuable content while optimizing for discoverability. sproutsocial.com/insights/sub...

Why e-ink is the only tech that won’t make you sick Platform designs are engineered to hijack your attention. E-ink gives it back.

Today, technology often serves dopamine. Our sleep suffers, as do our mental and physical health. Instead, technology should focus on optimal living. It starts with e-ink.

curioussardine.substack.com/p/why-e-ink-...

The 10 best Reddit SEO strategies to maximize your brand’s visibility Reddit SEO is about building trust, driving discoverability in Google and AI search and proving ROI. Learn how to optimize with Sprout Social.

If you're not thinking about Reddit visibility, you're missing a huge audience.

I just published 10 strategies for actually showing up where people are searching—including how to avoid the mistakes that get brands shadow-banned or downvoted.

sproutsocial.com/insights/red...

Long-lasting, effective content marketing has always depended on helpful, original, expert-driven insight. That’s why I’m deeply invested in bottom-of-the-funnel content—and why I’m bullish on e-ink.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t AI tools that 10x’d my productivity—it was a digital typewriter.

Using a smart typewriter like the Freewrite helped me get ideas out clearly and completely, without distractions or premature influence from algorithms, feeds, or prompts.

I think content is restarting its market cycle.

AI pushed us back to the early blogging phase: more volume, more noise, less differentiation.

I wrote about why this happens, what comes next, and how brands can adapt if they want real traction.

johnpaulhernandez.com/the-state-of...

Why rust isn’t the enemy we think it is How repair, restraint, and time shape what we choose to keep

Rust appears everywhere: playground equipment, grills, screws in outdoor furniture...

Anything exposed long enough will eventually show it.

And yet, when we instinctively fight rust, we often miss what it represents.

www.curioussardine.com/p/why-rust-i...

Instead, write about why you want to start the project. This gets your thoughts flowing with no pressure and helps you chart your path for research, strategy, and purpose.

In the end, it’s much easier to start. You may even have material from your freewriting.