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Minor surgery last week granted me something I rarely allow myself: permission to do not much productive. Between waiting and the post-anaesthetic fog that followed, I had hours to fill and a brain too scattered for serious reading. So I did what any sensible person does in such circumstances – gorged myself on YouTube. That’s how I discovered Vanessa Wingårdh’s channel.
Wingårdh comes at tech criticism from an insider’s perspective – someone who worked at both enterprise companies and startups before concluding that user exploitation isn’t some unfortunate side effect but rather the entire point. Her video analysis cuts through Silicon Valley’s relentless optimism and shows how we’re funding the very systems designed to replace us whilst tech billionaires amass unprecedented wealth.
The first video I watched examines AI’s impact on electricity bills across the US – not the most riveting topic, until you grasp the breathtaking audacity of it all. Wingårdh reveals how US Americans are paying for Big Tech’s expansion twice: first through taxpayer-funded infrastructure, then through skyrocketing energy costs.
Your monthly AI subscription fee, it turns out, is merely the visible portion of a much largericeberg – consumers are shouldering billions in additional electricity costs whilst multi-trillion-dollar companies secure tax breaks and drain water supplies during droughts, all under the veil of secret local government agreements.
Her latest video is an investigation into Palantir – a data-mining behemoth that has quietly embedded itself into governments worldwide, largely on the public’s dime. Watching CEO Alex Karp discuss total surveillance with pride whilst showcasing its military applications is genuinely unsettling – the kind of stuff that makes you realise we may have sleepwalked into a particularly banal dystopia.
Wingårdh (also on Patreon) brings a measured, professional approach. There’s no breathless conspiracy theorising or theatrical outrage – just systematic, well-researched deconstructions of an industry that’s convinced us we need their solutions to problems they’ve largely manufactured. Her work represents the kind of tech criticism we desperately need: clear-eyed, evidence-based and completely unimpressed by venture capital mythology.
If you’re looking for someone who can explain how we got here and where we’re headed without the usual Silicon Valley snake oil, her channel is worth your time. – Kai |
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Apps & Sites |
Private photo backup & management |
A self-hosted alternative to Google Photos that you can run on your own server for free. It lets you back up, browse and organise your photos and videos – and still enjoy features like facial recognition and object identification – without handing over your memories to Big Tech. |
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Focus toolkit for students & others |
Built with students in mind, TimeSlate is a free, browser-based productivity tool that wraps a Pomodoro timer, task manager and revision planning into one app – no account needed and no ads in sight. Data is stored on your device. |
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Free workouts & fitness programs |
A volunteer-run, ad-free fitness platform that offers free, science-backed workouts, illustrated programs and challenges – all without signups or paywalls. It’s a great example of a project built around the belief that fitness education can be accessible and judgement-free for everyone. |
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I’m generally hesitant to let an AI curate news for me, but what intrigues me about this tool is that it sifts through thousands of news pieces from different languages (!) to sort them by a global significance score – made up of seven ‘objective’ factors: scale, impact, novelty, potential, legacy, positivity and credibility. Friends of DD enjoy a 30% discount on Premium. Become a Friend to access specials like this. |
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Web Wanderlust |
Charming discoveries from the internet’s back alleys that you don’t need but might love. |
An extensive archive of the world’s newspaper front pages, updated daily. Wplace is a collaborative, real-time pixel canvas layered over the world map, where anyone can paint and create art together. (Explainer video here) Emojitracker shows the most popular emojis both globally and across select countries in real time, based on emojis copied from Emojipedia and GetEmoji. You should probably leave Substack. Here’s why and how. Spotify accounts of celebrities, politicians and journalists. The Panama Papers revealed hidden bank accounts. This reveals hidden tastes. |
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Books & Accessories |
The hidden benefits of fooling yourselfPsychologist Shankar Vedantam shows how our brains are wired for self-deception and argues that these supposedly irrational delusions often serve crucial psychological and social functions that help us navigate relationships, hope and meaning in an uncertain world. “Filled with powerful personal stories and drawing on new insights in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy, Useful Delusions offers a fascinating tour of what it really means to be human.” |
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Evidence-based hope for climate actionIn her brand new book (out in 2 weeks!), data scientist Hannah Ritchie (known for her work at Our World in Data) tackles climate despair head-on by methodically dismantling common misconceptions, using clear evidence to show that while the challenges are real and urgent, we actually have more reasons for optimism than most people realise. “An inspiring data-mine which gives us not only real guidance, but the most necessary ingredient of all: hope.” |
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Overheard on the Socials |
RIP to all the cool hippies we lost on the wellness to far right pipeline. |
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Food for Thought |
Some forceful words on AI. I’m not sure I share the same intensity of feeling (yet?), but I’m glad someone speaks out about AI’s harms to workers, culture, truth and the environment. “Incoherent empty men want to sell me the chance to stop reading and writing and thinking, to stop caring for my kids or talking to my parents, to stop choosing what I do or knowing why I do it. Blissful ignorance and total isolation, warm in the womb of the algorithm, nourished by hungry machines.” |
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I love hearing about and take a lot of inspiration from unconventional, more communal living arrangements. This is a lovely story about The Bird’s Nest – a tiny-house, women-only community in rural Texas where 11 residents age together, stay independent and share costs and companionship. “Women with more social ties have a 10 percent longer life span and 41 percent higher odds of surviving to age 85 than women with fewer ties, regardless of their demographic characteristics or health conditions.”(Paywalled – free archived view) |
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Another lyrical piece by Shani Zhang that looks at people’s inner lives through the metaphor of a house, identifying four key elements: a foundation built on self-acceptance, a frame constructed from consistently lived values, purposeful building through focused attention and mastery, and the quality of energy that powers it all. “Someone can be dazzling and unforgettable. But without deliberate architecture to ground them, their energy will be directionless, spilling everywhere. It is hard to sustain closeness with people like this. They let their brightness do the heavy lifting: coasting through life on charisma, and neglecting the effortful things – a sturdy foundation, a commitment to their values, a focused practice. This may be okay for a while. But when times are hard, you’ll realize there is nothing to lean on, because they haven’t built anything enduring.” |
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Aesthetically Pleasing |
Polish artist Lena Moz creates vibrant, sketchbook-style artworks – primarily landscapes and botanical scenes – using mixed media such as watercolours and coloured pencils. |
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I love these multi-layered digital ‘paintings’ by Madrid-based visual artist Rocío Montoya. |
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Pocket Passiv is Australia’s smallest certified Passivhaus at just 34 square metres (366 square feet), transforming unused space behind a heritage terrace house in Sydney into a net-zero energy studio dwelling that generates as much power as it consumes. |
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Font of the week: Griff Mono is a calligraphically inspired monospaced typeface with sharp, energetic curves that balances clarity at small sizes with bold, uncompromising impact at larger scales. |
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Notable Numbers |
The richest 10% of people could match the entire annual income of the poorest 10% by giving up less than 2% of their earnings – roughly equivalent to just one week’s income. |
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During this year’s Stanley Cup finals in the US, ice hockey fans were hit with gambling ads and logos every 13 seconds on average, with researchers counting over 6,200 instances across just 13 games. Critics warn that top sports have become a ‘second-by-second gambling opportunity’ since the supreme court overturned a federal ban on sports betting in 2018. |
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US retailers lost $890 billion to returns in 2024, with rates more than doubling since 2019 – driven largely by higher-income shoppers who are more likely to buy items speculatively. Gen Z has the lowest return rate, unless it’s for electronics. |
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Classifieds |
Weekly Filet – the best of the web, carefully curated. For nerds and change-makers who love when something makes them go ‘Huh, I never thought of it this way!’ mymind is not a productivity app. It’s a sanctuary for your mind. Try it for free and escape the anxiety of the internet. Obsessed with Japan? So are we. The Japan or Die newsletter has the greatest insider travel tips about Japan since the invention of travel tips. Sign up for free! Build the small business you’ve been dreaming about. Subscribe to For Starters – a free weekly dose of inspiration, stories, ideas, tips and tools for starters like you. In your inbox every Friday. |
Classifieds are paid ads that support DD and are seen by our 37,000 subscribers each week. Book yours → |
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The Week in a GIF |
Reply with your favourite GIF and it might get featured here in a future issue. |
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