Everything in Its Right Place
Radiohead
The two-plus minutes of vocal-sample fog before it resolves is the whole point. It teaches you to wait.
Related
Bartosz Ciechanowski
ciechanow.ski
The best thing on the web, and it isn't close. Each essay takes one topic — gears, the GPS, light and shadow — and builds a playable mental model of it. Every diagram is a live simulation you can drag. No ads, no newsletter popup, no "5 things" One post every few months because each takes months The sailing one finally made me understand how boats go upwind It's what the web was supposed to be.
Outer Wilds
Mobius Digital
The rare game I wish I could have my memory wiped to play again. The knowledge IS the key item. Do not read anything about it.
The Century of the Self
Adam Curtis
Curtis's thesis — that Freud's nephew rewired consumer capitalism around the unconscious — is either the most important documentary I've seen or elaborate pattern-matching. Undecided, rewatched twice.
Arrival
Denis Villeneuve
A film about grammar that made me cry. The twist isn't the aliens — it's what learning their language does to how she experiences time.