Robot wolves for fighting bears. Image credit: Richard Atrero de Guzman
The links are out mowing the grass. This time we’re colliding shared maps, robot wolves, quantum weirdness, Zendaya and PathCamp ’26. More on that last one next.
Please skip around, read what you want to. Find something interesting in your own internet travels? Send me a link
—JH
News
Here’s a little teaser for something we’re starting next month. From Christian:
PathCamp ‘26 is back soon, and we’re doing it a little differently this year.
Five live sessions from June through October, each paired with a companion Path you can work through on your own. These sessions will cover the foundations of building well with Pathwright, from designing your course to using Blocks, launching with Cohorts, and branding your account.
Attend all five sessions or complete all five Paths to earn the Pathwright Foundations Certificate.
We’re excited to spend the year building alongside you!
—Christian Shockley
Head of EdLabs
10 curious links that would have killed the cat
🗺️ A Map of Us. A digital atlas with personal memories annotated on top. I loved finding areas with relatively few notes and clicking threw them (shoutout Newfoundland).
AMOU ∙ Web App
🎬 The insane VFX of old movies. The in-camera composites are the most impressive to me. Tricks!
Primal Space ∙ Video
🤑 How the commercial spreadsheet reshaped America. “The spreadsheet promoted a view of the corporation as something to be optimized: a bundle of assets, liabilities, and agreements that could be understood completely with, well, a spreadsheet. There are certain things in the making of a great company that are illegible and unquantifiable, and which even go against a purely financial logic. The very best companies behave more like cults or armies than like bundles of assets.”
David Oks ∙ Article
🤖 Japan runs out of robot wolves in fight against bears. All-time best headline. Robot wolves will run you $4k each, are battery powered and feature solar panels and sensors.
Popular Science ∙ News
⏳ Quantum weirdness may be quietly blurring time itself, say physicists. Fun article to read, as I did, the morning after rewatching Interstellar.
Science Daily ∙ Article
Zendaya squishes people/shapes in “Shape of Dreams”
🤔 “Shape of Dreams”, starring Zendaya and written and directed by Spike Jonze. It’s an ad for On’s latest collection (designed by Zendaya). But it’s also a delight for the senses that doesn’t have to have anything to do with sneakers and jackets if you don’t want it to.
YouTube ∙ Video
💯 The 100 greatest novels ever published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. Click on a title to see a summary and who voted for it. I’m somewhat allergic to anything with a Penguin Classics cover, but many of these surprised me. Blood Meridian (#68) is my next read.
The Guardian ∙ Interactive List
💭 Poorly Explained Movies (a game). Just picked this one up at a local bookstore. They got me with this riddle on the box: “A single father loses his son—but finds him at the dentist.” (Answer: Finding Nemo) Also on Amazon.
Brass Monkey ∙ Card Game
🤝 Portraits of fathers and sons holding hands. Some look uncomfortable, leaning away from each other. Some look content. All make me think, “What are they not saying out loud right now?” Love this series.
It’s Nice That ∙ Article
🧙♂️ Wikipedia wormhole I went down: “Childlore”. Punch bug, the cool “S”, cat’s cradle, many more come to mind from my own childhood.
Wikipedia ∙ Article
in Greenville, SC
We’re smack in the middle of a 6-week cycle of work here at HQ. Rather than keep a roadmap that’s inevitably out of date, we work in 1.5-month batches that help us prioritize the more pressing work.
This cycle finds us completing some elements that have been moving along incrementally for more than a year. I’m looking forward to filling you in soon.
The daily highs just jumped 15º here in Greenville, SC. As I write this to you, it’s the last week of school. Pools, ice pops, and movie nights are coming up.
If you need anything, I’ll be thinking about the immortality of the crab.
High five,
Justin Hall
Editor, Partner at Pathwright