Friends & Blogroll
A curated list of independent writers, essayists, and builders whose work I frequently save to Readwise, reread, and learn from.
Inspired by the IndieWeb blogroll tradition and the /friends movement.
Essayists & Independent Thinkers
- Paul Graham — Startups, taste, independent-mindedness, and doing great work.
- Shreyas Doshi — Masterclass essays on writing vs. thinking, product sense, and product management craft.
- Henrik Karlsson — Deep essays on cognitive apprenticeships, intellectual history, and writing as a search query.
- Dwarkesh Patel — Rigorous, deep-dive explorations and interviews on AI progress, compute, and history.
- Cal Newport — Deep work, slow productivity, and cognitive fitness in the technology era.
- Shane Parrish / Farnam Street — Timeless mental models, decision-making frameworks, and lifelong learning.
- Steph Smith — Internet pipes, trends analysis, and building content systems.
- Holden Karnofsky — Epistemology, AI strategy, and learning by writing.
- Elad Gil — Startup scaling, career decisions, and technology strategy.
- Derek Thompson — Essays on cultural trends, technology, and economic history.
- Billy Oppenheimer — Note-taking craft, research methods, and storytelling.
- Derek Sivers — Intentional living, minimalism, and pioneer of the
/nowand/friendsmovements.
AI Builders & Operators
- Lenny Rachitsky — Product strategy, startup frameworks, and operator deep dives.
- Dan Shipper — Practical explorations in AI-augmented thinking and personal software.
- Sriram Krishnan — Technology, builder playbooks, and modern engineering culture.
- Simon Willison — Daily technical logs, open-source AI experiments, and LLM tooling.
Connect
If you run a personal site, write regular essays, or build software and would like to connect or exchange blogroll links, feel free to reach out on Twitter/X.