Category: Culture
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The Indie Web Comes Back, Again
The indie web has been declared dead so many times the obituary has become the running joke. The web the individual publishes, the blog the developer runs, the newsletter the writer sends, the web the platform did not own. The honest framing matters here, because the indie web that the platform kept declaring dead is…
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What 2026 Is Going to Be About
A field guide to the year ahead in 2026, with the seven trends that are going to matter, the seven trends that are not, and the part about the press releases the press releases are not telling you.
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What the Open Web Looked Like Before the Algorithms
A field guide to the open web in the era before the algorithm, with what the platforms were doing, what the specific things were that the platforms were doing, and the part about the things the algorithms are not going to be able to replicate.
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The Slow Death of the Open Web, in Numbers
The open web is not dead. But it is no longer where most people spend their time, and the gap is widening.
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The Hobbyist Project That Becomes the Production System
The hobbyist project that becomes the production system is one of the more reliable patterns in technology. A developer has a problem, writes a script, shares it with colleagues, and two years later the script is the production system for a non trivial fraction of the company.
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Happy New Year from Human Required
Happy new year from the editorial desk, and welcome to Human Required if you are new here. We started this thing in late 2025 with a simple idea, and we will see how far it gets us by December.