This week's intro features 6 of Gurwinder's 26 Useful Concepts for 2026:

1. Slopaganda: "More online articles are now written by AI than by humans. And research is increasingly finding that AI is better at persuading people than people are. Who wins in a world of unlimited propaganda? Not those with the best arguments, but those with the most slop."
2. Reality Apathy: "When the sheer volume of conflicting information makes the effort of finding the truth costlier than the value of knowing it, people give up trying to be accurate and instead choose whatever bullshit stinks least. Slop doesn’t just threaten the truth, but the very worth of truth."
3. Amara’s Law: "We tend to overestimate the short-term impact of new tech, and underestimate the long-term impact, because hype inflates expectations, and thus disappointment, and thus scepticism. As such, it’s possible for AI to be both a bubble and the most transformative tech since fire."

☝️ This one stands out to me especially, as we witnessed the dot-com bubble's fiasco eons ago, yet also recognize the pivotal role the internet has played now, over 20 years later.

4. Paradox of Boredom: "With a phone always in arm’s reach, it’s almost impossible to get bored. This is a disaster, because boredom is the mud from which creativity blooms. To be bored is to be undistracted, and only then is one free to dream, just as it’s only when the world goes dark that we see the galaxy."
5. Eustress: "People have more comforts and conveniences than ever, yet reports of unhappiness are at an all-time high. One reason is that discomfort isn’t an obstacle to happiness, it’s the path to it, for it’s only by enduring struggles that we develop the resilience necessary for lasting contentment."
6. Pronoia: "The opposite of paranoia. The suspicion that the universe is secretly conspiring to help you. Assume every setback is the universe trying to teach you a lesson, and every setback will make you wiser. It doesn’t matter whether the universe is actually trying to help you; believing it makes it work."

PMA! Believing it really does make it work. Here's to believing the universe is actually trying to help you this year. : )

Thank you for reading,

Jon

January

• 🇳🇱 14 Wheelrunner Wednesday Ride (Weekly at 6:30am)
• 🇧🇪 16-18 Velofollies
  • 17 Join the Velofollies Frostbite Rideout w/ HUNT, Albion, Classified & Jaegher
• 🇳🇱 29 The Mechanics of Joy Nº52

February

• 🇳🇱 8-9 Nieuwsfiets' B2B Festival
• 🇳🇱 11-12 Shift Cycling Culture Barcamp
• 🇳🇱 27 Dox Under The Tracks Nº14 (Artists TBA)

March

• 🇳🇱 14 12hr Alleycat (Twotone HQ is the karaoke checkpoint!)
• 🇩🇪 20-22 Cyclingworld Düsseldorf

Bikes

Twotone Supporting Six Clients at Velofollies 2026

1. GRAVAA — featured with Remco Tools at Pilot Bikes — Booth 150
2. Remco Tools with a new product seen in BikeMonkey - Booth 102A
3. Moustache Bikes — Booth 133 & w/ RS Bicycles & Components — Booth 617
4. OMNIUM  — showcased within Ortlieb — TCK Sports Group Booth 130 
5. SILCA — exhibiting premium accessories at Hartje — Booth 630
6. Veloe® Italy — showcased at Roule Agency — Booth R14

VELOFOLLIES FROSTBITE RIDEOUT W/ HUNT

Italian Cargo Bike Manufacturer Veloe Buys Van Nicholas, But Not Bringing Ti Building to Italy

Italian Cargo Bike Manufacturer Veloe Buys Van Nicholas, But Not Bringing Ti Building to Italy

Italian manufacturer of Veloe cargo bike s buys Van Nicholas titanium bicycle company, but not to bring ti production to Italy…

BikerumorCory Benson

Ideas

Josh at SILCA's 2025 Year in Review

The Enshittifinancial Crisis

The Enshittifinancial Crisis

Soundtrack: Lynyrd Skynyrd — Free Bird This piece is over 19,000 words, and took me a great deal of writing and research. If you liked it, please subscribe to my premium newsletter. It’s $70 a year, or $7 a month, and in return you get a weekly newsletter that’

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed AtEdward Zitron

"There is an echoing melancholy to this era, as we watch the end of Silicon Valley’s hypergrowth era, the horrifying result of 15+ years of steering the tech industry away from solving actual problems in pursuit of eternal growth. Everything is more expensive, and every tech product has gotten worse, all so that every company can “do AI,” whatever the fuck that means." – Ed Zitron

Bohemian Border Bash 2026 Registration is Open

Friends

Josh Weinberg: How to photograph bikes and bicycling

How to photograph bikes and bicycling

Tips, tricks, musings, and more for documenting two-wheeled machines and the people who love them.

Escape CollectiveJosh Weinberg

The Mountain, Poetry by Genevieve

The Mountain

Poetry by Genevieve

Spill Your DreamsSpill Your Dreams

Jeremy Bierbach Opens Bierbach Advocatuur

Radness

Adrien Liechti Riding The African Continent from North to South

Thank you for reading!
Here's to creativity growing from boredom this week!