Open web advocacy
A running defense of hyperlinks, RSS, ActivityPub, and personal blogs against platform enclosure.
A newsletter by Jamie Thingelstad
Weekly Thing
A weekly read across technology, the open web, privacy, and a life lived in Minnesota — with a short personal note on every link explaining why it's there.
Free every weekend. No tracking, ever. 344 issues and counting since 2017.
Commentary over algorithm.
Every weekend since 2017.
Jamie has published the Weekly Thing every weekend for more than eight years — 344 issues and counting. Each one pulls together links from across the web (technology, the indie web, privacy, a rabbit hole or two) alongside a journal of what he's actually been doing that week.
Every link gets a short rationale. Why it's in the issue. What's interesting about it. Sometimes a reversal, a correction, or a note about something that didn't work. Readers describe it as having coffee with someone curious who says, "hey, did you see this?" — and then tells you what they think.
It's free, always. No tracking pixels, no click logging, no data harvesting. Membership exists, but it's pure charity — 100% goes to a nonprofit.
6,314
curated links across 344 issues
871,440
words of commentary and context
2,889
unique sources linked
What readers say
82%
would recommend to a friend
58%
read the whole issue
73%
subscribed 3+ years
Readers say the newsletter makes them feel:
curious
informed
smarter
inspired
interested
energized
connected
engaged
optimistic
excited
entertained
intrigued
satisfied
grateful
uplifted
hopeful
positive
calmer
insightful
fun
creative
open-minded
driven
Reading the Weekly Thing almost makes me feel like I'm cheating — like I have this secret weapon for all things technical that I don't need to do the work to find.
My husband and I read it every week while drinking our coffee and then spend the morning discussing it together.
It's become something I really look forward to reading. You're a trusted editor that helps keep me focused when there are too many distractions.
I really enjoy the insights you add to each of the main articles — it gives me an idea of whether it's something I'd like to spend more time learning, and adds to the article in some way.
It's a highlight of my morning. I read it on my home email — I checked and I forwarded 22 items in the last year to my work email for use there.
I like reading it to feel like I'm having coffee with someone who is curious — 'hey, did you see this?' — and then getting a short commentary.
Read along this weekend
Who's behind this?
Jamie Thingelstad is CTO of SPS Commerce by day, but the Weekly Thing isn't about his day job. It's the output of a restless curiosity that ranges from AI and the indie web to escape rooms, vinyl records, and whatever Wikipedia rabbit hole he fell into this week.
A single issue might cover agentic engineering, a cheeseburger review, an Ethereum deep dive, and photos from a family trip to Duluth. That range is the point — and it's what keeps readers coming back.
How it sounds
“Two decades ago when I started publishing on the web I would have never guessed that linking to websites, with no URL redirection or tracking tags, would feel almost subversive now. I now find myself delighting in adding even more links to blog posts. Creating the web I want!”
“I didn't think the caffeine I was consuming was having any real impact on me -- but the impact that the removal had tells a different story.”
“Writing a blog on your own site is a way to escape all of that. Plus your words build up over time. That's unique. Nobody else values your words like you do.”
What shows up week after week
Issues vary, but a few threads run through the archive consistently.
AI from a builder's seat
Moves from reading about agents to building and running them, documenting the real workflow — costs, failures, and all.
Privacy as a structural problem
Treats surveillance, tracking, and backdoor demands as policy questions, not just individual opt-outs.
Minnesota, family, and a life on the page
A weekly journal grounds the tech in specific places, seasons, hikes, and family moments.
Latest Issue
Weekly Thing 344 / Mythos, Artemis, Signals
Working with agents, economics of software teams, evals as new PRD, OpenAI Codex superapp, saying goodbye to Agile, cybersecurity proof of work.
- Notable
- Working with agents doesn’t feel like flow — Bill de hÓra
- The Economics of Software Teams: Why Most Engineering Organizations Are Flying Blind - Viktor Cessan
- Want to understand the current state of AI? | MIT Technology Review
- Browser Run: give your agents a browser
- Evals Are the New PRD — Elezea
- Building a CLI for all of Cloudflare
- The Human Cost of 10x AI Productivity - Denis Stetskov
- + 6 more sections
Subscribe for free and see what lands Saturday
Membership
The Weekly Thing is free for everyone, always. Members contribute to a nonprofit selected each year — 100% of fees are donated.
This year, we're supporting Electronic Frontier Foundation. $899 raised so far. 23 members.