Weekly · every Sunday

Overheard

What we overheard this week in AI, software, media, leading and experiments.

By Mattias Ahlström. Long reads, built to swipe.

Issue 14 October 2026

Vermont's basements, a $20 experiment and what companies actually use

The Power Plant Hidden in Vermont's Basements
The $20 Experiment
What Companies Actually Use
When the Staff Push Back
The Ledger, the Price and the Verdict
What Did My AI Assistant Do Now?
The Cheap Layer Goes Open

Issue −127 September 2026

Seattle bans the price only you can see, 949 agents and an untested enzyme, and a review queue that grew

Seattle Bans the Price Only You Can See
949 Agents, 21 Hours, and an Enzyme System Nobody Has Tested
The Agents Nobody Told to Hack
When the Brief Looked Finished
Ten Minutes for One Section: What Axios Told Its Peers
The Review Queue: Warp's 3.5 Hours
Who Pays for arXiv Now That It Has Left Cornell

Issue −220 September 2026

An exit poll that missed by four points, a bot at the top of the leaderboard and a chair that moves last

The Exit Poll Said 4.5 Points. The Count Said 0.7.
The Memo, the Deposition and the Reply
A Bot Topped the Leaderboard and Could Not Take the Prize
Gone for Good, but Only If It Lived There
A Branch Named Like a Fingerprint
The Chair Moves Last
More Than 100 Ships Are Using the Wind

Issue −313 September 2026

One claim and one silence on Navier-Stokes, what a board can do to a founder and a second desk for the Swiss government

Navier-Stokes: One Claim, One Silence, and More Than Twenty Fields Medalists
What a Board Can Do to a Founder
"Google Jail": How New Wikis Vanish from Search
"They Never Arrive"
Into the Cave for a Month
A Second Desk for the Swiss Government
When the Docs Stop Getting Visitors

Issue −46 September 2026

Beaver dams without beavers, a one dollar fee that became 3,200 cameras, and eighteen of twenty with a twin

Beaver Dams Without Beavers
The Fee That Became 3,200 Cameras
The Footnote That Does Not Open
The Letter and the Kalshi Deal
"Did You Use AI on Your Commits?"
Fermat's Last Theorem, Checked by Machine
Eighteen of Twenty Had a Twin

Next edition: Sunday.