The Journal
Notes on what to read,
watch, and hear next.
Short essays on choice paralysis, the texture of mood, and the small craft of picking well. Updated when there's something worth saying.
June 12, 2026 · 4 min read
How to pick a movie when you can't decide.
Decision fatigue is the real reason you've been on the home screen for forty minutes.
June 5, 2026 · 3 min read
What your mood says about the music you should hear.
Energy and valence are the two dials that matter more than genre. Here's why.
May 22, 2026 · 5 min read
Reading by feeling, not by genre.
Genre tells you the shelf. Mood tells you the book. They are not the same.
May 10, 2026 · 3 min read
Where Suggest Me Something gets its data.
Five public catalogs, no AI guessing — here's exactly what powers the picks.
June 22, 2026 · 5 min read
The psychology of decision fatigue on the streaming home screen.
Why forty minutes of scrolling feels worse than not watching anything at all — and a small protocol that helps.
June 15, 2026 · 4 min read
Why genre is a terrible way to recommend music.
Two dials — energy and valence — describe how music feels better than any genre label can.
June 8, 2026 · 5 min read
How anime recommendation engines actually work.
MAL scores, genre tags, season catalogs and why most 'best anime' lists are wrong for you.
May 30, 2026 · 4 min read
The case for shorter books in a busy life.
Two hundred pages, read across one weekend, often lands harder than six hundred pages read across six months.
May 20, 2026 · 4 min read
Why streaming services keep suggesting the same five shows.
Engagement-optimised recommenders flatten taste toward whatever finishes fastest.
May 12, 2026 · 5 min read
Mood, not genre: a better mental model for recommendations.
Genre is a shelf. Mood is a fit. They're not the same, and confusing them is why most algorithmic recommendations feel off.