Matter @matter

New Words That Matter site. Still needs polish (and better cover images), but coming along nicely.

Ben started keeping Shabbat months ago. Every week he would come back and lightly nudge us to give it a try. Eventually it connected. I have fond memories of Sunday school followed by home-cooked meals and time to run outside in the Georgia heat. I remember connecting with my siblings. I remember dozing on a decades-old, worn-in couch at my grandparents' house. I remember having a day that was rooted in being deeply human. You felt like part of a community. You were part of a family. And on occasion a spark of awe would stun you while you sat looking at the sky. There was nowhere else to be because there was nowhere else to go. As the weeks went on and Ben kept raising the point, I found myself setting aside Saturday or Sunday to disconnect. I left the phone in the foyer and avoided other forms of work. The benefits of the Sabbath don't immediately reveal themselves. The first few weeks are largely spent in a kind of agitation. You find yourself often reaching for a device that isn't there. Then all of a sudden, you start to notice things. Small things. Like how how there are flowers blooming in a spot alongside your house that you never saw before. Or how there's one particularly nefarious squirrel with a spot on its chest that taunts your dog from the top of your fence. Then there are the bigger things. Like just how often your daughter looks at you when she's playing. Not for attention, but just to know you're there and looking back. Or how earnestly your wife is trying to prepare a new recipe for your family. Or how your elderly neighbor seems to be struggling with their day to day chores now. It's easy to give in to the eye roll reaction to hearing someone pitch the Sabbath as something new. It's obviously not. And all of these benefits are available without the ritual and especially without an app. But for better or worse, we're steeped in cultural programming where if you're not on your phone, the people you're around are. And that feeling permeates your lived experience. There's always somewhere else to be, either physically or technologically. It's possible to "see" all of these things without noting their importance. To Sabbath alone and with willpower is to take on a burden that makes surrendering to the day difficult. But if you Sabbath with the people in your life, surrender is something that can happen to you without effort. This project is largely a labor of love by Ben. And we don't want to oversell what we've made. It's just a screentime blocker at its core. But there's a rising chorus of people who are rediscovering this practice. And we think our product can help add to your experience (through subtraction). If you're interested in giving it a try, reply to Ben. We'd love to have you.

Ben Springwater @benspringwater

a month ago

Introducing Sabbath: A modern app for an ancient practice. Shipping in July. Reply here for early access.

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Introducing Sabbath: A modern app for an ancient practice. Shipping in July. Reply here for early access.

Major update: Discover We've rebuilt Discover from the ground up to bring you a daily feed of 30 articles worth your time. • Recommendations based on your reading history • Articles trending on Matter right now • New posts from your favorite authors • Timeless classics hand-picked by the team • The most highlighted and read articles on Matter The more you read, the better it gets. Update in the App Store to try it now.

Have a bunch of limited edition black on black sweatshirts I want to give to @matter users! If you’re in SF and want one, reply to claim your size. You can swing by or send an uber courier. I’m by Alamo Sq, will dm my address.

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@feynon_ @benspringwater Totally hear you. We're bringing back "Send to top of Queue" in our next release. Will be out next week.

👀 Big updates a-comin

This is awesome! Reminds me of a cross bt Cheeky Pint and How I Write, with a dash of How I Built This. Auto subscribe.

Substack @Substack

2 months ago

Introducing Open Tab: a new interview series where independent media founders tell us how they did it. Most of what we hear from media insiders is a story of decline. But a new class of independent media founders is creating powerful businesses around their own work.

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This collection by @ashleevance is full of delightful surprises. I would not have expected anarchist manifestos or odes to drinking from the Silicon Valley insider who reports on techno-capitalism and produced a Netflix documentary about Bryan Johnson, respectively. Calls to mind Whitman: Do I contradict myself? Very well I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes. As an aside - grateful to Ashlee, who is “kind of a big deal” as the kids say, for being a guest on our little newsletter and for being a mensch to work with. open.substack.com/pub/matterread…

Preview of new @matter Discover feed

There's a certain genre of article I can't get enough but find hard to name. It's typically a numbered list of life advice, maxims, practical tips, principles, and so forth. Done well, it's a marvelous compression of wisdom, both quirky and universal. Here are some of my favorite collections. Are there others that should be on this list? (I'm planning to write my own soon; it'd be cool if more people did this!) 103 bits of advice by @kevin2kelly kk.org/thetechnium/10… Principles by @nabeelqu nabeelqu.co/principles 50 things I know by Sasha Chapin sashachapin.substack.com/p/50-things-i-… 50 things I know by @catehall usefulfictions.substack.com/p/50-things-i-… Observations on People, the World, and Everything Else by @mariogabriele generalist.com/p/observations… talking points by @visakanv visakanv.com/blog/talking-p… 28 Pieces of Life Advice by @david_perell perell.com/note/28-pieces…

In 2019 my girlfriend (now wife) sent Patrick Collison a cold email for the ages. Patrick replied 3 minutes later, warmly, with a yes. A few weeks later I met Patrick at Nopa at 9pm. He ordered tea, I ordered something stronger. He was congenial and energetic, and 90 minutes flew by. The whole episode was special. My wife sending that email was a remarkable gift. Ditto Patrick's generosity. They say never meet your heroes but I think the better advice is to choose the right ones.

Stuart Buck @stuartbuck1

3 months ago

We need a "Day in the Life of Patrick Collison." Most people in his position would be drowning 24/7 in emails and Slack messages, prepping to meet with everyone from direct reports to investors to board members, tied up with strategic decisions like "does Stripe buy company X

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@drewcoffman ✋ apps.apple.com/us/story/id172…

Oh hey, App of the Day!

Matter is App of the Day in the US and India! 🇺🇸🇮🇳

I really had fun revisiting my favorite-ever short writing for Words That Matter -- ft. the Goddess of Everything Else, Cat's Cradle, Bukowski, Kurzgesagt, and the Avett Brothers

Ben Springwater @benspringwater

3 months ago

My whole life I’ve been a sucker for self-help. The genre has a bad rep because there’s so much crap, but the best of it changes lives. In the year 2026, no one is doing better work here than @catehall, who writes with a crazy level of precision, pulse, and power. I’m thrilled

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My whole life I’ve been a sucker for self-help. The genre has a bad rep because there’s so much crap, but the best of it changes lives. In the year 2026, no one is doing better work here than @catehall, who writes with a crazy level of precision, pulse, and power. I’m thrilled to feature Cate as guest curator in this week’s issue of Words That Matter. substack.com/@benspringwate…

We're working on a major overhaul of the Discover experience in @matter. Soon, you'll be able to tune your feed across: Surprise <--> Personalization Timelessness <--> News Deep dives <--> Quick reads