My journal — Ethan Marcotte’s website

While I was working on my latest redesign, I added a statement explaining how “artificial intelligence” is used on my website.

It’s been, like, hot-hot for the last week, with Boston seized by the same heat wave affecting…well, everywhere else.

Two weeks ago, I quietly pushed up a new look for this website.

Let’s review.

I’m giving a talk at next week’s Boston WordPress meetup!

Amid everything happening right now, I read with great interest about the technologies used in planning our latest horrid war.

We’d gotten a good three inches of snow overnight.

I’m trying to write some kind of post to close out 2025, and the words just won’t come.

I come from one of the poorest corners of a small, rural state.

I was keenly watching updates on the Anthropic copyright lawsuit, in part because every single book I’d ever written appeared in LibGen, the database of pirated books at the heart of the case.

A little over a month ago, I wrapped a project with the City of Boston.

After writing about design under fascism and framing “artificial intelligence” as a failure, I realized my tiny little brain could use a breather.

I think it’s long past time I start discussing “artificial intelligence” (“AI”) as a failed technology.

Note: This post gets into American politics.

World’s on fire, so here’s a short post about newsletters.

World’s on fire and the ghouls keep buying matches, so I’m working on my website.

I’ve got some new design work to announce, but it’s still very much in progress.

Hey, here’s a thing that’s fun to say: Happy fifteenth birthday, responsive web design!

Okay, sorry, I just need a hole to scream into.

Note: This post is very long, and it gets into some arcane-looking code stuff.

As the horse once said, everything happens so much.

I recently rereleased You Deserve a Tech Union as a self-published title, featuring a brand new design.

A little over a year ago, I wrote a book called You Deserve a Tech Union.

Note: This post gets into recent American political events.

I don’t even remember when this redesign started.

Note: This post gets into the last few weeks of American politics.

Hello, you.

It’s cold out, and the sun’s hidden behind a flat, gray scrim.

Earlier this year, following the closure of my publisher, I reacquired the rights to my three books.

Here are some things I know.

Something momentous is happening this week — it’s happening right now, in fact.

Last year, I wrote a book called You Deserve a Tech Union.

The world’s got a few things going on, and I’ve been tinkering with my website. 1 More specifically, I just migrated off of jekyll and over to Eleventy.

Okay, well, here’s me: I just wrapped my first week at 18F, where I’ve joined the team as a product designer.

Here’s a combination of words I’ve never used before: I just got back from a long weekend at a hotel near O’Hare Airport.

I’ve been blocking various “artificial intelligence” (“AI”) bots on my site.

Some years back, I went to see an old friend give a talk.

A fine little thing happened this past weekend.

Hey, you.

There’s a new book out by Chris Dixon, an investor at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

I’ll just come out and say it: You Deserve a Tech Union was positively reviewed in Labor Notes.

Well.

Okay, I’m excited about this one.

Little bit of a late entry, but last week at WBUR I published an op-ed on the OpenAI workers’ letter.

People of Boston!

People of Boston!

I continue to be a designer/author out in the world, talking about his new book.

I had an absolutely wonderful weekend, and —  Oh yeah, no, sorry: I do realize it’s Thursday.

It’s been a little over a month since You Deserve a Tech Union came out.

As of today, You Deserve a Tech Union has been out for three weeks.