Scope of Work
Excellent writing about the physical world.

5 min read
The Prepared is now Scope of Work
Spencer Wright on what "The Prepared" has meant, and how "Scope of Work" is different.…
2022-12-19
Hillary Predko on muscle memory, Hudson Yards, and plutonium safety at Los Alamos.…

On Chindogu
The near-universal comedy of technological failure
The story goes that Thomas Edison ran thousands of failed experiments before landing on…
2022-12-12
Natasha Balwit-Cheung on the thermal stability of the soil beneath out feet and our capacity to harness it with ground source heat pumps.…
2022-12-05
George Cave on the limitations of job titles, how car-first thinking permeates language, and why company names can't include computer code.…

States of Matter
An Interview with material scientist Mark Miodownik
In Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials that Shape our Man-Made World, Mark…
2022-11-28
Spencer Wright on the projects -- and tools -- that sustained him this year.…
Notes, 2022-11-21
TW Lim on industrial production and staple foods - from the ways geopolitics influence our diets to the intricacies of flour inspection.…
2022-11-14
SJ Jones on all things additive: policy changes, repair processes, and milestones for 3D printed rockets.…

Beyond Measure
Starting 2022-11-11, The Prepared’s Reading Group is reading James Vincent’s Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants.…
2022-11-07
Skyler Adams on TikTok's smart home infomercials, a nuclear-powered passenger ship, and "supply chain scenes".…
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