John-Paul Flintoff
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jp.flintoff.org
John-Paul Flintoff
@jp.flintoff.org
260 followers 330 following 410 posts
Writer and artist.
📚 Seven books in 16 languages.
🗞️ ex FT Magazine writer and editor. Bylines: Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times

🏠 Flintoff.org

Agent: Jaime Marshall
Signal: jpflintoff.11
Posts Replies Media Videos
jp.flintoff.org
Comment on the @financialtimes.com

#trump #greenland #epstein
Screenshot: The Government of Greenland could announce a plan to build a memorial to the victims of Epstein. Inviting sculptors to submit designs. Inviting the King of Denmark to unveil it along with other EU/NATO dignitaries including Trump. Every time there is a demo or speech by the Greenland PM, say it in front of the proposed site, suitably signposted. Other countries and US cities theatened by Trump's ICE goons could also do this.
January 20, 2026 at 3:07 PM
jp.flintoff.org
“I've watched this happen to people I know. Intelligent, curious, open-minded people who got deeply involved in online discourse…”
#joanwestenberg

www.joanwestenberg.com/the-discours...
January 18, 2026 at 10:10 AM
jp.flintoff.org
Manic technology.
By Robin Sloan

Read here⬇️
www.robinsloan.com/lab/manic-te...
Screenshot: “for a human mind and a human heart, one really good project is more nourishing than ten cruddy ones; that was true a hundred years ago, and it’s true today. The AI coding companions will never ever say: “Hey … whatever happened to that other thing you were working on?””
January 14, 2026 at 8:21 PM
jp.flintoff.org
2/2
"I can't tell you how the system works or you might cheat" is like your boss saying "I can't tell you what your job is, or you might trick me into thinking you're a good employee."
- Cory Doctorow

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...
January 12, 2026 at 5:11 PM
jp.flintoff.org
“creators only get to eat and pay the rent if they please the algorithm.
Unfortunately, the platforms refuse to disclose how their recommendation systems work.”
1/2
January 12, 2026 at 5:09 PM
jp.flintoff.org
Why men should really be reading more fiction.
(Free link to FT story)

www.ft.com/content/da33...
January 12, 2026 at 3:09 PM
jp.flintoff.org
Ouch.
Glad this was written but sorry to think it describes (inadvertently) people like me.
From a great specimen of the thing it extols: a blog.

www.joanwestenberg.com/the-case-for...
January 5, 2026 at 3:21 PM
jp.flintoff.org
Some works entering the public domain tomorrow

Read more:
pluralistic.net/2025/12/17/b...

@pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy
December 31, 2025 at 4:53 PM
jp.flintoff.org
“The tension between writing and authoring gets intense, so let me explain it a little. Writing is the hobby. Authoring is the profession...” Hugh Howey

#hughhowey

hughhowey.com/art-money-an...
Screenshot of blog post “the tension between writing and authoring gets intense, so let me explain it a little. Writing is the hobby. Authoring is the profession. My mother is a gardener, but she doesn't dream of becoming a farmer and taking baskets of goods to the market on Saturdays to supplement her income. My sister is a knitter, but she doesn't dream of starting a clothing label and opening a pop-up.” Screenshot of blog post: “I also cut my agent into my self-publishing income for my most popular works, giving her 15% for something she didn't help me publish, because she was supporting my decision to remain self-published when it was better for me. And so I figured it should also be more lucrative for her.” Screenshot of blog post: “There's a near future where young readers will have stories created just for them. Where many people will read an individually-tailored book that no one else will ever read.”
December 31, 2025 at 2:41 PM
jp.flintoff.org
Last streetscape of 2025.
#childshill #northlondon
Drawing of a street from one end with tree in foreground, bare branches against bright winter sky. Title: “prospect road, late December”
December 31, 2025 at 1:34 PM
jp.flintoff.org
“the audience for books – especially non-fiction books – has shifted away from people towards AI. If you are writing a book today, you want to keep in mind that you are primarily writing it for AIs.” - @kevinkelly.bsky.social

kevinkelly.substack.com/p/paying-ais...
December 31, 2025 at 1:27 PM
jp.flintoff.org
It’s a comic effect used a lot by Anthony Powell.

But here’s another from Fitzgerald’s novel At Freddie’s. It’s about the main character:

“Of Freddie - making a large assumption - they said: her heart is in it.”

They work hard, those four words between the dashes.
Cover of paperback novel.
December 31, 2025 at 11:46 AM
jp.flintoff.org
Subscription fatigue is real.

That’s a problem for the likes of Netflix but also for all the writers and artists etc who, perhaps having lost paid employment, set up on eg Substack to build a paid audience.
Screenshot from a Financial Times story about subscription fatigue
December 24, 2025 at 4:40 PM
jp.flintoff.org
Loved this @theprofrog.bsky.social
First page of story by Roger Luckhurst in Best British Short Stories 2025.
December 18, 2025 at 7:41 PM
jp.flintoff.org
Heartening to be reminded that I’m not alone in my feelings about Meta and the people who run it.

From the #FinancialTimes today
@financialtimes.com
FT article: Zuckerberg will need the trust of users, lawmakers and regulators, and to reassure them that his products will not leak their private information or harm their kids. In August, leaked Meta policy guidelines revealed that the platform expressly allowed its chatbots to have "sensual" and "romantic" chats with children - revelations that have prompted public outcry around the world, and from US politicians on both sides of the aisle… FT article: "will go down in history as one of the most unconscionable decisions ever made about AI". "We see these big investments in hiring technology people, but I think that one of the biggest ways that the [race can be won] is on Al trust," he adds. FT reader comment: Cheating on benchmarks, thinking solution to few friends is more Al, hiring data labelling guy to lead Al research - the list goes on... The entire Meta is such a massive net negative to the world. Millions of broken teenagers stripped from joy of growing up and having real friends. Enablers of political influence on scale never seen before - Cambridge Analytica, Brexit, first Trump elections. The list goes on. FT reader comment: Please please please please let Meta be the biggest blowup when the bubble goes pop
December 17, 2025 at 1:25 PM
jp.flintoff.org
individuals who support the short story in the uk
- list in 2025 anthology by @nicholasroyle.bsky.social
-
@prototypepubs.bsky.social
@ailsacox.bsky.social
@ggaffa.bsky.social
@cathygalvin.bsky.social
@jonathangibbs.bsky.social
@johnnymains.co.uk
@chrispower.bsky.social
@tonywhite.bsky.social
December 17, 2025 at 12:02 AM
jp.flintoff.org
Yep I did a Black Friday thingy, to celebrate five years of making and selling my art.
(I lowered prices to match five years ago.)

Felt a bit awkward, tbh, “doing a Black Friday sale”, as if it might somehow ruin everybody’s day, but this feedback makes me conclude it was actually no bad thing.
“A begonia in Oxford” artwork by me, John-Paul Flintoff. Feedback (via email): “Hello JP I should have written days ago to say that your print arrived safely and is absolutely magnificent. I am so proud and pleased to have it. So many thanks for your black Friday deal. It's currently at the framer. I hope you have a lovely Christmas”
December 15, 2025 at 12:40 PM
jp.flintoff.org
Downsizing my notebooks, to give paper a chance to compete with digital. Phone fits in back pocket so notebooks must do that too.
Why?
Because although digital is wonderful amazing etc too much of it makes me giddy.
Paper *never* does that.
Two notebooks: one A5 (210x148mm) by Leuchtturm and one < half the size by Moleskine.
December 14, 2025 at 3:19 PM
jp.flintoff.org
🧵/5 Instagram can change its rules, shut down accounts. My connection to people I follow is rented from Meta.

RSS is open, decentralised and platform agnostic. I can take my subscriptions to another reader if I want to.
Instagram can change its rules, shut down accounts. My connection to people I follow is rented from Meta. RSS is open, decentralised and platform agnostic. I can take my subscriptions to another reader if I want to.
December 14, 2025 at 10:34 AM
jp.flintoff.org
🧵/4 Instagram is designed to be sticky - to keep me scrolling. RSS is so much easier to open and scan on my own terms.
Instagram is designed to be sticky - to keep me scrolling. RSS is so much easier to open and scan on my own terms.
December 14, 2025 at 10:32 AM
jp.flintoff.org
🧵/3 On Instagram my attention is sold to the highest bidder. Even if l have a paid ("verified") account I still get ads fired at me.
With RSS I pay a modest, predictable and fair fee, and there are no ads.
Handwritten: “The Ads on Instagram. My attention is sold to the highest bidder. Even if l have a paid ("verified") account I still get ads fired at me. With RSS I pay a modest, predictable and fair fee, and there are no ads.
December 14, 2025 at 10:30 AM
jp.flintoff.org
🧵/2 The Instagram feed isn’t meaningfully mine any more. it’s optimised for advertisers.
Handwritten: “The Instagram feed isn’t meaningfully mine any more. it’s optimised for advertisers. I need to curate a favourites list to see what I want. That's WORK, to fix a problem Instagram creates. With Rss, the subscription list IS my Favourites, and each one gets a spot in my chronological feed. If I want to click through, that’s easy.”
December 14, 2025 at 10:26 AM
jp.flintoff.org
Instagram versus RSS
- 🧵 /1
Handwritten “Instagram versus RSS: where are the people I actually *want* to see?”
December 14, 2025 at 10:21 AM
jp.flintoff.org
4:🧵 I spent YEARS wondering:
- Did I need Flash to zhuzh up my website?
- Was my sidebar too cluttered?
- Should I use tags or categories?
- Blogger, WordPress or Textpattern?
Trivial? Reading MacManus now, I realise: this was a huge part of my life.
The author as a young chap uploading to his website from office at the Financial Times, 2000s
December 9, 2025 at 7:39 PM
jp.flintoff.org
The book is "Quelqu'un à qui parler", by GRÉGORY PANACCIONE.
It's in French. I started reading it in a bookshop in Toulouse, and was hooked.
Based on a (non-graphic) novel by Cyril Massarotto.
More details from the publisher here:
www.lelombard.com/bd/quelquun-...
December 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM