This is a post from Robin Sloan’s lab blog & notebook. You can visit the blog’s homepage, or learn more about me.

Popping up!

January 5, 2026
Views of Polar Regions, ca. 1840, Charles Hamilton Smith
Views of Polar Regions, ca. 1840, Charles Hamilton Smith

Over the past six months, I’ve devel­oped a few ideas about AI, mostly of the LLM flavor, that are too big for blog posts, too weird for my bookish newsletter … so I decided to do a pop-up newsletter for early 2026. It’s called Winter Garden, and you are invited to subscribe.

The model is Craig Mod, who more than anyone has defined the pop-up genre; just look at his archive! To my eye, these are basi­cally impro­vi­sa­tional books: a dis­tinct form, native to the internet, maybe even to email.

The first edi­tion (of six) is already online. These will arrive at a relaxed pace across the next few months. I hope you’ll subscribe—I’d be pleased and proud to have you along.

P.S. Don’t miss the colophon.

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