Manuel Moreale

Being creative, harnessing the joys of the internet and why it can - and should - be so much better

Author

Nik Newcamp
February 19, 2025

Not everyone has time for 5,000 words essays all the time :)

Manuel Moreale is prolific but (generally) produces concise and easily digestible blogs - without compromising style and strong opinions. He also seems like one of the most genuine, helpful and friendly writers I’ve come across - he’ll even read your blog if you send it to him!

BIO
Why Manuel Moreale?

Based in Italy, Manuel is a designer and developer who ‘lives on the internet’. He’s an advocate for the free and independent internet and individualism more broadly. He’s written 100s of posts over the last 7+ years (I read or re-read 53 over the last few days alone before writing this!)

He’s got tons of cool content including his weekly series People and Blogs ‘where interesting people talk about themselves and their blogs’ (past interviews include Rebecca Toh!) and has also done a lot of ‘personal challenges’ including months without Wi-Fi, music, drinking anything besides water, etc’ (and, if you read our Matt Lakeman profile, you know we love those :) )

Also a prominent curator - I like to consider myself generally pretty plugged into ‘obscure tech-adjacent writing’ but following Manuel is a reminder how much more cool stuff is out there! I always find links to cool people/things in his posts.

While not all of his posts are for me, he has interesting opinions about all kinds of things and articulates them nicely. If you’re at all interested in topics like being connected online, internet culture and moving away from mass consumerism in all forms, he’s probably got something for you.

You can find his writing on his site, he’s also active as a curator on theforest.link (awesome btw), and can be found on 32-Bit Cafe and the books he’s reading on Literal.  

Topics: Internet culture, Hobbies, Creativity, Minimalism

3 ESSAYS TO GET YOU STARTED
1 - On digital relationships

Manu explores the importance of digital relationships, why are they often considered ‘less’ than ‘real’ (in-person) relationships?

“ Digital relationships are powerful but don’t take my word for it. Try for yourself. Next time you stumble on a personal site you find interesting, try to connect with the person behind that site. Write an email, say hi, send them some love. You won’t regret it.”

A take down of Substack in defence of owning your content - and keeping the internet fun and independent (as much as possible)

“I am not a huge fan of Substack. I wasn’t a fan when it started, I am not a fan now, and there are two main reasons why.”

I agree so much with the sentiment expressed in this post! No one needs to do something forever.

“Leaving behind something that worked in order to pursue something new takes courage. We should celebrate more people who do it.” 

well, it’s what we’re doing here! No AI slop :) — Manu has been an impressive and inspiring curator for years.

WHAT IS WORTH CHECKING THIS WEEK?

Some of the most interesting things we found on the internet this week:

  • One of Manuel’s projects (referenced in It’s fun to do silly things), a cool way to discover random things on the internet! [The Forest]

  • A large-scale research visualization exploring how technical and social structures co-evolved over five centuries [Calculating Empires]

  • New Google DeepMind short intro course (~75 minutes) on AI Alignment [DeepMind]

  • A model for how AI will take white collar jobs in the near future [Luke Drago]

Want more of these? Check out our new Monday edition for a dozen or so of our favorite links each week!

SUGGESTION BOX

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Enjoy Manuel Moreale’s writing & see you next week! 🙂