Cool Link: The Future is an Empty Room

Fantastic video essay about loneliness, technology, and the loss of our ability to do.

Beware that there’s some (I assume mild?) spoilers of Death Stranding 1 & 2 in there.

About Cool Links

Cool links are a collection of interesting things I find around the web. They can range from fun dumb websites to deep thought-provoking essays, or more commonly something in between. The feed here updates frequently, and I compile everything into a blog post on the last day of each month.

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Matt posted a Quick Review

Disclosure Day

2026, Steven Spielberg

Reviewed on Sep 28, 2026

Didn't like it

Decent

I like it

Loved it!

An absolute nothing burger of a film. An ET movie in 2026 ought to try to do something new or different, but this one does nothing. It takes itself so seriously that it just feels silly. It’s even sillier how many shots there are of people reacting to how serious the things happening in the movie are, as if the movie is trying really hard to make you care, too. I didn’t.

Movie

Matt shared a Cool Link

Great video! It goes into how AI as a tool affects our way of thinking, how damaging that can be for learning, and how to leverage it in a way that could be positive while still giving us ownership of what we build.

I’ve seen this video circulating before but never gave it a chance due to it coming from a brand (JetBrains), but I’m glad I decided to give it a watch now.

Open

Matt shared a Cool Link

Fantastic talk from a UX designer about why desktop UX seems stagnated and what can be done to move it forward. The prototypes he presents around the 30-minute mark are amazing and make me really excited to try something similar in the future.

He does bring up a fair point, though: no innovation is gonna come from Windows or Mac.

Open

Matt shared a Cool Link

With these seismic changes, I will continue to make the argument that craft defined as caring about the quality of output (independent of the tools used to generate the output) is more important than ever. Caring about what you ship will always have real-world value to ~~visitors/consumers/users~~ real people.

Open

Matt shared a Cool Link

Mostly, it seems, we yell. We yell about the world, we yell about the other social sites, we yell about news stories we didn’t read, we yell about whatever sucker was unlucky enough to be that day’s main character, and we yell, mostly, at each other. We yell because we are mad at all of this. And we yell because we’re all trapped in a machine that was built, in part, to keep us yelling.

It’s rare to find someone who doesn’t feel like this. Maybe we don’t find them because they don’t frequent the same digital places we do. Maybe that’s the secret.

Open

Matt posted a Quick Review

Splatoon Raiders

2026, Nintendo

Reviewed on Sep 24, 2026

Didn't like it

Decent

I like it

Loved it!

This is an absolute masterpiece. From the very beginning of the game it bombards you with style and personality, and the moment you take control of your character is the moment you fall in love with it. It is satisfying, rewarding, challenging and absolutely chaotic, but it does such an incredible job at introducing its mechanics incrementally that you never feel overwhelmed at all, even if all the things happening on the screen are quite absurd.

It’s a rare game that makes me wish there were more of it, not less. It doesn’t overstay its welcome but provides enough joy to make me want to keep playing it for much longer.

Game

Matt shared a Cool Link

Neat little project that offers 10k pixels in a grid in which people can add their websites to. All of them seem to be personal, indie websites, so it’s a nice way to find something cool! Mine’s in there, somewhere ;) p

Open

Matt posted a Quick Review

Pokopia

2026, Game Freak & Omega Force

Reviewed on Sep 18, 2026

Didn't like it

Decent

I like it

Loved it!

Incredibly cute, well made and with plenty of stuff to do! The story is also surprisingly nice. It can get pretty overwhelming at times with how much there is to do, but it’s the ultimate cute environment sandbox and made better by the sheer amount of Pokémon in there, with their own personalities and preferences.

Game

Matt posted a Quick Review

The Drama

2026, Kristoffer Borgli

Reviewed on Sep 16, 2026

Didn't like it

Decent

I like it

Loved it!

This starts like a generic romcom but soon evolves into something really fun! It’s so well put together, weaving real issues with comedy and great acting by Pattinson especially. I had a great time!

Movie

Matt posted a Quick Review

Capernaum

2018, Nadine Labaki

Reviewed on Sep 16, 2026

Didn't like it

Decent

I like it

Loved it!

Pretty good and emotional movie, with amazing performances too. I really need to say that the baby is an incredible actor, seriously. I have no idea how they made the baby act, but they did.

Movie

Matt posted a Photo

Ghost of Vezio Castle

Taken on 2026-09-13

One of many sculptures that adorn the Vezio Castle in Varenna. Legend says they represent the soul of Theodelinda, the Queen of Lombards in the 7th century, who initially ordered the castle to be built and whose soul is said to wander its halls on moonless nights.

Matt shared a Cool Link

This is a nicely crafted website in which you can play a different trio of nonograms every day! I had no idea what nonograms are before, but once I took a few minutes to learn, it became very fun and one of the best parts of my morning ritual. They’re most similar to minesweeper, I guess, but with the numbers on the columns and rows instead of on the squares themselves.

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Cool Link: The Future is an Empty Room

About Cool Links

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