Venkatesh Rao
Writer of the Contraptions newsletter; founder of the now-retired Ribbonfarm blog.
At a glance
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- Venkatesh Rao writes Contraptions, a weekly newsletter that treats the world as a contraption of contraptions.
- The newsletter began in 2015 as Breaking Smart, was the Ribbonfarm Studio newsletter from 2019 to 2024, and took its current name in October 2024.
- It grew out of Rao's Ribbonfarm WordPress blog, now retired and archived.
- From 5 September 2026 the newsletter is, in Rao's words, fully AI-native.
Key facts
- Contraptions
- Weekly newsletter under this name from October 20241
- Earlier names
- Breaking Smart newsletter from 2015 to 2019; Ribbonfarm Studio newsletter from 2019 to 20241
- Ribbonfarm
- WordPress blog, now retired and archived1
- AI use
- Experimented with labelled AI-assisted essays from early 2025; from 5 September 2026 AI is used throughout, without per-post labels1
Links
Sources
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