Algorithms Take Control of Wall Street “The kind of trading strategies our system uses are not the kind of strategies that humans use,” Kharitonov continues. “We’re not competing with humans, because when you’re trading thousands of stocks simultaneously, trying to capture very, very small changes, the human brain is just not good at that. We’re […]
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Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die.
Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die. Fast-forward to now: Boba Fett’s helmet emblazoned on sleeveless T-shirts worn by gym douches hefting dumbbells. The Glee kids performing the songs from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And Toad the Wet Sprocket, a band that took its name from a Monty Python riff, joining the permanent soundtrack […]
Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code Mohan Srivastava had been hooked by a different sort of lure—that spooky voice, whispering to him about a flaw in the game. At first, he tried to brush it aside. “Like everyone else, I assumed that the lottery was unbreakable,” he says. “There’s no way there could be a flaw, […]
Longreads Best of 2012: Wired's Mat Honan
Mat Honan is a senior writer for Wired’s Gadget Lab. Best story about a monkey that’s really about the role of government that’s really about nature’s place in the modern world that’s actually, maybe, really just about a monkey. “What’s a Monkey to Do in Tampa?” (Jon Mooallem, New York Times Magazine) This is the […]
Longreads Best of 2012: Esquire's Chris Jones
Chris Jones is a writer for Esquire and ESPN and the winner of two National Magazine Awards. Favorite new writer discovery of 2012 I’m always scared of making lists like this, because a year is a long time, and I read a lot, and invariably I’ll forget writers and pieces that I liked very much. […]
Celebrating Four Years of Longreads
Longreads just celebrated its fourth birthday, and it’s been a thrill to watch this community grow since we introduced this service and Twitter hashtag in 2009. Thank you to everyone who participates, whether it’s as a reader, a publisher, a writer—or all three. And thanks to the Longreads Members who have made it possible for us […]
‘Quebrado’: The Life and Death of a Young Activist
“If you survive me, tell them this: I never gave up.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Below, our favorite stories of the week. Kindle and Readmill users, you can also get them as a Readlist. Sign up to receive this list free every Friday in your inbox. *** 1. The Empathy Exams Leslie Jamison | The Believer | February 3, 2014 | 37 minutes (9,369 words) An affecting essay about medical […]
Famous Cases of Journalistic Fraud: A Reading List
Washington Post Investigation of Janet Cooke’s Fabrications Bill Green | Washington Post Ombudsman | April 19, 1981 In 1980, Janet Cooke made up a story about an 8-year-old heroin addict, won the Pulitzer Prize for it, then, two days later, gave it back. Here’s the internal investigation of how the Post leaned on her to […]
Matthew Aldridge: My Top 5 #longreads, 2010
aldridge: My Top 5 #longreads of 2010, featuring a thief, a killer, a fraudster, two musicians, and a film critic: The Art of the Steal Joshuah Bearman, Wired “Blanchard slowly approached the display and removed the already loosened screws, carefully using a butter knife to hold in place the two long rods that would trigger […]

