Money Proud in The New York Times!
Also: FSA tips, default bias, and some reportage on gooning
Happy last Sunday of 2025. For my northern hemisphere readers, the days are getting longer now—rejoice! You'd think I'd have the hang of this 5pm nighttime thing after four decades, but nope, I still bitch about it every year. 😂
On the upside, when I go to my local deli for a happy hour sandwich and NA beer, I can now brood in darkness.
Tuesday is pub day for MONEY PROUD (!!!), so I've been running around like a madman. As such, no essay this week.
First-week sales numbers are often important because they include all of the pre-orders. (switches to coach-dad voice) And we wanna put up some numbers! So if you haven't bought your copy yet, do so today!
Buy MONEY PROUD on Amazon
Buy MONEY PROUD on Bookshop
But MONEY PROUD on Barnes & Noble
(Wanna help spread the word? You da best: Hype assets are here.)
In today's email:
- Money Proud in NYT
- Hot links
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—Nick
Money Proud in The New York Times!
Usually, "we're considering!" is about as much intel you and your book pitching team get from a media outlet. NYT was more of the same.
So it was nice to wake up yesterday to this writeup in The New York Times—a gift link is here. Even got me to post something on LinkedIn.
Hot links
Disclosure: I work at Ziff Davis, the parent company of CNET, Mashable, PCMag, Lifehacker, and ZDNET, and equalpride, the parent company of Out magazine and The Advocate.
**Time is tight right now, lighter on curation this week. Thanks for the grace!**
Money
How to Easily Find FSA Eligible Items on Amazon. (Meredith Dietz, Lifehacker)
- Flexible Spending Account (FSA) funds expire at the end of the year, don't forget to use 'em up!
Skip a New Year’s Resolution and Make Jan. 2 ‘Defaults Day’ Instead. (Ray Fisman and Michael Luca, Bloomberg) (7-day friend link)
- Nice piece from two behavioral economists on the idea of default bias and how it affects our money.
AI and future tech
The Class Where ‘Screenagers’ Train to Navigate Social Media and A.I. (Tiffany Hsu, The New York Times) (gift link)
- Reporting about California high school classrooms in which teachers are incorporating skills to help teenagers identify deepfakes, rage bait, and conspiracy theories.
LGBTQ
Lushious Massacr investigates a Best Buy on Black Friday weekend. (YouTube)
- If you need a pulse check on where queer culture is at in 2025, this one sums it up nicely.
Social media and pop culture
The Goon Squad: Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation. (Daniel Kolitz, Harper's Magazine)
- One of the best technology articles of the year imo. Outstanding literary journalism heightened by the horrifying realization that technocapitalism is perhaps rewiring our relationship to human sexuality altogether.
- Harper's also did a separate interview with the writer about the piece.