David Jurca

Founding Principal @Seventh__Hill • Urban designer and public space co-creator. Fascinated by how people and places change.

[Jacob Titus @jacob__titus]

Buy land in this basin.

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

The Hottest Reservation In The Country This Winter Appears To Be At A Place Called The Cleveland Schvitz, Where You Sweat In A Sauna, Take A Cold Plunge, Get A Massage, Then Eat Giant T-Bone Steaks That All Looks Incredible https://t.co/WWaihel6j3

[Adam Grant @AdamMGrant]

People who post incessantly about politics don’t represent the population. They represent the least intelligent, least caring subset.

Data: The 2 robust predictors of online political activity are low cognitive ability and high psychopathy.

Don't mistake outliers for the norm.

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

Mosul restored, new MS therapy, ozone hole shrinking, child mortality still declining, new antibiotics, fewer girls aborted, renewable energy exceeds coal, deforestation in decline, fridgeless vaccines, and more: 52 good news stories from 2025.

https://t.co/KX4iHoIyXP

[Adam Grant @AdamMGrant]

Bingeing TikTok reels may be hazardous to your well-being.

71 studies, >98k people: The more short-form videos teens and adults watched, the more they struggled with attention, self-control, and stress and anxiety.

Read a book. Watch a movie. Long live longform.

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

New newsletter: THE MONKS IN THE CASINO

In the last few decades, the pro-social life script for many young people—date, marry, buy a house, have a kid—has become more expensive.

Meanwhile, the anti-social life script—e.g., posting, porn, parlays—has become easier, cheaper, frictionless.

This has created an unusual inversion of risk. Today's young people—and young men, in particular—have become more risk averse in the physical world and more risk-seeking in the digital world. They date less, and gamble more. They find intimacy scary and betting exciting. They furnish their rooms like high-tech monasteries and gravitate toward media that works like a slot machine.

I don't think young men suffer from a "loneliness crisis." I think the problem is bigger and stranger than that. They are choosing to be alone, because economics and technology have made aloneness feel easy and togetherness feels anxious. The result: A generation of monks in a casino.

https://t.co/hcG8fnpQkC

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

Data centers and AI are gobbling up electricity, but the share differs significantly by state.

Between 2010 and 2025, data centers went from less than 5% to roughly 40% of Virginia's electricity consumption. Sweet jesus.

[Jonathan Haidt @JonHaidt]

Neil Postman showed how TV trained us to expect entertainment everywhere.

Freya India shows how social media trained young people to turn their own lives into slop for everyone else's entertainment.

One of her best. Subscribe to https://t.co/jM1YTSTVnV

https://t.co/SgqYr79XB4

[David Jurca @davidjurca]

I’ve been thinking about how humans will spend time once AI and robots take on most of our work. My prediction: embodied, communal practices like playing instruments and singing in choirs will grow.

Studies already show group music reduces loneliness and improves well-being. During the pandemic, instrument sales spiked as people sought meaningful, skill-based hobbies. As technology automates output, humans may turn toward activities where value lies in presence, synchronicity, and shared creation—experiences that are intrinsically rewarding, not transactional.

The future of leisure may be less about efficiency, more about harmony.

[David Jurca @davidjurca]

@chrisronayne @WNBA @Flash_Garrett 🔥 🔥 🔥

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

In the last few years we've seen:

- The plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer
- The Storming of the Capitol and pipe bombs left at the RNC and DNC
- The break-in to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and the brutal on Paul Pelosi
- Multiple assassination attempts against Trump
- The assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the shooting of on State Senator John Hoffman and his wife
- Luigi Mangione's assassination of Brian Thompson
- The assassination of Charlie Kirk

Political violence is contagious. It is spreading. It is not confined to one side or belief system. It should terrify us all.

The foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in it without fear of violence. Political violence is always an attack against us all. You have to be so blind not to see that.

[David Jurca @davidjurca]

“In many studies, teens who don’t use social media at all are the least likely to be depressed.”

https://t.co/IjfySlnvVE via @NYTimes

[David Jurca @davidjurca]

This past Wednesday, we lost Tim Donovan — first Executive Director of Canalway Partners, visionary champion of the Towpath Trail, and a relentless believer in the power of big ideas made real. Tim was 74.

As Chair of Canalway, I was deeply inspired by his rare combination of captivating storytelling and the grinding determination needed to literally shape the land beneath our feet. Everyone has ideas — but few have the ability, patience, and grit to transform those ideas into places people can walk, ride, and connect. Tim did that.

I will remember him as a unique individual who lived in two worlds at once: the realm of imagination, where dreams inspire and history takes shape, and the realm of earth and stone, where those dreams are built. His legacy is written into the miles of the Towpath Trail and the experiences it creates every day.

Tim’s memory will always travel with us. His legacy will endure for generations, and the story will continue to be written on the stage he helped build.

"Find a path or make one." -Seneca

[Alvaro Cintas @dr_cintas]

OpenAI has released a comprehensive prompting guide for GPT-5.

It emphasizes agentic task performance, coding optimization, and surgical instruction-following.

Here’s a breakdown and prompts for mimic writing, coding and agentic behavior:

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

I had access to GPT-5. I think it is a very big deal as it is very smart & just does stuff for you

Full write up in comments, but this is “make a procedural brutalist building creator where i can drag and edit buildings in cool ways" & "make it better" a bunch. I touched no code

[David Jurca @davidjurca]

.rehcsE .C.M fo ecalp ni em gniward “erehpS gnitcelfeR htiW dnaH” s’rehcsE.C.M etaercer ot IA desu I

[David Jurca @davidjurca]

We soft launched North Coast Yard with serious vibes Friday night.

[David Jurca @davidjurca]

Cleveland 1930s in color, Downtown [60fps, Remastered] video w/sound design added by NASS

https://t.co/x6XIaDR49Z

[North Coast Yard @NorthCoastYard]

We are hiring! Join the North Coast Yard Team this summer.

NCWDC is seeking to hire a seasonal, part-time Site Host and Event Coordinator for the North Coast Yard. Learn more about the job >> https://t.co/vDM2Z3fgc9

[Justin M. Bibb @JustinMBibb]

Trees beautify our communities, clean our air, & provide shade from the summer sun. This Arbor Day, I want to recognize the Cleveland Tree Coalition, which we revived because when trees thrive, so do people. Read more about its accomplishments here. ➡️https://t.co/G2yDJSKFgB