About
Futility Closet is written and run by Greg Ross, who spent 25 years as an editor and writer in science, engineering, and education publishing — stints included IEEE, UNext.com, the National Educational Service, and American Scientist magazine. He started the site in January 2005, by his own account "as an excuse to learn new things," and has kept it going since as a retirement pastime rather than a business.
There's no advertising on the site, and no guest posts — Ross writes every entry himself, though he welcomes reader-submitted ideas, especially ones that come with supporting documentation. For six years, from 2014 to 2021, the site also ran a companion podcast; its 365 episodes are still archived and listenable.
What this redesign is
This is a small student prototype for a university course, not an official Futility Closet product. It takes real pieces from the archive — puzzles, word curiosities, historical anecdotes, and more — and rebuilds the site around finding things on purpose instead of scrolling or clicking "Random Post." Everything here is rewritten from the originals, not copied, and every piece links back to where it really came from.