The only way I've managed to catch my own typos
Anyone who has ever edited me will tell you I have a few...quirks. My worst habit is leaving unfinished sentences it the end of my ...paragraphs. Like that....
Mark Zuckerberg Is A Digital Narcotics Dealer
In a recent newsletter I referred to Mark Zuckerberg as a digital narcotics dealer, which readers seemed to enjoy. I briefly wondered if I was overstating...
Did Twitter's design inevitably led us to Brexit and Trump?
Last week we talked about how mediums—like film and novels—have their own built-in rules, and how those rules necessarily shape the way you can tell stories...
The Tom Bombadil theory of media literacy
One of the most profound lessons you can learn about media literacy is that it isn’t enough to talk about the content—you need to talk about the medium....
YouTube and the end of "internet culture"
Last week YouTube officially announced that the trending page is going away, to be replaced with separate trending pages just for music, podcasts, and movie...
Do it anyway.
I hate running. I used to believe that, over time, this would change. I thought that I would grow to love running out of sheer repetition. This has not...
How to bring democracy to America
Imagine that you, as a philanthropist or activist who wants to help spread democracy across the world, read about a country described as a “flawed...
The hardest thing I do every week (and how I do it)
I write a lot. I’ve finished just shy of 150 articles so far this year between Lifehacker, PopSci, WIRED, and PCMag, an average of 25 articles a month. I...
Tech is making things easier—just not for you
"Technology makes everything more complicated," an elderly relative said to me. It's hard to argue with. In this specific situation she had paid to reserve a...
Mark Zuckerberg sees loneliness as a market opportunity
The internet used to be exciting—its potential to make the world better seemed endless. In the early 2010s it felt inevitable that innovation would make us...
You can use your laptop as a desktop computer
The more you learn about a subject the less capable you are of understanding what the average person knows about it. In journalism this can result in...
We buy too much crap anyway
If you want to understand America, spend some time in thrift stores. These are monuments to our collective excess—a museum of the things we’ve collected and...
Practice is the point.
Writing isn’t just my job—it’s how I think. When I’m not sure what I feel about something I start typing. I put down ideas, contemplate whether I agree with...
Extrinsic motivation is ruining everything
Our culture is out of balance in all kinds of ways. One breakdown I don’t think is talked about enough: extrinsic motivation has completely overtaken...
How to Tell If Jeffery Goldberg, Editor of The Atlantic, Is In Your Signal Group Chat
Signal is a secure communications app somewhat infamous for responding to FBI subpoenas for data by saying they don’t have it. The nonprofit that runs Signal...
Is constantly insulting your core customer base a good marketing strategy?
Imagine a Budweiser Super Bowl ad where the Clydesdales can talk and they spend the entire two minute ad discussing how much they despise country music,...
Read local news instead of doomscrolling
How does one exist online, right now, without being a constant mess of anxiety? It’s what I’ve been working on lately. I’ve told you about rejecting anxiety...
Canada: It's time to boycott American social media
The dumbest trade war in world history is underway and Canadians are responding to the idiocy by changing their spending habits. American liquors have been...
Don't get your news from social media
This is the second article in a series about how to function as a human person online in this clusterfuck of an era. You can read part one, about rejecting...
Think before you click.
The past month has been the longest year of my life. I’m sure I’m not alone on this. It is impossible to ignore the onslaught of bad news, which I’m not...