They don't respect you.
You’re a person—I hope this is obvious to you. It’s not obvious to tech companies. Tech companies see you as a number. I used to work inside one that was...
The internet doesn't have to be like this
Living online can feel...numbing. Bo Burnham perhaps captured that best with That Funny Feeling, a song made up of various unrelated phrases that simulate...
Small ways to feel like yourself
I've been freelancing as a journalist full time for two and a half years now, which feels great. I am occasionally exhausted, and sometimes miss the...
You're doing great.
I've been exhausted lately, wondering why I'm not getting more done. Then I reviewed my invoices for the year. It turns out I've written almost as much this...
A few links and such
Hi! I hope you've been enjoying the summer. I have, which is why I haven't put out a newsletter lately, but I have been doing some writing. Here's a few...
Tech is cool; business is boring.
I love technology. I've spent most of my career writing about it and I don't want to do anything else. But there's a negative tone that runs through my...
Watch me attend three meetings at once
You can be forgiven if you have the impression that I hate AI. I do have profound concerns with the ways the technology is being rolled out, sure, but I'm...
Garbage in garbage out
Google put a box of AI-generated text at the top of their search results. If you don't know what that means, I'm talking about the slow-loading colorful text...
"Number go up" isn't everything (why "3 body problem" is bad)
I have no idea how many people read my articles. I love it. This hasn't always been true. When I worked at a culty tech company, I was forced to obsess over...
I refuse to apologize
Hello! This is the space where I traditionally apologize for not writing a newsletter lately. I could hypothetically mention that travelled recently, and...
The life changing magic of shutting up
Here’s a secret the people who run social media networks don’t want you to know—the one thing you can do to mess up their entire plan. You can, if you want...
Hi. I've been writing.
Hello! It's good to see you again. I've been busy. I started writing at Lifehacker around a month ago and am having a lot of fun with it. I thought I'd...
use technology to do things
It feels a little ridiculous to say my writing has a core theme. I'm just a guy who writes technology tutorials—step-by-step guides to doing specific things....
Are the tech bros, like...okay?
I was scrolling through Product Hunt the other day because I was in a good mood. I've been satisfied with my life lately, which means I'm not writing...
Build community outside of work
A couple of months ago I decided to quiet quit the social network, meaning I don't scroll the site anymore and only post links to my own work. I thought I...
An AI bro tried to recruit me and I did not react well
I am somewhat of a hot commodity in the world of content marketing in spite of my best efforts. Which means startup CEOs occasionally email me asking if I’ll...
I'm quiet quitting Twitter.
Three weeks ago I, for no particular reason, decided to re-examine my relationship with Twitter. I decided that I'm done(ish). I uninstalled the app from my...
Drifting into monoculture
directives:[] I'm reviewing cloud backup and services for work and am feeling the same way I do every time I do a bunch of reviews of software in the same...
When the grass actually is greener on the other side
The grass is always greener on the other side. It's a simple saying that's supposed to teach a simple lesson—namely, that you are always going to want what...
Never apologize for being offline.
The average human lifespan in the United States is 77, according the CDC. That works out to 4015 weeks, which is obviously wrong, or 28,105 days, which is...