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Created May 22, 2021
My latest writing. Mostly links and sundry, with an occasional deeper analysis.
Published: Nov 11, 2024
The decline of cultural postmodernism explains the rise of global far-right populism better than any pundit.
Published: Aug 30, 2024
A scientific case for being cautiously optimistic about 2024 (and yes, we still need to work hard af)
Published: Mar 27, 2024
A quick hit of late capitalist angst involving Amazon, Larry Fink, and a single-serving cup of Cheerios.
Published: Jan 16, 2024
How to read Elon's threat to take his Tesla vaporware elsewhere.
Published: Jan 03, 2024
By "popular" demand, I have created a way to subscribe to my writing via email. Subscribe if you want!
Published: Dec 31, 2023
Can the environmental movement — and our collective imagination — be rewilded?
Published: Dec 29, 2023
The same absurd Big Promise is driving AI and crypto to the same corrupt ends
Published: Dec 08, 2023
A year+ into the AI boom, what has the tech industry learned about manipulating society with the promise of existential advances?
Published: Mar 02, 2023
Is Artificial General Intelligence the start of a new era of big tech deception?
Published: Feb 16, 2023
Sorry: this is a post about satisfaction, sports, and soccer vs. baseball.
Published: Feb 01, 2023
Are computers really as valuable as we seem to think they are?
Published: Nov 12, 2022
Why I haven't blogged in a bit, plus what an AI thinks the "High Priest of the Intergalactic Church of Vibrations" looks like.
Published: Sep 26, 2022
If you care about open peer review metadata (and, I mean, who doesn't), please consider taking a small action today.
Published: Sep 01, 2022
Jeff Pooley has the goods on the OSTP announcement: it's a great step, but not without significant downside risk for equity in publishing.
Published: Aug 15, 2022
Our little open academic publishing niche needs to talk about the link between underpayment, sustainability, and equity.
Published: Aug 14, 2022
It's not just the Hyperloop. Tesla is also a distraction from the fact that cars are slower, less-efficient trains that you're forced to drive.
Published: Aug 08, 2022
The far-left’s predictable outcry over the Inflation Reduction Act is a form of climate denial.
Published: Jul 28, 2022
Facebook yanks the football away from news publishers one more (last?) time.
Published: Jul 11, 2022
I'm using feedback on my last post to dogfood radical open review. Come play!
Published: Jul 07, 2022
Why traditional startups struggle to disrupt the academic publishing industry.
Published: Jun 02, 2022
More people should know that you can just add shredded root vegetables to most bread recipes.
Published: May 03, 2022
For my disaffected friends: facing this moment requires embracing conflicting paradigms.
Published: Apr 02, 2022
Why is it so hard to name the primary forces driving democratic backsliding?
Published: Mar 14, 2022
So much for the daily blogging habit. Here's a lazy list of things on my mind: accessing money in academia, getting off Google, and the fog of identity and war.
Published: Jan 06, 2022
The birthday present I'm asking for: dig deep into your energy reserves and make some noise for democracy this week and next.
Published: Dec 23, 2021
Will replacing the attention economy with a speculation economy really more fairly distribute power?
Published: Dec 07, 2021
It's weird to write a piece about innovation stagnation and not really mention wealth inequality.
Published: Dec 04, 2021
What would the world be like if Zuck had paid attention to his Facebook comments and read David Graeber?
Published: Nov 05, 2021
Is not having to think about how your sewage gets disposed of worth submitting to the rule of the state?
Published: Sep 28, 2021
The dark, moody undertones of Chris Hayes' piece on internet fame go nicely with the bright, yet restrained optimism of Stasavage and Schneider's application of early democracies to the internet.
Published: Sep 10, 2021
Nothing to see here, just Nature totally slipping into the business of curating preprints.
Published: Sep 08, 2021
The 'solar' in solarpunk is both a literal reference to renewable energy and a metaphor for decentralized, locally controlled, but interconnected resilience.
Published: Sep 05, 2021
Let's talk when the metaverse can directly feed the hungry, house people, or remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Published: Aug 23, 2021
Maybe the people who are trying to understand why conspiracies take root online are themselves part of a giant conspiracy to prop up the online advertising economy. Personally, I think the truth might be weirder and a bit less nihilistic.
Published: Aug 06, 2021
About a month ago we switched to a 4-day, 8 hour per day workweek. Here are some reflections from the first few weeks.
Published: Jul 28, 2021
What if your todo list is part of a distributed, unsupervised task management app that's running your company without anyone realizing it?
Published: Jul 22, 2021
Primal screaming at the new space race. [warning: profanity]
Published: Jul 20, 2021
Is there a meaningful praxis for socialist-leaning tech workers?
Published: Jul 16, 2021
A very Friday response to a very bad Medium marketing tweet.
Published: Jul 14, 2021
A blistering takedown of cryptocurrencies leads to an exceptionally dark thought: what if crypto is a self-perpetuating trauma machine?
Published: Jul 12, 2021
Welp, we're trying the four-day workweek. Here's how, why, and how we'll be gauging success.
Published: Jul 09, 2021
It’s tempting to think of conspiracy theorists as uneducated, unintelligent, insane, or bad-faith actors. But we’re increasingly finding that the inverse is often true.
Published: Jul 08, 2021
Research abstracts have changed a lot since they first appeared two centuries ago. It might be time to re-evaluate them.
Published: Jun 25, 2021
I'm heading on vacation, and won't be posting much here most likely. But here's a parting thought about the need for breaks.
Published: Jun 23, 2021
We need to come to terms with the fact that the information age is basically a giant uncontrolled experiment.
Published: Jun 22, 2021
I didn't have much time to write today, so here's just a quick note on the machine and the experience of voting in my first ranked-choice election.
Published: Jun 21, 2021
My mayoral rankings were both quite easy — there are two clear top choices — and very hard between those two. Thanks to ranked choice voting, though, I can give both a shot to win.
Published: Jun 17, 2021
I took a debate judge approach to figuring out who to vote for, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.
Published: Jun 15, 2021
I've been trying to write every day, but today I failed. Sort of. Here's why, maybe?
Published: Jun 14, 2021
At first, I thought Imperfect Foods was a perfect fit for my lifestyle, wallet, and morals. Then I remembered they're a VC-funded startup.
Published: Jun 11, 2021
I just judged an NYC middle school debate tournament and...wow. The kids really are alright.
Published: Jun 10, 2021
Deep history offers a tantalizing mission for technologists brave enough to adopt it: rebuild the egalitarian, cooperative communities that were our species' norm until very recently.
Published: Jun 09, 2021
Ok, here's a much simpler take on the 'Great Online Game': it's all just advanced tax avoidance.
Published: Jun 08, 2021
I think I finally understand crypto (and a few other things), and it's not...great.
Published: Jun 07, 2021
My letter to @SenSchumer today. Send one to your Senator now.
Published: Jun 04, 2021
The problems with research and publishing can't be solved if the business model doesn't change. It's unfortunate to see lots of otherwise good work ignore this fundamental issue.
Published: Jun 03, 2021
Did science communicators learn nothing from the CDC's early mask mess-up? By refusing to even acknowledge good-faith questions about the virus's origin, we risk repeating the mistake and driving skeptics further to the fringes.
Published: Jun 02, 2021
New-York's forgotten hyphen obscures a shameful legacy and serves as a timely reminder of the power of erasure.
Published: Jun 01, 2021
Important bread vs. beer update! It might matter quite a bit if alcohol came first. Seriously.
Published: May 29, 2021
America's cult of individualism is being put to the test in the fight for digital rights.
Published: May 28, 2021
I would rather live in the present than give myself a second job hunting for better returns. But if you do get crazy rich on crypto, please consider inviting me to your yacht parties. You can make fun of me for this post.
Published: May 27, 2021
Everything is fine.
Published: May 25, 2021
The problem with impact algorithms isn't that they exist, but that when they dominate, they coerce others into conforming to shapes designed to satisfy profit-driven needs rather than the community's needs.
