Conversations about technology, culture, and the future.
Building Things
Coding, side projects, product development, tools, and hacking
- Regulation and the peer economy: a 2.0 frameworkDec 17, 2014
As part of my series on Regulation 2.0, which I’m putting together for the Project on Municipal Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School, today I am going to employ a bit of a cop-out tactic and rather than publish my next section (which I haven’t finished yet, largely because my whole family has th...
- Anti-workflow appsDec 9, 2014
“Workflow” apps hold so much promise. Whether it’s a CRM, project management tool, to-do list, or some other tool, the promise in each case is to clean up our messy lives and help us be more organized and effective. The problem, though, is that getting people to adopt a workflow is really really ha...
- Finding Flow: writing vs. codingDec 8, 2014
When I first started to learn programming, about 15 years ago, I remember being surprised at how easy it was for me to get focused and stay focused. I loved (and still love) the feeling of getting lost in a project, and could easily spend hours upon hours “in the zone”. No procrastination, no resis...
- The Professional AmateurNov 24, 2014
One way I have described myself is as a “professional amateur”. I am both deeply proud and deeply ashamed of that. Let me explain. For basically my whole career, I’ve been learning new fields and professions from the outside-in. While I have an undergrad degree in Urban Studies, which ostensibly ...
- Half, not half-assedNov 22, 2014
My favorite book on product development and startups is Getting Real, published in 2006 by the folks at 37signals (now Basecamp). If you haven’t read it (it’s freely available online), it’s essentially a precursor to The Lean Startup (2011). Back when I was leading a team and running product and Op...
- I agree with Ted Cruz: let’s supercharge the Internet marketplaceNov 13, 2014
There has been a lot of debate about how to protect Internet Freedom. Today, Senator Ted Cruz has an op-ed in the Washington Post on the subject, which starts out with an eloquent and spot-on assessment of what we are trying to protect: Never before has it been so easy to take an idea and… Continue ...
- DisgustingSep 29, 2014
I got this in the mail: It’s an ad for an extended warranty, disguised as an urgent extension of existing coverage. This makes we want to throw up. A business blatantly based on tricking people. “Immediate response to this notice required…. Our records indicate that you have not contacted us to hav...