Conversations about technology, culture, and the future.
Energy
Energy systems, climate tech, and sustainability
- The Slow Hunch Podcast: Episode 4 with Jam CEO Dani GrantNov 23, 2024
A conversation with Jam CEO Dani Grant about her journey from USV analyst to founder, cultivating curiosity, and building tools that make bug-fixing and team collaboration not just efficient but joyful.
- Moving Weaknesses into the Strengths ColumnApr 5, 2024
Instead of just strengthening your weaknesses directly, look for ways to move them into your strengths column by changing how you approach them.
- Bitcoin as BatteryMar 20, 2021
One of my favorite things about crypto is that, every so often, your conception of what it is changes. Bitcoin at first was “weird internet money” and then it was “a protocol” and then it was “digital gold”. Ethereum is “ICOs”, or maybe “DeFi”, or maybe “Web3”, or maybe all three, or maybe something...
- No Wasted FootstepsSep 23, 2020
This summer, we moved into a new house. Moving is a lot of work. As part of moving out of our old house, we got rid of a lot of junk that we had accumulated over the years. We ended up working with the amazing Dave O’Rourke of Spaceback. As Dave and I were loading… Continue reading
- The Friendly Wake-up CallFeb 3, 2020
Last year around this time, I had a major medical scare which shook me pretty hard. The details don’t matter, but the takeaway was that afterwards I felt lucky to have not had a more serious problem, despite a bad situation that was totally avoidable. I dodged a bullet. It was a wake-up call. Last… ...
- Building a culture of successMay 13, 2019
My son played in a baseball tournament this weekend. His team did well, and finished as the runner-up. The team that beat them in the finals played really well, but more importantly, it was obvious that they had a strong culture of success. From the moment they walked on the field, they had a notic...
- Leading vs. followingFeb 25, 2019
Last night I went to see RAIN, a Beatles tribute band, with my friend and neighbor Jeff. If you haven’t been to one, tribute bands/shows are kind of odd: on the one hand, typically technically/musically perfect (the tribute band can play the entire catalog of the original band flawlessly); and on t...
- The utility infielderSep 22, 2018
My favorite baseball player is Brock Holt, and has been since his first season with the Red Sox back in 2013. Here is me last month wearing my Holt jersey that I wear to every game (note the #26 that he started out with, before it was retired for Wade Boggs a few years ago… Continue reading
- Changing seasonsSep 30, 2017
Today is the last day of September, and I’m happy and relieved to see it go. I’ve been holding my breath. September is a violent month. That may seem like a ridiculous thing to say, but I think there’s some truth in it. Something about the end of the summer and the abrupt change to… Continue readi...
- Optimizing for energyAug 28, 2017
In the world of startups and investing and ideas, things are always chaotic and fluid, and as such a key skill is to somehow cut through the noise and find focus. That’s on a micro level, like what do I do for the next five minutes, and on the macro level, like am I (or… Continue reading
- The Light Inside, The Fire InsideMar 18, 2015
Last week, a friend passed away after a relatively brief but intense battle with lung cancer. I didn’t know Paul well, but he was very close with a few of my very close friends, and I had spent enough time with him to understand that he was special: he had a light inside of him. A… Continue readi...
- Social Connections: from Something You Inherit to Something You EarnSep 6, 2013
(I’m writing this on the amtrak to NY as my computer quickly runs out of battery, and I have no charger, so this’ll be short…) Somehow, earlier this week, I came across Zenep Tufekci’s piece from last spring in the Atlantic on Social Media’s Small, Positive Role in Human Relationships. I liked it, ...
- Open DataMay 28, 2013
Open data is a huge driver of innovation. Traveling around NYC is better because the MTA opens up route, schedule and real-time data for people to build apps with. Responding to natural disasters is easier when data is open and interoperable. As we continue to collect more data about ourselves an...
- FlightCar – a Beachhead for Car SharingMar 1, 2013
Despite the extent to which I talk and think about car sharing and other newly possible. web-enabled modes of transportation, the truth is I still don’t use too many of them on a regular basis. Need to work on that. It seems as though I need to travel to SF to get the urge to get around town in new...
- Smoke Detectors, or, it’s not the Backup; it’s the RestoreAug 13, 2012
This week we are out in Cape Cod with Frannie’s family, hanging out at the beach in Truro (where, incidentally, there was a shark attack a few weeks ago). This week, we’re renting a different house than normal — it’s an old run-down house next door to the cottages where Fran’s family has vacationed...
- Smoke Detectors, or, it's not the Backup; it's the RestoreAug 13, 2012
- Jane Jacobs, Inspiration, and the InternetJul 25, 2012
Last night at 3am, our daughter Brieza started crying, Frannie and I woke up, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So I crawled over into my office and started surfing the web. For about two hours, I wandered from thing to thing, and seemed to keep hitting gems, like this classic Paul Graham article ...
- Automating your way out of bad behaviorJul 2, 2012
As I write this, I’m sitting on the platform at the Back Bay Amtrak station in Boston, waiting for the train to New York. At 9am (6 minutes ago), I got a text message prompting me to write a blog post today. It said “Get your blog on! It’s a good thing”. The text message,… Continue reading
- The Perfect Conference FormatOct 14, 2009
I’ve been attending a lot of events lately, and one thing that keeps coming up for me is that the multi-day conference / workshop format is a bit broken. My main beef: by day two (or god forbid, day three) the audience has petered out and whatever energy was there on day one has been… Continue readi...
- Carbon Tax Center RedesignSep 21, 2007
Today, we launched a redesign of the Carbon Tax Center website. The primary goal was to create a more impactful homepage that communicates CTC’s mission quickly and clearly. In doing so, we also reworked the site header (to remove distracting and unncessary graphics), and crispened up the typography...