Writing.
Essays since 2006, plus a few things first published at USV. Occasional by design. The podcast lives on its own page.
- Leading vs. following
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...
- What decentralization is good for (part 2): Platform Risk
Continuing on the theme of what decentralization is good for, this week I would like to focus on one of the most powerful drivers in the near-term: Platform Risk. Platform Risk is is the risk that the tech platform that you build your product/app/business/life on will become a critical dependency, w...
- Unlocking a new skill
Over the long weekend, I spent a bunch of time with my kids doing outdoor cold weather activities. I love the winter, and I love winter sports — there is something about being outside on a cold, sunny day that gets my blood moving and makes me feel great. Those who have read this blog… Continue read...
- Blockstack Hong Kong: From Agile to Immutable
I gave this talk at the Blockstack Decentralizing the World Tour in Hong Kong earlier this month: Continue reading
- What decentralization is good for (part 1): Resilience
Recently, Simon Morris, a long-time BitTorrent exec, wrote a provocative series of posts on the nature of decentralization, in the wake of BitTorrent Inc’s acquisition by TRON. They are relatively short and a good read: Why BitTorrent Mattered — Bittorrent Lessons for Crypto If you’re not Breaking ...
- The Octopus Card
I am in Hong Kong this week for Blockstack‘s Decentralizing the World Tour (more on that in a forthcoming post). I arrived yesterday and have been exploring the city a bit. The first observation is how awful the air quality is. Holy cow. This report from Plume Labs (snapshot from the time when I...
- Managing digital addiction
USV’s book club book for this month is Drug Dealer, MD, by Dr. Anna Lembke, Director of Addiction Medicine at Stanford Hospital – so we have spent a bunch of time recently talking about addiction. It is not a stretch to hypothesize that we, as a society, are at a moment of heightened addiction, gene...
- Paying down debt (financial, technical, and otherwise)
Debt is a complicated subject. On the one hand, it is empowering — it lets you get a quick start on something, and lets you do things that would not be possible otherwise. There are times when it is useful, necessary, and unavoidable. I think about “debt” in the broadest possible terms: times when...
- Google Pixel Slate: first impressions
For the past week or so, I have been experimenting with the Pixel Slate, Google’s new hybrid tablet/laptop. Here is me typing this blog post right now, on the train to NYC. For a longer, more technical analysis, this review from The Verge is good. The Pixel Slate is an odd machine, and I am still…...
- A Visual Guide to the Howey Test
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and I am not your lawyer. I have been in an uncountable number of conversations over the past few years discussing the question of what defines a “security” in the context of cryptocurrencies, cryptonetworks, and token offerings. Here is my current understanding, in...
- Crypto fundamentals
Our good friend Chris Burniske was on Squawk Box this morning. I got up and watched it. You can see the video here. Of course there is interest in the crypto market right now, as it is falling hard. I suspect there are many out there who are enjoying the drop, waiting for the bubble… Continue readi...
- Getting hands-on
One of my favorite things to do is get my hands into something and figure out how it works, whether that’s an app, or a gadget, or a house. For example, over the past few months I have been renovating our basement, turning an unfinished, dank storage area into a playroom for the kids. Here… Continu...
- The dangers of unstoppable code
With real-time, interconnected, self-executing systems, sometimes when things wrong, they go really wrong. I wrote about this general idea previously here. Yesterday, while I was writing my post on Trusted Brands, I was doing a little searching through my blog archives, so as to link back to all th...
- Trusted Brands
Today is election day. I’m on a plane today, so I voted early, a few days ago. I cast my vote and it felt good. I marked my paper ballot with a marker (for optical scanning) glued it shut into a sealed envelope, and handed it to a volunteer who placed it in a secure… Continue reading
- Suffering, self, and service
The massacre in Pittsburgh is heartbreaking and awful, and another example of the extent to which society seems to be fraying. The Pittsburgh attacker spent a lot of time on social media sites that stoked his fear, isolation and anger. I think about the internet a lot, and while the internet has th...
- Building a meditation routine
I wrote recently about the challenge of turning plans into routines. One of the activities that is the most impactful for me is meditation. I cannot say that I have a perfect meditation routine, but I can absolutely say that when I do do it, it makes me feel great, immediately. There are a bunch… ...
- Trauma
Just about two years ago, my wife’s parents were hit by a truck while crossing the street. The past two years have been both difficult and wonderful. Wonderful in that two people who were on the brink of death following the accident are still with us (her mother in particular has had a miraculous i...
- Plans vs. routines
Sunday night over dinner, my son, parents and I were discussing the saving / investing system we set up for our kids in the spring. The idea was/is: set a monthly budget for purchases (in their case, mostly online movies, tv shows and games), and include a really healthy interest rate (20% monthly) ...
- The adjacent possible
Dani and I have been spending a bunch of time recently thinking about the relationship between applications and infrastructure. It’s a little bit of a chicken and egg situation. You need infrastructure to build apps, but often times you don’t really know what kind of infrastructure is needed until...
- The Myth of The Infrastructure Phase
Dani and I wrote this post together. Continue reading