Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A Robot By Any Other Name
What the research on artificial intelligence tells us about why and how we humanize the devices in our lives.
The 9 stages of special needs parenting
Today I went through my monthly ritual of looking for even more Facebook parent groups to join, in the hope that somewhere is the group of people who will understand our exact set of challenges -- or better yet, have the right set of solutions. It suddenly struck me:...
The Final Four-Year-Old
The NCAA’s Final Four may determine who rules the court, but the Final Four-Year-Old determines who rules the playground. Here’s my bracket for the 2016 Sparkle Tots championship.
Facebook Reactions: Campaign Edition
The advent of Facebook Reactions has brought forth a remarkable range of suggestions for alternative icons; the endless presidential campaign has produced an ever-growing range of tribute memes. But if we're going to have the reactions we need to survive this campaign...
9 kid-friendly meals for children outside of NYC
The New York Times has posted a roundup of 14 kid-friendly meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less….if you have the kind of kid who likes food seasoned with anchovies, cumin or ginger. If, on the other hand, you are raising a child who does not ask to...
Dystopian fiction: What to read when you want to worry
My latest post for JSTOR Daily looks at the value of dystopian fiction to those of us trying to navigate a complicated digital world and an even more confusing future. The post mentions many of my favorite dystopian reads, so I thought I would offer a handy list of...
Why Small Businesses Are Getting LinkedIn Wrong
This piece for The Wall Street Journal’s Report on Small Business looks at the most common mistakes small businesses make on LinkedIn, and how they can do better.
Wanted: A quantified child app for helping special needs kids
When you've got a special needs kid, you're often trying successive strategies or interventions to help your kid develop new emotional, cognitive or behavioral skills. But if you're also on the roller coaster of living with a challenging kid, it can be really hard to...
How to lock your kids out of every device
I wrote my Ph.D. thesis on hacktivism: politically-motivated computer hacking. Interviewing fifty politically engaged computer hackers turned out to be great preparation for running a business that built nonprofit online communities, because I really know how to speak...
How to balance evening work with family life: the 2×2
Blame it on after-hours email, but it seems like the extended workday is here to stay. If your household is anything like ours, you often have work to do in the evening...and if you're a parent, that means that work often intrudes on family time. To help with the...
The Harvard Business Review
A Robot By Any Other Name
What the research on artificial intelligence tells us about why and how we humanize the devices in our lives.
The 9 stages of special needs parenting
Today I went through my monthly ritual of looking for even more Facebook parent groups to join, in the hope that somewhere is the group of people who will understand our exact set of challenges -- or better yet, have the right set of solutions. It suddenly struck me:...
The Final Four-Year-Old
The NCAA’s Final Four may determine who rules the court, but the Final Four-Year-Old determines who rules the playground. Here’s my bracket for the 2016 Sparkle Tots championship.
Facebook Reactions: Campaign Edition
The advent of Facebook Reactions has brought forth a remarkable range of suggestions for alternative icons; the endless presidential campaign has produced an ever-growing range of tribute memes. But if we're going to have the reactions we need to survive this campaign...
9 kid-friendly meals for children outside of NYC
The New York Times has posted a roundup of 14 kid-friendly meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less….if you have the kind of kid who likes food seasoned with anchovies, cumin or ginger. If, on the other hand, you are raising a child who does not ask to...
Dystopian fiction: What to read when you want to worry
My latest post for JSTOR Daily looks at the value of dystopian fiction to those of us trying to navigate a complicated digital world and an even more confusing future. The post mentions many of my favorite dystopian reads, so I thought I would offer a handy list of...
Why Small Businesses Are Getting LinkedIn Wrong
This piece for The Wall Street Journal’s Report on Small Business looks at the most common mistakes small businesses make on LinkedIn, and how they can do better.
Wanted: A quantified child app for helping special needs kids
When you've got a special needs kid, you're often trying successive strategies or interventions to help your kid develop new emotional, cognitive or behavioral skills. But if you're also on the roller coaster of living with a challenging kid, it can be really hard to...
How to lock your kids out of every device
I wrote my Ph.D. thesis on hacktivism: politically-motivated computer hacking. Interviewing fifty politically engaged computer hackers turned out to be great preparation for running a business that built nonprofit online communities, because I really know how to speak...
How to balance evening work with family life: the 2×2
Blame it on after-hours email, but it seems like the extended workday is here to stay. If your household is anything like ours, you often have work to do in the evening...and if you're a parent, that means that work often intrudes on family time. To help with the...
OneZero
What The World’s Most Influential CMOs taught me about remote work
Every year, my experience of remote work changes dramatically from winter to spring. In the fall and winter, I lead a relatively independent existence as a freelance tech writer and researcher. That pace changes when it comes time to rejoin the team at Sprinklr, where...
Remote Work Isn’t Going Away. So Let’s Deal With the Obstacles.
It’s hard to figure out work-life balance when work and life happen in the same place. It’s hard to stay focused on that client document, that PowerPoint deck or even that expense report when you can see your child getting paint all over the coffee table, hear your...
Today in the WSJ: How to network when you can’t meet up with people
Remember the olden days, when business networking meant lunches and cocktail hours? Covid may have hit the pause button on in-person meetups, but that doesn't mean your networking should pause, too. In today's Wall Street Journal, I share some alternative strategies,...
Today in Elemental: How keto saved my sanity during Covid
I try not to be an evangelist about keto. Really, I do. But my two-year "keto-versary" has hit right as many people are coping not only with all the bread-induced weight gain of Covid, but with the mental health impact of isolation and anxiety. Much to my surprise,...
Today in the WSJ: Collegiality during Covid
How can you support your colleagues during the most challenging work year most of us have ever known? That's what I tackle in today's Wall Street Journal, writing about How to Be a Good Colleague During the Coronavirus Crisis. As I argue in the piece, Even though...
Today in the WSJ: What I’ve learned from two decades of remote work
Let go of the eight-hour workday. That's the single most crucial piece of advice I have for any newly remote worker, after more than two decades of work in which I've been based from home for most of the time. Today in the Wall Street Journal, I share my most vital...
Today in HBR: The productivity app that will change your life
If you have seen me anytime in the past year, you've probably heard me obsess over my new love, Coda. Coda is my new tech and productivity Swiss Army knife: I've used it to replace countless docs and spreadsheets, and I've also used it to build entire websites. Most...
Today in OneZero: What Autism Can Teach Us About Overcoming Digital Burnout
Today in OneZero, Medium's flagship tech publication, I look at what we can all learn from autistic strategies for managing sensory overload. As I write in my story, [B]y increasing the frequency, variety, and intensity of incoming stimuli, the digital world has...
JSTOR DAILY
What The World’s Most Influential CMOs taught me about remote work
Every year, my experience of remote work changes dramatically from winter to spring. In the fall and winter, I lead a relatively independent existence as a freelance tech writer and researcher. That pace changes when it comes time to rejoin the team at Sprinklr, where...
Remote Work Isn’t Going Away. So Let’s Deal With the Obstacles.
It’s hard to figure out work-life balance when work and life happen in the same place. It’s hard to stay focused on that client document, that PowerPoint deck or even that expense report when you can see your child getting paint all over the coffee table, hear your...
Today in the WSJ: How to network when you can’t meet up with people
Remember the olden days, when business networking meant lunches and cocktail hours? Covid may have hit the pause button on in-person meetups, but that doesn't mean your networking should pause, too. In today's Wall Street Journal, I share some alternative strategies,...
Today in Elemental: How keto saved my sanity during Covid
I try not to be an evangelist about keto. Really, I do. But my two-year "keto-versary" has hit right as many people are coping not only with all the bread-induced weight gain of Covid, but with the mental health impact of isolation and anxiety. Much to my surprise,...
Today in the WSJ: Collegiality during Covid
How can you support your colleagues during the most challenging work year most of us have ever known? That's what I tackle in today's Wall Street Journal, writing about How to Be a Good Colleague During the Coronavirus Crisis. As I argue in the piece, Even though...
Today in the WSJ: What I’ve learned from two decades of remote work
Let go of the eight-hour workday. That's the single most crucial piece of advice I have for any newly remote worker, after more than two decades of work in which I've been based from home for most of the time. Today in the Wall Street Journal, I share my most vital...
Today in HBR: The productivity app that will change your life
If you have seen me anytime in the past year, you've probably heard me obsess over my new love, Coda. Coda is my new tech and productivity Swiss Army knife: I've used it to replace countless docs and spreadsheets, and I've also used it to build entire websites. Most...
Today in OneZero: What Autism Can Teach Us About Overcoming Digital Burnout
Today in OneZero, Medium's flagship tech publication, I look at what we can all learn from autistic strategies for managing sensory overload. As I write in my story, [B]y increasing the frequency, variety, and intensity of incoming stimuli, the digital world has...
THE VERGE
The new collegiality
“I have to book a meeting just to get an answer to the simplest question.” “I get so stuck when there’s nobody around to bounce ideas off." “I feel so lonely and isolated when I’m working from home.” So many of our pain points around hybrid work come down to the...
Tune up your remote work skills
Employees who are starting their very first jobs—as remote workers with no direct, on-site supervision. Managers who are leading teams that include people they’ve never met—and need to support remotely. Professionals who have survived the transition from office to...
Inbox overwhelmed? Here’s how I kept mine empty for a year
This week marks my 52nd consecutive week of “Inbox zero”. I’ve been amazed at how regularly getting my inbox to empty has changed not only my relationship to email, but the way I work. In this article, I’ll tell you how I got to zero and how it’s paid off, so you can...
The new hybrid work
The new hybrid work isn’t just about where we work: that is, some combination of home plus office. It’s also about who we are working with: humans, or AIs? Thinking about hybrid work as an intersection of location and collaboration gives us a much better handle on how...