Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Please help me launch my new Harvard Business ebook, Work Smarter with Evernote
On December 18th, Harvard Business Review Press will release my first ebook: Work Smarter with Evernote. This short guide shows how Evernote can help you become more focused and effective on the job—and get ahead in your career. I'd like to ask for your help: please...
How to talk about tragedy online
Time out, people. In the past 24 hours we have been have been inspired, informed, comforted and mobilized by the unfolding conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. But it's clear that we have also had moments of feeling attached, horrified, angered and shamed....
The trouble with resilience
Today's shooting is one of those moments when time, and our hearts, break. How can we go on? How will life ever feel the same? What should shock us is not only the moment of tragedy, but how quickly tragedy fades. I remember with icy-hot clarity the morning of 9/11,...
Using the Internet to find empathy in solitude
Twitter is outsourced schizophrenia. I have a couple hundred voices I have consensually agreed to allow residence inside my brain. So writes Adam Brault in a very thoughtful blog post, I quit Twitter for a month and it completely changed my thinking about mostly...
ShopStyle: Diary of an online shopping addiction
Update: If you visit shopstyle.com from outside the U.S, you may be taken to an international site -- which in the case of the Canadian site has far fewer results. To access the U,S. site, visit this URL (and bookmark it). You'll be taken to the. women's clothes...
2×2: Filtering your Facebook friends
How do you decide to view or relate to different friends on Facebook? As with all things in life, this can be described by a 2x2 matrix: Love this person Not so much Entertaining Facebooker Add to my "A1 pals" list, which is the news feed I look at most of the time...
What to tell your kids about dating before the Internet
Hey, old people! By which I mean: hey, people my age! If you've been wondering what dating wisdom you can usefully impart to your teenage or soon-to-be teenage kids, you should read Stephanie Martin's thoughtful post on Dating in the Social Media Age. Stephanie...
Don’t blame the Internet for infidelity
The Petraeus drama reflects the enticements and betrayals of our new, disembodied modes of discourse. The come-ons, the flirtations, the stalking, the alleged harassment: all were abetted by the deceptive cloak of cyberspace, and all were immortalized there. It’s a...
Smartphones have transported us from an offline third place
Public transit used to be a version of what Ray Oldenburg calls a “third place”: a neutral space, neither work nor home, in which conversation and community can unfold. Have smartphones changed that?
6 ways to speed up your social media response times
Speed is essential to developing the right social media campaign, response or update. In my last post, I looked at how the right kind of market research program can support faster and more responsive social media management, inspired by The Quick and the Dead, a new...
The Harvard Business Review
Please help me launch my new Harvard Business ebook, Work Smarter with Evernote
On December 18th, Harvard Business Review Press will release my first ebook: Work Smarter with Evernote. This short guide shows how Evernote can help you become more focused and effective on the job—and get ahead in your career. I'd like to ask for your help: please...
How to talk about tragedy online
Time out, people. In the past 24 hours we have been have been inspired, informed, comforted and mobilized by the unfolding conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. But it's clear that we have also had moments of feeling attached, horrified, angered and shamed....
The trouble with resilience
Today's shooting is one of those moments when time, and our hearts, break. How can we go on? How will life ever feel the same? What should shock us is not only the moment of tragedy, but how quickly tragedy fades. I remember with icy-hot clarity the morning of 9/11,...
Using the Internet to find empathy in solitude
Twitter is outsourced schizophrenia. I have a couple hundred voices I have consensually agreed to allow residence inside my brain. So writes Adam Brault in a very thoughtful blog post, I quit Twitter for a month and it completely changed my thinking about mostly...
ShopStyle: Diary of an online shopping addiction
Update: If you visit shopstyle.com from outside the U.S, you may be taken to an international site -- which in the case of the Canadian site has far fewer results. To access the U,S. site, visit this URL (and bookmark it). You'll be taken to the. women's clothes...
2×2: Filtering your Facebook friends
How do you decide to view or relate to different friends on Facebook? As with all things in life, this can be described by a 2x2 matrix: Love this person Not so much Entertaining Facebooker Add to my "A1 pals" list, which is the news feed I look at most of the time...
What to tell your kids about dating before the Internet
Hey, old people! By which I mean: hey, people my age! If you've been wondering what dating wisdom you can usefully impart to your teenage or soon-to-be teenage kids, you should read Stephanie Martin's thoughtful post on Dating in the Social Media Age. Stephanie...
Don’t blame the Internet for infidelity
The Petraeus drama reflects the enticements and betrayals of our new, disembodied modes of discourse. The come-ons, the flirtations, the stalking, the alleged harassment: all were abetted by the deceptive cloak of cyberspace, and all were immortalized there. It’s a...
Smartphones have transported us from an offline third place
Public transit used to be a version of what Ray Oldenburg calls a “third place”: a neutral space, neither work nor home, in which conversation and community can unfold. Have smartphones changed that?
6 ways to speed up your social media response times
Speed is essential to developing the right social media campaign, response or update. In my last post, I looked at how the right kind of market research program can support faster and more responsive social media management, inspired by The Quick and the Dead, a new...
OneZero
If conferences were like slot machines
My Facebook friends should be forgiven if they think I'm in Vegas to try out novelty slot machines. I was actually here to deliver three presentations on "How social media drives consumer decisions" at the LeadingRE real estate conference. I got to my last...
Can shomi solve Canada’s video streaming problem?
When I drove past a billboard earlier this week that promised me a new universe of streaming media, I nearly pulled over to the side of the road so that I could try it. Right. Now. Was this the day I'd been waiting for? The day when I'd finally experience the joy of...
What’s wrong with the Ello backlash
My latest blog post for the Harvard Business Review argues that Ello -- the "it" social network of the week -- is a wake-up call for businesses to re-assess their social media strategy in light of growing public concerns about privacy and ad targeting. But what about...
11 best practices for working with an editor
My latest blog post for the Harvard Business Review makes the case for adding an editor to your content marketing team. As I note in that post, Content marketing will only deliver on its promise if it’s good enough to deliver customers–that’s why improving the quality...
Homeschooling as a working mom: the pie chart
It's week two of the school year -- or it would be, if we weren't in the middle of an increasingly frustrating (though well-justified) teachers' strike. We're experiencing the school outage a little differently at our house, because this also marks the beginning of...
Choosing research methods for data-driven storytelling
This blog post does not represent Vision Critical. In fact, I think some of my colleagues are going to argue with me vigorously over this one. Rigorous data gathering and analysis can get in the way of effective storytelling by non-profits. That proved to be the most...
Is this an ice cream? A 2×2
It has recently come to my attention that many people seem to be unable to recognize whether their preferred frozen dessert is ice cream. At last! A modern dilemma I can actually solve, thanks to this handy 2x2: Is it ice cream? Butterfat content 10 to...
Yelpless: What kinds of reviews get squelched by Yelp?
I'm an ardent (some might say pathological) Yelp user, and since I am incapable of putting anything in my mouth without first validating its viability on Yelp, I try to contribute back to the community by sharing my own perspectives and information, particularly on...
JSTOR DAILY
If conferences were like slot machines
My Facebook friends should be forgiven if they think I'm in Vegas to try out novelty slot machines. I was actually here to deliver three presentations on "How social media drives consumer decisions" at the LeadingRE real estate conference. I got to my last...
Can shomi solve Canada’s video streaming problem?
When I drove past a billboard earlier this week that promised me a new universe of streaming media, I nearly pulled over to the side of the road so that I could try it. Right. Now. Was this the day I'd been waiting for? The day when I'd finally experience the joy of...
What’s wrong with the Ello backlash
My latest blog post for the Harvard Business Review argues that Ello -- the "it" social network of the week -- is a wake-up call for businesses to re-assess their social media strategy in light of growing public concerns about privacy and ad targeting. But what about...
11 best practices for working with an editor
My latest blog post for the Harvard Business Review makes the case for adding an editor to your content marketing team. As I note in that post, Content marketing will only deliver on its promise if it’s good enough to deliver customers–that’s why improving the quality...
Homeschooling as a working mom: the pie chart
It's week two of the school year -- or it would be, if we weren't in the middle of an increasingly frustrating (though well-justified) teachers' strike. We're experiencing the school outage a little differently at our house, because this also marks the beginning of...
Choosing research methods for data-driven storytelling
This blog post does not represent Vision Critical. In fact, I think some of my colleagues are going to argue with me vigorously over this one. Rigorous data gathering and analysis can get in the way of effective storytelling by non-profits. That proved to be the most...
Is this an ice cream? A 2×2
It has recently come to my attention that many people seem to be unable to recognize whether their preferred frozen dessert is ice cream. At last! A modern dilemma I can actually solve, thanks to this handy 2x2: Is it ice cream? Butterfat content 10 to...
Yelpless: What kinds of reviews get squelched by Yelp?
I'm an ardent (some might say pathological) Yelp user, and since I am incapable of putting anything in my mouth without first validating its viability on Yelp, I try to contribute back to the community by sharing my own perspectives and information, particularly on...
THE VERGE
Are you ready for Peak Colleague?
“I miss seeing my colleagues and being able to bounce ideas off them.” “I get to work with much more skilled people, now that our teams don’t have to be made up of people who are all in the same place.” “I get so frustrated waiting for my co-workers to reply to my...
What we’re getting wrong with hybrid
Organizations are getting a lot right in the transition to hybrid work: Recognizing that most professionals want to keep working remotely at least part of the time. Taking a team-based approach to hybrid, because the right structure depends on the kind of work you do....
The dimensions of hybrid equity
Those of us who enjoy the professional and personal benefits of remote work are a large and lucky minority—but yes, a minority. Most estimates show that about 60% of North American jobs just have to be done in person. Not incidentally, these are jobs that are more...