Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Genzlingerizer: An app to enhance offline reading (and an IFTTT workaround)
I want to set up rules for the publications I read in print, specifying the authors or topics that qualify as must-reads. When said publication appears at my door, I want to launch an iPhone app that tells me which pages to look at in this morning’s New York Times, this week’s New Yorker, or the latest Entertainment Weekly. Then I want an easy way to take whatever I’m reading in print, and convert it to a set of links that are ready to share online.
12-Step Social Media Scanner & Intervention Bot
Imagining a 12-step bot that constantly scans people’s social media feeds for signs that things are out of control, and then tweets you the location of your nearest AA, Overeaters Anonymous or Shoppers Anonymous.
YouDrawIt: The shopping engine that lets you drive
Wanted: a shopping engine that lets me draw the shape I’m looking for — whether it’s a shoe, a shirt or a dress — and then searches the site for items that appear to match my shape.
Butt-crack mural: Rethinking self-judgement
This post was an exercising in suspending self-judgement: in this case, the judgement that a giant mural stitching together butt-crack photos is an unshareably bad idea.
Rain swag for the farmers market
NameRater: A search tool for evaluating a possible name change
Wanted: a search tool that evaluates the search engine visibility of your prospective married name, or the name you are considering for your baby.
SinglesMob: An app for turning parties into mixers
Envisioning an app that lets you blast your single friends with the news that you are at a party with a lot of single guys (and not enough women) or vice versa.
Take these ideas…please
For the next month, I’m committed to sharing almost every one of my ideas — no matter how valuable, and no matter how terrible.
A bird’s eye view of hashtag diffusion
What's it like to be on a panel with rock stars Peter Shankman, Julien Smith, Chris Brogan and Russell Bowers? For all who have wondered, I can answer that question with a video -- at the same time, answering a question that came in on Twitter during today's panel at...
Help your kids learn with Etsy and the Maker Faire
Tonight Little Sweetie was thrilled to learn that she has been accepted into the Vancouver Maker Faire, a DIY festival we attended last year. She loved it, and immediately wanted to run her own booth, based on her Etsy store, 2 Dots 1 Symbol, which sells emoticon...
The Harvard Business Review
The Genzlingerizer: An app to enhance offline reading (and an IFTTT workaround)
I want to set up rules for the publications I read in print, specifying the authors or topics that qualify as must-reads. When said publication appears at my door, I want to launch an iPhone app that tells me which pages to look at in this morning’s New York Times, this week’s New Yorker, or the latest Entertainment Weekly. Then I want an easy way to take whatever I’m reading in print, and convert it to a set of links that are ready to share online.
12-Step Social Media Scanner & Intervention Bot
Imagining a 12-step bot that constantly scans people’s social media feeds for signs that things are out of control, and then tweets you the location of your nearest AA, Overeaters Anonymous or Shoppers Anonymous.
YouDrawIt: The shopping engine that lets you drive
Wanted: a shopping engine that lets me draw the shape I’m looking for — whether it’s a shoe, a shirt or a dress — and then searches the site for items that appear to match my shape.
Butt-crack mural: Rethinking self-judgement
This post was an exercising in suspending self-judgement: in this case, the judgement that a giant mural stitching together butt-crack photos is an unshareably bad idea.
Rain swag for the farmers market
NameRater: A search tool for evaluating a possible name change
Wanted: a search tool that evaluates the search engine visibility of your prospective married name, or the name you are considering for your baby.
SinglesMob: An app for turning parties into mixers
Envisioning an app that lets you blast your single friends with the news that you are at a party with a lot of single guys (and not enough women) or vice versa.
Take these ideas…please
For the next month, I’m committed to sharing almost every one of my ideas — no matter how valuable, and no matter how terrible.
A bird’s eye view of hashtag diffusion
What's it like to be on a panel with rock stars Peter Shankman, Julien Smith, Chris Brogan and Russell Bowers? For all who have wondered, I can answer that question with a video -- at the same time, answering a question that came in on Twitter during today's panel at...
Help your kids learn with Etsy and the Maker Faire
Tonight Little Sweetie was thrilled to learn that she has been accepted into the Vancouver Maker Faire, a DIY festival we attended last year. She loved it, and immediately wanted to run her own booth, based on her Etsy store, 2 Dots 1 Symbol, which sells emoticon...
OneZero
Hey NSA, even my kids know snooping is creepy
This morning's breakfast conversation: ME: I'm feeling upset about how Barack Obama has been reading all the stuff we've been posting online -- everywhere except Twitter, which refused to cooperate. SWEETIE: That's creepy. ME: Good news, though -- I blogged your list...
8 kid-inspired features for Apple’s iOS 7
For the past couple of years, our kids' favorite bedtime stories have featured a feline protagonist whose best friend is Apple CEO Tim Cook. In each story, Tim Cook teleports this cat to Cupertino (Apple HQ), where Tim and cat work on various cat-friendly inventions....
Work Smarter with Twitter and HootSuite, new from Harvard Business Review Press
Do you feel like you could get more out of Twitter? Or are you a passionate Twitter user who wants to help your colleagues, friends and family use it and love it the way you do? Work Smarter with Twitter and HootSuite is for everyone who wants to get more out of...
End those digital fasts with these 5 April Fool’s Day pranks
Well, folks, it's almost that time again: Easter. Also known as the end of Lent. Or what should be known as national coming out day for all the people who've just spent the past 40 days doing some kind of digital fast. They inevitably come back with a desire to...
NSF Political Science cuts fail to predict the unpredictability of research
On March 20 the Senate de-funded political science grants from the National Science Foundation “except for research projects that the Director of the National Science Foundation certifies as promoting national security or the economic interests of the United States.”...
The 23 stages of the task management software lifecycle
Totally on top of all pending tasks Moderate slippage of select tasks leads to mild anxiety Catastrophic failure to complete one or more mission-critical tasks leads to wholesale re-evaluation of career choice, self-worth and why are we even on this earth anyhow?...
3 tricks for monitoring Twitter mentions and trackbacks
The brilliant Lauren Bacon made a big splash yesterday with her thought-provoking post on the emotional work that often gets assigned to women working in the tech world. The response to that post has been so massive that it's left her with a challenge: how do you...
Which Facebook updates could you live without?
The beauty of being married to a man with absolutely no interest in sports is that I would remain blissfully unaware of the start of hockey season, at least until I get to the office Monday, were it not for Facebook and Twitter, which are suddenly overflowing with...
JSTOR DAILY
Hey NSA, even my kids know snooping is creepy
This morning's breakfast conversation: ME: I'm feeling upset about how Barack Obama has been reading all the stuff we've been posting online -- everywhere except Twitter, which refused to cooperate. SWEETIE: That's creepy. ME: Good news, though -- I blogged your list...
8 kid-inspired features for Apple’s iOS 7
For the past couple of years, our kids' favorite bedtime stories have featured a feline protagonist whose best friend is Apple CEO Tim Cook. In each story, Tim Cook teleports this cat to Cupertino (Apple HQ), where Tim and cat work on various cat-friendly inventions....
Work Smarter with Twitter and HootSuite, new from Harvard Business Review Press
Do you feel like you could get more out of Twitter? Or are you a passionate Twitter user who wants to help your colleagues, friends and family use it and love it the way you do? Work Smarter with Twitter and HootSuite is for everyone who wants to get more out of...
End those digital fasts with these 5 April Fool’s Day pranks
Well, folks, it's almost that time again: Easter. Also known as the end of Lent. Or what should be known as national coming out day for all the people who've just spent the past 40 days doing some kind of digital fast. They inevitably come back with a desire to...
NSF Political Science cuts fail to predict the unpredictability of research
On March 20 the Senate de-funded political science grants from the National Science Foundation “except for research projects that the Director of the National Science Foundation certifies as promoting national security or the economic interests of the United States.”...
The 23 stages of the task management software lifecycle
Totally on top of all pending tasks Moderate slippage of select tasks leads to mild anxiety Catastrophic failure to complete one or more mission-critical tasks leads to wholesale re-evaluation of career choice, self-worth and why are we even on this earth anyhow?...
3 tricks for monitoring Twitter mentions and trackbacks
The brilliant Lauren Bacon made a big splash yesterday with her thought-provoking post on the emotional work that often gets assigned to women working in the tech world. The response to that post has been so massive that it's left her with a challenge: how do you...
Which Facebook updates could you live without?
The beauty of being married to a man with absolutely no interest in sports is that I would remain blissfully unaware of the start of hockey season, at least until I get to the office Monday, were it not for Facebook and Twitter, which are suddenly overflowing with...
THE VERGE
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...