Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Multiplication table app round-up: Blog post wanted
Learning multiplication tables ought to be a lot easier — or at least a lot more fun — in the age of the iPad and iPhone. That’s why I’d love someone to write a blog post rounding up different multiplication table apps.
ShoeCamp: An (imaginary) unconference for the footwear-obsessed
Madeline Stanionis inspired this vision for ShoeCamp, an unconference for the footwear-obsessed.
Blackout ribbon: Avoiding grim news and spoilers
I’d like to designate a coloured ribbon that would be as universally recognized as the yellow or pink ribbon campaigns. See someone wearing this ribbon, and you know that they don’t want to discuss the latest grim news stories. A more elaborate version could prevent spoilers, too.
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.
The Harvard Business Review
Multiplication table app round-up: Blog post wanted
Learning multiplication tables ought to be a lot easier — or at least a lot more fun — in the age of the iPad and iPhone. That’s why I’d love someone to write a blog post rounding up different multiplication table apps.
ShoeCamp: An (imaginary) unconference for the footwear-obsessed
Madeline Stanionis inspired this vision for ShoeCamp, an unconference for the footwear-obsessed.
Blackout ribbon: Avoiding grim news and spoilers
I’d like to designate a coloured ribbon that would be as universally recognized as the yellow or pink ribbon campaigns. See someone wearing this ribbon, and you know that they don’t want to discuss the latest grim news stories. A more elaborate version could prevent spoilers, too.
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.
OneZero
How BrainPop prepared my son for time travel
Last night's bedtime story was "JCat and the Time Machine for Cats". Like all JCat stories, this one featured JCat traveling to Cupertino with Tim Cook in order to invent something. Happily, I was ready for the request to have a story featuring a time machine, since...
Win my love: The cheat sheet
I know that you are supposed to like or love people based on their character or their soul, but that shit takes a lot of time to figure out. It's much more efficient to quickly categorize people as loveable, likeable or deeply suspicious based on their surface traits....
Stop sibling conflict with a tech-inspired solution
Are you tired of listening to your kids argue? Does it seem like a single ill-timed comment can ignite a cascade of escalating attacks and complaints? Are you sick of playing referee? This weekend we came up with an innovative strategy for stopping the sibling...
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.”...
JSTOR DAILY
How BrainPop prepared my son for time travel
Last night's bedtime story was "JCat and the Time Machine for Cats". Like all JCat stories, this one featured JCat traveling to Cupertino with Tim Cook in order to invent something. Happily, I was ready for the request to have a story featuring a time machine, since...
Win my love: The cheat sheet
I know that you are supposed to like or love people based on their character or their soul, but that shit takes a lot of time to figure out. It's much more efficient to quickly categorize people as loveable, likeable or deeply suspicious based on their surface traits....
Stop sibling conflict with a tech-inspired solution
Are you tired of listening to your kids argue? Does it seem like a single ill-timed comment can ignite a cascade of escalating attacks and complaints? Are you sick of playing referee? This weekend we came up with an innovative strategy for stopping the sibling...
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 VERGE
How A.I. could change the workplace
What about a system that automatically changes wording in communications to eliminate your co-workers’ unhelpful quirks? This is just one of the interesting ideas in my Wall Street Journal article about how A.I. can help with workplace communications. An excerpt from...
The definitive guide to Google Drive
When the senior editors at Medium approached me about writing the definitive guide to Google Drive, they weren't expecting the Sext-o-matic: a Google sheet that automates the tedious job of sending sexy text messages to your lover. But I couldn't resist building...
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...