Asides

Twenty twenty five

Hey, it’s 2025! Happy New Year. May it be better than we hope and fear. Here are my technology predictions for the year. Here are my resolutions / OKRs. Ready or not, here we go!

Tintin and the fascists

As a child, I freaking adored Tintin, the Belgian comic strip about a boy detective and his little white dog, Snowy. There was something intoxicating about the mix: international adventures, a growing cast of recurring characters, conspiracies, humor, hi jinx. Even the ligne claire style of drawing — cartoonish figures on

My most controversial opinion is that they should reboot Red Dwarf

Okay, I know, but hear me out. If you haven’t encountered it, Red Dwarf was an 80s / 90s science fiction comedy that has definitely aged interestingly, but still has a solid fanbase. Lister, a low-ranking engineer on the mining spaceship Red Dwarf is put into stasis as punishment for

Escape from Twitter: The Future of Social Media Is Decentralized

This is a pretty great article about the decentralized social web, which quotes Christine Lemmer-Webber, Blaine Cook, and me. It’s in Polish, but if you don’t speak the language, the “translate” button on your browser works pretty well. Here are the full remarks I sent Michał “rysiek” Woźniak,

Building the news

A question many of us are asking: how can we be as effective as possible over the next four years? A few years ago, I made the decision to move out of tech into non-profit news, and I'm glad I'm here. It's a different

A hypothesis about the Democrats

I’d like to share a hypothesis about the Democrats. It’s about money. It might not be true — it truly is a hypothesis — but I’d like to air it out and see what you think. We have a lot of people in America who are suffering greatly. Dick

Reflecting today

Today I’ve been thinking a lot about my relatives who actively fought against nationalism as part of the resistance. What they and their colleagues did in the name of inclusion and opportunity. That's the name of the game: a world where everyone has the same opportunity to

Tech is interesting, but democracy deserves our attention

I’m aware that a lot of my linkblog posts have been about the state of America this week. That’s because — well, I’m sure you can figure out why. There is nothing bigger to talk about than this election. So much is at stake, and it really, truly

IRL taking priority

We’ve been dealing with some intense family health events since Wednesday night, so I’m running on very little sleep and not updating much over here. I’ll be popping in from time to time, but probably not running on all cylinders for a little while. There’s a

Reconsidering my car

I have an electric car. All in, between car payments and insurance, but exclusive of the money it costs to actually charge it, I spend around $800-850 a month. That’s a ton of money! For all that cash, I must do a lot of driving, right? Absolutely not. I

Obviously I'm voting for Harris

It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that I plan to vote for Kamala Harris. Just consider the alternative: who he is, what he stands for, what the world might look like if he gains another four-year term. Last night’s debate performance may have sealed the deal for many

A conversation with myself about immigration

What is your ideal place to live? I grew up in Oxford, England, which has radically colored my view of what a home can look like. It’s hardly a city at all — one girlfriend derisively called it “a village” — but sits close enough to London that you can get