I was lucky enough to get to act as an advisor at USV on Saturday as part of Gary Chou’s great weekend program that allows startups to get three perspectives from field experts on the products they are planning to release. I say lucky enough because as Matt Smith of Shutterstock pointed out, being an […]
I’m a fan of the movie Training Day overall, but there is a particular scene which I’ve cited time and time again in talks to explain the hedonic treadmill, happiness in general, and a sound psychological method for designing user experiences that keep people both delighted and satisfied. It always pays to start with a […]
The New York Times recently wrote about variable price shopping: the idea that some grocery stores are starting to think about changing the price of items depending on your individual purchase patterns. And this is a spectacularly bad idea. I’ve spoken in the media about the psychological consequences of dynamic pricing before, particularly in relation […]
You know a conversation is going to be rough when it is with someone in charge of cultural change at a Big Company. Not because Big Company can’t change; I actually think this particular Big Company has done a good job of getting better. But getting better and being good are a long way from […]
There has been a lot of griping about Facebook lately. IPO trouble, privacy concerns, the “what is this doing to society and do I really want to contribute?” crowd. They’re getting slaughtered in the press, on Wall Street, and in the court of public opinion, and they seem to be doing shockingly little about it. […]
Young black men are hacking the internet. Not the code itself, but the actual process. Repeatedly, while taking the subway in NYC, I have overheard groups of young men talking about the truly interesting ways that they are paying attention to technology and they are almost always black. Five stops on how to get the […]
I got invited to talk to a group of 90 high schoolers at Columbia yesterday, and as usual, I didn’t prepare slides but just took a walk and thought about the things I’ve learned (and repeatedly not learned) along the way. For one, I’ve learned always to curse when talking to either high school or […]
I went to see Woody Allen’s new film last week and I have to say that you should never, ever see a Woody Allen film in New York City, unless you are a born-and-bred New Yorker. It will ruin the experience. For one, because it was “indie”, the theater was literally the length of a […]
I caught up on the first three episodes of The Newsroom over the weekend and it has been fertile ground for reflection (which, besides strict entertainment, is the thing I love most about good stories). But one theme has preoccupied me more than most: Newsroom’s reflections on the modern American working relationship. I don’t mean the […]
Recently, a friend was in town with his new girlfriend and she was particularly interested in locally-sourced, organic, vegan food. Since I care about none of those three things, I didn’t readily know of any options and so hopped on Yelp to guide me. Alas, the best option near us didn’t take reservations and so […]