Blog

On the missed opportunity of digital gardens, a blurry gap in the tools we have online for knowledge sharing, and how having AIs write for us might be another step in the wrong direction.  Keep reading →

A lot of tv viewing and radio listening was ambient, now not only are they replaced by a lot more sources vying for our attention, they are replaced by platforms that require focus.  Keep reading →

I’ve largely stopped using Twitter. I don’t miss it and I don’t miss things I want to find, I’ve just rebalanced my ‘diet’ with feeds and newsletters coming first.  Keep reading →

How I’ve rediscovered that everyone learns from everyone and it’s conversations all the way down.  Keep reading →

A year or so ago, I gave a short talk at Speculative Futures MTL and have been meaning to flesh out the slides to make them readable without the talk. Finally managed to do it. I can’t remember what the exact brief was, but it ended up being something like my philosophy for scanning.  Keep reading →

It’s been a few months since my Thoughts on Web3. After reading too many posts about DAOs in a Discord (not Sentiers’), here’s a bit of an update on where I am right now.  Keep reading →

MRIs, feeds, streams, agents. How we might give algorithms instructions and pick what they search through.  Keep reading →

This is a different Dispatch than the usual, instead of an article about a specific topic, I’m using these emails to launch something for members: a Discord server. For a while now, I’ve been wondering if I should, and how. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been active in a few of these communities and that has resulted in four different results.  Keep reading →

The founding Director of the University of Michigan’s new Urban Technology program, on the growing importance of technology in cities, data, architecture and design, feedback loops, generalists, and futures.  Keep reading →

I’m a big reader and learner, so I’ve done several deep, years-long dives into various topics. I built my whole career(s) by showing I know what I’m talking about and drawing people’s attention to my work. That’s probably the quickest description of my playbook: read, think, learn, share. Here’s how that might look.  Keep reading →

The four interviews meant for my first issue are already done, and some of the editing has been done. I’d love to get those published, but ideally as part of ‘jumping on a different horse,‘ not just blog posts. So how should I do it? Here’s the format I’m considering.  Keep reading →

A couple of months ago this Dispatch might have been called ‘WTF Web3?’ Today, it should be quite a bit more informed. Still, I’m in no way any kind of specialist on the topic, just spending a bit more time exploring, which is what I’d like to share here. Just a list of thoughts and things to read.  Keep reading →

A few technologies pointing in a direction I find intriguing, and so associating them loosely with a concept the concept of cyborgs, which has been used in various differing ways.  Keep reading →

The term Artificial Intelligence needs to be reframed, Augmented Intelligence needs to be explored more deeply, and so do more varied perspectives and other forms of intelligence in nature.  Keep reading →

On synthetic reality, the corruption of the word Metaverse, and what is actually valuable and intriguing to track, despite the VCs and NFTs.  Keep reading →

I started thinking that you could go more granular, and consider tasks, sprints, agile, kanban, different kinds or timespan for strategy, etc. I started wondering where business intelligence might go in there. Could this be framed as a “time stack”? Different parts or definitions of the organization being on different time horizons.  Keep reading →

I realized they can also be seen almost as steps in a process: look at a broad landscape of topics, synthesize what you see, pick the most important. I like the term generalist, it’s one of the best descriptions of my career(s) and also a good representation of something I see as vital: being able to understand different domains and translate between them.  Keep reading →

Over the last couple of months, there have been a few discussions and proposed ideas around fellowships, and indie research labs. For a few years, I’ve had the idea of a “consortium” where a few partners would support a yearlong research effort with some public outputs and some private reports, workshops, and the like.  Keep reading →

Jon Rogers explains how designers, smaller firms, and artists can create and re-orient products’ plots to provide citizens with more agency in their use of technology. As told to Peter Bihr in the course of an interview for his Getting Tech Right project.  Keep reading →

There are a lot of apps and settings in MacOS to manage notifications, timers, snooze, etc. However it would be a pain to setup everything, if even possible, to properly work by blocking-out hours. You can turn off all notifications and go to airplane mode but that’s pretty radical.  Keep reading →