A newsletter about Pop Culture, Software Studies, Business Strategy, Media Platforms, Algorithmic Management, Game Design, and everything in between.

Category: Essays

  • Soufra

    The choice of metaphor matters: life on this planet did not evolve from a single, orderly tree-like structure, but from a loose and diverse conglomeration of primitive cells that flourished together. more ›

  • Pattern languages

    The Timeless Way of Building, by Christopher Alexander, 1979, teaches us about form, function, the unforeseen effects of poor choices, and the things that should remain unsaid. more ›

  • Line jumpers

    To predict the near future with greater accuracy you must relinquish the idea of a fair game. more ›

  • Contactless

    Given enough bandwidth, even the warm sensation of touch might be simulated and perfected by machines – digital and otherwise. more ›

  • Bionic brethren

    How many vaccines can my body take, if Gates is right again and this is just the first episode in a pandemic season? What does my skill set look like, if… more ›

  • Post-global

    The power to direct the thinking or behavior of others, usually indirectly, is called influence. Authority, clout, credit, heft or leverage are some of its oblique synonyms. more ›

  • Sync

    Synchronization and dispersion, grave interruption and seamless play. Technology and geopolitics swing back and forth between what used to be polar opposites and are now striking and coincidental features of everyday… more ›

  • Benevolent force

    Left to its own devices, thermodynamics will revert us and everything we built back to the state of nature. Left to our own, we humans seem increasingly oblivious and willing… more ›

  • Remote culture

    The post-pandemic euphoria is inevitable. After a couple of rounds of the global vaccination efforts, we should expect a thirsty and voluptuous return to the physical world of events and… more ›

  • Exchange value

    The new and emergent global financial system will be overwhelming in scale and complexity. It will exert an unprecedented influence over the daily lives of everyone on the planet. more ›