It’s the Secret to Innovation — In 2013 I was a financial analyst chasing the American dream. Which, as we all know, is to build a SaaS business and then retire to a life of angel investing and tweeting blue-checkmarked opinions at the masses. But to do that, I had to learn to code. My process…

What I learned watching one of the King’s final live performances — I wasn’t planning on writing a reflection for my birthday. I was hoping good company and some chocolate cake will put my soul where it’s supposed to be. Then I landed on a grainy video of one of Elvis’ last live performances, which changed my mind. First, some context. By 1977, Elvis was…

And other surprising things about moving from Zoom to the real world — In March 2020, video conferencing became my new reality overnight. Colleagues that were once full-fledged, living and breathing organisms snuck their way into laptop screens, appearing in their full pixelated glory with kids and partners and plants in tow. We showed up for each other, day after two-dimensional day, talking…

I listened to popular Trap music from Russia to South Africa for strictly educational purposes. Here’s what I found. — Trap is the new pop. What started out as a fringe hip-hop subculture in the South has, undoubtedly, taken over the world. If you’ve listened to any radio play in the last five years, you’ve probably heard it’s stuttering kick-drums and synthesizer melodies. …

It’s getting old. — Originally posted on That Damn Optimist, a newsletter of long-form writing on culture, tech and a little bit of hip-hop. Either Sun Tzu or Mark Twain or Michael J. Fox once muttered may you live in interesting times under their breath to some bad guy and damn, did that stick. …

And no, they don’t go great together. — Originally posted on That Damn Optimist, a newsletter of long-form writing on culture, tech and a little bit of hip-hop. I have a theory backed by almost no research. As we grow older, there is a lot of societal pressure to mature, to become less child-like in our activities. This…

It was a weird year. — Originally posted on That Damn Optimist, a newsletter of long-form writing on culture, tech and a little bit of hip-hop. Being the paragon of enlightenment that I am, I’ve written a grand total of two articles reflecting on years past. One was 19 lessons I learned in 2019, which was…

Why I miss Crazy Frog — Before the iPhone, Venmo, or Spotify, there were ringtones. You might remember them fondly as those lo-fidelity sounds we used to communicate our highly refined music tastes every time someone called our cell. But ringtones were so much more than that. A billion-dollar industry silenced seemingly overnight, ringtones laid the…

Consumers are increasingly skeptical of traditional businesses and looking for alternatives to exploitative or destructive practices — In the process of creating stuff people want to buy, businesses also create a vast medley of byproducts and aftereffects that are decidedly less good. They add to what feels like a pretty depressing state of affairs: the climate crisis is reaching intimidating, unprecedented heights, millions of people suffer daily…