There is no “good” social media platform. Every single one of them is terrible in its own uniquely horrifying way. You might think you’ve found the one corner of the internet where people understand you, where the algorithm aligns perfectly with your soul, where your follower count reflects your worth as a human being. No matter where ...

It’s hard to shake the feeling that we’ve entered an era where we can no longer govern ourselves without some kind of technological babysitter. This isn’t the age-old pessimism about human nature, and it’s not an uncritical embrace of “technology will save us” optimistic fuckery. It’s more like we’ve reached a tipping point — a combina...

Every tech visionary wants to be Galileo, you notice that? They want to be that lone genius standing up to the forces of ignorance, “questioning dogma” in the name of Science. They imagine themselves staring down the Catholic Church, the mob with their pitchforks, all because they’re too brave, too logical, too truthful for this world....

Ever notice how quickly some people slap the “difficult” label on anyone who dares to ask a few inconvenient questions? The moment you challenge the status quo, suddenly you’re branded as “hard to work with” or “too much trouble.” Society has a funny way of rewarding obedience. The rewards are mediocre, but they're easy. Keep your head...

I think about my life in terms of transactions—not because I want to maximize gains, but because I want to minimize waste. The waste of throwing away my time and energy on things that don’t matter, instead of giving them generously to the people and ideas that do. If I stay up late tonight, writing emails and doomscrolling after my par...

Every myth starts with a kernel of truth. That’s the seed. We gather facts, line them up into a story, and pass that story along. And every time it’s told, it shifts a little. Facts blur, intentions twist, and somewhere along the way, the story is no longer a collection of facts. It’s become a myth. A myth about a founder with a vision...

Change has a habit of dragging its feet, and most days it’s impossible to tell if we’re inching toward something better or just stuck on repeat in some cosmic loop we can’t shake. “Progress” is a mess, and it rarely manages to feel like progress for everyone all at once. I’m transgender, so I know what it’s like to feel out of sync wit...

You've probably heard of EBITDA. It stands for "earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization." Companies love to tout their EBITDA numbers. It's become a popular way for them to make their financial results look better than they really are. By excluding a whole host of normal business expenses, EBITDA presents an infl...

Every year, like clockwork, it's the same old dance. Apple rolls out their latest products and right on cue, the usual suspects emerge from the woodwork with their favorite refrain: "Steve Jobs would never..." You know how it goes. Steve wouldn't have launched this. Steve wouldn't have said that. And even if he had, he would have done ...

The problem with the “bring your whole self to work” mantra? Some folks' “whole self” includes anti-vaxx stickers, crosses plastered everywhere, and COVID denial sprinkled into conversations. And I don't know about you, but I’d rather not work in a place where Slack channels or desks become soapboxes for any of that shit. If the tradeo...

Crypto is made up of three groups: wealthy philosophers, middle-class dreamers, and poor farmers. There are no users. The wealthy philosophers - all deep pockets and utopian manifestos - are the ones bankrolling projects. For them, crypto is either a revolutionary tool meant to free society from traditional financial systems and bring ...

Been a while since I wrote any kind of...human, real update. I wanted to share what I've been cooking up. I've been head down working on The Index, my indie news project that I'm really excited about, and Westenberg, my solo-founder publication. I gotta say, I'm exhausted. The last few months have been interesting, let me put it that w...