In Spendshift, I write briefly about the quest for email zero. It’s the holy grail of keeping on top of things: zero unread emails in your Inbox, always. There are a bunch of strategies for getting yourself there, but the point is once you’ve accomplished and maintained it for a while, the sense of satisfaction […]
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Last week I interviewed Murat Pak, the creator of @Archillect, an artificial (or synthetic) intelligence that curates online images. As people’s reactions started to pour in, one pattern above all caught my eye. Certain people were stunned when they realized for the first time that their favourite curator of beautiful, inspiring images was not, in […]
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Each day Archillect peruses her favourite sites for new images that she thinks her 160K followers will appreciate, and the sheer size of her fan base suggests she’s very good at what she does. A quick glance at her Twitter or Facebook feeds shows a keen eye for stark, striking images and a remarkable breadth […]
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Ignorance always gets a bad rap. Sure they say “ignorance is bliss” but it’s with the underlying implication that if you opt for that particular kind of bliss, you’re basically a fool whose world is bound to come crashing down around you. If not that, at the very least you will have to walk through […]
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I’ve been working through a great book called The Artist’s Way for about five months now, which provides a self-directed course on breaking through artistic blocks and cultivating creativity. One of the most useful ideas is the “morning pages,” which consist of a daily, three-page word dump, wherein you write out anything and everything that […]
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This recent article in the Verge describes a trend in design towards something called “Airspace” in cafes, web design, and Air Bnb-Style micro-accommodation. Essentially, the idea is that a certain group’s desire for authentic experiences has inadvertently driven designers across industries towards a homogenized sameness — achingly tasteful artisinal accents embedded within a bright zen […]
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One of the buzziest marketing words out there is the notion of “tribes” – groups of people with a shared worldview – which was popularized by Seth Godin’s eponymous title. A tribe in this sense doesn’t generally organize along demographic lines, but rather through shared values and passions. Of course marketers want to be able […]
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That’s what it comes down to, that feeling when you seem like you’ve lost your way on a project, on a career track, on the life you’d always imagined. Sometimes it falls apart. Sometimes it’s insanity to keep clinging to a vision, despite all of the sacrifices you’ve made to get this far — despite […]
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Recently, I shared an article on Twitter with the caption: “The internet is freaking out over this analysis of the best/worst Clickbait titles (not really, nobody cares).” Within three seconds, it had been “hearted” 74 times by accounts that all had the exact same content. None of them said anything to me, and none of […]
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Even though money is one of the most practical concerns in life, it can also be a means by which we express much about who we are at the deepest levels. If that notion makes you cringe a little, it’s likely because the idea of “mindless consumerism” has long-dominated many people’s picture of spending. It […]
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