A middle aged couple moves to a small town in Vermont and discovers one must get creative to meet new friends. I’m so tired. When Meghan told the realtor we’d take the house, she (the realtor) seemed taken aback, so she (Meghan) backpedaled and said something like, “I mean, we’re…

Despite all the explosions, dumb-yet-wry humor and cars that define the globe-hopping superhero action film franchise that is Fast and Furious, one element is by far the most creative and hilarious: the naming scheme. Plenty of franchises insist on ridiculous naming schemes. Some simply incorporate a phrase into every title…

by Ross Ulbricht My future died that day in court when I was sentenced to life without parole. When I got back to the federal detention center, I did not go straight to my cell block as usual. This time, I was interviewed first to judge whether I was suicidal…

Remembering the fights that Philip Seymour Hoffman won — One of my favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman performances did not happen on-or-off Broadway or on a big screen. At the Independent Spirit Awards in 2008 — a party on the beach meant to celebrate indie excellence the day before the Oscars — Hoffman was there to receive the best male…

Ev recently reminded me of a bit of information archaeology I wrote back in 1993. At his suggestion, I’ve reproduced it below. Hot New Medium: Text (reprinted from Wired Magazine, September/October 1993) Littera scripta manet — the written word remains. Though it was recorded almost exactly two millenia ago, Horace’s…

The Vons grocery store two miles from my home in Los Angeles, California sells 12 cans of Coca-Cola for $6.59 — 54 cents each. The tool chain that created this simple product is incomprehensibly complex. Each can originated in a small town of 4,000 people on the Murray River in…

A Hungarian psychology professor once wrote to famous creators asking them to be interviewed for a book he was writing. One of the most interesting things about his project was how many people said “no.” Management writer Peter Drucker: “One of the secrets of productivity (in which I believe whereas…

An organized list of cognitive biases because thinking is hard. — 2022 update (1.7 million reads later 😱): The obsession that began with this post has turned into a book titled Why Are We Yelling? — The Art of Productive Disagreement, because it’s in disagreement and conflict that our biases tend to shine brightest. A follow-up post that explores what we…

Navigating awkward salutations in the workplace — When I run into a male acquaintance in a work setting, I know exactly how to greet him: shake his hand. Gay or straight, doesn’t matter how long we’ve known each other. We shake. But as a straight, cis man, I often feel like I’m trapped between two walls of…

(previous: Introduction) Thank you for supporting the Project and undertaking the challenging task of running the Human Operating System (HOS) on the 4D Reality platform. Your participation, as you know, drives growth and innovation across all reality platforms. Since competition was extreme to join the Humanity Project, you are to…

I use a trick with co-workers when we’re trying to decide where to eat for lunch and no one has any ideas. I recommend McDonald’s. An interesting thing happens. Everyone unanimously agrees that we can’t possibly go to McDonald’s, and better lunch suggestions emerge. Magic! It’s as if we’ve broken…

Commencement remarks to the Natural Science School, University of California at Berkeley, 15 May 2011 The early bioneer Bill McLarney was stirring a vat of algae in his Costa Rica research center when a brassy North American lady strode in. What, she demanded, was he doing stirring a vat of green goo when what the world really needs is love? …

We know any drama ends when we find the answer to the question which gave rise to it. When we discover the answer simultaneously with the hero, the dramatist has done a very good job indeed. An example is CASABLANCA. Here, the hero, Bogart, is in exile trying to get…

Working at Wired magazine in the 1990’s did not lend itself to humbleness. Beginning with issue 1.0 in January 1993, the magazine featured a continuous stream of bold proclamations about the near-future that tended to come true pretty quickly: The internet isn’t a new thing, it’s everything! Media, communication and…

I used to work at Twitter. Among other things, this meant I had the opportunity to meet a lot of random celebrities. Kanye West came and performed “Power” acapella, Snoop Lion came and smoked us out (this is still one of the best things that I’ve ever seen IRL), Jamie…

The idea to begin a new novel started sometime in January while I was stuck in traffic on the 1-10 merging into Hollywood after I’d spent a week in Palm Springs with the 26-year-old and a friend I’d gone to college with who was now losing her mind. (She had…

I've been following — as who hasn't been? — the fight between the New York Times and Tesla Motors. A recap: First, New York Times journalist John Broder reviewed the Tesla Model S electric car and had a problem with it — namely that it couldn’t hold a charge. Second…

In the fourth grade, your entire class put on a winter musical spectacular. It was everything your little nine-year-old heart could hope for: Singing! Dancing! Glittery snow and beaming parents! This being an inclusive school event, everyone was to participate in belting out politically-correct Christmas classics like Jingle Bell Rock…

Rewind two hours and twenty minutes before my cheeks were swept by a tide of waterworks at the Les Miserables movie showing: I'm leaning back, twentieth row or so, relieved I haven't missed a single downward glance of Jean Valjean and Co, when a trailer pops on. It shows a…

It might be the most internet-ready thing to happen before the internet became the internet — Somehow, the Red Wedding of roller coaster rides is reduced to one simple sentence on Fabio’s Wikipedia page. Maybe it’s the fact that this happened in a pre-YouTube/Twitter era, so it wasn’t immediately meme’d to death. It probably made your local news; maybe it was the last story of…