James Damore, the guy Google just fired for his generalizations about gender, apparently said and did some sexist things in college. It disturbs me how everything in people’s pasts is now part of how we critique their current actions. And there’s a lesson in that for all of us. According to Gizmodo, Damore participated in…
Everyone consumes content online now, and video is ubiquitous. Is it time to admit that writing is obsolete? Not quite. But you must recognize the power of video and understand how it works with text to improve how-to and narrative communication. I recently had a mindset-altering conversation with a third-year medical student. She’s helping me…
A Dallas jury just awarded Andrea Polito, a wedding photographer, $1.08 million in damages against a couple who took their complaints about her to social media and local news. This lawsuit showcases how, after more than a decade of blogs and social networks, courts (and people) still have no idea how to deal with the…
The New York Times published a far-ranging and, in places, incomprehensible Oval Office interview with Donald Trump. It’s rambling and strange. As a result, there can be no definitive interpretation — like a Rorschach test, you see in President Trump’s words whatever you want to see. Here’s one interpretation — what I think I heard….
Thought leaders are more likely to be wrong than other kinds of thinkers. The Darwinian marketplace of ideas ensures it. You should be skeptical about everything they say. Yesterday, I defined thought leaders this way: A thought leader is a person who has created a coherent body of ideas and is effective at communicating and…
Reddit user “HanAssholeSolo” posted a meme video of Donald Trump beating up on a figure whose face is the CNN logo. Trump reposted it on Twitter. The original poster’s apology reveals how trolls think. Analysis of the troll’s self-serving apology Buzzfeed’s Brandon Wall took a screenshot of the Reddit poster’s apology and shared it on…
The New York Times is trying to decrease the number of editors at the paper, including cutting the copy editing desk by about half. With the world awash in fake and dubious news, this is no time to cut back on the last line of defense on quality and factual accuracy. But more to the…
Brianna Wu is running for Congress. She’s using Twitter like a real person. The result is an authenticity and humanity that’s unique in the political sphere. Yesterday I explained to a Twitter idealist from a decade ago how political Twitter had succeeded, but not in the way any of us expected. Now every politician has…
Josh from 2007: I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I’m talking to you ten years in the future. Josh 2017: Yup. I’m here to tell you that you were right about social media blowing up. Even politicians are using it. But it turns out that connecting a politician’s brain directly to millions of voters…