The basic design principle of keeping things simple is nowhere as needed as in consumer technology. Because nowhere else is there a greater tendency to overclutter products with pointless, expensive functions that really don’t work that well. A recent epic … Continued
People often suffer from the notion that they should wait for their lives to begin instead of living them – that something will – eventually – happen, the stars will align, and their lives will finally properly begin. I call … Continued
By popular demand, and like last year, a list of recommended books follows, keeping with the format of one book per month. Realistically, not everyone will be interested in every single book, so for next year, the list will be … Continued
As Eisenhower said, “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Therefore, I have planned. This is what you can expect in the first half of 2017. I am aiming for a minimum of 4 articles per month, or one per week. It’s … Continued
When was the last time you rode a horse to the grocery store? Yeah, me neither. Point is, nobody in the future is going to drive. By “nobody”, I mean a few eccentric hobbyists who actually enjoy driving, myself included, … Continued
The solution to the robot “job apocalypse” isn’t just to invent new jobs – it’s also to revisit old ones that we’ve temporarily neglected. The more menial, generic work is done by the machines, the more demand there will be for … Continued
Let’s face it, there is pretty much only one problem in politics. Corruption. Now, I am not so naive as to consider it a completely solvable problem. But there are extremely harmful types, and there are relatively (relatively!) benign ones. … Continued
When the world’s most valuable company presents a new product, I expect it to be a Martian colonial module, a fusion reactor or a hyperdrive, not a touch band to add emoji to messages half a second faster. There are multiple kinds … Continued
The best thing you can do for your financial future is to read about and really understand the logic of compound interest. Because this is how not-just-lucky rich/successful people think all the time about everything. For those completely new to the … Continued
Big media and social networks are now openly talking about tackling “fake news” on the internet. Okay, but let’s just say the line is getting worryingly thin even with formerly respectable publications such as The Economist, especially around election season. Basically, … Continued
It’s amazing for people to work together and help each other. But “collectivism” is something else, typically a sneaky euphemism for the personal interests of a powerful few. Usually, fuzzy phrases such as “bigger society”, “community”, “solidarity” and “public interest” are … Continued
It is an obvious truism that public institutions have a tendency to bloat and meddling-creep: to always seek to increase their powers and control, never backing down voluntarily. Furthermore, whether on purpose or by accident, they shut themselves in self-serving … Continued
People tend to confuse becoming more aware of a problem with there being more of that problem. We are now said to live in a “post-truth” world, where various players make their own “truth”. Well yes, but that’s not new, is … Continued
Whenever a highly lucrative business is offered for sale to the general public, you can be pretty sure there’s a gargantuan catch and the whole thing is likely to crap out, or at least become a whole lot less lucrative … Continued
Things are apparently going so well in the West that our biggest problem is people having too much pudding. That’s why British health minister Jeremy Hunt declared a “Government war on puddings”. Let your common sense appreciate this. Marvel at … Continued
TLDR version: What you measure, you optimize. But there are important caveats. Two things happened in a day that triggered pattern recognition (no, not the looting and rioting in Charlotte): A study reports that fitness trackers make people lose less weight. … Continued
Some errors are so grave, it takes an expert to make them – and uncritical journalists and motivated reasoners to repeat them. For example, the soundbite that “You can’t outrun your fork”. You know, because thermodynamics isn’t a thing, or doesn’t apply … Continued
Dear activist arseholes: stop making me oppose good things. Let me lead with a prominent example: A few years ago, people in western countries have collectively decided that riding bicycles is a good thing for a number of reasons – it improves … Continued
People in tech have been arguing whether programming is something that everyone should know at least a bit (pun not intended), or whether it should remain a highly specialized and exclusive (i.e. expensive) skill. There are two camps: 1) The reasonable people … Continued
Objective data show the world is in the best state in human history, yet people freak out and prophesize doom. Let’s see why. The blame typically falls on journalists, who are said to disproportionately report the bad stuff – that’s true, … Continued