Quotes

Housing disconnects

There really is something inherently flawed in the way we’ve approached housing policy for the past several decades (at least), and I would argue that it comes down to a kind of cognitive dissonance on three key issues.

The Disconnect Between Liberal Aspirations And Liberal Housing Policy Is Killing Coastal U.S. Cities.

The IT Era and the Internet Revolution

people in the pre-Internet era didn’t read local newspapers because holding an unwieldy ink-staining piece of flimsy newsprint was particularly enjoyable; people read local newspapers because it was the only option. And, by extension, people don’t avoid local newspapers’ websites because the reading experience sucks — although that is true — they don’t even think to visit them because there are far better ways to occupy their finite attention.

Ben Thompson – The IT Era and the Internet Revolution.

Make Conversation Great Again

The outlets that welcome Turkle’s polemics are trading in the illusion of intelligence. They collect quotes from neuroscientists and quacks that call themselves things like “happiness experts”, package up half-thoughts into edgy-but-not-too-edgy counter-intuitive claims, and then overlay a narrative that assures their audience that they already knew how to live according to science but maybe they missed a few things. Turkle has expertly manipulated an already dishonest landscape of science journalism meant to provide fodder for condescending liberals.

Make Conversation Great Again.

The Power of a Dollar

In little more than thirty years, the microcredit concept has gone from being equated with Zorro, the mythical Mexican hero and friend of the poor and exploited, to being widely referred to as a zombie policy, a dead and rotten idea that nevertheless keeps rising from the grave. How did it come to this?

The Power of a Dollar.

Robert Caro Wonders What New York Is Going To Become

I gradually came to understand that because [Robert Moses] had done this thing, that no one else had ever done, gotten all this power without being elected, if I could find out how he did it and explain how he did it, I would be explaining something that no one else understood and I thought they really should understand, which is, how does power really work in cities? Not what we’re taught in textbooks, but what’s the raw, bottom, naked essence of real power?

Robert Caro Wonders What New York Is Going To Become.

Ride Along with the Cow Police

Lawmen and rustlers now find themselves reenacting a centuries-old drama, one central to the creation myth of the American frontier. If the cowboy was the great American folk hero, the cattle rustler was his villainous twin.

Ride Along with the Cow Police.

The Hardest, Shortest, Lesson Becoming A Manager

Maybe you can look at the state of things and say, we have a deadline right now, and what we need is another engineer for the next month. That engineer is me.

But more likely you look at the state of things and realize that what your team needs is a manager. Because you need to hire X more people. Because Y has a lot of potential but needs some coaching. Because product or design or some other team haven’t given you what you need so you need to go and get it. Because process is important, and the process you have is insufficient or just plain wrong.

Cate Huston – The Hardest, Shortest, Lesson Becoming A Manager.

Rent Control Is Bad For Both Landlords And Tenants

Void of analysis, rent control sounds utopian. Yet, the effects are unfortunate: tenants face limited housing stocks that are either run-down or unaffordable; landlords lose money, and ultimately stop investing and building altogether.

Rent Control Is Bad For Both Landlords And Tenants.

Breaking the Silence

The WordPress support role is one that I inhabit fully, because if there’s anyone who understands what it’s like to have a technical barrier to expression, it’s me. It’s truly wonderful to be able to help others break through their own limitations, and end their silences, using the power of Free and Open Source Software, and the open web.

Breaking the Silence. This essay from my co-worker Mahangu is fantastic. If you help people on the web you should read this.

Fear of Screens

To start from the prerequisite that co-presence is solely dependent on proximity in space devalues so many other moments where closeness occurs that happens to be mediated by a screen.

From Nathan Jurgenson’s essay Fear of Screens. His related essay, The IRL Fetish, from 3 years ago is still one of my favorites.