In which I celebrate the enduring power of the pencil: Because pencils are so straightforward, they’ve long been associated in my mind with the kind of focus that likes to elude me when I am working onscreen. When I need to revise a piece, I still like to print out the current draft and read… Continue reading »
Archives for The Way We Live Now
November newsletter: Platform fatigue
Am I leaving Twitter? Not yet. But I’m exploring other places to hang out online. “Musk’s takeover hasn’t driven me off the platform yet. But it has made me think harder about how I use it, and why—questions I’m carrying with me as I line up some possible alternatives. So many alternatives, so little time,… Continue reading »
September Song
“We’re not even halfway through the month yet, but September has been quite a ride so far. Amazingly enough, even in the midst of the fire-ravaged, virus-plagued hellscape of late summer 2020, I have a couple of launches to be happy about, and I am hella grateful.” The new issue of my newsletter is out,… Continue reading »
Nine Signs You Need a New Gig
I love this photo, taken in the early 1940s, of a skilled shop technician at the Douglas Aircraft factory in Long Beach, Calif, where they made B-17s and other aircraft used in World War II. The image is beautiful in itself, but the woman in it also looks fully absorbed in what she’s doing. The… Continue reading »
Data Love and Internet Hell
I have the lead essay (“Internet of Stings”) in the Dec. 2nd Times Literary Supplement, writing about four books that lay out the risks (and a few of the rewards) of the way we live online: “In this post-factual, truth-averse era, many of the destinations that draw us online have become unsafe spaces, hostile and treacherous,… Continue reading »
