A few smart things I’ve read recently: “People in their 30s know where the world is going because they’re going to do it. I’m in my 80s so I have no idea.” - Daniel Kahneman “Every group of people who
For the past twenty or so years, my friend Chad and I have gone to Las Vegas for the first weekend of the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament. Memory often fails when it comes to gambling, but I believe th
I can only code no more than 2 hours a day, laying in my bed and with a video playing in the background so I don’t feel lonely! That was a typical day in my life 5 years ago. I was having panic attack
Most people will die after three days without water. But drinking too much can be equally dangerous – water intoxication is deadly, and during rigorous training about a dozen soldiers per year are hos
Photo by Xue Jun/VCG via Getty Images You could make the argument that last year was the worst year in human history for climate change. The Earth experienced its hottest day on record over and over a
When you’re driving a car down a road, you might get a bit stuffy and decide to roll your windows down. The air will flow in, the wind will get louder, and the sensation of moving will intensify. Your
Good error message, bad error message Error messages are like letters from the tax authorities. You’d rather not get them, but when you do, you’d prefer them to be clear about what they want you to do
A brief book update: I wanted to share that Slow Productivity debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list last week! Which is all to say: thank you for helping this book make such a splash. If
Image: Imgflip 👋 Hey, it’s Wes. Welcome to my weekly newsletter where I share frameworks for becoming a sharper marketer, founder, and operator, based on my experience as an a16z-backed founder. If yo
Here’s what I consider to be the basics. I call them that not because they’re easy, but because they’re fundamental. The foundation on which your advanced skills and expertise rest. Multipliers and nu
When Steve Edsel was a boy, his adoptive parents kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings in their bedroom closet. He would ask for it sometimes, poring over the headlines about his birth. Headlines li
Designers value script and states are reinstating cursive’s education, yet Gen-Z can’t read it and brands are straying from it. We explore. Whether we realize it or not, everyone has a connection to c
Recently, I’ve been interested in the DuckDB project (like a SQLite geared towards data applications). And one of the amazing features is that it has many data importers included without requiring ext
Introduction 10 PRINT "HELLO" 20 GOTO 10 In April, 1984, my father bought a computer for his home office, a Luxor ABC-802, with a Z80 CPU, 64 kilobytes of RAM, a yellow-on-black screen with 80 by 25 t
When you're designing a piece of software, the single most important thing to design for is understandability. Security, performance, and correctness are all important, but they come after understanda
Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo/Slate. Photos by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Mark Wilson/Getty Images, Alfred Kenneally/Unsplash, Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash, Clay Banks/Unsplash, Volodymyr
We are at the dawn of a new era. Over the past year or so, new versions of artificial intelligence have emerged, leading some to claim machine sentience is around the corner. This is either taken to b
HBR Staff/Dan Reynolds Photography/Getty Images In 1910, the French artist Villemard created a series of illustrations imagining life in the year 2000. In one of his drawings, an architect sits in a b
What do leaders who are skilled at navigating complexity know how to do? What do they do differently? What would you observe if a leader had these skills? That’s the question Tom (author of the Innova
First things first: complaining (or its rationalization-justified cousin, "venting") isn't good for you. A study published in the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology found the more
My relationship with money has been one of intimacy. From the moment I began earning it, I preferred to keep my precious dollars where I could see them: easily accessible in my wallet or a bank, no ce
When you're building a fast-growing company, the people you bring onto your team are absolutely instrumental to your success -- so you want to make sure you're hiring the right talent. Beyond résumés
The "Harmless" Y2K Remember the "Year 2000" problem (or Y2K) in the late 90s? This referred to the fact that many older computer systems represented years using only two digits. This meant that when t
The psychology of site speed and human happiness user experience research In the fourteen years that I've been working in the web performance industry, I've done a LOT of research, writing, and speaki
This isn't a conspiracy theory or future prophecy . The idea of an internet dominated by AI-generated content is already happening and it doesn't look good. Ever since ChatGPT hit the market, AI-gener
What does a mature, end-to-end design system look like in a big, complex organization? What are all the moving pieces, and how do they hang together as a well-considered architecture? What’s required
Big ideas, straight to your inbox Sign up for TED newsletters to receive curated selections of new talks, animations, podcasts and more. What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you t
laurie kalmanson Feb 13, 2012 the upside down pyramid is really rightside up: awesome.also: reward good behavior, do not tolerate bad behavior. Dave Pinsen Feb 13, 2012 I worked at a bank years ago th
Parkinson's Law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Although it is counter-intuitive, you will find that through practice and experience, there is a lot of
The Old World has new problems. Over the course of 2023, the European economy saw close to zero growth. The continent’s two largest national economies—Germany and the U.K.—may both be in recession. Fl
The smallest hint of frustration had crept into John Kerry’s voice. We were talking about international climate diplomacy, which for the past two years has been Kerry’s job as the U.S. special preside
JAMES SUZMAN: Nobody actually knows why our hunter-gatherer ancestors made the sudden transition to agriculture. It's one of the great mysteries of human history. Hunter-gatherer economies always focu
This article is an excerpt from Atomic Habits, my New York Times bestselling book. Prevailing wisdom claims that the best way to achieve what we want in life—getting into better shape, building a succ
How disappointing it is to learn that the best ideas rarely come from data after 15 years of working in the field. Data may give you a conclusive answer that changing the color of a button from yellow
First published July 25, 2018 An early reviewer pointed out that what follows depends substantially on acting from a position of privilege. Absolutely. What appear to be compliments can be assertions
In tech, we're fortunate to have separate management and technical tracks, though it's still underdeveloped. However, the path you take isn't very clear, it's not broadly understood what the responsib
All too often our questions aren't truly open and honest inquiries. They may be loaded questions, freighted with biased assumptions. They may be leading questions, guiding the respondent to our prefer
Homo sapiens evolved as a separate species about 300,000 years ago. Measured in generations (with each generation lasting 20 years), that means there are about 15,000 great-great-etc. grandparents sep
Amrita Khalid The Gray Lady is working on a generative AI tool for advertisers. The New York Times ad team is testing an internal generative AI chatbot that will recommend the best placement for ad ca
Most engineers intuitively know that smaller code changes are better than big ones. The logical arguments flow easy - small pull requests are easier to review, less likely to have bugs, and are faster