Web Tag

Yesterday, I Skyped a girl I have never met, yet a girl I have been speaking to every day for four years. She lives in England and is starting her first year of university this month. She occasionally sends me sparkly stickers and British jewelry, and I whimsically mail over cards covered in amateur doodles of cartoon animals. I watched as she picked out a prom dress, I listened to her rants about her qualms and insecurities, I told her dumb jokes to alleviate the stress of exam season. SheRead More

Barbecue sauce, weekend benders, porn, television, movies, Hulu. What do these all have in common? In reasonable doses they can add new dimensions of fun and texture to your life, but too much and the law of diminishing returns kicks in. What’s delicious? Hot wings and barbecue. What’s disgusting? One wing in a tub of Stubb’s. This is what personal media has become to me: a constant binge of distraction. Let me clarify something. I’m 28. I’m in the doldrums of the twenty-something. I’m now filling the void which wasRead More

Most of us spend at least twelve years of our lives in school (unless you’re a Kardashian or a child star, in which case you’re just screwed). Throughout the years spent in preschool, elementary, high school, and possibly college and beyond, we cram our brains with facts that 99% of us will never need to recall ever again. In this new edition of This Website Will Change Your Life, we’re turning learning upside down and introducing ways to master things that are actually useful and relevant. The website in question,Read More

Before you have a rage stroke, that’s not just another clickbait headline. It’s true and I’ll tell you why. First, let’s back up and take a moment to bask in the majesty of the Internet. In terms of sheer size, scope, and overall effect on humanity, it’s a pretty sweet invention–maybe even one of the most important inventions of all human history. (Obviously, the #1 most important will always be melted cheese.) Almost everything in the developed world has been revolutionized by and now depends on the internet: shopping, universityRead More

Designing the internet The internet is important. People love it. But it takes work to make the internet. There’s a lot of stuff going on under the hood. And working under that hood are the mechanics. The mechanics of the internet. They come in many forms: engineers, project managers, the designer. All working together to deliver the internet. Of course, if you’ve ever worked in an office, you know people enjoy bad metaphors for simple concepts. These metaphors might be used with evil intentions, to disguise a bad idea. OrRead More