Mar 7, 2019Member-onlyThe Origin of the Retweet and other Twitter ArcanaSometimes you blink and a decade goes by. In this case, it is well on 12 years. I thought I would get this down on paper before I forget it all. Twitter is certainly the oddest amazing story I’ve been able to witness up close in my 25 years in…Twitter6 min readTwitter6 min read
Dec 1, 2017Chasing the Technology of Ultra RunningIn 1974, an innovator and pioneer named Gordy Ainsleigh toed the line of a 100-mile trail race. The biggest difference between that race and races of today was that he was competing against, wait for it, horses. He completed that race, the Tevis Cup, in under 24 hours, running from…Running4 min readRunning4 min read
Published inPeckable·Nov 16, 2017Shoeless Kevin Durant — PeckableTry this with your Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Note: if you are using Alexa, first say enable The Green Bird. Say: ask The Green Bird how many times has Kevin Durant lost his shoe. Last season, a couple friends of mine started to notice that Kevin Durant has a…NBA3 min readNBA3 min read
Published inPeckable·Jun 6, 2017Rephrase your product/service as a question. Then answer it.My last installment took a look at understanding the actual moment when someone might use an app. Now, let’s take a look at something totally different: the information exchange between consumer and creator. Since launching our Peck App, we knew the next piece of our Big Idea was the ability…Amazon Echo3 min readAmazon Echo3 min read
Nov 10, 2016Twitter, Please Adapt.Since 2006, I have spent a lot of time with Twitter, on Twitter, writing about Twitter, and building for Twitter. After this election cycle, I believe it is worth addressing the need for critical changes. Twitter is an indispensable global information network that has been in existence for ten years…Twitter3 min readTwitter3 min read
Published inStartup Grind·Aug 9, 2016Question: exactly when is someone going to use your app/service?We’ve been talking about the “attention economy” for a few years now but largely live in denial of the implications. …Startup5 min readStartup5 min read
Published inPeckable·May 27, 2016Peck and the Bite-Sized InternetUpdate 3.15.18 Ok, we’ve been learning a lot over the last year and are zeroing in on the most exciting potential for our Peck platform: Voice. We are now entering a radical shift in the way we interact with devices and the types of of information and content we want to consume. …Peck3 min readPeck3 min read
Published in50 Words or Less·Jan 10, 2016ParadoxAs I walk out of the kitchen headed back to bed, I see the clock reads 4:45am. After blotting, scooping, bagging, and cleaning my five-year-old’s throw up, inexplicably I feel hungry.Parenting1 min readParenting1 min read
Aug 3, 2015rm -rf /home/messagebusIn the end there are coffee cups. Midway through 2010, tired of one too many “rock paper scissors” to decide who got the task of setting up a mail server for the latest thing we were building, we hatched the idea of a simple cloud service to send out transactional…Startups3 min readStartups3 min read
Published in50 Words or Less·Jul 6, 2015Make Your Own RulesThe older brother wants to play tag so he asks his two-year-old sister Do you want to be a Fly or a Spider? The sister declares gleefully I want to be a Flying Spider.Kids1 min readKids1 min read
