productivity
I’ve expressed my disillusionment with to-do lists before. But let’s try something simpler, a little experiment. What do you use to keep track of what you need to do? Hold it up, so I can see it. Humor me. Seriously! No no no, hold it closer, near the
social media
I find the Don’t Read The Comments movement kind of sad. In 2006 I said that a blog without comments is not a blog and I stand behind that statement. There have been brief periods where my own blog has been temporarily without comments, but they will always come
psychology
The Dan Ariely books, Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality, profoundly influenced the way I design my massively multiplayer typing games. These books offer science in the small about human behavior, and stark insights into user behavior – and by that I mean our own behavior. All detectives are by
blogging
In 2007, I was offered $120,000 to buy this blog outright. I was sorely tempted, because that’s a lot of money. I had to think about it for a week. Ultimately I decided that my blog was an integral part of who I was, and who I eventually
user experience
I’m getting pretty sick of being nagged to install your damn apps. XKCD helpfully translates: Yeah, there are smart app banners, which are marginally less annoying, but it’s amazing how quickly we went from “Cool! Phone apps that finally don’t suck!” to this sad, eye rolling, oh-great-of-course-you-have-an-app-too
software development concepts
If I haven’t blogged much in the last year, it’s because we’ve been busy building that civilized discourse construction kit thing I talked about. (Yes, that’s actually the name of the company. This is what happens when you put me in charge of naming things. Pinball
virtual reality
A month after I wrote about John Carmack, he left id Software to become the CTO of Oculus. This was big news for two reasons: 1. Carmack founded id in the early 90s. An id Software without Carmack is like an Apple without Woz and Jobs. You wouldn’t leave
battery life
I’ve become a huge fan of touch computing. I believe that most things we think of as “computers” will be de-facto tablets, either in our pocket, in our hands, possibly even mounted on our wrists or forearms. I can’t wait for the iPad 5 this week (I’ll
biographies
Masters of Doom is the story of John Carmack and John Romero creating the seminal games Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. It’s an amazing work on so many levels – but primarily because of the exhaustive research the author undertook to tell this story. To re-create the story of the
technology trends
I just updated my utility belt. Well, metaphorically speaking – every self-respecting geek has one. Lately I’ve been trying to minimize what I carry around even further. After having children I’ve come to appreciate the value of less stuff in my life. So here’s my everyday carry in
mini-itx
I no longer own any laptops. Everything in our house is a tablet: multiple Nexus 7s, multiple iPad 4s, and a Surface Pro. In fact, the only traditional computers I own are my triple-monitor desktop home office beast, and the small Home Theater PC (HTPC) that drives all our home
keyboards
What would you do, if you could do anything? I don’t mean in a fantasy superhero way, but in terms of resources. If someone told you that you now had the resources to attempt to make one thing happen in the world, one real thing, what would that be?