or, Garry Winogrand was wrong
Some time ago, I posted this fantastic quote about the difference between photography and other kinds of creativity, by the famous street photographer Garry Winogrand: Still photography is the clumsiest way to exercise imagination, to illustrate literary ideas. Anybody with a pencil beats you. Period. To take a simple illustration of the point: if you wanted a melted watch, how… read more
We cannot champion Network Neutrality without admitting that the Internet is no Utopia.
Think about regret as if it were sin. Some regrets are mild, but acute. The regret associated with choosing the wrong supermarket checkout lane, or buying an outfit that you notice goes on sale the next week—these seem woeful. They chafe, but their pains are pin pricks that soon subside. These are venial regrets. Regret is more severe when it steeps… read more
Services like Silvercar, Uber, and pay-to-play airline VIP programs help keep the new aristocracy away from the rabble
When I power on my phone upon landing at LAX, a text message is already waiting for me: “Hi Ian, Silvercar here! We have your res at 1:00pm today. Let’s roll!” Silvercar rents a fleet of silver Audi A4s at airports in Austin, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. A slogan speaks plainly on the company’s behalf: “car rental that doesn’t… read more
Why playing stupid games staves off existential despair
Games are grotesque. I’m not talking about games like Grand Theft Auto or Manhunt, games whose subjects are moral turpitude, games that that ask players to murder, maim, or destroy. I mean games in general, the form we call “games.” Games are gross, revolting heaps of arbitrary anguish. Games are encounters with squalor. You don’t play a game to experience an… read more
My daughter on Goldieblox
The toy start-up Goldieblox has been in the news this week thanks to an ugly public fight over fair use and right of publicity with the Beastie Boys (they’ve since relented). But the company first gained public attention over a year ago when they first launched the Kickstarter for “an engineering toy for girls.” Back when the crowdfunding campaign launched,… read more
A response to Kevin Werbach on MOOC "rock stars"
Kevin Werbach, a Wharton professor who has been teaching a MOOC on gamification (I know, my two favorite tastes together at last!), has written a Chronicle post decrying the use of the “rock star” moniker for MOOC profs. “The rock-star meme implies that teaching is all about performance,” says Werbach. Of course, it’s possible that the rock star metaphor works… read more
Gone Home: a videogame about releasing secrets
Originally published at the Los Angeles Review of Books Gone Home is a videogame about releasing secrets, the kind of secrets that you should have known all along. It is set in Oregon circa 1995, and it tells the story of an ordinary family. As the game starts, you find yourself on the porch of an old house. You are… read more
MOOCs scale for bankers and industrialists, not for students
You might want to read this New York Times article about Georgia Tech’s new online masters degree in computer science. The article is pretty good, reasonably balanced, and looks at the issue from (almost) all sides. Notable side missing, as usual: what students think. Anyway, I’ve said enough about this whole MOOC thing, but I did want to highlight one… read more
Resignation beyond sorrow on the Facebook Platform and beyond
In recent weeks, Facebook has been sending emails imploring me to complete a survey about how they might improve their development platform. I’d been deleting the messages, but after the third request or so, I decided to click through. For those lucky enough to have avoided it, the Facebook Platform is a set of tools and services that allows developers… read more
An essay and book series about the hidden lives of ordinary things
Object Lessons is a series of concise, affordable, beautifully designed books and of smart, short essays based around singular objects and the lessons they hold. Books are published and distributed worldwide by Bloomsbury, and essays are published at The Atlantic. You can also keep up with Object Lessons on Twitter and on Facebook. At around 25,000 words, each book starts… read more