Do you remember gamification? I do. As does, I imagine, anyone else who was avidly following the rise of silicon valley social tech companies like Facebook from about, say, 2010 to 2016, the last moment when said companies were still generally portrayed in the broader discourse as innovative and genuinely…

At a staff meeting last month, Mark Zuckerberg reportedly unveiled the newly updated Company Values for The Company Formerly Known As Facebook. You can read all about the values for yourself here, along with “what it’s like working at Meta and what makes us different from other companies.” TL;DR: Move…

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving…

Holmes only went to trial because she inconvenienced and embarrassed powerful people — Shortly after the jury in the Elizabeth Holmes trial began its deliberations last month, I sat down and wrote the following: I want to ask a question that I’m not seeing enough people discussing: if Holmes is on trial for defrauding investors about her service, why isn’t that the case…

Update: this story was primarily written before the Holmes verdict was delivered. What’s written below stands. As of this writing, we have no idea how the Elizabeth Holmes trial will end. (Nor do we know just yet when it will end.) I’m not qualified, nor interested, in forecasting the outcome…

What if God was one of us? — Joan Osbourne, One Of Us They “trust me.” Dumb fucks. — Mark Zuckerberg’s first recorded communication about Facebook Facebook, or Meta, or whatever Mark Zuckerberg is electing to call it this week, is now allegedly a “Metaverse company.” What does that mean…

Dear Facebook Public Relations Team, Last week, I was wasting my life like so many others, seeing what shenanigans my feed would serve up, when I saw this:

On the morning of Monday, January 4th, welcome news came to all who have a stake in changing the silicon valley tech giants — which is to say, everyone with a stake in how our democracy and economy functions: a new union for Google/Alphabet workers had launched. The following week…

(Note: this essay is adapted from a presentation made by the author at IEEE’s ISTAS2020 — it can be viewed here.) If you’re reading this in the United States, it’s statistically quite likely that you were traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday around this time last year, and are now staying…