El Transito is a fishing village that hugs the Pacific Ocean on the coast of north-central Nicaragua. Home to about 2,200 people, it’s reached only by an hour-and-fifteen-minute rumble along a dirt ro
Websites are using hidden tricks to make you click or buy without realising, and the way they do it can be both baffling and controversial, finds Chris Baraniuk. The internet is one big experiment, an
At Dropbox, we treat growth as an integral part of the product experience. We look at major holes in user experience that slow growth, and we try to be creative in addressing the big picture, rather t
TRANSLATIONS: 中文 (UI.cn) | 中文 (CSDN) | 한국어 | ру́сский язы́к This summer, I packed up all my things and moved from San Francisco to Guangzhou, China for work. Through an unlikely chain of coincidences
*** The Monday before Thanksgiving, we all came to work. Some people had turned on their computers and were working. At around 8:15 a.m., that black screen of death came on. They shut down the entire
Chris Green holds an envelope. At least, it looks like an envelope. In reality, it's a piece of office copy paper that's been cut and folded into the shape of a Kindle Voyage, the latest in Amazon's b
December 2014 If the world were static, we could have monotonically increasingconfidence in our beliefs. The more (and more varied) experiencea belief survived, the less likely it would be false. Most
It’s Time to Intelligently Discuss Artificial Intelligence I am an AI researcher and I’m not scared. Here’s why. Published in Backchannel · 5 min read · Dec 9, 2014 -- Some people have long regarded a
This image was removed due to legal reasons. About two years ago, I wrote a story about a strange phenomenon on the web: in a medium known for its ability to track people—following them around with Za
Just over a block from where I live in Oakland, California, there are two identical Edwardian cottages – well, almost identical. Their façades are covered in different materials; one has had its small
Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group Jimmy hands $2 worth of dimes to the conductor and finds a seat at the back of the bus. Advertisement Advertisement He settles himself in for what is going to be a lo
Published in Make Time · 6 min read · Aug 31, 2014 -- In 2012, I realized I had a problem. My iPhone made me twitchy. I could feel it in my pocket, calling me, like the Ring called Bilbo Baggins. It d
Hey China, you're welcome. When you think about your future multi-million dollar shipping moguls, innovative tech giants, and up-and-coming diplomats, please remember a small handful of them probably
December 5, 2013 culture It’s an exciting time for Buffer. Toby Osbourn just joined and we’re now 16 people. Toby joined us as a Backend Hacker , and he’s been a joy to work with so far. Within just a
It rarely makes sense to take product feedback from all users and it never makes sense to get it all at once. At the outset of a new project, or especially if you’ve recently taken over a product, it’
Did you hear? Podcasts were dead, and now they’re back ! This story is suddenly everywhere. It’s not extremely accurate, but I’ll take it. * * * In early 2013, a New York Times reporter contacted me t
Uber just lost a really good driver. As a mom who had stopped working to raise my child, I decided to try driving for Uber part-time, for flexibility and some extra cash. I am a native English speaker
wed at TrialPay in 2012, I learned that strongest signal for whether someone would get an offer was the number of typos and grammatical errors on their resume. On the other hand, where people went to school, their GPA, and highest degree earned didn’t matter at all. These results were pretty…
In late 2011, screenwriter Charlie Brooker introduced the television show Black Mirror to the world that had yet to fully embrace smartphones. In fact, in Q3 of 2014 there were nearly as many smartpho
It is vitally important that we all realize this and move on. People (eg Bloggers) go on and on about how wonderful it is. About how much information is out there in cyberspace. About the way that eve
Steve Jennings/Getty Images Over the last few weeks, billionaire and former tech executive Mark Cuban has become increasingly vocal on the subject of net neutrality. In an interview with The Washingto
I figured it was about time for a followup on my systemd post. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while but time hasn’t allowed. The end of Linux Some people wrongly characterized this as some sort of h
jason wright Dec 12, 2011 Would you be able to add time to each stage? Typically how long does each stage last in companies you have invested in please? fredwilson Dec 12, 2011 too long!but seriously,
Since I still receive a few emails every week asking me if Launcher is ever coming back to the App Store, I figured it would make sense to post a public update now that I finally have a pretty solid a
W e all remember Clippy, right? He of the friendly, persistent “It looks like you’re writing a letter. Would you like help?” Clippy (real name: Clippit) was an innovation for Microsoft ; the idea that
Software only becomes valuable when you ship it to customers. Before then it’s just a costly accumulation of hard work and assumptions. Shipping unlocks a feedback loop that confirms or challenges tho
The gist: We all eventually suffer from “lazy expert syndrome.” The best way to snap out of it and grow is to mentor someone new to your field. It was the “roaring twenties” in America, and business w
Published in Obvious Ventures · 2 min read · Dec 1, 2014 -- Today marks the official launch of Obvious Ventures, the third chapter in the history of ‘Obvious.’ In order to tell you where we’re going,
Governments should sack plans to auction off old television frequencies to the highest bidder and instead use the bandwidth for free super-frequency WiFi if they want to boost the economy, scientists
Introducing the Bittersweet Spot Published in Backchannel · 6 min read · Dec 3, 2014 -- I got an iPhone 6 Plus to test just before Apple put it on sale in September. Two days later I was having brunch
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A n elderly man crouches on a rug in a house in west Baltimore. He’s alone, and wearing shalwar kameez, so from the back I assume he’s praying. In fact he’s eating his dinner. When he sees me come thr
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