film Superheroes, Miles Morales, and the Fallacy of Hard Choices You've been here before. A movie, a book, a pivotal episode of your favorite television series – whichever, take your pick, but I'll go with movie for now – is on, and it's presenting the hero with an awful choice. On the one hand, there's a single person; the hero's friend, partner
tech Is It Scrappy, or Is It Under-Engineered? Engineering at at early-stage startup comes with some of the hardest tradeoffs you'll have to deal with in the field. While you never have enough resources to do everything you want, the more mature and stable a company gets, the longer the horizon on new feature development can (and often
tech Mastodon Is Bad (But It Might Be the Best We'll Get) We've had our share of moments where it looked like Twitter might be unalived, either literally or effectively, and in each of those moments, one alternative emerged from the mists like the wooly pachyderm it chose as its mascot: Mastodon. And each time, I signed up for a (sometimes new)
film The Lie of Generic Nostalgia It's easy to say we're living in an era full of more cursed, commercialized nostalgia than ever before, but it's just as possible saying that is its own form of nostalgia. That said, there's definitely something in the water, a wave bigger than anything I remember living through. From nostalgia
tech Technology Leadership Isn't About Technology If you've designed the hiring plan, been in a debrief, or simply been in a meeting about what makes a successful people leader for your engineering team, I'm guessing technical experience found its way to the top of at least one person's list. It sounds natural, obvious even, to expect
writing She Says Goodbye Tomorrow I wrote "She Says Goodbye Tomorrow" for a collection of climate change-themed stories called Hot Mess over a decade ago. It's one of my favorite things I've written, about a woman whose family vineyard is dying, and in honor of Mimesis [https://books2read.com/mimesis] coming out today, I post
writing MIMESIS Is Here! (Well, the cover is) Pre-order an ebook of MIMESIS at any of these fine booksellers! [https://books2read.com/mimesis] It will also be available in print by release day! Watch this space for more! Hello and welcome from this recently quiet writer's desk! It's been a bit, but I have some very exciting news:
film Curation, Discovery, and the Great River Choosing what movie to watch can feel like more work than watching the film itself. Have algorithms failed us? Is curation the answer? Or is it something else?
film Star Wars v Little Man Now that Skywalker has risen, and the saga is complete, I can finally do this Little Man take on Star Wars. Here we go! What’s The Little Man? I’ll let Roger Ebert explain [https://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/you-give-out-too-many-stars], but the short version is that it’s a
film The Fast and the Furious v Little Man Hey, have y’all heard of this FAST AND THE FURIOUS franchise thing? It’s a little obscure, I know, but a couple years ago I watched them all, and now that I have a friend doing their own binge, I figured it was time to bring the Little Man
MCU v Little Man Hey, look, I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I want to talk about why, because there are things about how the MCU has built itself that I’d love to see other franchises learn and execute, but today isn’t that day. As new films have come out, I’ve
The Last Jedi: What, Who and Why The first time I saw the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski, I came out of the theater uneasy. It was funny, sure, but just when it looked like the plot was going to come together, the air went out of everything. There was no kidnapping. The protagonists neither saved anyone,
For Your Consideration: The Best of Gundam Battles For those who’ve mercifully been spared by ramblings on Twitter, let me make a clearing: Gundam is the best franchise on planet Earth. I can’t promise you’d like it — anime is rather specific mode of art, and Gundam’s brand of giant mecha soap opera is a
Moving On: Lost, Death, and Everything After For six weeks, I lived on the Island. I watched the crash of Oceanic 815, and followed the survivors as they struggled to understand their situation. I saw mysteries unfold before them. I experienced the tragedies in their pasts, and feared for the ones yet to come. When you binge-watch
