Agalia Tan

Said differently, we try to measure what we value.

But we inevitably end up valuing what we measure.

And what can be measured tends to be...the mechanical stuff.

Not only do numbers not capture what matters, they are also extremely open to manipulation.

But busyness has a way of stealing creativity from you. Generative work, like art and writing, requires long periods of nothingness: it’s only in that wide empty space that ideas emerge. Long runs, hot showers, commutes that don’t involve harried Slack messages and listening to podcasts at 2x speed. Sitting at the edge of a dock, listening to the o... See more

My latest column at The New Yorker is about the revenge of homepages: Why we're turning toward individual websites as the platform era of the internet continues to disintegrate.

I started working on this piece because I've found myself going to homepages more often. It's a way to get a controlled, curated look at what a publication offers, and a ch... See more

WeTransfer is a breakthrough brand because it has ignored conventional brand thinking. It operated for years without a “brand book” and instead thought of itself as an artist and expressed itself accordingly. WeTransfer has interests, friends, hobbies, things that it’s inspired by, and those things have changed over time. Like a person, your tastes... See more