Agalia Tan

Once, we made sense of the world with sweeping narratives that provided a comforting sense of mastery. Now, with those narratives shattered beyond repair by a reality too complex for us to fathom, a new kind of coping mechanism is emerging—one where we make peace with the limits of our agency rather than pretending to overcome them. The task is no... See more

I had a boss who combed through my likes before making a final decision to hire me. I talked to another friend who called snooping likes “the last good way of stalking someone online.” Both of these point to the idea that likes are weirdly a good window into who someone is. It's certainly a better window than what they post.

Too many businesses don’t really understand that the core of their business is making people feel good. Whether it’s walking into a store or a restaurant, or being on an airplane, most people go through life hoping that good things will happen to them, and they return to businesses that make those things happen.

Concern and attention is a noble effort, but they — and we — require specificity and nuance in such conversations. Otherwise, we get more noise without change. This is where we are now.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then differentiation is the sincerest form of insult.

You can’t use AI to accelerate until you’ve defined what good looks like.