we are shaped by our tools, systems, and environment

What city you live in. Who you date or marry. Which job you choose. What clothes you wear.

We all think we make these choices ourselves. It certainly feels like we’re in full control. But it turns out that our choices — both in our startups and in our lives — are more constrained than we think.

The unseen hand in them all is the networks that... See more

Bloomberg has always been as much a social object as a data pipe. Those orange and black screens are a badge of belonging; the unique keyboard is a rite of passage.

In this context, POSH signals that the Bloomberg community isn’t just about trading credit default swaps, but also about trading Ferraris, Bordeaux, and Patek Philippes, currencies of... See more

When the traveler wants a big experience, he goes to a big city to see big things. But when he wants an “ authentic” experience, he must eschew the most well-trodden places, possibly the cities themselves, to find it. He must seek out places that have not yet been touched by “tourism”, he must find the people and places that still have remoteness —... See more

We use the computer to process words, but the ideas that animate those words originate somewhere else, away from the screen. The word processor has changed the way we write, but it hasn't yet changed the way we think.

The way of the tourist is to consume; the way of the pilgrim is to be consumed. To the tourist the journey is a means. The pilgrim understands that it is both a means and an end in itself. The tourist and the pilgrim experience time differently. For the former, time is the foe that gives consumption its urgency. For the latter, time is a gift in... See more

A primary reinforcer is something we’re born to desire. A conditioned reinforcer is something we learn to desire, due to its association with a primary reinforcer.