Mark Fishman

Someone once asked me recently if I had any advice on how to predict the future when I wrote about social and technological trends. Sure , I said. My advice is that predicting the future is impossible, so the best thing you can do is try to describe the present accurately . Since most people live in the past, hanging onto stale narratives and... See more

Perhaps a great deal of television is not meant to absorb our attention, at all, but rather to dab away at it, to soak up tiny droplets of our sensory experience while our focus dances across other screens. You might even say that much television is not even made to be watched at all. It is made to flow. The play button is the point.

Things tend to converge. The iPhone converged my calculator and the internet and the phone. And the home is becoming similarly multiuse. Travel, work, and living used to be compartmentalized. We traveled in one space; we worked in a different space; we lived in another space. It’s all coming together.

Zoom out more, and you’ll see that scarcity is also the story of the U.S. economy. After years of failing to invest in technology at our ports, we have a shipping-delay crisis. After years of a deliberate policy to reduce visa issuance for immigrants, we suddenly can’t find enough workers for our schools, factories, restaurants, or hotels. After... See more

Tokens may represent a net positive for consumers by reducing switching costs between platforms (incentives for early adopters). Low switching costs increases the emphasis on building good products that retain users. 

Lamott tells writers to begin with what she calls a shitty first draft. The first version is going to be messy, and precisely because it does not have to be perfect, you are allowed to begin. Improvement comes through iteration.

Cities are no different. We inherit the slow, messy evolution of streets, plazas, and neighborhoods. What we need is... See more

As young single men have dramatically increased their time alone and online, they’ve marinated in a unique attentional environment that is more charged with extremist ideas and emotional negativity. Political scientists have found that social isolation increases the risk that young men develop a “need for chaos,” and law enforcement officers have... See more