James Stevens

WHAT IS A FLIP

A flip is a sort of a CAPTCHA that helps to determine whether a user is human. In contrast to a CAPTCHA, which stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart" and is usually generated by an automated service, a flip should be created by a human. And unlike a usual CAPTCHA, which is based on obje... See more

I’ve been thinking about the idea of a third place lately as it relates to the tech products we use and the different roles they aim to serve.

The way I see it, so many different devices are vying for the third place in our lives. We have our phones, which are, in many ways, the primary computers we use at home, to communicate with others, to captur... See more

The left has tended to lead the way in mastering new media, aided by its generally younger, tech-savvy supporters. Barack Obama harnessed Facebook in 2008, helping propel him into the White House. Today America’s right is ahead. Mr Trump has cultivated a following among the always-online, meme-sharing, crypto-trading tech community, which is more g... See more

There’s a particular allure to a simple point system as a means of evaluating behavior. It smooths out complexity, giving individuals clear metrics and goals. Gamification makes progress feel visible and tangible, rewarding you with a sense of achievement each time you hit your workout goal on your fitness tracker or log a movie on Letterboxd.

“It g... See more

game designer Margaret Robertson coined the term “pointsification,” arguing that what we consider mainstream “gamification” is really just the process of attaching point values to behavior, without any further “game-like” qualities.