It’s often near impossible to know why certain technologies flourished, or what happened to the ones that didn’t. While we’re still early enough in the computing revolution that many of its pioneers are still alive and working to create technology today, it’s common to find that tech history as recent as a few years ago has already been erased. Why did your favorite app succeed when others didn’t? What failed attempts were made to create such apps before? What problems did those apps encounter — or what problems did they cause? Which creators or innovators got erased from the stories when we created the myths around today’s biggest tech titans?

All of those questions get glossed over, silenced, or sometimes deliberately answered incorrectly, in favor of building a story of sleek, seamless, inevitable progress in the tech world. Now, that’s hardly unique to technology — nearly every industry can point to similar issues. But that ahistorical view of the tech world can have serious consequences when today’s tech creators are unable to learn from those who came before them, even if they want to.

Anil Dash writing in Medium

April 26, 2018

regrets

April 26, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Will anyone lying on their deathbed wish they had had the chance to go to more church meetings? -Christopher Levan

April 25, 2018

The Indecision Cycle

April 25, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

No-brainer decisions, like jumping in a pool to rescue a drowning child, are driven by a very fast-thinking part of the brain (known as the prefrontal cortex). When you jump in to save a theoretical child in need, you’re driven by that emotional part of your brain — and you don’t spend time analyzing how deep the water is, how to best approach the rescue, etc.

Most tasks, however, utilize rational parts of our brain. Unfortunately, these are the same parts of our minds that helped us avoid danger in primitive times. As a result, we approach an Excel spreadsheet the same way we foraged for food as cavemen — by looking at all the possible dangers behind it, and constantly analyzing the best approach. It’s a slow and inefficient process that causes procrastination, and stress only makes it worse.

The key here is to end the indecision cycle by to activating the proper parts of your brain.

While you cannot immediately flush out procrastination out of your system, you can start by conditioning your mind into focusing on what is important and knowing that you can do it (or at least take a crack at it) during the 5-second window.

Elle Kaplan writing in Medium

April 24, 2018

When God closes a door..

April 24, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

When God closes a door, he opens a window... And then pushes you right out.

April 24, 2018

Articles of Interest - April 23, 2018

April 24, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

Chinese man caught by facial recognition at pop concert BBC

An Elaborate Hack Shows How Much Damage IoT Bugs Can Do WIRED

This wearable device can respond to your thoughts The Verge

Style Is an Algorithm Racked

***BIG DATA & AI

Machine learning meets Chaos Theory—and artificial-intelligence algorithms can apparently predict the future of chaotic systems Quanta Magazine

The intersection of Artificial Intelligence and the practice of law—the tech tools now available to lawyers Big Law Business

The TSA will soon start incorporating machine learning into scanners at airport security checkpoints GNC

How to create “deep fake” videos and the implications Hackernoon

***SOCIAL MEDIA

17 Ways Your Friends Are Lying To You On Social Media Cracked

Two things people get wrong about Snapchat, and two things Snap got wrong building its business Recode

Q&A: How Pew Research Center identified bots on Twitter Pew Research Center

What's Not Included in Facebook's 'Download Your Data' WIRED

***PRIVACY

Palantir Knows Everything About You Bloomberg

Four U.S. senators seek details on unusual cellular surveillance in DC area CNBC

Facebook Is Steering Users Away From Privacy Protections Wired

***PRODUCING MEDIA

The BBC is letting you download more than 16,000 free sound effect samples from its archive Music Radar

Phew, we’ve apparently solved 97% of the podcast measurement problem — everybody relax Nieman Lab

A Complete Guide to Video Production Management Story Hunter

***INTERNET

The Internet has serious health problems, Mozilla Foundation report finds Ars Technica

Web's inventor discusses digital monopolies, privacy threats Associated Press

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

State of the Media: Audio Today 2018 Nielsen

***JOURNALISM

How to build a story out of “no comment” comments Dynamics of Writing

Lawyers: Journalist was detained by ICE because of reporting Associated Press

How a Web marketer sneaked her pseudonym into U.S. News New York Times

The Field Guide to Security Training in the Newsroom

In many communities, the best local journalism is not coming from print Poynter

Meet the journalism student who found out she won a Pulitzer in class Columbia Journalism Review

Why Do Russian Journalists Keep Falling? NPR

China wages war on apps offering news and jokes Economist

The Importance of Journalism in the Age of "Fake News" U-Mass Media

Digital media research: The most interesting studies of early 2018 Journalism Resources

Journalists, it's unethical to ignore your online security Poynter

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Report for America Supports seeks to install 1,000 journalists where Cutbacks Hit Hard New York Times

How Much Is a Word Worth? Declining pay for freelance writers hurts more than just the quality of the prose Medium

Why Are Newspaper Websites So Horrible? CityLab

Local media struggle to hold Sinclair accountable The Conversation

Reinventing Local TV News Harvard’s Nieman Reports

***FAKE NEWS

A PSA About Fake News From Barack Obama - It’s Not What It Appears (video)

Just the Facts – an interview with Brooke Binkowski of Snopes.com Mile O’Brien blog

Americans Favor Protecting Information Freedoms Over Government Steps to Restrict False News Online Journalism.org

Dis/misinformation: less talking, more doing Medium

Fake news flourishes when partisan audiences crave it Economist

Documentary in the Time of Fake News at The 21st Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Filmmaker Magazine

Ted Koppel delivers a brief history of fake news to the Stanford community Stanford

Asian countries launch phoney assaults on fake news Economist

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Lessons from The Victorian Internet Becoming (my blog)

Why BAD Photographers THINK They're Good (video) Jamie Windsor

***WRITING & READING

Culture Shapes the Brain: How Reading Changes the Way we Think Medical Express

The surprising benefits of a read-aloud reading group The Research Whisperer

***LANGUAGE

Can You Explain What a Shibboleth Is? Chronicle of Higher Ed

The Race to Save the World's Disappearing Languages National Geographic

How to Teach the Rhythm of Language: Stop Counting Syllables! Chronicle of Higher Ed

***LITERATURE

How Stories have Shaped the World BBC

If Henry David Thoreau were alive today, he would be pissed NBC News

***GENDER

''Time's' 2018 Most Influential People list has record number of women, people under 40 USA Today

When Will the Gender Gap in Science Disappear? The Atlantic

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

Mayor responds after Tennessee lawmakers punish Memphis for removing Confederate statues WREG-TV

A Lesson In How To Overcome Implicit Bias NPR

In a Proudly Diverse Australia, White People Still Run Almost Everything New York Times

How American Racism Influenced Hitler The New Yorker

***FREE SPEECH

Joliet Junior College settles ‘free speech zone’ lawsuit Chicago Sun-Times

***LEGAL ISSUES

Q&A: Lawyer behind Hannity revelation at Cohen hearing speaks Columbia Journalism Review

Too often juries comprise 12 confused men (and women) Economist

Supreme Court Preview: Immigrants' Rights And Notice To Appear NPR

New Hampshire Court Dismisses Defamation suit filed by a patent owner unhappy that it had been called a “patent troll” Electronic Frontier Foundation

Court sides with human in copyright fight over monkey selfie Washington Post

***RELIGION

A California bill would amplify restrictions on "gay conversion therapy" – would it also ‘Ban the sale of Christian books including the Bible? Snopes

More women are coming forward with accusations of inappropriate encounters with Megachurch pastor Bill Hybels Christianity Today

Criticism of Christians and Chick-fil-A Has Troubling Roots Bloomberg

What is hell? The Conversation

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

Church of The DonaldNever mind Fox. Trump’s most reliable media mouthpiece is now Christian TV Politico

Dozens of evangelical leaders meet to discuss how Trump era has unleashed ‘grotesque caricature’ of their faith (opinion) Washington Post

Political Dealing: The Crisis of Evangelicalism Fuller

White evangelical support for Donald Trump at all-time high BongBong

There’s a ‘red evangelicalism and a blue evangelicalism’: Faith leaders gather to discuss their common future Religious News Service

***ART & DESIGN

The long, incredibly tortuous, and fascinating process of creating a Chinese font Quartz

Sound-Wave Tattoo Digg

***MUSIC

Personality predicts musical preference Economist

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

University has refused to release names of students found to have committed sexual misconduct Western Washington University

School warns student not to speak out on sexual assault case-without legal justification The Breese (James Madison University’s student-run newspaper)

Vice Media is sued after employee is assaulted on assignment NBC News

Alaska Man's Revelation Shine A Light On Sex Abuse In The State NPR

What Happens When A Community Tries To Address Its Own Sexual Harassment Issues NPR

***BUSINESS

10 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings The Conversation

Bike-share companies are transforming US cities – and they’re just getting started The Conversation

***ENVIRONMENT

Scientists stumbled upon a plastic-eating bacterium—then accidentally made it stronger PopSci

Americans waste 150,000 tons of food each day – equal to a pound per person The Guardian

Climate change schism: Evangelical Christians divided on human role in global warming NBC News

***HEALTH

Some mutations tied to autism may be passed down from fathers Spectrum News

Antidepressants in pregnancy tied to changes in babies' brains Reuters

Home Testing Kit Will Check For Sexually Transmitted Diseases NPR

The vaccine dilemma: how experts weigh benefits for many against risks for a few Stat News

***PSYCHOLOGY

Mariah Carey says she has bipolar disorder; a psychiatrist explains what that is The Conversation

This is what love does to your Brain: It's really an Addiction Vox

***NEUROSCIENCE

Brain scans may help diagnose neurological, psychiatric disorders Science Daily

Do adult human brains renew their neurons? Economist

***PHILOSOPHY

Why I Left Academic Philosophy Medium

***RESEARCH

A Remedy for Broken Science, Or an Attempt to Undercut It? Undark

Paper Accepted…Unless the Letter Was Forged The Scholarly Kitchen

***HIGHER ED

IoT Applications in Education KD Nuggets

For-profit colleges lose when two-year colleges offer B.A. degrees Hechinger Report

Opinion: It’s Time to Reconsider The Role And Future of Community Colleges Times of San Diego

Nonprofits poised to unseat U of Phoenix as the largest online Inside Higher Ed

How Liberty University Built a Billion-Dollar Empire Online New York Times

***HUMANITIES / STEM

Forget coding. It’s the soft skills, stupid. And that’s what schools should be teaching (opinion) Washington Post

***TEACHING

How to Turn Your Exams Into Learning Opportunities Chronicle of Higher Ed

How Trauma Can Alter Your Teaching Chronicle of Higher Ed

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Who Doesn’t Get Overtime Pay? Online Instructors, for One Chronicle of Higher Ed

As pay and benefits stagnate, nontenured faculty and graduate students in Illinois, Chicago look to unions Chicago Tribune

Language of Ph.D Defenses Chronicle of Higher Ed

***STUDENT MEDIA

SGA president who threatened college newspaper gets impeached College Media Matters

Berkeley Student paper reports on Squirrel Candidacy to Student Senate The Daily Californian

***STUDENT LIFE

A majority of U.S. teens fear a shooting could happen at their school, and most parents share their concern Pew Research

Most colleges say applicants' social media profiles are 'fair game,' survey says Cleveland.com

When Disadvantaged Students Overlook Elite Colleges The Atlantic

University of Portland Boots Tennis Player From Roster After “Violent, Misogynistic” Remarks Willamette Week

Poll: Majority of millennials are in debt, hitting pause on major life events NBC News

Boston College Philosophy Professor Offers Students Extra Credit for Going on First Date Daily Signal

April 23, 2018

The Victorian Internet

April 23, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Tom Standage writes in his book The Victorian Internet, “That the telegraph was so widely seen as a panacea is perhaps understandable. The fact that we are still making the same mistake today is less so. The irony is that even though it failed to live up to the utopian claims made by about it, the telegraph really did transform the world.”

The Internet, like the telegraph, offers tremendous potential for altering the world in a positive way. But we would be wise to temper our enthusiasm.

As Standage suggests, “Better communication does not necessarily lead to a wider understanding of other points of view: the potential of new technologies to change things for the better is invariably overstated, while the ways in which they will make things worse are usually unforeseen.”

Stephen Goforth

April 22, 2018

new horizons

April 22, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Where there is passion and desire, there will always be new horizons.

April 21, 2018

your story

April 21, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

What will the world miss if you don’t tell your story? - Donald Miller

April 20, 2018

This is how to really get to know people

April 20, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

If you want people to really know you, weekly meetings don’t cut it. You need deep dives with them in high-intensity situations. When I talked with a crew of astronauts who went to the International Space Station together, I found out that NASA prepared them by sending them into the wilderness for 11 days together. Their guides promptly let them get lost, and they said they came out of that experience knowing each other better than colleagues they’d worked with for years. At Morning Star, a leading tomato-paste plant that has operated successfully for decades without a single boss, I was stunned to discover that the founder often interviews job applicants at their own homes for three to five hours.

Adam Grant writing in The Atlantic

April 19, 2018

When people are free

April 19, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. - Eric Hoffer

April 18, 2018

Orange Buttons are the Best

April 18, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

An appeal to authority is a false claim that something must be true because an authority on the subject believes it to be true. It is possible for an expert to be wrong, we need to understand their reasoning or research before we appeal to their findings. In a design meeting you might hear something like this:

“Amazon is a successful website. Amazon has orange buttons. So orange buttons are the best.”

Feel free to switch out ‘Amazon’ and ‘orange buttons’ for anything you want; you get an equally week argument. We could argue back that Amazon is surviving on past success and that larger company are often hard to innovate so shouldn’t be used as a design influence. We could point out that Jeff Bezos has a reputation for micro-managing and ignoring the evidence provided by usability experts he has hired. As a result, we could point out that Amazon is possibly successful in spite of its design not because of it. But the words ‘often’, ‘reputation’ and ‘possibly’ make all these arguments equally week and full of fallacies.

When we counter any logical fallacy, we want to do it as cleanly as possible. In the above example, we only need to point out that many successful websites don’t have orange buttons and many unsuccessful sites do have orange buttons. Then we can move away from the matter entirely unless there is some research or reason available to explain the authorities decision.

Rob Sutcliffe writing in Prototypr

April 17, 2018

Articles of Interest - April 16

April 17, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Vevo’s YouTube account hack hits popular music videos, causes biggest video ever to disappear The Verge

Facebook is offering a $40,000 bounty if you find the next Cambridge Analytica CNBC

The Book 'Videocracy' explores the power of YouTube MSNBC

One Way to Fight Digital Distraction Chronicle of Higher Ed

This Site Tracks How Wikipedia Is Being Edited in Real-Time Fast Company

***PRIVACY

Gmail.com redesign includes self-destructing emails Ars Technica

Should Social Media Companies Pay Us For Our Data? NPR

Facebook Crossed The Creepy Line And Can’t Go Back BuzzFeed News

As Zuckerberg Smiles to Congress, Facebook Fights State Privacy Laws WIRED

***PRODUCING MEDIA

The State of Video in 2018 Story Hunter

Everything You Need To Know About Video Production Costs Story Hunter

5 Media Publishers to Watch in 2018 Story Hunter

***INTERNET

YouTube and Facebook Are Losing Creators to Blockchain-Powered Rivals Bloomberg

US says Russia targets internet routers for espionage Associated Press

Supreme Court takes up internet sales tax case NBC News

***TECHNOLOGY

SenseTime: The billion-dollar, Alibaba-backed AI company that's quietly watching everyone in China Quartz

Microsoft launches a phishing attack simulator and other security tools TechCrunch

***JOURNALISM

Why Modern Newsrooms Should Mind the Generational Gap Hollywood Reporter

How the Assad Regime Tracked and Killed Marie Colvin for Reporting on War Crimes in Syria The Intercept

Journalists Documented a Massacre. Their Prize: a Prison Cell New York Times

The crisis in journalism has become a crisis of democracy Washington Post

Beyond “Live at Five”: What’s Next for Local TV News? Medium

The end of investigative journalism? Not yet Columbia Journalism Review

Former ProPublica journalists are launching a newsroom to cover the impact of technology on society Harvard’s Nieman Lab

Headlines editors probably wish they could take back Columbia Journalism Review

Pulitzer Prize Winners Associated Press

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

TV news employment surpasses newspapers RTDNA

As a secretive hedge fund guts its newspapers, journalists are fighting back Washington Post

Journalism can profit from the nonprofit model OC Register

The staggering body count as California newspapers founder, and democracy loses LA Times

***TEACHING JOURNALISM

Missouri School of Journalism grapples with what to do about Sinclair Broadcasting Missourian

It Matters a Lot Who Teaches Introductory Courses: Here's Why Chronicle of Higher Ed

***FAKE NEWS

The Rise of the Crisis Actor Conspiracy Movement VICE

The bots beat: How not to get punked by automation Columbia Journalism Review

Can “Extreme Transparency” Fight Fake News and Create More Trust With Readers? Harvard’s Nieman Reports

***BIG DATA & AI

Working for the algorithm Machines will help employers overcome bias Economist

The secrets of China’s real economy are being revealed by fact-checking through satellite imagery and artificial intelligence Quartz

The beginning of a global quantum internet? "This quantum gold-rush will entice growing numbers of speculators..." Economist

Really Random Numbers thanks to Quantum Physics NPR

Artificial intelligence in the supermarket produce aisles Tech Crunch

Automatic generation of data visualizations using sequence-to-sequence recurrent neural networks Toward Data Science

A dozen major big data analytics tools grouped by storage, cleaning, mining, visualization Datamation

***CODING & HTML

Building a Text Editor for a Digital-First Newsroom: An inside look at the inner workings of a technology you may take for granted New York Times

Best coding games and toys for kids 2018 Tech Advisor

***ART & DESIGN

This Optical Illusion Where Colors Disappear When You Stare At Them Is Breaking Our Brains Digg

Helvetica Is Now An Encryption Device Fast Company

***MUSIC

What Makes This Song Great? Ep. 1

Kendrick Lamar Wins Pulitzer Prize New York Times

***FILM

Netflix Pulls Out of Cannes Following Rule Change Variety

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Radio isn't dead yet, but its future isn’t exactly healthy cnet

***PERSONAL GROWTH

The Search for Unintended Consequences Becoming (my blog)

***WRITING & READING

Why American Students Haven't Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years The Atlantic

Did the CIA fund creative writing in America? Chronicle of Higher Ed

***LANGUAGE

Much Ado About ‘Ado’ Chronicle of Higher Ed

Disappearing Languages Interactive

Duolingo Suddenly Has Over Twice As Much Language Learning Material Fast Company

***LITERATURE

5 Classic Literature Books You Need to Give Another Chance Study Breaks

A poetry professor Deals with a Racial Slur Washington Post

***GENDER

How #MeToo is inspiring a new era of feminist literature Standard

Ever wonder why you've never seen a woman making sushi? This female sushi chef explains why Mashable

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

Please Don’t Answer This 2020 Census Survey The New Yorker

***FREE SPEECH

Most College Presidents Worry That Speech Issues Could Trigger Violence Chronicle of Higher Ed

Supreme Court won’t hear pastor’s challenge to noise law: He was arrested during protests outside a Planned Parenthood clinic Press Herald

***LEGAL ISSUES

The monkey selfie lawsuit lives: PETA and the photographer settled last year, but the Ninth Circuit will be issuing a ruling anyway The Verge

***RELIGION

Hybels steps down from Willow Creek following allegations of misconduct Chicago Tribune

Ken Ham Can’t Find Enough Creationist Employees, So He’s Loosening Restrictions Patheos

Why this former religion television reporter is considering divorcing her evangelical family Washington Post

***RELIGION IN COURT

North County pastor sentenced for molesting young relative Fox-5

Ex-Dolphins cheerleader claims NFL discriminated against her because of her faith CBS News

Houston Megachurch Pastor Pleading Not Guilty To Fraud Charges Houston Public Media

Man who cites opposition to abortion for not paying taxes wins Round 1 in court Oregon Lives

Mormon growth continues to slow, especially in the U.S. (opinion) Religion News

Trial of U.S. pastor facing up to 35 years in prison set to start in Turkey NBC News

***RELIGION & BOOKS

Two publishers suspend publication of books by megachurch pastor Hybels in wake of misconduct allegations Chicago Tribune

Tyndale Sued by Boy Who Didn’t Come Back from Heaven Christianity Today

Jimmy Carter, 93, talks about his new book: ‘Faith’ Religious News Service

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

Inside the White House Bible Study group BBC

California Bill would Outlaw Gay Conversion ‘Therapy’ San Jose Inside

US vice-president Mike Pence meets Southern Baptist megachurch pastors Christian Today

Who Is Reinhold Niebuhr And What Is His Connection To James Comey? NPR

Colombia’s Next President Could Be an Evangelical Woman Christianity Today

***STUDENT MEDIA

How Parkland student journalists covered the shooting they survived and friends they lost Washington Post

Legal Analysis: Getting the numbers on college censorship Student Press Law Center

Liberty president censors student newspaper over critics Richmond Free Press

University of Toledo newspaper in danger of closing Toledo Blade

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Schools like Harvard Shouldn’t be Investigating Itself (opinion) The Crimson

Did These Women See #MeToo Coming New York Times

Head of Nobel literature prize panel quits over sex abuse scandal The Guardian

***BUSINESS

Gaslighting for Beginners (satire) Medium

***HEALTH

Lyme disease the first epidemic of climate change Aeon

The States Where People Die Young The Atlantic

Too much sitting may thin the part of your brain that's important for memory, study suggests LA Times

***FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS

These Maps Show the Average Cost of Childcare in Each State Fatherly.com

It Takes 90 Hours to Make a New Friend Life Hacker

California museum exhibit of awkward family photos Awkward Family Photos

***SCIENCE

Lights, cameras, science: Using video to engage broader audiences The Research Whisperer

Physicists set new record for quantum entanglement Univeristat Unnsbruck

***PSYCHOLOGY

This strange syndrome causes people to think their loved ones have been replaced by identical impostors Washington Post

***PRODUCTIVITY

10 Hidden URLs to Help You Rule the Web Field Guide

***RESEARCH

The ethics of scientific publishing Chemistry World

Researchers who actively push their papers on social media gain more citations, study finds Times Higher Ed

***HIGHER ED

College plays a powerful role in achieving the American dream (opinion) The Hill

Justice Department Investigating How Colleges Use Early-Decision Admissions NPR

***HUMANITIES & STEM

Can tech save the humanities? Boston Globe

Dear Humanities Profs: We Are the Problem Chronicle of Higher Ed

***TEACHING

Are 'Learning Styles' Real? The Atlantic

Forgetting makes us smarter. Use these tricks to remember what you need to NBC News

***ACADEMIC LIFE

How Much Did Professors Earn This Year? Barely Enough to Beat Inflation Chronicle of Higher Ed

***STUDENT LIFE

Student Loan Reform (opinion) New York Times

More colleges are saying yes to dogs and cats in dorms Washington Post

4 in 10 millennials don't know 6 million Jews were killed in Holocaust, study shows CBS News

Modest Advice for New Graduate Students Medium

First-generation students are disproportionately more unlikely to finish college National Center for Education Statistics

Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force Pew Research Center

Duke protesters disrupt president's speech to alumni News Observer

April 16, 2018

The Search for Unintended Consequences

April 16, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Any idiot can build a system. Any amateur can make it perform. Professionals think about how a system will fail. It’s very common for people to think about how a system will work if it is used the way they imagine. But they don’t think about how that system might work if it were used by a bad actor or a perfectly ordinary person who is just a little different from what the person designing it is like.

Companies need to be thinking about how each product could actually be used in the real world. If you build a product that works great for men and is going to lead to harassment of women, you have a problem. If you build a product that makes everyone’s address books 5 percent more efficient and then gets three people killed because it their personal information to their stalkers, that’s a problem.

What you need is a very diverse working group that can recognize a wide range of problems, that knows which questions to ask and has support inside the company and in the broader community to surface these issues and make sure they are taken seriously. If they’re in there from day one it makes a huge difference.

Former Google engineer Yonatan Zunger in an interview with NPR

April 14, 2018

What is love?

April 14, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

What is love? Tell me through the story of your life. –Krista Tippett

April 12, 2018

Expand the pie

April 12, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

What interests of your adversary overlap with your own? Expand the pie before you divide it.

April 11, 2018

Writing for the Scholarly Elite or Spreading Ideas to the Masses?

April 11, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

In college and graduate school, I studied cognitive science, philosophy, and politics. I formed a conviction that I wanted to try to change the world for the better. Initially, my plan was to be an academic and public intellectual. At the time, I got bored easily (still do), which made me distractible and not great at making the trains run on time. Academia seemed like an environment that would keep me perpetually stimulated as I would think and write on the value of compassion, self-development, and the pursuit of wisdom. I would hopefully inspire others to implement these ideas to form a nobler society.

But graduate school, while stimulating, turned out to be grounded in a culture and incentive scheme that promoted hyperspecialization; I discovered that academics end up writing for a scholarly elite of typically about fifty people. It turned out there was not much support for academics who would attempt to spread ideas to the masses. So my aspiration to have a broad impact on potentially millions of people clashed with the market realities of academia.

I adopted my career orientation. My new aim was to try to promote the workings of a good society via entrepreneurship and technology.

Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn) and Ben Casnocha, The Start-up of You

Becoming

ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire

Winners must have..

Articles of Interest - April 30

the more you take

you are finished

Tech history is poorly documented and poorly understood