Lately
On video game engines (The New York). On office memoirs (The New Yorker).
2023
A profile of the artist Holly Herndon (The New Yorker) (works mentioned). On A.I. and chatbots (The New Yorker). Public comment at the C.P.U.C. (The New Yorker).
2022
On Foley sound effects, and Foley artists (The New Yorker). Waymo Cars and Honey Bears (The New Yorker). On Tartine Bakery, real estate, and a changing San Francisco (The New Yorker). A visit to GDC (The New Yorker). On the proliferation of “immersive” art experiences (The New Yorker). Money in the metaverse (The New Yorker).
2021
What is it about Peter Thiel? (The New Yorker). On supply chains, climate change, and California’s agricultural industry (The New Yorker). California’s recall fever (The New Yorker). On the Silicon Valley narrative (The New Yorker). The strange, soothing world of CGI interiors (The New Yorker). On Clubhouse (The New Yorker).
2020
On Substack (The New Yorker). A profile of Moxie Marlinspike (The New Yorker). A short explainer on CA Prop 22 (The New Yorker). On the fires in September (The New Yorker). On the fires in August (The New Yorker). Feelings about Zedd (The Believer). On CDA 230 (The New Yorker). On ghost kitchens (The New Yorker). San Francisco shelters in place (The New Yorker).
2019
A dispatch on Salesforce Park (The New Yorker). A dispatch on Hipcamp (The New Yorker). Girl, Disrupted (The New Yorker). On Amazon PR, and Amazon consumer culture (The New Yorker). Hacker News (The New Yorker). Superhuman, and the challenges of ethical software (The New Yorker). San Francisco at the beginning of the IPO wave (The New Yorker). Jack Dorsey at TED, and the end of an era (The New Yorker). The complicated legacy of the Whole Earth Catalog (The New Yorker).
2018
A dispatch on cryptocurrency (The New Yorker). The weird sadness of Facebook’s “Download Your Data” tool (The Atlantic). A review of Claire L. Evans's Broad Band (New Republic).
2017
Farewell to the Silicon Valley mythos (The Atlantic). A protest at Peter Thiel’s house (The New Yorker). Is Maryellis Bunn the Millennial Walt Disney? (New York Magazine). Slack, Facebook, workplace culture, and parties in the office (The New Yorker). Autonomous cars and the future of cities (New York Times Magazine). The startup approach to politics (Harper’s). Transhumanists, and how to solve the problem of death (New Republic). A brief history of the 404 error (Wired). The Museum of Capitalism (The New Yorker). The infamous “Google memo” (The New Yorker). Uber, sexism in tech, and why women rarely go public (The New Yorker). The outlook for Uber (The New Yorker). Immersion therapy in the Trump archive (The New Yorker). A trip to Adidas’s Bavarian, robot-powered sneaker factory (Wired). A new generation of “ethical hackers” (The New Yorker).
2016
The allure and anxiety of working at a San Francisco startup (n+1). A profile of Ellen Ullman (New Republic). Suck: the best magazine on the early web (The Atlantic). Reading copies of 1990s Wired (The New Yorker). Conversations with strangers (The Awl). Office ping-pong; California’s aggressive freedom (New Republic). Silicon Valley’s diversity problem (The New Yorker). Y Combinator’s Demo Day (The Atlantic). Idealism, the public domain, and Aaron Swartz (New Republic). The internet as art (New Republic). A San Francisco hackerspace prepares for Trump (The New Yorker).
2015
The women are talking (New Republic). Renata Adler’s collected essays (New Republic). The data-entry dystopia (New Republic). Linda Rosenkrantz’s realist experiment (New Republic). San Francisco, disaster preparedness, coming unhinged (The Offing). Lolita’s lurid road trip (New Republic). Disappearing into the archives (Longreads). LiveJournal, ska (Websafe2k16). In pursuit of a hyperreal black (Racked). A roundtable on Lucia Berlin (Vice). An interview with Vivian Gornick (Vice). Making architecture human (New Republic). Paris and the frustrations of the flâneur (New Republic).
2014, 2013, 2012
Falling out of love, cities, Speedboat (The Paris Review Daily). Production music, simulacra, and anxiety (Pacific Standard). A tragedy in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (The Paris Review Daily). Family, audiobooks, and Proust (The Paris Review Daily).