The Truth About Going Viral “I tried to drag out the success, of course, tried to prolong that temporary feeling of fulfillment that fame brings. But for some reason, it wasn’t enough. And through the process, I learned something: Every week I go back to zero. And so do you.”

Sharpening Contradictions: Why al-Qaeda attacked Satirists in Paris

Who Is Watching You? — Backchannel — Medium “PatientsLikeMe managed to block and identify the intruder: it was the Nielsen Company, the New York media-research firm. Nielsen monitors online “buzz” for its clients, including major drug makers. On May 18, PatientsLikeMe sent a cease-and-desist letter to Nielsen and notified its members of the break-in. (Nielsen […]

Google’s Philosopher: Tech and the Nature of Identity “Your personal information, he argues, should be considered as much a part of you as, say, your left arm. “Anything done to your information,” he has written, “is done to you, not to your belongings.” Identity theft and invasions of privacy thus become more akin to kidnapping […]

DJ Mustard’s Secret Ingredients For Producing A Hit

Your Inner Drone: The Politics of the Automated Future ‘The science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once asked, “Can the synthesis of man and machine ever be stable, or will the purely organic component become such a hindrance that it has to be discarded?” In the business world at least, no stability in the division of […]

Slouching Towards Utopia? The Economic History of the Twentieth Century Brad DeLong estimates material wealth increased about 30x over the 20th century

When to quit your journalism job “If you work in any kind of editorial organization, it is your job to understand the business model.”