Where Your Friends Go When They Die

If you live long enough, you’ll eventually lose someone who you love. For me, it happened over Christmas break when I was a sophomore in college.

Her name is Chase Parr. She was a close friend and and best understood as a kind of star that a generation of teenagers in Denver orbited around.

Twitter’s Root Injustice

Early adopters rule Twitter. If Twitter wants to survive it will need to make the fight for power that rages inside the platform more fair…

The Difference Between Confidence and Arrogance is Empathy

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to be in the same room with the chairman of the Washington Post. Don Graham was at an…

Dear Silicon Valley Bank, Can You Please Give Me My Data?

Most startup founders I know use Silicon Valley Bank. They have a friendly support team, sometimes throw good parties, and up until yesterday, I’ve been reasonably happy with them. They’ve always had a clumsy interface but I didn’t realize just how bad it was until I needed to complete a bigger task and I stumbled into somewhat…

Native Ads Aren’t Evil, You’re Just Doing Them Wrong

Most publishers think a ‘native’ advertisement is an ad that fits into their pre-existing template and, despite a small ‘sponsored’ label, is designed to look just like a regular article on their site. These aren’t ‘native ads’ they are ‘pseudo articles.’ They’re a lazy and compressed version of what a legitimate publisher is capable…

The New York Times Told Me to Take This Down

It’s been five months since the New York Times dropped their mammoth digital story “Snow Fall,” and some people still talk about it as if it…