Published in Signal v. Noise·Feb 11, 2019Signal v Noise exits MediumThree years ago we embraced an exciting new publishing platform called Medium. It felt like a new start for a writing community, and we benefitted immensely from the boost in reach and readership those early days brought. But alas it was not to last. When we moved over, Medium was…Medium3 min read
Jan 18, 2019I’m done with MediumIf you want to follow my writing, please follow our newly relaunched Signal v Noise blog. I’ll be dedicating my efforts there.1 min read
Published in Signal v. Noise·Dec 19, 2018Become A Facebook-Free BusinessIf Facebook’s endless privacy scandals have shown one thing, it’s that the company has far too much data on its users, and that they can’t be trusted not to sell, barter, or abuse that data whether for profit, growth, or negligence. While individuals have long been rallying around #DeleteFacebook, there…Facebook2 min read
Published in Signal v. Noise·Dec 18, 2018How about fixing the workplace rather than avoiding it at 4am?Oh those superhuman CEOs who get up at 4am for that killer start to the day! Aren’t they just amazing? Such sacrifice, such grit, such tenacity. Such fucking bullshit. If you’re the CEO, and you can’t get work done at work, you only have one person to blame for it…Productivity2 min read
Published in Signal v. Noise·Dec 14, 2018All Basecamp policies are now on GitHub and licensed under creative commonsWe try hard to write good policies at Basecamp. Make them plain and easy to understand. Without out all the dreaded legalese. By humans, for humans. I particularly like our refund policy and our Until The End of The Internet policy. But I’m sure we don’t always succeed. And sometimes…Policies2 min read
Published in Signal v. Noise·Nov 27, 2018The AI apocalypse is already hereWe don’t need to wait for the singularity before artificial intelligence becomes capable of turning the world into a dystopian nightmare. AI-branded algorithms are already serving up new portions of fresh hell on a regular basis. …Artificial Intelligence8 min read
Published in Signal v. Noise·Nov 23, 2018You probably won’t make it to the topIf you really set your mind to it, you can do it. Get to the very top. Beat out all the others. That’s how I did it. I just wanted it more, worked hard, and eventually all my dreams came true. …Entrepreneurship3 min read
Nov 20, 2018Regret-stergramI left Instagram for the first time in 2012 over the Terms of Service debacle. When I returned in 2015, Instagram was something else. Gone from the spotlight were all the personal, crappy phone pictures, and in their place were these extremely glitzy and glamorous exposures of a perfect world. …Instagram4 min read
Published in Signal v. Noise·Nov 13, 2018Dear JeffI‘ve been thinking about your regret minimization framework for making decisions lately. I don’t recall whether I read about it in an interview, or if you shared it with Jason and me in person in those early days after your involvement in Basecamp. But regardless, I think you’re currently making…Amazon3 min read
Published in Signal v. Noise·Nov 12, 2018Postmortem on the read-only outage of Basecamp on November 9th, 2018Last Thursday, November 9th, Basecamp 3 was in read-only mode for almost five hours starting 7:21am CST and ending 12:11pm CST. That meant users could access existing messages, todo lists, and files, but no new information could be entered, and no existing information could be altered. …Basecamp3 min read