I have an old friend who swears by The Double Back Theory, which basically goes like this: Any important revelation will immediately strike you as obvious and true, but because its significance lingers with you for years, you will have too much time to develop alternatives and corollaries…

This week Facebook released a barrage of announcements that reveal a stunning level of ambition. You have to ask, are they really the next Google, but with evil?

I can’t speak to the question of evil, but I do have a mental benchmark for the next…

I’m not against self-affirmation on principle. Many people benefit from empowering messages that remind them of their intrinsic worth. However, that isn’t the sort of bromide that works with my particular chemistry. I want to understand what to do, not how to feel…

I am fascinated by a concept I recently came across in Eating The Dinosaur. Author Chuck Klosterman and documentary filmmaker Errol Morris discuss whether people have “privileged access” to their own minds.

Newspapers are dying, as any media observer could tell you. But I don’t get the strident call to “burn the boats,” as Cortés supposedly did when he conquered Mexico for Spain. Never mind that the legend never happened, this advice doesn’t make sense in light of the beliefs of the people saying it.

People are talking about a report that Twitter has a low proportion of “active” users. I saw a similar debate rage a few years ago around the definition of users of Second Life.

Amusingly (and presumptuously), today’s report claims to define “True Twitter users” as active. They say…

VentureBeat was kind enough to publish a piece I submitted to their Entrepreneur Corner, under the title “How to make your startup succeed where others have failed.” That’s a good title, by a smart editor who knows what people want to read. I actually submitted a more modest title…

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