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Notes

Who was Vincent Chin?

At last night’s conversation with Guy Kawasaki, someone in the audience asked about the 1982 Vincent Chin case and whether it made a difference to Guy’s perspective on racism or the treatment of Asian-Americans generally. Neither he nor I had heard of the case. The questioner expressed some surprise

Dylan Tweney Jul 8, 2016 1 min read

Notes

Status update.

Somehow all the major kitchen appliances have managed to go on the fritz simultaneously. The oven thermostat died, the fridge warms up to 60 degrees unless you defrost its freezer every 3 days, the dishwasher stopped draining fully and now leaks onto the floor, and the radio died. All just when the

Dylan Tweney Jun 30, 2016

Notes

How to Write — The Awl

Incredibly accurate description of the writing life by Heather Havrilevsky. Today, I woke up at 4 a.m. because one of my dogs was making a strange gulping sound. I sat for several minutes listening closely, wide awake, wondering if she wasn’t developing esophageal cancer or some other gruesome ailme

Dylan Tweney Jun 14, 2016

Notes

Laurie Anderson: Advice to the Young

Laurie Anderson is my hero. “I became an artist because I want to be free,” she says in this short video. “I hate it when people tell me what to do.” Also: “The branding thing is something to really avoid. The Facebook stamping of who you are … resist that pressure. Because that pressure is […]

Dylan Tweney Jun 14, 2016 1 min read

Notes

How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds — from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist

“The problem is, maximizing interruptions in the name of business creates a tragedy of the commons, ruining global attention spans and causing billions of unnecessary interruptions each day.” —Tristan Harris, in an illuminating essay on how the techniques of attentional misdirection deployed by tech

Dylan Tweney May 21, 2016

Notes

Master class on prosody.

Vox just dropped a 12-minute master class on prosody featuring some amazing rap lyrics. Rhyme, beats, metrical motives … this really covers some ground. Super cool.

Dylan Tweney May 19, 2016

Notes

Facebook’s fake “real names” policy

In October, Facebook issued a very clear statement saying that it’s never been the company’s policy to require legal names — but rather, to require people to use the names they go by in real life. “For Sister Rosa, that’s Sister Rosa. For Lil Miss Hot Mess, that’s Lil Miss Hot Mess,” a company spoke

Dylan Tweney Feb 10, 2015 1 min read

VentureBeat

How to make Facebook work better for you: Quit the ‘Like’

The “Like” button on Facebook seems harmless enough: It’s an easy way to express your appreciation of something. But as some people are discovering, that innocuous little like has some unintended consequences. Wired writer Mat Honan found out what happens when you like every single thing that shows

Dylan Tweney Aug 17, 2014 2 min read

VentureBeat

What you need to know about the Facebook IPO

Facebook filed its paperwork for an initial public offering this week, putting it on track to be the largest tech IPO so far. The company hopes to raise $5 billion with the offering. At VentureBeat’s offices, the writing staff kicked into high gear and cranked out a series of smart, informed and wel

Dylan Tweney Feb 2, 2012 1 min read

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