My blogs; books I recommend; older essays.
My Blogs
Essays: Essays and other writing. For general consumption.
Notes: Notes on books, trips, classes, &c. Not polished, but could be interesting to anyone.
Journal: On daily life; essay-lets. Written for myself; perhaps of interest to friends.
Words: Notes for myself regarding my own writing; unlikely to be of interest to others.
Recent books
I've enjoyed
Otherlands: A Journey through Earth's Extinct Worlds, David Halliday, 2021.
The best science book I've read in the last decade; a lovely combination of lyrical writing and well-grounded science. A look at ecosystems of the past through the lense of paleontology.
The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, David Quammen, 2019.
A gripping account of the several revolutions in evolutionary biology from the 1970's on, with close attention to the way science plays out on the ground.
Addiction by Design, Natasha Dow Schüll, 2012.
An ethnography of machine gambling in Las Vegas. A mesmerizing and horrifyihg account of gambling addiction, and the way in which gambling systems -- particularly video slot and poker machines -- have been optimized to engage the impulses of obsessive gamblers.
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, Patrick Radden Keefe, 2021.
An account of the rise of opiate prescription and addiction, and the ways in which pharmicutical companeis -- aided and abetted by those who are supposed to be regulating them -- enabled the over-prescrition and abuse of opiates in the name of profit.
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses , Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2003.
An earlier book by the author of "Braiding Sweetgrass." I haven't read Sweetgrass, but very much enjoyed this natural history of mosses. Beautiful.
This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, 2019.
Science Fiction. Nebula, Hugo and Locus award winner for best novella. A clever and lyrical cross-time love story.
Older Essays
(and one poem)
on Technology
and its Use
(circa '93 - 2015)
Creating Kairos (2015)
An essay on kairos, and how social media might do better at creating the opportunity for productive interactions.
Empathy or Efficiency (2012)
A short essay reflecting on the differing ways that digital intelligence can be used.
The Future of the Audience
A 750 word sidebar for HCI 2020 that was not published. circa 2011.
Theory, Theory
A favorite; A poem on the role and state of theory in HCI that has been reprinted in two other works. Paul Dourish once said of it" Possibly the first attempt to rhyme "ontology" with ethnomethodology.
Design as Storytelling
About the use of storytelling and how it functions as an analog of sketching in interaction design.
On the Experience of Remote Meetings
Describes a sort of out-of-the-body experience I had as a remote attendee of a meeting; surprisingly relevant for today's hybrid meetings.
A Teleworker's Reflections
ECSCW '01 Position Paper.Also about my life as a teleworker.
Ask Not for Whom the Bell Tolls
Now published in CACM; a fun read.
The World Wide Web as Social Hypertext Thoughts on the web, circa 1995. I feel as though this was a very foresighted paper, even though it missed little things like the rise of advertising.
