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A gleam of hope: meet the Luddite Club (November 15, 2024)
A happy day for Big Tech (November 6, 2024)
Chris Brown's new book: walking through dystopia (October 26, 2024)
Drones, Starlink, and the Ukraine war (October 18, 2024)
Ditch the spy glasses and shun the Zuckholes (October 10, 2024)
Examining Bill Gates (October 2, 2024)
Full of slop until the bubble pops (September 27, 2024)
A dystopian novel praising human connection (September 20, 2024)
Surveillance never sits still (September 11, 2024)
Our human legacy is... Facebook? (September 6, 2024)
Protecting elders and kids from predatory tech (August 9, 2024)
The garbage on our screens (July 16, 2024)
How it’s going in tech – without ethics (July 12, 2024)
AI isn’t meant for us (June 28, 2024)
Starlink bestows, or forces, the digital age on an Amazonian tribe (June 13, 2024)
Microsoft Recall should make you consider Linux (June 5, 2024)
Google goes bananums for AI (May 24, 2024)
Apple made a terrible mistake: it told the truth (May 10, 2024)
To resist the robots, get a typewriter (April 26, 2024)
Big Tech’s corruption was 25 years in the making (April 11, 2024)
China and TikTok (March 22, 2024)
Surviving the customer experience winter (February 28, 2024)
The gaping void in San Francisco, New York, and Cambridge (February 16, 2024)
Vision Pro, unscrambled, is “I Poison VR” (February 2, 2024)
Resisting Silicon Valley’s cult of “more” (January 19, 2024)
The airplane blowout came from our rotten Big Tech economy (January 10, 2024)
Instagram’s unmentionable problem (December 6, 2023)
Marc Andreessen is right – love doesn’t scale (November 17, 2023)
Facial recognition and the end of privacy – with Kashmir Hill (November 2, 2023)
The Luddites warned us about Google (October 25, 2023)
Celebrating 25 years of this newsletter – and an announcement (October 6, 2023)
Surveillance spreading (September 29, 2023) – announcing three new Creative Good services
Disaster alerts reveal a better way to design tech (September 15, 2023)
Don’t throw technology at it (September 8, 2023)
AI is spackle (August 25, 2023)
Hacks of the ultra-rich, as revealed by Bruce Schneier and Josh O’Kane (August 4, 2023)
Why car companies (still) ignore customers (July 28, 2023)
A walk around the world raises questions about tech (June 30, 2023)
Three things you should listen to (June 23, 2023)
An addiction machine for our age (June 16, 2023)
Rejecting the Apple Vision Pro (June 9, 2023)
What you missed about Google and Amazon (June 1, 2023)
Why customers don’t want chat bots (May 19, 2023)
The giant brain suck of 2023 (May 12, 2023)
My 26-hour delay on Delta Air Lines (May 5, 2023)
Is AI a demon or what (April 14, 2023)
AI plus whatever (March 24, 2023)
ChatGPT’s dangers are starting to show (March 17, 2023)
A Simple Desultory Techtonic (March 10, 2023)
A picture of the future (March 3, 2023)
Where are the customers’ chats? (February 24, 2023)
Sassy AIs are not the problem (February 17, 2023)
AI is creating the Play-Doh internet (February 10, 2023)
Who’s responsible for fixing tech? (February 3, 2023)
How Google profits from criminal activity (January 20, 2023)
ChatGPT’s drawbacks, and how to respond (January 13, 2023)
A new year to make tech better (January 6, 2023)
A few more inspiring people (December 16, 2022)
Why we can’t trust Apple (December 2, 2022)
Bonfire of the vanity project (November 18, 2022)
As cities embrace surveillance, we can resist (November 10, 2022)
A future for people doing good work (November 4, 2022)
Scary Silicon Valley: A Halloween update on Big Tech (October 28, 2022)
Moralists, unite (October 7, 2022)
A song about surveillance (September 22, 2022)
AI is already turning against you. We can fix it. (September 15, 2022)
🔒 AI image generators: tools and risks (September 8, 2022)
Waking up to the genetic surveillance state (August 19, 2022): DNA surveillance is here, and it’s spreading.
🔒 Why Amazon bought Roomba (August 12, 2022): Another reason to join Creative Good
A “what now?” moment (August 5, 2022): If Congress can’t fight Big Tech, what do we do?
A most welcome decline (July 29, 2022): On the “sunset” of social media
An “internet for the people” or a plastic beach (July 22, 2022)
Our last chance in tech (June 28, 2022)
Jennifer Egan and a Forum update (June 17, 2022)
Citizenship and smartphones (June 10, 2022)
Celebrating one year of the Creative Good community (May 26, 2022)
🔒 A cryptocurrency explainer (May 19, 2022): What’s happening with algorithmic stablecoins and the “crypto crash”
🔒 The religion of Silicon Valley (May 13, 2022): On my interview with Carolyn Chen, author, “Work Pray Code”
Walking away from tech (May 6, 2022): Wisdom from Paul Salopek’s worldwide journey
Where to go after Twitter (April 28, 2022): It’s time for an alternative. There is one.
🔒 What Elon Musk is really up to, with Twitter (April 27, 2022): The purchase connects to some larger forces barreling toward you.
An alternative to Amazon, and avoiding data brokers (April 22, 2022): Two topics today: avoiding Amazon and data brokers.
God, death, and tech with Sasha Stiles (April 14, 2022): Poetry, robots, and why death is not optional.
The web as monopolized surveillance space (April 7, 2022): Now you’ll pay Big Tech companies with your data AND cash.
Human rights and digital spycraft (April 1, 2022): In China and the US, a digital surveillance state is growing.
🔒 Responding to crypto hype (March 29, 2022): responding to a recent 14,000-word NYT puff piece on crypto.
Designing for deceit in Silicon Valley (March 18, 2022): User-hostile design at Google, Amazon, and Microsoft is spreading to other industries.
🔒 Security settings won’t save us (March 9, 2022). This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.
Bandcamp risks becoming an Epic failure (Mar 3, 2022): Musicians have their say about Bandcamp selling out. It’s not good.
🔒 Ukraine, Russia, and resources to help and learn more (March 2, 2022). This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.
The restart of history (Feb 24, 2022): Tech didn’t save us from politics... or war
🔒 Past the valley: Deepfakes are achieving lifelike status (Feb 21, 2022). This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.
Why you should resist Amazon by cancelling your Prime account (Feb 18, 2022): Amazon drains economic resources out of communities
🔒 Facebook tells the truth in its Super Bowl ad (Feb 16, 2022): A new Facebook ad tells the truth about the metaverse, at least in part. It’s so unbelievably grim, it hardly needs a satirical version... (This post is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.)
🔒 What happened to the monkeys with Elon Musk’s brain implant (Feb 11, 2022): an update on Elon Musk's Neuralink, exactly one year after I wrote this warning. (The first link is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.)
Concentration of power is the problem (Feb 3, 2022): Big Tech is converging on a single model of surveillance and control
We said ‘never again.’ Now look at Xinjiang (Jan 21, 2022): A million people in camps. One tech billionaire says he doesn’t care.
Facebook patents and the comet in Don’t Look Up (Jan 14, 2022): The problem isn’t what’s being patented, but who is behind it.
I founded Creative Good 25 years ago today – and learned a few things (Jan 7, 2022): Reflections on a quarter-century of trying to improve the web.
Are Facebook and Google criminal enterprises? (Dec 17, 2021): Considering the profits from human trafficking and animal-torture videos
🔒 Move slowly and don’t break things (Dec 10, 2021): a look at Paul Salopek’s “Out of Eden” walk, as depicted in the documentary Echoes of the Invisible, and how it contrasts with the surveillance state being built right now in consumer travel. This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.
My predictions for Apple’s smart glasses (Dec 3, 2021): Here’s what Apple’s smart glasses will look like – and how they’ll be marketed
🔒 Indigenous thinking and the future of civilization (Nov 19, 2021). This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.
🔒 What Jaron Lanier gets right, and wrong, about the metaverse (Nov 11, 2021). This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.
🔒 Tesla is a meme stock and everything is dumb (Nov 11, 2021). This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.
The banality of tech (November 4, 2021): On Hannah Arendt and no longer being a bystander
Big questions, answered by Big Tech (October 28, 2021): What is truth? What is God? Big Tech distorts the answers
Smiling in the metaverse (October 22, 2021): Why to be terrified, and why to be hopeful
Big Tech’s latest misbehavior calls for action (October 15, 2021): Lots of people are resisting Big Tech. You can, too.
Facebook’s laughable response to the whistleblower (October 7, 2021): Facebook has no defense, and we have memes.
Get your community organization off of Facebook. Right now. (October 5, 2021): Tell your school, church, soccer league: to maintain integrity, they must leave Facebook.
Voice surveillance must die (September 30, 2021): Why smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Nest should be banned
The fall of Facebook (September 23, 2021): One revenue chart explains the problem, and how to fix it
🔒 So, “Zuck talk” is, like, increasing, right? (September 22, 2021): A set of verbal tics is emerging from Silicon Valley billionaires – and spreading to everyone else. (This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.)
🔒 Robots in baseball (September 22, 2021): The New Yorker, the Strokes, and Techtonic all point out new intrusions of tech into sports. (This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.)
Why we might transform computers into “tiles” (September 16, 2021): Dave Ackley and the T2 Tile Project offer a bold, hopeful vision
Explaining the last 20 years (September 9, 2021): How surveillance took over, post-9/11
What to do when the storm arrives (September 2, 2021): Facing climate change and a surveillance state, we must have a strategy
Public libraries are better than Google (August 27, 2021): Libraries deserve our respect and funding, not Big Tech
WeWork and waste (August 20, 2021): Bad behavior at WeWork exposed the rot in Silicon Valley
🔒 Discussing new articles about dopamine, landing-page design, TikTok's algorithm, and more (August 14-19, 2021). (This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.)
How to prove vaccine status – with privacy (August 12, 2021): Summarizing the many downsides of vaccine passport apps
🔒 Artists, mistreated by YouTube, reveal the risks of working with Google (August 10, 2021). (This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.)
We can’t trust tech, from A(pple) to Z(oom) (August 5, 2021): The more opaque the platforms get, the more they say ‘just trust us.’
🔒 Things that are not a computer: brains, cities, and churches (July 29, 2021). (This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.)
On resisting emperors and their delusions (July 22, 2021): Beware tech billionaires who want to pollute space and ‘embody’ a fake world
🔒 On Pegasus spyware and Jon Fasman's interview on We See it All (July 20, 2021). (This is only for Creative Good members: you can join Creative Good to get access.)
Cameras and con games: Silicon Valley’s demented fun house (July 16, 2021): Look beyond the jokes. Tech investors are deadly serious about what they’re building
🔒 Bad cockpit design? Don’t blame the pilot (July 12, 2021): a look at poorly designed cockpits from Boeing to Tesla – and how companies react. This post is available to Creative Good members.
The spirit of New York, and the internet, depend on what we believe in (July 2, 2021): To fight Big Tech’s assault, a return to values
🔒 The fashion industry is captured by Silicon Valley – and China (June 30, 2021): a deep-dive into how Silicon Valley is influencing the fashion industry, which itself is trying to engage with China. This post is available to Creative Good members.
We finally have a chance to break up Amazon (June 24, 2021): Here’s where things stand, why it matters, and how you can help
🔒 My simple, brief, and totally wrong explanation of Bitcoin (June 23, 2021): a list of resources and pointers to understand Bitcoin and how it compares with other cryptocurrencies. This post is available to Creative Good members.
Beijing is giving orders to Big Tech, the NBA, and... John Cena? (June 17, 2021): Big Tech’s “growth at any cost” stance agrees to censorship orders coming from Beijing
Why you should pay attention to ‘Made in China’ (June 11, 2021): Millions of people in labor camps help make the products you use
Apple’s new iPhone commercial is a rip-off (June 3, 2021): Apple stole its ad design from the Washington Post
Is your phone listening to you? A response to the "toothpaste" thread (May 27, 2021): Audio surveillance is on Big Tech's trajectory
Apple is rotting. Live Photos shows why. (May 20, 2021): Apple's UX now stands for User Exploitation
Paying respect to our new techno-king (May 13, 2021): If we're Elon Musk's subjects, we must learn how the kingdom works
Announcing the Creative Good community (May 6, 2021): A new community for people who want to make tech better. Join us.
Senators and flamethrowers (April 29, 2021): A story about an arsonist, to explain the Senate hearings on algorithmic amplification
The future and the remotest beach in the world (April 22, 2021): On tech and cultural loss, with Bob Ostertag and Paul Kingsnorth
Grasping for facts while Google lies (April 15, 2021): Google's latest behavior defies all ethical boundaries
When customer obsession goes wrong (April 8, 2021): How Amazon and West Virginia pharmacies chose opposite paths
Our system is clogged by something bigger than a boat (April 1, 2021): Big Tech CEOs dance for Congress, and we're all stuck
Yes, handcuffs will fit Big Tech CEOs (March 25, 2021): Nothing has changed Big Tech's behavior. Handcuffs would help
Fighting nihilism, The Nothing, and NFTs (March 18, 2021): Creating something is harder than surrendering to nothing
Pumping up the worthless with NFTs (March 12, 2021): Beeple and Jack Dorsey are selling us another dumb idea
How not to fix customer service (March 4, 2021): two stories of spectacular failure
Amazon Ring is creating the surveillance complex (February 25, 2021): The video doorbell spied on BLM protesters. You're next.
Tech warnings from unlikely sources (February 18, 2021): Pay attention to the dystopian future we've been promised
Worse than 'The Matrix' (February 11, 2021): Tech companies are building a layer on reality
No, an exploitative product is not "great" (February 4, 2021): popularity isn't goodness, whether for Amazon or opioids
Why I'm losing faith in UX (January 28, 2021): digital design increasingly exploits users
Hope for the boss battle (January 21, 2021): Biden and Harris can succeed by taking down Big Tech
The aftermath of insurrection (January 14, 2021): Big Tech's lame response and the dangers of censorship
The bright side of insurrection (January 7, 2021)
Something fun to close out 2020 (December 17, 2020)
Calling the culprits by name (December 10, 2020)
Venture capital and the WeWork con job (December 3, 2020)
Skin care in a dystopia (November 19, 2020)
Throwing away the robot (November 12, 2020)
The winner of the election is... Big Tech (November 5, 2020)
Announcing Good Reports, a new review site (October 29, 2020)
Covid Alert pros & cons, Skeptech, and a flamethrower (October 22, 2020)
Boasts, lies, and grammar mistakes: Big Tech's antitrust defense (October 15, 2020)
Glimmers of hope in a constricting moment (October 8, 2020)
Surviving the tech age with Maxwell's demon (October 1, 2020)
Big Tech and the good octopus (September 24, 2020)
Smart glasses aren't. (September 17, 2020)
We've survived six months of Covid. Here's... humor? (September 10, 2020)
Happiness and the Rubik's Cube (September 3, 2020)
Surveillance and the shell game (August 27, 2020)
Facebook and your bones (August 20, 2020)
Kamala Harris and the ascent of Silicon Valley (August 13, 2020)
It's a stickup (August 6, 2020)
This is perjury: the Big Tech hearings, summarized (July 30, 2020)
A simple tech ethic (July 23, 2020)
I really hope Gmail allows me to say this (July 20, 2020)
The danger of Twitter as 'ultimate editor' of the news (July 16, 2020)
How to speak Californian (July 9, 2020)
Humor for a different Fourth (July 2, 2020)
Snapchat and content collapse (June 25, 2020)
Apple, eBay, and the desolation of tech (June 19, 2020)
Big Tech's latest apologies won't change much (June 12, 2020)
Something stinks in the tech industry, and we must address it (June 5, 2020)
The algorithmic amplifier fueling corruption in Silicon Valley (May 29, 2020)
Customers are changing in the pandemic. Are you listening? (May 22, 2020)
How to conduct user research during quarantine (May 14, 2020)
Why the Amazon VP should quit his job (May 7, 2020)
Take that, corona: more humor to get us through (May 1, 2020)
Fighting corona with humor (April 1, 2020)
Why the plague will not stop us (March 19, 2020)
Lethal touchscreens and other design disasters - and how to avoid them (March 9, 2020)
Juul and the corruption of design thinking (October 24, 2019)
Mind-reading devices are coming from Facebook, Elon Musk, and others. Here's their agenda. (September 27, 2019)
How to create better tech (in one not-so-easy-step) (September 13, 2019)
The showdown between Big Tech and democracy has begun (July 25, 2019)
Facial recognition is already here (July 11, 2019)
Resisting Big Tech is still possible (June 28, 2019)
We need to have a difficult conversation about Google (June 6, 2019)
Understanding customers is still your job (May 30, 2019)
We're entering the age of surveillance capitalism (May 22, 2019)
Surveillance in China will affect you (May 3, 2019)
Why it's tiring to run good user research (May 2, 2019)
Clive Thompson's "Coders" on what makes programmers tick (Apr 22, 2019)
Toxic Content Has a Simple Solution: Kill the Algorithm (Apr 18, 2019)
Forget Lean, Your Key Challenge is on This Venn Diagram (Apr 6, 2019)
The Vessel's Terms and Conditions Bend to Public Pressure (Mar 21, 2019)
Kicking the Smartphone Addiction (Mar 11, 2019)
NYC's Leaders Are Wrong on Amazon (Mar 7, 2019)
How to delight customers — by saying “no” to Big Tech (Feb 15, 2019)
Saving tech, bookstores, and the world - for humans (Jan 31, 2019)
Why I’m optimistic for 2019: customers are back (Jan 18, 2019)
Why Amazon’s HQ2 is a much bigger deal than you thought (Nov 20, 2018)
The rebirth of “good tech” online (Oct 17, 2018)
Facebook isn’t cigarettes, it’s asbestos (Oct 12, 2018)
Marking 20 years of “creative good” writing, as Facebook fades (Sep 17, 2018)
Breaking Up (Big Tech) Is Hard To Do (Jun 21, 2018)
Tech going sideways, and a song about surveillance (May 21, 2018)
The many deceptions of Mark Zuckerberg (Apr 18, 2018)
Treating users well in the #deletefacebook era (Mar 29, 2018)
Alternatives to Big Tech, and a t-shirt (Mar 12, 2018)
Why you need to pay attention to China and its technology (Feb 28, 2018)
Why “fail fast” innovation won’t work on the border wall (Mar 8, 2017)
Creative Good has turned 20. Here’s what I’ve learned — and what comes next (Jan 6, 2017)
Budgeting for customer experience vs. advertising (Feb 4, 2016)
Are customers included in design thinking? (Nov 13, 2014)
Everyone has questions about customers. Here are answers. (Sep 11, 2014)
Customer experience and the choice between Lean/Agile and waterfall (Aug 14, 2014)
The disruption delusion: what happens when customers aren’t included (Jul 24, 2014)
A doctor’s thoughts on the patient experience (Jun 13, 2014)
You don't have a usability problem, you have a business problem (Apr 29, 2014)
Outcomes of the Google Glass column (Mar 12, 2013)
The Google Glass feature no one is talking about (Feb 28, 2013)
How to manage your email: or, A tiny skill that some people claim doesn’t exist (Feb 14, 2013)
What is a career in user experience really about? (Jan 15, 2013)
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