A few months ago, there were rumors that Twitter had made an offer for Substack, the hotter-than-jalapeños email publishing platform. If so, it looks like they got turned down. Instead, Twitter bought Revue, an also-ran, Netherlands-based email publishing company. Many in the technology press believe that Revue will allow Twitter to compete with Substack and … Continue reading Twitter vs Substack
Design isn’t alone in its lack of quality content—the web, by and large, has become a dumping ground for garbage. Most design content has become poor quality, surface-level content marketing that does more damage than good, because it offers over-simplified, misinformed perspectives dressed up as guidance. When the experienced don’t write, grifters step in, feign … Continue reading Grifters & the modern web of experts
The November writing challenge has been much harder than I thought. It turns out that writing daily is a difficult habit to form. I missed a day last week, so technically, the challenge is already lost. Still, I am going to redouble my efforts not to miss another day. After years of writing constantly, sometimes … Continue reading In Silicon Valley, Hypocrisy is the new normal
Technology media, like media in general, in more recent times has always been happy to jump on the populist news bandwagon. The more consumer news is easy to cover, especially if it involves a billionaire founder, a sizzling platform and lots of venture capital. It generates a lot of attention. A perfect example is the recent story around the Medium layoffs and the company’s strategy shift, which if I were to bet, I would say will probably be centered around subscriptions. Continue reading “Why Medium’s layoffs coverage reflects media’s skewed barometer of news”
Internet’s inherent beauty is that it is always changing, evolving, breaking and reinventing. This is what makes it, the network rich, and some people rich. Ev Williams’ Medium is a topic of big debate and Zeldman breaks down as a true web oldie can! Read This! Continue reading Jeffrey Zeldman on Medium & Open Web
If anything past few weeks have been a big lesson in humility, in understanding humanity and also a reaffirmation that random kindness of strangers far outweighs the preening and posturing of others. Some have written handwritten notes, others have emailed, many have tweeted and messaged, and others sent me messages on Facebook — saddened by the loss of … Continue reading Gigaom’s Culture of Context Lives On
Evan Williams, co-founder of Blogger, Twitter and Medium came on stage at Roadmap to talk about Medium and what he is trying to do with his company. But the real story is that it is a design that is the core to the company – design that is rarely seen but mostly experienced. Here is … Continue reading Medium’s Secret Weapon
It has been a while since I collated and published this list of must read articles. Primarily, it is because of the holidays, I have shifted my attention towards reading more books and write more. I am also spending less time on the web. Nevertheless, the good stuff keeps coming. Here are five great pieces that are worth reading. The … Continue reading 5 must reads from around the web
Earlier this year, Ev Williams’ Medium roped in veteran Wired writer Steven Levy to start a technology hub. Levy, even though at times (frustratingly) glosses over the tough & important questions as part of his always engrossing narratives and lovely (if a tad gushing) prose was the perfect choice to lead this effort. He has … Continue reading Backchannel
