Recently, I finally realized that piling on new features day after day is not the most effective way to improve software. As a programmer, it’s tempting to just keep building… but this approach does not leave room for data-based improvement.   “Growth Hacking” is a (relatively) new term in startupland....

I’m going to try to avoid ranting here, but it’s hard. The other day I posted about a positive experience with AmEx’s customer support. Even though I ultimately concluded that large scale customer support is broken, I still walked away with a positive experience with AmEx. Fast forward to today,...

Recently, during the sadistic ritual known as “taxes,” I was forced to contact American Express’ customer support. First, I must commend them on using Twitter as a medium. They’re responsive and personable, and I did in fact get an answer quickly. However, the fact that Twitter has become a “decent”...

Side projects are not just random diversions: they are a critical skill-building and rejuvenating activity everybody should actively participate in.     Programmers are especially keen on little side projects. The act of programming is, quintessentially, creating shortcuts to doing something. Many programmers got their start making little scripts to...

In case you’ve not yet heard, App.net (aka ADN) is the new kid on the social network block. At first, the concept of a pay-to-use social network seems a bit odd; I’m sure there are plenty of business folks out there who would be happy to tell you that it...

This post is technical in nature, and aimed at programmers. Casual readers might still get something out of this, but I’m not making any attempts to remove jargon in here.   Node.js and MongoDB are great; they’re super-scalable and a joy to work with. However, there were plenty of growth...

A number of weeks ago, I wrote the first post on hacking my own happiness. I participated in a study conducted at Harvard, and the result was a bunch of data collected from real-life about what made me happy. In the last article, I took a super-high-level look at the...

Dear my generation:   What gives? Where did all the love go? Are we too pragmatic, too jaded? Or are we more aware of the real workings of the world? How can we possibly reconcile the romantic tales still embodied in our media but absent from our lives? Are we...

This is part one of my series of experiments on happiness using Track your Happiness, a “scientific research project that aims to use modern technology” to help you understand what makes you happy. It is the project of doctoral candidate Matt Killingsworth at Harvard University. During the course of many...

Do you remember band class? Maybe it was just a flute or recorder, or maybe you were forced to study an instrument for a few years in middle school. Maybe you even picked up a thing or two from these classes, but how about now?   For me, music felt...