The power of stories over data — As an engineer by background, I love data and logic. Like many of you, I spent countless hours in classes on sigma distributions, logic, etc. Traditional programming is dominated by if-this, then-that reasoning. Machine learning is dominated by statistics and linear algebra and such. …

EV charging: It can be so much more — For the past few years I’ve been increasingly obsessed with the user experience of long distance EV travel, driven (pun intended) in large part from many trips between Northern and Southern California in a Tesla. I continue to encounter many people, including Tesla owners, who feel they need to have…

You can annoy the s#*t out of them all day — Recently I’ve been doing a lot of coding for some projects I’m working on. In the course of that work, I’ve been making extensive use of large language models (LLMs) including ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Bard. My take: While we’re only at the beginning, right now LLMs are the pair…

Will the enduring keyboard design finally give way given generative AI? — I came across this new book about the history of keyboards, and as a human-computer interaction nerd I can’t wait to read it. The QWERTY keyboard has a fascinating history, a great example of a design constrained around past technology but hard to break away from. …

Sorry Optimus Prime, I’m talking about LLMs — This weekend I needed a recipe in short order for dinner. Like many of us, I turned to search rather than sift through cookbooks. The internet is great for finding simple recipes… if you can run the gauntlet of display ads to get to the content. …

Gears in Glasses is here — As part of the work I’m doing with Audenticity, I’m trying to really understand the influencer space. Like many people, I pulled back from social media around 2016 because of how divisive things became. …

New year, new beginnings — “Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.” - Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead I’m not sure if all things happen for a reason, or if we are remarkably adaptable as humans and good at rationalizing cause and effect. I’m sure Daniel Kahneman would have something…

For a consumer, carbon reduction has to boost comfort or cut cost — Recently I’ve come across two companies who want customers to pay a monthly subscription to recycle household waste in a green way. One was recycling plastic films that aren’t recycled in traditional municipal programs, and one was announced yesterday to compost food waste. Now, I fully support what both of…

The subtle beauty of Legos — Recently, my daughter has been into learning about Chinese traditions. With the Lunar New Year coming up, we have been looking at some really cool Chinese New Year lego sets. Did you even know they made lego sets for Chinese New Year? My favorite is the Lunar New Year parade…