It has been 50 years this month since Alvin and Heidi Toffler published their book, Future Shock. The Tofflers have since passed on to the next plane. However, they have left behind a work, that is amazingly prescient, especially when seen in the context of the current pandemic a … | Continue reading
A few days after the pandemic shutdown began in San Francisco, I noticed seagulls were spending more time in the communal pool in our building complex. Devoid of people, it wasn’t surprising to see gulls take up residence in the pool. After a few days, it became clear that it was … | Continue reading
How China is trying to dominate the digital currency market: While we are busy fighting the battle over TikTok, China is making moves to dominate the currency markets of the future. This is a must-read story. (Also: Triangle Entanglement — As the U.S. and China drift apart, Taiwa … | Continue reading
COVID-19 pandemic is the second deadliest pandemic in America, based on the numbers collated by Marshall Auerback. As of today, the US facility rate stands at 0.051 percent. 1918 influenza pandemic: 50 million deaths globally. World population: 1.8 billion, or 2.7 percent. US fat … | Continue reading
Uber and Lyft, in response to a California court ruling that all drivers must be reclassified as employees with benefits, are threatening to quit doing business in the state. Putting the news, and the legal posturing of Uber and Lyft aside, the judgment and its possible impact on … | Continue reading
Microsoft's new hybrid Android OS based dual-screen phone, Surface Duo doesn't really move the idea of mobile phones forward. | Continue reading
"Our daily lives are so mundane, we get taken over by what is immediately in front of us, and we don't see beyond that." - Benedict Cumberbatch It has been 164 days since the self-imposed isolation started. Maybe it is time for me to stop counting. In 180 days, I thought that we, … | Continue reading
I traveled to Utah for Thanksgiving 2019. For a few minutes, I got a chance to experience a real snowstorm. And just like that, it was over. I made a handful of photos. Here is one of them. | Continue reading
First Huawei, then TikTok and last week, WeChat: we are navigating stormy seas when it comes to the US-China relationship. It all seems very arcane to an average person. After all, it is easy to find a replacement for TikTok. We don’t use Huawei and WeChat as ordinary Americans. … | Continue reading
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash Has the Internet become better at mediating change? It’s a good question, and the exploration of the topic by Jane Hu for The New Yorker is even better. This should… | Continue reading
When I look back upon my journey as a photographer, it can easily be summed up by the words of Jonathan Swift. “Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.” The journey has been… | Continue reading
Long before the pandemic made in-person coffee conversations a nostalgic memory, I was chatting with a friend about the increased frequency with which large technology companies copied their rivals… | Continue reading
I didn’t have the luxury to study the fine arts in college. I didn’t go to journalism school. So all my writing skills were acquired by osmosis and practice. I would voraciously read bo… | Continue reading
The Information this morning reported that Headspin, a network performance software provider, restated its revenues — down from $100 million annual recurring revenue to $15 million ARR after … | Continue reading
It might not be perfect, but Apple’s HomePod smart speaker has its uses, especially if you live within Apple’s ecosystem. I use it to add items to my to-do lists, quick calculation… | Continue reading
I recently came across an interview with an American icon and legendary photographer, Ansel Adams. A British TV journalist was interviewing him. When asked if his famous photograph, Moonrise over H… | Continue reading
The marriage of Microsoft and TikTok seems so bizarre that I couldn’t help but be reminded of another such bizarre Union – late actress Anna Nicole Smith and her billionaire octogenarian husb… | Continue reading
Earlier this month, I pointed out that the pandemic, and being locked indoors is turning us to social media in large numbers. And now that Facebook, Snap, and Twitter have reported their numbers, i… | Continue reading
Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash Given that I have been writing three decades, including eighteen-plus years a blogger, I am hardly surprised that I am repeatedly asked: how should I write? And … | Continue reading
In a few hours, the chief executives of four major technology companies — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are going to be hauled up in front of our politicians. I am surprised to see Micr… | Continue reading
A view from Burano, Italy. Made with Leica SL We could all use a little more silence in our lives. We need to learn to live with the harsh reality that we aren’t that important. No one pays a… | Continue reading
Brendan Gahan, one of my former interns and now Chief Social Officer at Mekanism, recently shared a piece on how brands can embrace and evolve on YouTube. He calls this content strategy — Her… | Continue reading
I found these stories informative and interesting. They outline the second and third-order impacts of the pandemic. They should add another dimension to your reading about the pandemic. — Om … | Continue reading
I have been toying with an idea around “engineering” and how the meaning of the word has changed around here in Silicon Valley. And now like a spider, I find myself trapped in the web o… | Continue reading
The essayist is a self liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest. He is a fellow who thoroughly enjoys … | Continue reading
The Wirecutter, a product recommendation publication, recently published a list of best instant noodles as selected by chefs, ramen nerds, and cookbook authors. Some of these brands I have tried, a… | Continue reading
This morning was the 142nd day of pandemic-related isolation. 21 weeks later, I look back and see how everything that was strange in March, feels almost normal in July. Whether it is going to resta… | Continue reading
Fourteen years ago, on a somewhat cold evening, I stepped out of a party being hosted by Ruby Red Labs in an office it shared with Adaptive Path in San Francisco’s SOMA district. I craved nicotine.… | Continue reading
We are all living with too many subscriptions. And often we can forget when services we are using or have forgotten to cancel. So it is nice to see a company do the right thing and stop charging pe… | Continue reading
Over the past few months, as we have been struggling to cope with the pandemic lockdown, we have turned to social media in large numbers. It has come as a way to deal with physical and social isola… | Continue reading
By now, we have all heard about the takeover of the celebrity accounts and those of companies such as Apple and Uber by scammers who wanted to trick people into sending them bitcoins. There are mul… | Continue reading
Barry Ritholtz postulates that the reason why big tech stocks are heading to the moon is because of the “overseas markets.” Apple generated more than 55% of its revenue outside the U.S. in the yea… | Continue reading
In case you hadn’t noticed, but there is a podcast boom of sorts going around these days. I came across some statistics about podcasts. According to a podcast search engine, ListenNotes, there are … | Continue reading
Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Tinbergen, writing for | Continue reading
I have been wanting to upgrade my read it later application — Pocket, but thought I would ask what friends on Twitter think about the premium version of the software versus its competitor Ins… | Continue reading
After two weeks in the hospital, both my parents have returned home after being cleared by the doctors. They are free of the virus, though we have to watch out for the after-effects. This has been … | Continue reading
We are all rightfully preoccupied with the pandemic that we have not started to notice that the future outlined in science fiction stories has begun to arrive in bits and pieces. There was a time w… | Continue reading
Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash This past week social media became a battleground for yet another death match between media and Silicon Valley. So much has been said, so I am going to abstai… | Continue reading
Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash Nobody on the road Nobody on the beach I feel it in the air The summer’s out of reach The Boys of Summer, Don Henley. Summer officially starts for me in the l… | Continue reading
Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash Nobody on the road Nobody on the beach I feel it in the air The summer’s out of reach The Boys of Summer, Don Henley. Summer officially starts for me in the l… | Continue reading
A friend recently shared this paragraph from Atul Gawande’s book, Being Mortal. I was reminded of this when I lay in bed thinking about the past 72-hours and my parents. It is pretty clear ho… | Continue reading
I have made a career out of extolling the virtues of networks — how they make the very notion of time, location, and geography less relevant. The power of optics has flexed its muscles during… | Continue reading
In this episode of Stuck@Om, I’m talking with an old friend, Maria Konnikova. Maria holds a Ph.D. in Psychology, is the author of multiple best-selling books, and is also a professional poker playe… | Continue reading
If you paint stripes on a horse, it doesn’t become a zebra. And the same is for companies. As a company, you develop a corporate DNA, which becomes so ingrained that it is hard to fight again… | Continue reading
Photo by Mohammad Metri on Unsplash While I don’t deny the convenience of streaming music and video, I often am left wondering what these services are really doing to help the artists. Streaming, l… | Continue reading
Check out this wonderful series of graphic art by Hannes Pasqualini words by Marc Weidenbaum. This one piece of work just caught our present, so emotively. | Continue reading