BradBerens.com
Thoughts about where our real and digital worlds collide.

  • Trump’s Shakespearean Moment?

    An exchange between Senator Elizabeth Warren and Meet the Press host Chuck Todd on the January 5th episode caught my ear. Warren implied that President Trump ordered  the assassination of Iranian general Soleimani to move the world’s focus from his coming impeachment trial rather than for reasons of U.S. national security: SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: Donald Trump was doing what Donald Trump…

  • My 2019 in Books

    This is the sixth year that I’ve kept a running list of every book that I’ve completed for the first time and then shared that list here as the first thing I post on either the last day of the old year or the first of the new. You can see the 2018 list here, the…

  • Will Twitter decide the 2020 presidential election?

    Is Mayor Pete Buttigieg really surging? Is Senator Elizabeth Warren really the new frontrunner? Can any of the Democratic candidates match Trump’s social media presence?  Most Americans, regardless of party, will agree that Donald Trump has been an unusual President of the United States, including his use of Twitter. Between his personal Twitter account (@realDonaldTrump)…

  • Should you look at your kid’s smartphone? Digital parenting tips #2

    (This is the second in a series of practical tips about parenting in the digital age.) My last column described conversations that parents should have before giving a kid that first smartphone. I held back talking about one important topic because it needs its own discussion: should you look at your kid’s phone? The short answer…

  • Have this talk before your kid gets a phone: digital parenting tips #1

    (This is the first in a series of practical tips about parenting in the digital age.) Parents of adolescents worry about when a kid should get her* first smartphone. It’s a legit worry. On the plus side, smartphones connect kids to a vast world of information, resources, entertainment, and community… and that’s the down side,…

  • Micropost: I’m featured in a Forbes piece

    I’m pleased to report that I’m featured in a new Forbes piece called, “50-Year Future Of The Office: What Will Workspaces Be Like In The Year 2069?” by Nigel Davies. Please take a look!

  • THIS is the kinder, gentler Uber?

    This week, the California legislature passed an important bill that could result in the reclassification of Uber and Lyft drivers as employees instead of contractors. The change might entitle drivers to minimum wage, benefits, collective bargaining, and a host of other knife-to-the-neck threats to the short-term survival of the ride-hailing companies that are, in the long term,…

  • Brad’s Smartphone Daydream: Multiple Modes

    I’m distractible. Easily. My iPhone is the worst (but far from the only*) temptation to wander away from what I should be thinking about.  In today’s New York Times, reporter Conor Dougherty explains how he lobotomized his phone—removing all social media, games, even the browser—in order to stay focused. I periodically do something similar, removing…

  • Anderson Cooper, Stephen Colbert, Great Stories & Terrible UX

    When friends from different corners of my life recommend the same thing, I pay attention. Years ago, within days, an arch feminist, lesbian, liberal arts friend and an arch conservative, straight, financier friend independently recommended Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan science fiction series.  This I gotta see. Bujold has been my favorite living SF writer ever…

  • Why Amazon made “The Boys”

    Amazon Prime Video’s new superhero satire is too niche to be a big hit, but it pieces into Amazon’s strategy of taking shrewd advantage of the blind spots of other businesses. As I write this sentence, I have watched six of the eight episodes of “The Boys”— the superhero series that Amazon released on Friday, June…