Category: Behavior

  • Wearing a mask is like wearing pants

    To the people who think that wearing a mask infringes on their liberties, then how do you feel about pants? If a nudist demanded to be able to, ah, let it all hang out in Starbucks, plopped down next to your table, and then claimed that his or her liberties were being trampled if you…

  • Technologies of Grief

    When a family member dies the script is clear: you scramble the jets, cancel your appointments, lean on a friend to watch the dog, and get there. For me, that means getting to Los Angeles from Portland.  My aunt, Marlene Meyer, my mother’s sister, died on May 15th. She was 86, vibrant, still working as…

  • It’s time: subscribe to your local paper; turn off your ad blocker. We did.

    We live in Portland, and a few years back we let our subscription to the local paper, The Oregonian, lapse because we just weren’t reading it regularly.  Then came Coronavirus, and suddenly I found myself checking the OregonLive home page daily, multiple times per day. It didn’t take long for the penny to drop: we…

  • 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!

  • 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…

  • Am I B.L.U.E.? (Bored, Lonely, Uncomfortable…Ever)

    One reason there’s an obesity epidemic is that humans evolved in a world of caloric scarcity: getting enough food wasn’t easy for most of the population for most of human history. It still isn’t easy for many, many food-insecure people. However, the people who are food secure find themselves in an evolutionary conundrum: our instincts tell…