Or, how I’ve learned to be careful about dismissing new trends — I write about technology a lot, so frequently people ask me: How do you predict what’s coming next? The answer is, I don’t. Most of the time in my writing, I avoid trying to prognosticate what direction technology is going to go. This is partly because predicting the near future…

Machines writing dreary text, to be read by other machines — I recently learned a very useful concept for thinking about our AI future. It’s in a recent column by the New York Times writer Ezra Klein, in which he grapples with the impact of large language-models like ChatGPT. At one point, he perceptively notes that language AI could be used…

A gorgeous slab of leather that molds itself to your rear end — When I decided to cycle 3,600 miles across the country, I had to get very serious about my butt. I’d done long-ish tours before — cycling up to 450 miles in a few days. And I learned the agonizing lesson that all nascent long-distance cyclists learn: Any part of your…

Be humble in the face of software complexity — Weirdly, I kind of enjoy encountering software bugs. My own bugs, to be clear! I’m an amateur self-taught programmer who writes little tools to assist in my journalism (or makes things just for fun, like my Weird Old Book Finder). …

For a long-distance cyclist, which one is freakier? — It’s funny how your sense of what’s risky —and what’s not —can change in an instant. This happened to me recently during my coast-to-coast cycling trip across the country. Let me explain. Basically, I’m spending my summer cycling from NYC to Portland, Oregon, for my next book on micro-mobility. For…

You you can learn a lot from how they got a bicycle to fly — Everyone knows the Wright Brothers were the first ones to figure out powered heavier-than-air flight — when their flyer took off on Dec. 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk. But the lead-up to that breakthrough? It is damn interesting, and chock full of deeply practical lessons about creativity, design and invention. …

An old trick, revamped for the new age of AI — For years, one of the easiest ways to break into a website was to use an “SQL injection” attack. And now a new version of this old malicious behavior is coming back … … hypercharged for the new age of AI! Let’s unpack this. I promise you, it’s a bit…

We need exposure to nature — but nature doesn’t need exposure to us — Those two plants above? In my entire adult life, they’re the only plants that I have succeeded in not killing. This is a small victory, but it gives me a curiously powerful type of pride. I got them a few years ago from “Horti,” a plant-subscription company. Horti will ship…

Tailpipe emissions are gnarly, awful, health-wrecking pollution — dumped right into our neighborhoods — When we talk about the need to electrify vehicles, it’s often posed as a very global issue. We need to power cars and trucks with renewable energy so we can curtail greenhouse gases, right? But there’s another big reason to electrify the way we drive, and it’s not global. It’s…