On Protests and Movements
Thoughts on the fight for racial justice in 2020
This is an attempt to integrate a series of shorter, related writings that I’ve published in my newsletter over the last few weeks. Much of it touches on the Black…
Recharging is for batteries, not people
Why working less isn’t the answer to burnout at work
Last year, journalist Anne Helen Petersen wrote a widely shared piece in Buzzfeed naming millennials the “Burnout Generation”. According to Petersen, we’re overworked, underpaid, and often paralyzed by the systemic dysfunction…
Community is just friendship
WeWork, well-being, and who we are
Working in tech, you hear the word “community” a lot. When I was starting my career more than a decade ago, the concept of a community manager was starting to…
My Op-Ed in Vox
“Why Always Be My Maybe’s Asian American underachiever is groundbreaking”
Writing milestones don’t come often. I’ve been blogging since 2009, have had pieces blow up on Medium or hit front page of Hacker News. I’ve been interviewed for places like…
Long hours are BS
Squaring tech’s penchant for long hours with elite athletic training
Lots of people in tech are obsessed with putting in long hours. Elon Musk once said that “nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week” and suggested that the correct…
Book Notes on the Fuzzy and the Techie
A rebuttal to tech’s “STEM or die” mentality
I just finished Scott Hartley’s new book The Fuzzy and the Techie: Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World. It is an inspiring read full of compelling stories and…
An Open Letter to Managers of Women
This article first appeared on Medium, where it has received over 205,000 views. It has been republished to Quartz, Upworthy, Huffington Post and featured as a LinkedIn Editor’s Pick. Dear manager, We need to talk about…
The New Napster
How Sci-Hub is Blowing Up the Academic Publishing Industry
There has been an explosive new development in how scientific research is read and distributed. It’s name is Sci-Hub. Founded in 2011 by Alexandra Elbakyan (who was, at the time, a 22 year-old…
First Impressions at Etsy
The vibes I’m getting from the new gig
Since first publishing this post in October, our team has shipped the first product I had a hand in (in November). It’s called Shop Updates. You can read more about how…