Trader Joe’s tote bags – and the shape of things.
Trader Joe’s has turned a cheap grocery tote bag into a mini cultural event. Do you know this? I had no idea until last year at about this time when my friend Marisa started talking about what colors she was missing. What? Trader Joe’s has sold reusable bags for years. Canvas totes, insulated bags, and […]
A Map of London and Modern Problem.
According to several Wikipedia articles, taken from several angles, Phyllis Pearsall (1906–1996) is often credited with creating the first comprehensive, user-friendly street atlas of London. The popular narrative suggests that in 1935, after getting lost on her way to a party due to outdated maps, she decided to map the city herself. Allegedly, she walked […]
The Blanket Billboards.
Driving around Utah, it’s hard not to notice how many billboards are advertising blankets. So. Many. Billboards. And I have questions. How much money goes into all that advertising? Who decided blankets needed this much attention? When did blankets become such a competitive thing? Why does this feel so concentrated here? I can’t find a […]
The Earlier Version of You.
Last winter, I had a day where I felt completely steady walking into something and completely unsteady walking out of it. I was only about ten miles from my house. I went into a company on a beautiful crisp, clear morning to give an in-person presentation. I thought it went so well. But when I […]
When the bill breaks.
In 2009, behavioral economists Priya Raghubir and Joydeep Srivastava designed a series of studies to observe how people handle cash. They found that a single large bill carried more psychological weight than the same amount divided into smaller ones. Participants who received a fifty-dollar bill tended to keep it intact. Those given the same amount […]
The Wizard of Oz — and Remastering.
As some of you probably know, maybe even because I’ve told you, The Wizard of Oz is not in Kansas anymore. It’s in Las Vegas. And it’s incredible. According to the Wall Street Journal, Steven Hickson, director for AI foundation research at Google DeepMind, The Wizard of Oz project was “Very, very, very big and […]
Apparently, wood cabinets are back.
I remember so clearly a couple years ago texting my friend Mariah a picture of someone’s legs while I was at Disneyland. They were wearing longer socks with their leggings — just like we used to do in the 80s. I said something like “Really? We’re doing this again?” Previous to that everyone had been […]
When the system looks like Magic.
Justin Willman, the magician-comedian, has a trick that never fails to amaze people. Including me. He’s memorized every zip code in the United States. For real. Audience members call out their five digit zip code, and he tells them their town. Not just the state, not just the region — the actual exact town. It […]
Capital “S” Stuck.
I’m going to start this post with a little lesson I learned from Marty, my brother, who has spent most of his career in city planning. There are different types of roads. Arterial roads are like the main highways or big streets in a city. Everybody goes on them. They carry lots of people going […]
4 Questions from Fiskars.
I grew up in a house of scissors. We had little kid scissors, dad’s big metal office scissors, huge shears in the garage, craft scissor, junk drawer scissors, kitchen scissors, mom’s hair cutting scissors, and the orange handled Fiskars – both straight and ‘pinking’ style. And we knew better than to use the orange ‘sewing […]
