Author Archives: betsym

The folks over at Edge have a really interesting read on innovation, creativity and culture by Mark Pagel. I had a couple reactions to this: (1) Is innovation always data-driven? Mark makes a rather compelling argument that innovation is rarely the … Continue reading →

*Update* This post was originally titled “Teach not coding but architecture,” which is still reflected in the permalink. I have however updated the title to reflect a far better one proposed by Jonathan Zittrain on Twitter. My colleague Nicklas Lundblad has a … Continue reading →

I was really struck by this article last week describing research that used publicly available Facebook profiles to predict students likely to suffer from alcohol abuse. The article suggests toward the end that there is an open question of how … Continue reading →

Last week I spent a bit of time learning about the Quantified Self movement—a group I’ve been following from the shadows for a couple years now, but which I’d not really engaged with closely until recently. The group is an … Continue reading →

A couple years ago while I was at home with my family for Christmas I got a call from my credit card company. Someone had tried to charge $14,000 to my account on Christmas Eve, “was that you?” they wanted … Continue reading →

Last week I stumbled across an interesting summary of a recent paper in the journal Memory and Cognition:  By setting your predictions for the future in a familiar landscape, you allow yourself to use your memories of the past to … Continue reading →

Several years ago I worked on a project for a client examining the business opportunities in mobile healthcare—particularly in developing countries. At the time,  it all seemed theoretical—if you had good mobile connections and if smart phone penetration were high … Continue reading →

The upcoming issue of the Atlantic has a fascinating piece written by neuroscientist David Eagleman about criminal behavior and responsibility. It’s apparently adapted from his book, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain—which I am looking forward to reading during … Continue reading →

As announced earlier this week, I’m going to be spending my 20% time next year at the Berkman Center researching the ethics of predictive analytics. I’m really excited about the opportunity. Though much of my work in the past two … Continue reading →

I have taken quite a long break from blogging, but hope to begin again with renewed energy in the coming months. As the first foray back into writing, and the first blog post of 2011, I’m going to share the … Continue reading →