“The Brooklyn of ______” is a goofy but useful shorthand. If you are in an unfamiliar city and you are in dire need of a craft cocktail or a vintage store or a wall mural you can use this phrase to identify a neighborhood where you will feel comfortable. The brooklynization of every city is […]
How Amex makes you feel rich, or the hidden cost of fancy credit cards
I got an American Express credit card a few years ago and I’ve been interested in the ways it has pulled at my psychology. There is an explicit cost to the card, which is several hundred dollars per year. But more fascinating and concerning is the implicit cost of spending more than I would have […]
Where are the World’s Top Cocktail Bars?
I recently went to the Little Red Door bar in Paris which was number 5 on a list of the world’s 50 best bars in 2022. I can only assume that being ranked highly on this list ensures that the bar stops being cool because the cocktails were delicious but the clientele was comprised almost […]
Analyzing your iMessage group chat with OpenAI’s API
My college friends and I have an iMessage group chat that has been active for 10 years or so. I’ve seen how good GPT is at analyzing text and wanted to apply it to our conversations. It was easier than I thought it would be, and you can follow my process at the end of […]
A Data-Driven Way to Pick Your Premier League Team
I love waking up on Saturday, making a pot of coffee, and watching the EPL while the eloquent British announcers wax poetic about the best teams in the world. But, I’m an American, and I have no real allegiance to any one club. This makes my mornings relaxing, because I am just there to watch […]
Restaurant Hotspots: Neighborhood Mentions in the New York Times’ Food Section
I find myself going to the same neighborhoods again and again and a lot of it is driven by the restaurant reviews my friends read. I was curious to see how well the data reflects my sense of neighborhood popularity and how they have changed over time. I have lived in New York for two […]
Where Students from Each College Move After Graduation
When I lived in San Francisco I was chatting with a venture capitalist who invested in consumer brands. I mentioned that Peloton had set up a display in an upscale mall in suburban Cincinnati, where I grew up. He was shocked, and said “Wow — that shows you how hard growth is to come by […]
Text Analysis of Howard Lindzon’s Blog
After analyzing Fred Wilson’s blog posts, I got connected with Howard Lindzon and did the same thing for his blog. I wasn’t as familiar with Lindzon’s writing and it’s been fun to dig into it — where Wilson is measured and understated, Lindzon shoots from the hip and is irreverent. I most enjoyed reading some […]
What We Talk About When We Talk About Dating
Several months ago, I heard about the West Elm Caleb saga, and read that women on TikTok alleged that he was love bombing them while seeing many other women. I found this disturbing, because I had never heard the term “love bombing” and it’s important to me that I remain culturally aware for as long […]
A Text Analysis of Fred Wilson’s AVC
I’ve been reading Fred Wilson’s blog AVC most days for 4 or 5 years now. I admire the way he writes: simple sentences that have a clear point of view. He doesn’t hide behind complexity or jargon, and he doesn’t hedge every opinion for fear of being wrong. I’ve tried with mixed success to incorporate […]