“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 […]
Data Visualization
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Quantifying what Republicans and Democrats talked about at the DNC and the RNC
We took the toughest, boldest, strongest, and hardest hitting action against China in American history by far. President Trump, RNC Night 4 Donald Trump has had a love fest with dictators, including China and Russia. He hasn’t been standing up to them at all. Rose G, DNC Night 3 I didn’t watch much of either […]
My Email Open Rate Data and 4 Things I learned about Copywriting
I am sharing data on my email open rates because 1) I always appreciate seeing data from other blogs and websites; the desire to benchmark oneself is hard to suppress and 2) if you are reading this, there is a decent chance you contributed to the data! I have been reading a book about copywriting, […]
Quantifying the Poker Boom
Since reading Maria Konnikova’s terrific new book The Biggest Bluff, I have been on a poker kick. She describes her journey to the World Series of Poker Main Event, poker’s biggest stage, and what it is like to be there. This got me interested in the tournament and its history. I knew poker got incredibly […]
Drinking, Cursing, and Cardigans: Taylor Swift Lyrics Over Time
Edit 12/12/2020: Ms. Swift has been much more productive than I have this year and released another album, so this is updated with Evermore lyrics Several years ago, I listened to Taylor Swift’s Reputation album and noticed lots of references to alcohol. I was in my early 20s and it reminded me of the self-conscious […]