Tailor your voice to each place you use social media

“I make leather armour.” That’s a sentence I never expected to hear in this lifetime. In fact, until about 4:30 yesterday afternoon, I didn’t know what leather armour was. I din’t know that leather armour existed. Leather armor, it turns...

How to stop wasting time on technology challenges

Today’s practice: The next time you dive into a time-consuming tech challenge, stop to ask: what would a normal person do? Saturday morning I woke up at 4 a.m. in preparation for my flight to London — and accompanying time zone readjustment — later...

Updating Canada’s Election Act so you can tweet the results

Today the Canadian government announced its intention to table legislation that will bring Canada’s Elections Act into the 21st century. Tim Uppal, the junior minister for democratic reform, tweeted today to share the news. That’s right: next election...

Protect your intention span from the distractions of social media

Tonight I coined the term “intention span” to refer to the amount of time that passes between intending to work on something and actually starting work. Intention span: The amount of time that passes between intending to work on something and actually...

Blockbuster reminds us to make way for the new

Ever since it was announced that Blockbuster would close its remaining stores, I’ve wondered what would happen at the corner of Broadway and Blenheim. A wifi-wielding coffee shop? A wildly out-of-place H&M? An all-you-can-eat, gluten- and sugar-free cake...

Video: 10 reasons to stop apologizing for your online life

It’s time to stop apologizing for your life online. That was the central message of my talk at TEDx Victoria in November, now on YouTube. From valuing your online attention to taking your online creativity seriously as real art, I argue that we can only unlock...