Data centers are the new oil
Art: Desert Journey, Maynard Dixon, 1935A few months ago, a friend sent me a link about Matthew McConaughey coming to Utah to speak at a tech conference,...
Doctor, sponsor thyself
Art: The Patient and the Doctor, Gabriel Metsu, 1660Normcore is all about not reading the news and not panicking, but I have to admit the threat of...
Easy as A, B, Chromebook
Art: The Country School, Winslow Homer, 1871With my daughter quickly approaching school age, I’ve been doing some research on the current state of the...
Don't cry over dropshipped formula
Art: Bottle, Georges Braque, 1914When my son was 4.5 months old, he pulled the ultimate baby power move and decided to stop nursing, so we switched to...
What I know about running a paid newsletter for 9 months
Art: Writing Desk, Olga Rozanova, 1914It’s been about nine months since I started Normcore Tech, and four months since the last time I talked about revenue....
The market for memes
Art: Pope Leo After Raphael, Fernando Botero, 1964On one of my weekly visits to Facebook (which I’ve mostly disengaged from since I wrote this post in 2017...
Why don't we get the news we need?
Art: The Mirror of Venus, Edward Burne-Jones, 1875 Last month, New York Times technology journalist Kashmir Hill wrote a shocking piece about a US-based...
What's ours is not ours
Art: The Aircraft in the Sky, Fernand LegerMany moons ago, I kept all my music on an iPod. The winter of 2005 was not easy. I was a sophomore in college,...
One very bad Apple
Art: Apple Gatherers, Camille Pissaro, 1891My fifth grade teacher, Mr. Stains, had a big energy about him. He imparted two American cultural norms upon me....
Apple's Memoji and the uncanny valley
Art: The Mask, Frida Kahlo, 1945“Our bodies are a big part of the way we communicate,” writes Gretchen McCulloch in “Because Internet”, a book about living...
You'll love our sponsored content
Art: Oroubouros, Lucas Jennis, 1625The online media landscape is looking really bleak these days. Countless layoffs, downsizing, and news outlets closing....
Devices that delight
Art: Drunk woman is tired, Pablo Picasso, 1902I can count on one hand the number of recent(ish) tech purchases or experiences that have brought me joy. The...
When you write a web server but you get served
Art: Unexpected Visitors, Ilya Repin, 1888ServedIf you go to Nginx.com, the company behind one of the world’s most popular web servers, you’ll find the most...
Leaving the Bardo
Art: Open Door in a Garden, Konstantin Somov, 1934Over maternity leave, late at night, I purchased a best-selling book called “Lincoln in the Bardo” by...
Good Rings don't scale
Art: Ring around the Rosy, Maurice Prendergast, 1903The thing that sticks out the most about the Philadelphia office of Ring — the Amazon-owned digital...
Normcore stickers are for sale!
The TL, DR:Buy: Stickers. Mug. Notepad. The long version: Happy 2020, Normcore readers! This post is just a bit of housekeeping that’s accumulated and that I...
Nextdoor, a social network I don't hate
Art: Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Neighborhoods Khvalynsk, 1909 A couple months ago, I got an overly enthusiastic flyer in the mail saying that my town had...
Open thread: How would you spend Google's healthcare ca$h?
I had a ton of feedback after publishing AI Won’t Save Healthcare earlier this week. Thank you for replying! The main counterargument to the article has...
AI won't save healthcare
Art: Jan Steen, Doctor’s Visit, 1661Several years ago, when my firstborn was very young, I thought I was having a heart attack. I was watching my seven-...
Thank you paid Normcore subscribers!
Happy 2020, Normcore paid subscribers! I’m launching an experiment tomorrow selling Normcore laptop stickers. As a thank-you for subscribing and supporting...