Why WordPress Upload Folder Settings Matter Less Than You Think
Spent way too much time looking at WordPress media settings today only to realize the “Organize uploads into month- and year-based folders” option matters far less than people think.
What Library Architecture Got Right
The great libraries built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries got something right that contemporary civic architecture has largely…
Night Markets and the Informal Economy
The night market is a technology for converting public space into economic activity with minimal capital requirement. A vendor needs a folding table…
Vending Machines as Infrastructure
Japan has approximately one vending machine for every twenty-three people. The number is declining from its peak but remains high enough to…
Why Concrete Became the Default Material of the Modern World
Concrete is everywhere because it is cheap, plastic before it sets, and almost indestructible after. No other material combines those three…
The Economics of the Long Layover
A six-hour layover at Changi is a different proposition than six hours at any airport in the American Midwest. The difference is intentional…
Salt, Tax, and the State
Salt was the first commodity governments taxed reliably and the last one they gave up. The logic was simple: everyone needed it, it was cheap to…
The Short Life of the Expert Class
The expert class had a good run. From roughly 1945 to 2008, credentialed professionals — economists, epidemiologists, foreign policy analysts…
The Return of Industrial Policy
Industrial policy was supposed to be a relic. The consensus that formed after the Cold War held that governments were bad at picking winners, that…
The Problem with Designing for the Average User
The average user does not exist. This is not a philosophical point; it is a measurement fact. When you describe the average height, income, and…