kasey Profile picture
learning + building to expand human agency
Nov 27 7 tweets 2 min read
has anyone tracked the disappearance of bowling alleys, skate rinks, arcades (*not* barcades), shopping malls, and generally low-cost+safe places for teenagers to hang out in american cities/suburbs? I haven’t looked into it but it definitely seems like an increased pressure to drive revenue has driven a lot of formerly-teen-friendly small businesses to either shift focus to an older clientele or go out of business altogether
Jun 18 12 tweets 6 min read
I just got back from Barcelona.

a couple years ago this intersection was filled with cars and trucks.

now it’s filled with people, plants. and music.

here’s a before / after

BCN probably has the world’s most ambitious public space strategy right now.

let’s look at more 🧵
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everyone knows the gothic quarter is for pedestrians, but historically the eixample hasn't enjoyed the same tranquility
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Jun 16 11 tweets 3 min read
this got talked about a lot when I worked on google maps.

I would personally love this feature, and it’s technically feasible.

here’s why I fought it loudly every time it came up

🧵 google maps has over a billion users around the world.

it is truly a global product operating at a scale that’s nearly incomprehensible.

that kind of scale changes the way you have to think about product development — and specifically about nth order effects.
May 16 41 tweets 9 min read
I don't mean to hijack @kasratweets thoughtful question but our household hosts a lot because we love it and I believe I've learned some useful lessons that address the responses here, so...

*How To Host Gatherings Successfully Even If You're Scared*

🧵 #1 rule of hosting:
Nothing—absolutely nothing—matters more than *who* you invite to the party (call it a party or not, you’re hosting a party). Who you invite sets the parameters of who your guests will meet, what kind of conversations they will have, and how they will feel.
Apr 21 8 tweets 2 min read
I’m not convinced Montessori is a good idea after 1st grade.

The value of Montessori isn’t that it’s a superior mode of knowledge acquisition (it’s not), it’s that it fortifies curiosity and instills independence.

Combined, those create a confidence that “I can figure it out.” The problem is that by 1st or 2nd grade, efficient knowledge acquisition becomes important.

Undirected learning (like Montessori) creates a huge meta-cognitive load when you’re entirely new to a domain.
Jan 7 5 tweets 1 min read
From 2006 to 2022, Twitter wasn’t a social network app. It was the world’s best note-taking app.

It was the only note-taking app that afforded the expansion of a nascent idea by riffing on it with a particular niche of thoughtful, intelligent people—a “tuning fork” for notes There’s still glimmers of this old note taking app here, but by leaning hard into algorithmic content, the Musk takeover has turned it into something that looks far more like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc—another Content Feeding Tube™️
Sep 4, 2023 7 tweets 4 min read
Spent the long weekend losing my mind over Montreal’s urban design.

It’s the best in North America by a wide margin.

Want to see some fantastic public spaces?

🧵📸 Image 1/ Pedestrian streets are all over the city. Some grand, others cozy. All gentle and lively.


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Mar 4, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
had to check something 😐 Image Wow, the inverse correlation holds for the ~1930s drop in crime too.

My views on incarceration just got more complicated…
Jul 15, 2021 8 tweets 2 min read
Considering a photo series: 'Honest American Landscapes'

I just finished driving from New York to California and back...

The United States is a beautiful country.
What we've done to it is tragic. A strip mall parking lot in Nevada. Cameras instinctively turn toward the few remaining outposts of unique character, but the reality is that it's exceptionally difficult to find a corner of the country that is remotely distinguishable from any other corner.
Apr 23, 2021 10 tweets 2 min read
An underappreciated dimension of innovation at the edge of emerging technology is the role of *language*

In order to build a new technology, you must first build a new language.

thread/ 1/ You are entering a new territory in which you must to communicate about very specific concepts that don't yet have associated names.

Harder still, this communication must be legible across a diverse set of collaborators who each have their own languages and mental models.
Mar 27, 2021 5 tweets 1 min read
Everyone talks about "burnout" as something that happens when you work too much.

I see it far more in people who work a normal amount on things they know don't matter. Organizations prefer and propagate the former frame because accepting the latter would spin them into existential crisis.
Feb 15, 2021 23 tweets 9 min read
This is the village in Germany where my parents met in the 1980's.

It is called Imsbach, population: 971

The longest walk you can take while staying in the village is 15 minutes.

a thread about villages/ 1/ I grew up visiting Imsbach. Except for the wind turbines that went up (and created some new jobs), it never really changed.
Feb 14, 2021 9 tweets 3 min read
As a new car owner I'm honestly disturbed by how cheap gas is. We're burning a finite resource that destroys the planet, but I can drive from NYC to LA and back for under $500, no problem.

Raise the gas tax. This is a valid concern! Here's why raising the gas tax is still a very good idea.

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