UVA and the Dangers of Tradition

When I was growing up in suburban Virginia, I adored UVA (the University of Virginia). I spent part of 4 summers at a summer camp on UVA’s campus, and I cherish those memories of four-square, frisbee, and girls in the midst of the austere architecture of Thomas Jefferson. During those summers and the years that … Read more

Nightly News…with Kittens

I have a confession to make: I don’t watch the news. It’s a little odd that I feel guilty about that, as if watching the news is the only way to stay on top of current events in this age of online media. But I think it’s ingrained into every American that watching the news … Read more

Zappos for Dates

Zappos (and now Amazon) does one of the coolest things for new employees. It’s called “The Offer.” A week or two into an employee’s training program, each new hire is offered one month’s salary…to quit. The idea is that it helps to weed out people who don’t actually want to work at Zappos rather than … Read more

The Pickle Request

Last night I received a puzzling e-mail from a complete stranger. Here’s a screenshot of it from my phone: Think about that for a minute. Perhaps post your thoughts in the comments before continuing. I read the e-mail a dozen times, and I couldn’t figure it out. So I did what anyone would do: I … Read more