Academia
You can explore my academic research and my teaching materials.
Quick Links
Biography
I’m currently hacking on new projects. I’m a former investor @CRV & @General Catalyst, former foreign correspondent @TechCrunch, @Stanford MCS grad and PhD dropout from @Harvard.
Motto
Fortune favors the bold
Contact Me
danny [dot] crichton [at] gmail
Recent Posts
The Economic Security of High Rents and Ridiculous Job Licensing
Safety is the Watchword of Cost Disease
The Problem With Subscription Software/Media Is High Prices
Startups, Income Inequality, and the Basic Economy
Will Autonomous Cars Destroy Cities As We Know Them?
The Age of Investigative Tech Journalism
Good Lord, Of Course Red Lights Will Still Be Here With Autonomous Cars
RipVanWinkle.js — Returning to JavaScript After 5 Years
“Artificial Intelligence” & “Big Data” Are Newest Entries to My 2017 Dictionary of Uselessness
Reading Docket
- James C. Scott’s Seeing Like A State
- Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter
- Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing
- Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton
Updated August 15th, 2017
Send me book recommendations!
Recently Read
- Matthew Desmond’s Evicted
- David Graeber’s Utopia of Rules
- Eliot Peper’s True Blue
- Douglas Murray’s The Strange Death of Europe
- Bandi’s The Accusation
Current Obsessions
- Cost Disease: Costs for many services in the US have skyrocketed, including industries as diverse as housing, health, education, and infrastructure. What is driving these prices, and what can be done to bring prices more in line with inflation in other industries?
- Non-Coastal Economic Development: How will cities in the middle of the United States survive and even thrive going forward? How can we create a whole new set of jobs in these settings to reduce pressure on the coasts and improve living in the Midwest and elsewhere?
- New Approaches to Political Lobbying: Lobbying remains completely ancient compared to the technological change that has happened to nearly every other form of brokering industry. What can be done to improve its effectiveness, with the hope of improving access for all people to politicians.
- Next-generation Media: Media businesses are still struggling, yet it is clear that a persistent focus on audience development and subscriptions is the way forward. What tools need to be built to bring this world to fruition faster?
- Graph Databases and Learning: This is more broad-based – how can we use knowledge maps to improve learning (specifically thinking around foreign languages).