Books
Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences
The self-cancelling, self-frustrating side of human ingenuity, and what to do about it.
Books/Essays
The French Connections
The U.S. military-industrial complex's surprising debt to France.
Magazine Articles
When Systems Fracture
On the tendency of advanced technology to promote self-deception
A review of James R. Chiles,
Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology in
Harvard Magazine
The Life of Chairs
How sitting customs have affected the human body
The Xanadu Effect
Are big structures harbingers of decline?
Lasting Impressions
Harvard's debt to the shoe industry
Environment for Genius
The Harvard Society of Fellows, a history and personal appreciation