Kontrary by Rebecca Thorman - Tech, Media and Life

Got a Right to Be Wrong

Rebecca Thorman — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:57:34 +0000

This is the first installment in a series of behind-the-scenes posts on Kontrary.

Ideas are common, so I’ll tell you now that how I came up with the idea for Kontrary isn’t interesting. What is interesting is how immediately I jumped into a case of “professor syndrome” where I believed that for Kontrary Read more ...

Work is Irrelevant

Rebecca Thorman — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:36:35 +0000

Work, that of pursuing a specific passion or purpose, has become irrelevant. As technology increasingly gains momentum, we’ve moved from the age of work/life blur to the age of tech/life blu Read more ...

Women in Tech Need to Stop Segregating Themselves

Rebecca Thorman — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:00:08 +0000

I don’t particularly like writing about women and tech. It’s uncomfortable. And it makes me uncomfortable. It means sometimes critiquing people that have been nice to me. It also means critiquing an industry that people like. It’s companies like Facebook, after all, not BP.

This is Your Tech Life

Rebecca Thorman — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:21:35 +0000

The weather has turned, and now I am feeling restless. My eyes are glazed as I look down at the timestamp on the lower right-hand side of my screen. There is a mere splinter of sunlight on the brick wall outside our window and oh, how it makes my foot tap, my chest tighten. Can I stand another moment on my computer? I wonder.

The Buck Stops With Generation Z

Rebecca Thorman — Tue, 31 May 2011 11:00:16 +0000

Gender inequality exists, but only in the workplace. Young women grow up believing in equality, but when she enters the workplace, she hits a brick wall. That will stop when Generation Z joins the workforce. Not because gendered roles will somehow evolve in the Read more ...

Old Media Needs an Opinion

Rebecca Thorman — Wed, 25 May 2011 10:00:05 +0000

Journalists are objective. Bloggers are not. The two have been duking it out since the dawn of the Internet age. Journalists think objectivity will save their jobs and bloggers know that is nonsense. Old media is not irrelevant, but they are digging themselves into a hole. Let me explain.

First, understand that journalism has never been o Read more ...

3 Drawbacks of Reputation as Currency

Rebecca Thorman — Thu, 19 May 2011 11:28:13 +0000

Photo: Ygor Oliveira

We ta Read more ...

Fare Thee Well, Boss

Rebecca Thorman — Mon, 16 May 2011 11:31:06 +0000

The boss-employee relationship is defunct. Managers think young workers aren’t willing to pay dues, but really young workers aren’t willing to be employees. Managers dangle the lure of a raise or a title, but young workers just want to build something together as a team.

The new org chart shouldn’t be based on hierarchy then, but a Read more ...

Being Always On, Always Right and the Case for Anonymity

Rebecca Thorman — Wed, 11 May 2011 04:03:03 +0000

There are a lot of reasons I stopped writing my last blog. Primarily though, it was because the Internet takes a lot out of you. It expects to be able to dissect everything. The Internet wants to pull you apart. Everything should be accessible and out there for all. In the Interneted world, you have to be always on.

I don’t particularly Read more ...

What Comes After the Social Web?

Rebecca Thorman — Thu, 05 May 2011 09:00:21 +0000

I am worried about how the Internet defines social.

There is a big difference between shopping online and shopping in seventy-degree weather, when someone brushes your bag, and you run into your friend on his way to a soccer game. Online shopping is solitary; real-life shopping is social. Seeing that my friend “liked� Read more ...