The independent researcher and author of “Working in Public” shares her thoughts on “gentlemen scientists,” career games, and Jane Jacobs.

Below, you’ll find Nadia’s thoughts on the chaos and beauty of our era, the damage of being a permanently distracted species, re-engaging with religion, and enjoying the email inbox.

Nadia is publishing a new book on antimemetics exploring why some ideas spread slowly or not at all – which is one of the most interesting premises for a book I’ve heard in some time.

But ideas don’t spread the same way they did in the early days of Web 2.0. Now, we sometimes deliberately keep our spiciest thoughts and compelling ideas under wraps, because we don’t want them to spread too fast, or to the wrong people. We shield them from the harsh dynamics of the public web, saving them for group chats. I think this is under-discussed, so I spent the better part of this past year exploring these dynamics in a book about antimemetics that’s coming out soon.