The scientists working away in the 1960s had no idea their proto internet would live on long after the Cold War which gave birth to it. In those early days of the Web, the goal was to create an alternate way for government leaders to communicate with each other. But by the 1980s, once computer scientist Vinton Cerf had nailed down how to connect computers all over the world, when it came to innovation the sky was the limit.

Browsers and search engines were invented. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates built their empires. And Millennials came of technological age. For…

An afternoon on the BQE listening to WFMU, a makeshift desk outside, a balcony with birds chirping in the background — just some of the places the ThoughtMatter team got work done during its first ever Meet Free Tuesday. Pre-pandemic, the idea of being chained to a desk was a common one. The ability to grab a bite to eat, get some air, even use the restroom, was limited due to a packed schedule and constant impromptu chats. …

Everyone’s been there, that moment on a creative project when it feels like you’ve just hit a wall. But no matter how frustrating, even anxious-making, that can be, sooner or later it’s something you’ve got to learn to love if you want to be in this business.

Just exactly when you realize you’re stuck can vary. It may, for instance, be after you’ve taken your initial pass at research. The beauty part of research, though at first blush it may not seem so, is methodology. You can lean into the structure it lends to the process without losing the creative…

One of the special rewards this job offers comes only once in a while in the form of an insight, a simple truth that describes the “why” behind certain behavior. Discoveries like those are the product of systematic research methods, many of which have been struck from our toolkit now that so much of our work happens behind a screen at home.

Most of the research we do at ThoughtMatter starts by simply observing the world and looking for patterns. To do this we have several tools at our disposal, an indispensable one being ethnographic research. In short, observing people…

On the evening of March 12, 2020, we all packed up our laptops, left the office and headed home. We haven’t worked a day there since.

That Friday, March 13th , was intended to be a work-from-home trial run. We’d see how things went, and all come back on Monday to discuss what worked, and what didn’t. Instead, on that day, a new way of working, living and thinking officially began.

Now, with more than 50 Spotify playlists and virtual happy hours and countless Zoom meetings under our belt, we wanted to reflect on everything this year of confinement has…

Opinions are like a**holes; everybody’s got one. And it became clear after a quick office poll that this is something the women of ThoughtMatter are more than aware of. Following a lively, all-staff conversation about career advice, we sent the team a prompt to share the most outlandish advice they’d ever received. Among those who answered, a pattern emerged. For the most part, the men had received helpful, thought-provoking advice, while the advice the women received in their pre-ThoughtMatter days was more problematic — antiquated comments on appearance, attire and ambition that have no place in a professional work environment.

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Wondering why Juicy Couture sweatpants are back? Thank ✨ Bimbo TikTok ✨, the shiny, bejeweled corner of the internet devoted to the cult of the bimbo. Think platinum blonde pigtails, long lashes, gold hoops and push-up bras.

Ironically, bimbo was first used in the American context in 1919 to describe “an unintelligent or brutish man.” Ring a bell? …

Change of season got you down? You’ve got plenty of company. While SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is known to affect only 5% of US adults every year, the symptoms — pervasive sadness, undue fatigue, difficulty concentrating, lost interest in normally enjoyed activities — may well be plaguing many millions more as a result of life under quarantine. And if doomscrolling panic, Zoom fatigue, SAD szn, remote work burnout and pent-up post-election hysteria aren’t already enough, with a second wave of coronavirus starting to hit and more stay-at-home orders sweeping the nation seasonal depression could soon get a whole lot worse.

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