https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/ Essays and articles by Patrick T. Hoffman on product, cities, technology, and society. en-us Sun, 08 Nov 2026 01:27:00 -0800 https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/heating-the-cathedral.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/heating-the-cathedral.html Sun, 08 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Philadelphia's 30th Street Station was heated from 1933 by steam convectors hidden behind its benches. Judged against the options its engineers actually had in 1927–1932, against a clean-sheet design today, and against the retrofit now under way, the same room gives three different right answers. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/map-is-not-the-ballot.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/map-is-not-the-ballot.html Fri, 06 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Every election number has a maker, a method, a base, and its own weaknesses. In the 2026 midterms the polls, the decision-desk calls, the prediction markets, the counts, and the certification ran against the same races, in Pennsylvania, New York, California, and San Mateo County, and they did not measure the same thing. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/the-invisible-buyer-part-2.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/the-invisible-buyer-part-2.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/one-street-over.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/one-street-over.html Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 London shows that fine-grained street networks outperform mega-blocks. High intersection density creates redundant parallel routes, and redundant routes let a pedestrian choose quiet over loud without going far. The value at stake is human agency in the city, and the criterion is simple: maximize meaningful choice per step. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/at-home-still-away.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/at-home-still-away.html Sat, 15 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A forty-eight-hour field study at Santana Row on what restores busy executives: psychological detachment, not mileage. First in the At Home, Still Away series. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/better-pms.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/better-pms.html Sun, 26 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Why mentoring other product managers is the highest-leverage thing you can do for your own career — lessons from a decade with The Product Mentor program. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/the-invisible-buyer-part-1.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/the-invisible-buyer-part-1.html Sat, 25 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/instrumented-match.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/instrumented-match.html Wed, 01 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A camera cable, a chip inside the ball, and five human officials were asked the same question at once in a World Cup quarterfinal — and did not all return the same answer. Refereeing read as a sociotechnical system. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/instrumented-convergence.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/instrumented-convergence.html Wed, 01 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Contact tracing, insurance-linked wearables, and congestion pricing all recruit a personal device into civic measurement. An essay on three cases where the line between measuring a person and measuring a city has already dissolved. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/instrumented-city.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/instrumented-city.html Wed, 01 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/instrumented-self.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/instrumented-self.html Wed, 01 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Whoop, Oura, and continuous glucose monitors promise self-knowledge through data. What these devices actually get right, what they get wrong, and what happens once the score becomes the goal. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/counting-the-people.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/counting-the-people.html Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Polling is simultaneously the most rigorous instrument ever devised for reading a mass public and a recurring object of professional crisis. An essay weighing the methodological and normative case for and against it. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/exit-poll-disclosure.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/exit-poll-disclosure.html Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A paper on disclosure, democratic epistemology, and the collapse of "Election Night" — from the 1980 West Coast controversy through the 2004 Kerry exit-poll leak to the 2026 Los Angeles mayoral primary. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/technology-space-society-intro.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/technology-space-society-intro.html Mon, 01 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000 The question written on the board in the first session and left there for fifteen weeks: how do technologies reshape the spaces we inhabit? An introduction to the course and the method behind it. https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/co-op-city.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/co-op-city.html Fri, 01 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/rule-of-seven.html https://www.patrickthoffman.com/writing/rule-of-seven.html Sun, 01 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000