Alex Rainert

Product & design person, introvert, Liverpool fan, easy laugh. VP Traveler Products @ Tripadvisor Past: nytimes, foursquare, google itp@nyu. This is my home on online and a place to capture my thoughts.

The Finite Scroll 004: My first product job, a new Aura frame, what comes after the cellphone and a Mike White nightcap.

Welcome to The Finite Scroll - a weekly-ish newsletter for curious people. It should take less than 5 minutes to read and give you something that piques your curiosity. I ended up missing a week on the ol' newsletter as we were away in Curaçao with the kids for Spring Break and I was very excited to turn off my devices and relllllaaaax. Back at it now with a short look back at my first real "Product" job. "Like Friendster for your cellphone" - Last week my friend and former co-founder Dennis

Apr 19

The Finite Scroll 003: Creating space for ideas, a fantastic co-op video game, WTF is happening with college kids and torpedo bats.

Welcome to The Finite Scroll - a weekly-ish newsletter for curious people. It should take less than 5 minutes to read and give you something that piques your curiosity. On creating space for ideas to happen I’ve always been drawn to consuming information. As a result, I tend to fill any gaps in my day with something. Standing in line for 5 minutes? I open my phone and read. Going to the grocery store? I throw in my AirPods and chip away at a podcast. Hopping in the shower for 5 minutes? I br

Apr 6

The Finite Scroll 002: Rediscovering the social internet, the future of everything and seeing history rhyme.

For people coming of age after 2010, it’s easy to assume Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are just what being social on the internet looks like. It’s a reasonable assumption as those products (especially Facebook and later everything else they picked up along the way) have become so ubiquitous, and their businesses massive. People treat them like water or electricity - a necessary utility to maintain social connections - to friends, schoolmates, local parents, and others. While many companies ha

Mar 29

The Finite Scroll 001: New media habits, Pixar nails emotions again and using silence as a tool.

Like many, I came into this year with the wholly unoriginal goal of majorly resetting my relationship to “content.” Last May I came off 7 years working at the New York Times, where most of my waking life was intertwined with what was and continues to be an overwhelming period of news. That professional reality was paired with a deeply entrenched addiction to the pull-to-refresh slot machine of new information honed through 16+ years of heavy Twitter usage. It was clear these habits weren’t playi

Mar 22

Can't wait for this Questlove doc on 50 years of SNL music

This mashup trailer for the doc is 💯 It premieres tonight on NBC at 8 p.m. ET on Monday, Jan. 27.

Jan 27

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