Jacob Harris | Nieman Journalism Lab

Articles by Jacob Harris

Jacob Harris is a Senior Software Architect and news hacker at The New York Times. He blogs at nimblecode.com.

January 16, 2015

Sloppy P.R. charticles considered harmful

They’re everywhere: Tidbits of “data journalism” produced by companies looking for a viral boost. Your skepticism is warranted.

A wave of P.R. data

“The wave of bullshit data is rising, and now it’s our turn to figure out how not to get swept away.”

In praise of impractical programming

It’s great that it’s gotten easier for non-programmers to write code and build things. But that doesn’t mean we should forget the merits of weirder, whimsical, gloriously impractical approaches.

This post won’t save journalism. (Sorry.)

No tool will. And that’s okay.

October 13, 2011

Word clouds considered harmful

The New York Times senior software architect would like the newest “mullets of the Internet” to go back from whence they came.