Essays on AI and work, interactive data projects and photographs by Jeff Reid, a product and technology leader in New York City.https://blizzardgeek.com/en-ushttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/baby-names/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/baby-names/Everybody thinks their baby's name is special until they enroll in kindergarten. Social Security card applications with birth years from 1880 to 2025 tell the story of name popularity in America. Trace the rise and fall of Jennifer and the ascendance of Olivia. Watch Shaquille burst on the scene in 1993 and follow the long slow decline of Michael.Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTdatanamesculturemapsJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/front-2026/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/front-2026/A Claude experiment: An attempt to forecast the 2026 midterm elections with a weekly call on every House and Senate race leading up to November 3, 2026. FRONT: fundamentals, expert ratings, observed polls and the national environment, with an attempt to spell out the tail risks of October Surprises in advance.Sat, 10 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMTdatapoliticselectionsforecastingmapsJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/deaths-2018-2024/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/deaths-2018-2024/What does how we die tell us about the country? An analysis of causes of death from 2018 through 2024 through the pandemic and its tail. Where we can find both good and bad news about what is killing us as we return to what passes for normal.Tue, 06 Oct 2026 09:00:00 GMTdatahealthJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/blog/the-one-chart-that-explains-everything-about-our-current-moment/https://blizzardgeek.com/blog/the-one-chart-that-explains-everything-about-our-current-moment/Over the past 20 years, the share of adults who believe they are "thriving" has fallen. In fact, across all age groups, a sense of thriving now correlates with age. The opposite of where it was 20 years ago. This, I believe, explains everything about the current political climate.Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:02:00 GMTGallupEconomyPoliticsYouthJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/blog/muse-will-fade-quietly-or-fail-spectacularly-if-it-doesn-t-that-s-a-huge-problem-for-us/https://blizzardgeek.com/blog/muse-will-fade-quietly-or-fail-spectacularly-if-it-doesn-t-that-s-a-huge-problem-for-us/What does success at *mass* scale for agents look like? Will we wind up with a dominant player or a competitive ecosystem? And can we get there without surrendering even more autonomy and privacy to a single player?Mon, 05 Oct 2026 11:56:00 GMTAITechMetaJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/blog/9-11-and-purpose/https://blizzardgeek.com/blog/9-11-and-purpose/The annual FDNY ceremony is a stirring show of purpose and fraternity amidst shared loss.Fri, 11 Sep 2026 12:06:00 GMTNYCFDNYJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/america-under-pressure/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/america-under-pressure/As we approach the mid-terms, see how sixty indicators of household stress are hitting all 50 states and DC, spanning hiring and unemployment claims, housing, wages, rents, utility bills and credit. Compare trends from before the pandemic in 2019, or 2022, when inflation, job postings and housing demand peaked.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:00:00 GMTdataeconomyhousingmapsJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/blog/is-anthropic-doing-us-a-favor/https://blizzardgeek.com/blog/is-anthropic-doing-us-a-favor/Claude's writing is crushing our souls and making us think more about what it means to talk and write as a human.Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:44:00 GMTAIClaudeWorkJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/el-nino-2026/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/el-nino-2026/In the middle of August, water in the Eastern Pacific is already at temperature anomalies only ever seen at the December peak of the strongest El Niño on record. I wanted to offer some perspective on just how crazy this is.Wed, 12 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMTdataclimateweatherJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/the-skills-market/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/the-skills-market/The skills employers ask for have never been more human. Graduates are less ready to prove they have them. As organizations hire fewer new grads and flatten management layers, they are missing the chance to close the durable skill gaps in their people.Wed, 05 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMTdatalaboreducationJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/rootedness/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/rootedness/Where do Americans stay put? This week I saw a state-level map showing the share of residents born in their home state. But intra-state differences are way more interesting, so I mapped the data for all 3,142 counties.Tue, 04 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMTdatamapsdemographicsJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/how-america-spends-its-day/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/how-america-spends-its-day/A quarter-million time diaries trace how Americans increasingly spend more time at home, on screens, and away from other people as technology and the Covid pandemic reshaped society.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTdatatime-usesocietyJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/to-live-and-die-in-nyc/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/to-live-and-die-in-nyc/New York City is a political Rorschach test we use to project our feelings about crime and urban living. But what do fifty years of data and national comparisons say?Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTdatanycJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/jefferson-weather/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/jefferson-weather/Thomas Jefferson purchased a thermometer in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. His obsession with nature produced a 50 year record of the weather as he experienced it. Explore his records from Charlottesville to France.Sat, 04 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTdatahistoryweatherJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/250-years-of-work/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/250-years-of-work/Tracing the work Americans do over the last 150 years through census microdata and fifty years of monthly labor statistics.Thu, 02 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTdatahistorylaborJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/nyc-recovery-subway-data/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/nyc-recovery-subway-data/After six years of recovery, have we settled into a permanent "new normal"?Wed, 01 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMTdataNYCtransitJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/blog/why-i-built-forecastmaven/https://blizzardgeek.com/blog/why-i-built-forecastmaven/I wanted to create the best weather guidance possible for an age when the risks from extreme weather events are escalating.Fri, 26 Jun 2026 11:43:00 GMTclimateweatherAIForecastMavenJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/how-summer-is-changing-in-the-northeast/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/how-summer-is-changing-in-the-northeast/Hotter nights and more rain define the long term trends from DC to Boston.Fri, 26 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMTdataclimateJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/projects/the-vanishing-complete-game/https://blizzardgeek.com/projects/the-vanishing-complete-game/The complete game has gone from a normal thing for starting pitchers to a near-extinct event.Sat, 13 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMTdatabaseballJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/blog/what-will-it-mean-to-be-the-human-in-the-loop/https://blizzardgeek.com/blog/what-will-it-mean-to-be-the-human-in-the-loop/Quick thoughts on the early innings of this AI-fueled productivity race.Tue, 05 May 2026 13:05:00 GMTAIworkplaceJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/blog/just-because-you-can-build-something-doesnt-mean-you-should/https://blizzardgeek.com/blog/just-because-you-can-build-something-doesnt-mean-you-should/Our ability to deliver new products and services is vastly outstripping our capacity to absorb them.Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:54:00 GMTchangeeducationAIJeff Reidhttps://blizzardgeek.com/blog/are-we-really-still-doing-this/https://blizzardgeek.com/blog/are-we-really-still-doing-this/There is so much potential for AI to deliver incredible improvements to the way we experience and understand the world, as humans. But dunking on humans? And the very idea of employment?Mon, 22 Dec 2025 11:42:00 GMTAIworkplacejobsJeff Reid