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 006: Is pop culture worse than it’s ever been, rolling cheese, a restaurant that looks like a sketchbook and a bangin' summer BBQ mix.

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. For those tuning in after last week where I shared that I was running for our local school Board of Education along with some reasons why, I’m thrilled to report that I won one of the two seats and will be starting my three year term on July 1st 🎉 I'm grateful to all the people who helped me make it happen - hosting a lawn si

May 30

The Finite Scroll 005: Why I've been MIA (I'm running for our school board), AI and the future of education, explore musical DNA and a camera that shoots... poems?

Hello everyone! For those keeping score at home, this "weekly-ish" newsletter has been dormant the past ~4 weeks. The reason for that is that after weighing it the past 2 years, this year I decided to throw my hat in the ring and run for one of two seats on our local Board of Education. Since making that decision in mid-April, it's been a 4-week sprint of a campaign where I've had to learn a lot, stretch myself, create signs, flyers and a simple webpage, and all that has taken up almost all of

May 17

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

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