i use Old Skool Ethnography to study how innovative groups form and self-organize, and am affiliated with harvard's department of sociology and business school. my field sites are culinary R&D teams in europe and north america. i'm particularly interested in understanding how people learn complex goals rapidly and reliably. sometimes, i contribute to the atlantic monthly's food channel. previously, i worked at google on ads, earth, maps, and spaceflight. in may 2008, i left to work as a minion at the wood and sculpture program at the anderson ranch art foundation. blog posts about food | design | books | craft | art | theory | sociology please get in touch by email or on twitter if you see something interesting; i like it when people say hello. (i read email constantly but look at facebook/linkedin maybe once every 6 weeks. i'm notoriously bad at answering the phone.) disambiguation: imagine an improbable world in which another vaughn tan—also from singapore—owns a successful and eponymous bridal gown design studio. this is the world in which we live. |