Jake LaCaze

In a clip that starts a recent episode of the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us, Sam Altman acknowledges generative AI’s Achilles’ heel: energy. Generative AI needs a ton of energy, at a time when tech companies are supposedly pushing to curb carbon emissions to address climate concerns. Seeing

Economic growth is a hell of a drug. But what do you do when the well’s run dry? The American economic system is built around the assumption of growth. Our unofficial motto regarding the economy is If it ain’t growin’, it must be dyin’! Policy makers will jump

21st-century living is complicated. But must it be? When you look around you, it’s easy to feel as if complexity is a requirement of the modern world. Most workplaces run via series after series of overcomplicated processes. To ‘exist’ today requires an ever-growing number of online profiles. Life seems

Writing by hand is the best. There’s nothing like finding that perfect combination of pen and ink and paper. That tactile feedback as your pen scratches across the page. The shimmer of the ink making your words shine. The joy of distraction-free creation. These are just a few reasons

Why is business so hard? I mean, why do so many businesses struggle with basic tasks? Why do companies of smart and accomplished people seem to get bogged down on the way to success? Here’s the simplest answer I can come up with: Employees have to wade through oceans

What will be your life’s sweetest dessert? I recently rewatched a video related to the prolific band The Cure being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. No, it wasn’t a video of Trent Reznor’s flattering induction speech. It was the one of the overly

If there’s one thing I’ve come to value after the last 16 years full-time in the workforce, it’s simplicity. ‘Simplicity’ is not the same as ‘easy’. Something simple may still be hard. (Some of the hardest truths may be the simplest.) Simplicity means you’ve removed as

My son is in his final year of reg-league baseball. This fall season is his next-to-last season, with his last being in the spring. It’s a bittersweet time. The bitter part of that equation is obvious—what if he never plays baseball again? What if this is all she

How many layers must you wade through in the search for your own writing’s common thread? I once said that persuasion was my own writing’s common thread, but now I’m realizing there’s more to it. Humanity. The human condition. What does this mean for the humans

Existence, well what does it matter? I exist on the best terms I can — ‘Heart and Soul’ by Joy Division . . . Existentialists ask what it all means. Nihilists say it all means nothing. Absurdists say it all means nothing, yet we can’t help trying to attach something deeper to it.