The Tire Pressure Light is On
A short story about anxiety, procrastination, and the dread of acting like a functional adult
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Waffle House—An American institution you can trust
Waffle House is more than just a breakfast restaurant. It's a symbol of America itself.
The Analyst
A vignette about the imagined absurdism of being an oil and gas inventories analyst
2x spicy ramen—An exploration of personal agency and trust
I’ll never understand how a ninety-nine cent pack of low-quality noodles became a gourmet experience in America. That’s the power of marketing, I guess. Recently my wife and kids wanted to try this local ramen place. I was too lazy to make dinner (totally on brand for me)
The ultimate inbox zero system with Fastmail rules and labels
I recently discovered I’ve been doing the inbox zero system all wrong. How can that be so? Inbox zero1 simply means you have no emails in your inbox—so how can anyone mess that up? The mistake I made was in thinking that inbox zero meant I had no
The profundity of personal post-punk philosophy
I’m no idiot, but I wouldn’t call myself a remarkably intelligent person either. If I’m being completely honest and letting go of any pressure to fake humility, then I have no problem saying I’m likely slightly above average intelligence. But, Jake, I can hear you say,
Looking for my orange
One ordinary orange, one extraordinary moment of clarity, and a reminder that healing sometimes tastes sweet
Maintaining personal equilibrium
The unexpected wisdom I found in economics: applying supply-demand principles to achieve balance in a life constantly pulling us in different directions
How my kids inspire my art by managing upward
How children can inspire adults to reclaim creativity, wonder, and playfulness in their artistic pursuits
What's a billion years really anyway?
Rather than being paralyzed by the incomprehensible scale of cosmic time, we should embrace and find meaning in our fleeting human lifespan.
Don't Worry, I'll Catch You
My first piece of fiction on Ghost—a vignette about parenthood, promises, and disillusionment
Growth at all costs? The case for corporate efficiency
Growth is a hell of a drug. But at some point, businesses gotta come down. Is now one of those points?
Perspective as a service
Solution-made problems and cash from chaos
While everyone's saying how you should focus on using new technology to increase efficiencies, what if the real opportunity lies in foreseeing the consequences of solution-made problems?
Perspective as a service
Make no promises beyond intent
Promising results just might bite you in the butt.
Perspective as a service
How sketching helps me get over perfectionism
I haven’t historically thought of myself as a visual artist. I’m a writer, not a sketcher or a painter. Or so I thought until a few months ago, when seeing my kids’ drawings inspired me to give the visual arts a try. Now, as someone who’s added
Perspective as a service
Curiosity as a business asset
Curiosity is an underrated business asset. Because curious people ask questions. And questions lead to new answers. But businesses want to hire know-it-alls. Hiring know-it-alls is fine as long as you never run into new problems. (Old problems aren’t really problems; they’re routine. They’re familiar. They don’
Perspective as a service
What inefficiencies drive your business?
Efficiency isn’t always the goal. (Any consultant or private equity bros reading my blog just scoffed and clicked away to something else.) Efficiency is worth pursuing, but we shouldn’t strive to be ruthlessly efficient in all things. Such emphasis is bound to lead to a lack of quality.
Perspective as a service
Does quality belong in American efficiency?
In American business, efficiency typically emphasizes two points: 1. Do something as cheaply as possible. 2. Do something as quickly as possible. Quality is often an afterthought, if it’s a consideration at all. So, I ask: Where does quality fit into the American efficiency equation? This question has been
Perspective as a service
Addicted to distraction
In the movie T2 Trainspotting, Mark Renton tells Spud: You’re an addict! So be addicted! Be addicted to something else. There’s something freeing about this admission. In a perfect world, we’d all be able to cure our tendencies for addiction. But for those of us who can’
Perspective as a service
The truth you know vs. the truth you feel
Why do insecure people believe things they know not to be true? Why do they listen to that nasty voice in their head telling them they’re not good enough? These questions are just some I’m digging into as I’m on the fast track to middle age. Recently
Perspective as a service
What gives generative AI its value?
How much is any one item worth? The simple answer: It’s worth whatever someone will pay for it. But what gives art value, whether that value be monetary or otherwise? Uniqueness can’t be the answer, because very little in the world is truly unique. Unique means something is
Perspective as a service
Details are like salt
Details are like salt. A dash adds flavor. But too much kills the dish. Any time there’s confusion, the answer may seem to be more detail. But more details doesn’t guarantee clarity. In fact, more detail may lead to more confusion. Every detail is one more thing for
Perspective as a service
Is this Bluesky's time?
Time was on Twitter’s side back in the network’s early days. Microblogging was novel and unestablished. And Twitter’s more ‘open’ approach in encouraging users to connect with strangers was a nice alternative to Facebook’s more closed approach of connecting with people you already knew offline. Twitter
Perspective as a service
Education's role in business communication dysfunction
Business communication is broken. We send so much time talking and writing (emails, text messages, Slack and Teams, etc.) but we don’t really communicate; we don’t transfer information. How do we solve this? Through tech? We’ve kind of tried that. First, we revolutionized written communication with email,