Newsletter

A collection of 63 posts

Newsletter

Living in a post-growth world

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

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Simplicity - The lost art we must discover

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

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Writers should kill more trees

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

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Maybe businesses should kick it old school

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

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The thing about the cherry on top

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

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Simplicity is hard

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

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The right fit vs. the qualified candidate

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

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This revolution is small but it matters to me

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

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To embrace the absurd, to be human

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.

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Is community the blogging platform's secret weapon?

Not so long ago, bloggers used social media to share their posts and build audiences. While social media is unlikely to go away any time soon, people do seem to be falling out of love with it, if for no other reason than most of the mainstream social platforms (Facebook,

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Lessons from writing a novella I'll likely never release

I’m on the verge of finishing my absurdist comedy novella, which will become my longest completed writing project. When it’s all said and done, I’ll most likely have enjoyed the process far more than the finished product. Because this pending novella will become my longest work, I’

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Don't become the Southwest Airlines of writing

In an attempt to reverse its falling stock price, Southwest Airlines announced it will start assigning seats to its passengers. Congratulations, Southwest—you just became indistinguishable from every other airline! Writers would be smart to question adopting every piece of writing advice they hear so as not to become the

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Writers ain't gotta use AI if they don't wanna

If you’ve found a certain tool or service that works for you and makes your life better, COOL—then keep using that thing. This advice applies to AI, Notion, Obsidian, TikTok, WHATEVER. If your tool of choice is a net benefit, then keep on keepin’ on. But please don’

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What if I have only one novel in me?

As I’m writing this post, I’m juggling three longform writing projects: * An absurdist comedy novella * A vampire hunting novel * A literary novel about fatherhood The literary novel is the only one I can imagine publishing. The vampire story is so far outside what I typically write. I’ll

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The business model dependency problem

No business stands on its own. Every business is dependent on something else in some way; the question is to what degree, and how stable is that dependency? Transportation companies are dependent on highways and railroads and open waterways and skies. A coffee shop may be dependent on the attractions

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How can capitalism be reformed?

Over the last few months, I’ve been asking myself if I’ve been turning into a Communist, as certain aspects of capitalism have had me seeing red. So many parts of the capitalist system feel broken, especially when companies lay off thousands of workers, only to then perform stock

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Replacing human workers with AI is easy when we've already removed humanity from work

Since OpenAI released ChatGPT to the masses, there’s plenty of debate over where and when AI can replace human workers. But I think this debate misses a crucial point. If AI can replace a human worker for a specific job function, why is that? Is it because the job

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Frugal reading - Tips for reading on a budget

So you wanna read more. Maybe you’re trying to unplug more often. Or maybe you read a blog post about leadership and bought into the old adage that leaders read. Whatever the case, you want to get your face in more books and digital content worth following. But money’

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Friends don't let friends become monopolists

In the autobiography The Life of Frederick Douglass, the author takes an interesting view on slavery when he argues that when otherwise good people become slaveowners, they can’t help becoming monsters. Douglass takes a compassionate view of the villains. It’s not always that bad people become slaveowners–but

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MobiScribe Wave - The e-ink writing tablet I want to recommend but can't

I’ll always appreciate the MobiScribe Wave as being the device that proved an e-ink tablet has a place in my life, but after nearly five months of use, I’ve realized I can’t recommend the Wave to others. Or, perhaps more accurately, I can recommend it only with

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Managing expectations with a failure-first mindset

All too often, we contemplate how we want to succeed. What would you do if you knew you were destined to succeed? Go do that. So the wisdom goes. But sometimes it pays to look at the other end of the spectrum. What if your venture is doomed to fail?

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Creating in the time of AI

Why should we create in the age of AI? How can we compete? This post from LMNT puts a different perspective on things: I take a little comfort in knowing that it will be impossible for “AI” tools—here on out—to differentiate between human-made and machine-generated content, thereby inevitably

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Is artificial general intelligence the real benchmark for AI?

Today’s target for artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be artificial general intelligence (AGI), a technology that is competent in many areas, like humans. AI is most often highly-specialized, focusing on one area with a narrow set of tasks. This sort of AI is best-suited for specialized audiences needing specialized

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Writing is more than words

Writing is easy. All you do is string together a bunch of words. Or so some would have you think. Never mind the fact that so many of us are terrible at saying what we mean. Writing is much harder than some give credit. Because writing is more than words.

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Will there be enough AI?

These days, people are worried about AI taking their jobs. And who can blame them, with all the stories circulating about AI’s great accomplishments. (P.S. If you’re looking for a counterweight to the hype, read Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust by Gary Marcus and