Dark and Cozy
Milwaukee is cooling down. After a long October of teases, the temperature dropping for a few days before rocketing back up to the mid-80s (~30 C), late-November has gifted me a string of 40–50 degree (4–10 C) days, with not…
Consumption Season
We’re headed back into Please Buy Literally Everything season, so here are some quick thoughts on consumption, gifts, and the like. Many things (especially but not exclusively gadgets) get cheaper over time—the same model of phone (for instance) becomes more impressive with…
Non-Clarity
I’m writing this before the end of election day, so I don’t know how everything’s going, whether I’m thrilled or sobbing, or how everyone involved is spinning whatever we seem to know at the moment you’re reading this. But I…
The Fundamentals
When I’m trying to learn something new—anything really, from physical skills to a functional understanding of an unfamiliar subject—much of my initial effort is focused on identifying the fundamentals. This sounds like a simple enough process, but often the things…
Tensions
Writing and sharing words would superficially seem to be the same thing no matter where you write and share them. But the number of words, the sorts of words you use, and the amount of focus (or lack thereof) folks…
Which Ends?
A new working paper suggests that there’s an imbalance in the benefits of working with artificial intelligence tools: some people get more out of them than others. And while part of that segmentation has to do with ability—those with relatively less-developed writing…
What’s My Thing?
When starting a new creative project—any kind of project, from writing a book to designing a new type of semiconductor—one of the better questions to start with is “what do I offer that’s distinct from what’s already available?” This isn’t…
Unlocked
One of the reasons I love doing the work I do is that it provides me more opportunities to say the right words to the right person at the right time. Sometimes those words are delivered via a book or…
Lustrous Tools
I recently decided to replace a (digital) tool that I’ve used every day, many times a day, for years. The outgoing tool is called Simplenote, and as the name implies it’s an ultra-simple piece of note-taking software that’s mostly defined…
Other Implications
I’m in the process of finalizing the specifics of a new project, and though the basics are sorted out and my pre-launch to-dos are essentially locked in, there’s still work to be done in terms of the secondary implications it…