Not One Map
I’ve always liked the idea of being my own patron, which in practice involves figuring out how to make enough money to both put a roof over my head and to fund my own creative explorations and growth. Sometimes this…
On Liking Things
When we hear a new song for the first time, we might immediately love it, we might knee-jerk hate it, and we might feel nothing at all about it. This initial response is predicated on our existing musical taste and…
Taking Stock
Every couple of years I begin to yearn for the relative predictability and camaraderie of a more conventional work-life. The idea of earning a paycheck (and knowing how much it will be for!), speaking to the same people every day,…
Missing the Point
Some of us want to accumulate money because we simply can’t stop ourselves. To those thus inclined, money is like Pokémon cards or Civil War relics or anything else a person might hoard. And because accumulation feels good, triggering biological…
Directional Play
Hobbies are great because you don’t have to invest too much of yourself in them, but you absolutely can if you like, and if you do, you tend to get more out of them. You can pick up a hobby—say…
Templates and Scripts
I have a general sense that—wherever we end up next, however our technologies and politics evolve, and whatever shapes our communities and systems and social norms and economic realities are nudged into as a consequence of those evolutions—it’ll still be…
Break to Make
I recently updated the operating systems on my iPhone and Macbook Pro, as usual waiting a while because the folks behind some of the software I use drag their heels on getting confirmed-compatible versions of their offerings out the door.…
Hugs Not Nuggs
It’s been said that the average person living today—especially in wealthy countries—will enjoy a better overall quality of life than an emperor living a few hundred years ago, and I tend to think that’s true. Average life- and health-spans have…
Reset Layers
Every morning I like to reset to zero. After a quick little stretch-focused workout, I get the kettle going and put all the dishes and silverware away. I straighten and tidy anything within reach, and I take my pill (levothyroxine for…
A Solved Problem
There’s a chance that some of the technologies that fit under the ever-enbroadening umbrella-term “AI” will end the world by vivifying a consciousness (or pseudo-consciousness) with goals that deviate from ours, which might then cause a spectacular economic collapse or…