The glorious fabrication of America.
I was a bicentennial baby, born in 1976, during the narrow window between Gerald Ford’s electoral defeat and the ascension of President Jimmy Carter. Just a little over two years after Richard Nixon’s ignominious resignation, and a year and a half beyond the humiliating fall of Saigon…
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Jun 13, 2026
The bounded rationality of a Korean War veteran.
Decades ago, I met an old veteran who told me he’d been drafted to fight the Korean War. He recalled how he and a company of other draftees—and presumably some poor souls who joined of their own volition—lined up before supply sergeants on the first day of boot camp.
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Feb 2, 2026
Building a practical tolerance for imperfection.
My wife gave me a guitar for my 30th birthday, a department store special she bought with a 20% off coupon. I had wanted a guitar for a while, but as a young father, working hard and doing my part to keep our family afloat, I never afforded myself the indulgence—which made it a perfect gift.
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Jul 8, 2025
And of canals, estuaries, and saltwater lagoons.
I never questioned anything a teacher told me until the fourth grade. In the Sunshine State, fourth-graders study Florida history. We learn about the St. Johns River, which our teachers told us, along with the Nile, are the only two rivers in the world that flow north. This is where I became suspicious.
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June 13, 2026
They’ve torn down this building, but they kept the facade so as not to interrupt the experience of passersby on the front-facing avenue. You can discover the real story from the alley behind.
June 8, 2026
I keep these eight-pound dumbbells on my desk, and I use them every time I ask Claude to do research or render a project. My upper body is becoming quite toned. I think I’ll graduate to 12-pounders—the health benefits of AI.
June 4, 2026
Here’s some insight into how I approach research for writing projects. As I read, I make categories for notes, and when I want to write about that category, I can sort through my note cards and structure my composition before I start the typing. It’s part of my read-think-talk-write process.