May 22Artificial spirituality: creating meaningIn Deuteronomy 11:26, God says to the Israelites: “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.” Today’s blessing and curse happens to be AI. There’s a huge amount of speculation about AI’s impact right now. After years of programming, one thing I can tell you is…AI2 min readAI2 min read
Mar 31Embrace Fools’ DayTomorrow is April Fools, the most underrated holiday. Not because of the pranks, but the grounding. When you keep in mind it’s Fools’ Day, you have a better chance of recognizing the pranks as they happen. Avoiding getting fooled feels good, but it’s a false comfort. We convince ourselves we’re…2 min read2 min read
Nov 5, 2022Political Emotions: Voting FearsAt 4 years old, I accidentally started reading the dictionary every night. So I’ve always been keenly attuned to the definitions of words and how people use them. One set of terms I’ve struggled to define for years: political parties in the US. Our two parties contain a wildly diverse…Politics2 min readPolitics2 min read
Oct 29, 2022Gratefully Undead: Namaste, my skeletons!The other day, Amy brought home some Halloween knick-knacks shaped like skeletons doing yoga. She set them up on the dining room table, and then stood back and addressed them: “The skeleton in me honors the skeleton in you.” I love this on several levels, because paradoxically, death and darkness…Halloween2 min readHalloween2 min read
Oct 22, 2022Audacious Epistemology: Flat EartherismWe are living in a crisis of epistemology, but that’s so dry. Flat Earthism (‘FE’), while useless as a factual theory, provides a really excellent illustration taken as epistemological performance art. How do we know what’s true? Epistemology is the study of that. You may think it’s outrageous to give…Existentialism3 min readExistentialism3 min read
Oct 15, 2022Software Artists: Resist Anxiety TransferSoftware development is based on computer science, but it is an art form. Any artist has to learn how to manage anxiety while under pressure to deliver. In software development, just as the rest of life, people often don’t ask for what they want, they ask for what they think…Software Development3 min readSoftware Development3 min read
Oct 8, 2022Existential Physics: The Arrow of TimePhysics explains a tremendous amount about how we see the world, but it has limits. One mystery physics can shed very little light on: why time seems to go forward. And it turns out this mystery has immense implications to how we live our lives. Football season has started, and…Existentialism3 min readExistentialism3 min read
Oct 1, 2022Debugging Life: System FitnessA paradox: spending the effort to keep any system in good working condition at all times takes less effort than allowing any part of the system to fall into disrepair. Like most paradoxes, a subtle twist explains why: false warnings are worse than no warnings. As a kid, my parents…Debugging2 min readDebugging2 min read
Sep 24, 2022Free Speech SuicideWe struggle with endings. Let’s talk about it — Whoever names these things decreed September as the unfortunately-acronymed SPAM, Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Kidding aside, I was grateful when I heard our local NBC affiliate would dedicate an entire 6pm newscast to the subject. I decided I would join their “Let’s Talk About It” campaign in writing. Rather than…2 min read2 min read
Sep 16, 2022Praise Repetition: Successful CompulsionsI’m returning to a regular writing schedule, publishing every Saturday. Part of the process of writing requires figuring out what to write about. That’s hard for me. There’s also the mechanical discipline of it: just writing a lot, staying on a schedule. Making a habit of it. Practice. Adding new…2 min read2 min read
