The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages. -Virginia Woolf Woolf meant this as a warning. A century later, I can’t help but wonder if those same eyes might be the only thing that could set us free. Last week I posted the following on BEEW Feed calling out the absurd spectacle of people glued to their...

On May 20, 1999, just after five in the morning, my daughter was born. If you've been in that room, you know. Reality splits clean in two. Awe, terror, love, relief, all of it flooding in at once. The room erupting with her furious cries. The impossible brightness of her bold, blue eyes opening for the first time....

Some mornings the mirror is a customs agent. Papers, please. I present a face I didn't consciously choose and a biography I didn't audition for. Born into a longitude, assigned to a specific moment in history, stamped by the weather of a family system. Our personal this-ness is a miracle that also feels like a...

Uncertainty. Do you endure it, bend it to your will, or let it consume you whole? Do you shrink in its presence hoping it'll pass you by and knock on someone else's door? What about fear, anger, resentment? Does it paralyze you? Freeze you in place? Does resignation whisper in your ear that you’re just a spectator?...

The next BIG thing in tech just might be fixing the mess created by the current BIG thing in tech. -Ted Gioia from a recent piece From Rubble to Reckoning When World War II ended, the guns and tanks fell silent but the devastation was total. Europe lay in ruins. Warsaw and Stalingrad were obliterated. In London,...

This piece is an update and follow up to my August 26th piece, Looking Sideways: Comments on Markets, Mimetics and the Madness of Crowds. The real economy looks shaky, at best. Inflation remains persistently above the 2% target and the job market is weakening. A healthy economy should do two things: keep prices...

The collapse of shared reality and the fragile possibility of rebuilding it. Essays in this edition: The Death of Truth by a Thousand Cuts On Play and Laughter To Rebuild Our Shared Reality The Next Big Thing Will Be Cleaning Up the Mess of the Last Big Thing i. The Death Of Truth By A Thousand Cuts A new study...

Corruption, fragility, and unseen incentives shaping our world. Essays in this edition: Conspiracy of Interests Steel Lions; Glass Lambs App Store Rotting at the Core i. Conspiracy of Interests Scott Horton—libertarian radio host and antiwar.com editor—calls it the "conspiracy of interests." Not a smoky room of...

The burden of consciousness — intelligence, certainty, sorrow, and relief. Essays in this edition: Certainty Epidemic Would You Rather Be Happier or Smarter? The Quiet Grace of Nothing Terrible Happening Today i. Certainty Epidemic If these strange last few decades have given us anything, it's certainty. A lot of...

Strategy, hierarchy, chance, and control from social games to geopolitics. Essays in this edition: Smiling Assassins Entangled: The New Geopolitik Backgammon's Ancient Dice, Modern Lessons i. Smiling Assassins In fragile hierarchies, the sharpest blades are often polished with concerned empathy. I recently came...

Friendship, alliances, bonds, the rare warmth of being truly together. Essays in this edition: COVID's Quiet Blessing The Presents of Presence The Most Successful Friend Group in History i. COVID's Quiet Blessing For all the damage and carnage from the pandemic—and there was plenty—it also left behind a few...