The drive to Frisco Beach on Cape Hatteras National Seashore is strange, spinning out quickly from the forests of North Carolina, through the opening salvos of the vacation-destination Outer Banks, passing through tiny little kingdoms with fast-changing ecologies--forest, swamp, and then seashore. Keep driving, and soon you're skimming along the surface of the ocean on … Continue reading Grief In Motion, Cape Hatteras National Seashore
Three Sisters (From Braiding Sweetgrass)
In Kimmerer's book Braiding Sweetgrass, an essay called "The Three Sisters" delves into the traditional practice of planting corn, beans, and squash together in a mutually supportive triad: "For millennia, from Mexico to Montana, women have mounded up the earth and laid these three seeds in the ground, all in the same square foot of … Continue reading Three Sisters (From Braiding Sweetgrass)
Most Played Songs in 2022
It’s very nice of Spotify to tell me what I listened to most this year. But a couple of flowery words about my tastes just won’t cut it. Here are the top 6 songs I listened to this year and my reflections on them. Vérité- By Now https://youtu.be/BPp2jqrRlGc “I was overflowing, hoping you would notice … Continue reading Most Played Songs in 2022
Monotony
Just saw a post on LinkedIn about how 2023 is going to be just the same as 2022 (within a particular domain) and it reminded me about patterns of perception of a repetitive status quo. I see it often in my domains of practice (defense innovation) as well as fields I follow (politics for example). … Continue reading Monotony
Scattered Thoughts on Narrative, Storytelling and the Future
Stories, parables, chronicles, and narratives are powerful means for destroying mindset -- the bundle of presuppositions, received wisdoms, and shared understandings against a background of which legal and political discourse takes place. These matters are rarely focused on. They are like eyeglasses we have worn a long time. They are nearly invisible; we use them … Continue reading Scattered Thoughts on Narrative, Storytelling and the Future
The Opening Words to a Book I Probably Won’t Write
Enough people have suggested I write a book at this point that I have now found myself wondering what such a book might look like. I don't consider myself expert enough in anything to say something genuinely unique in the world that isn't just storytelling about my life, but I do think there aren't enough … Continue reading The Opening Words to a Book I Probably Won’t Write
It Gets Dark
I often take away messages from music that I don't believe the artist originally intended. Music is part of what I'll call my system for sense-making and synthesis, in that I actively engage in ritual practices like listening to songs from artists I've never heard before as a way of shaking up my perspective and … Continue reading It Gets Dark
Sweeping: A Metaphor
Your metaphor of the day is sweeping the floor with a broom, inspired by some thoughts that crept into my head as I was sweeping the kitchen and living-room--a task now abandoned so that I can get some of these ideas down... Brooms are actually a very weird type of technology if you think about … Continue reading Sweeping: A Metaphor
Sharing & Learning & Interfaces, Such as Maps
When I was really little, like maybe 10 years old, I remember making the conscious choice to start using new words before I was quite sure what they meant. I would encounter a word in a book somewhere and, knowing it might just immediately evaporate from my memory, as most information does, I would drop … Continue reading Sharing & Learning & Interfaces, Such as Maps
Bureaucracy: Machines & Pilots
Bureaucracy, as described by the sociologist Max Weber, is rational. Bureaucracy is how we logically create standardized and efficient systems of exchange, of competition, of distribution of labor at scale. It is rational in an abstract sense, when you abstract it away from the human, when you average people out and line them up and … Continue reading Bureaucracy: Machines & Pilots
Sounding Slightly Off 