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
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
Reflecting on Challenge Coins
I'm not a fan of every military tradition, but I do like challenge coins. They're these weird, heavy little tokens which can be imbued with substantial memory and meaning. But it isn't the item that holds the meaning, is it? Perhaps it would best be described as an augmentative interface that equips us to better … Continue reading Reflecting on Challenge Coins
Influence Over Design
I came up with this silly metaphor to describe the problem of giving inordinate power to the wrong people for the implementation of design decisions. Imagine a house was designed by an architect who did research into how the structure would be used and by whom. The first floor is where the owners, a couple, … Continue reading Influence Over Design
16th Birthday
In another world,She would still be alive.And today we'd be celebrating her 16th birthday,But only in that awkward and sad way that one can celebrate with someone who's dying,And not conscious enough to participate.We'd be celebrating at her, near her, forced and awkward, though perhaps actually less so than you may expect.Because we were always … Continue reading 16th Birthday
Poem: It bends like a sheet
I don't judge you for having views,It's what people do by default we'd expect them to,I kinda judge though if they're too consistentToo insistent too convicted they persist without contradictionUnencumbered by the healthy helping of unhelpful fictionsUnshaken by the invasion of new information, Solidity consistently mistaken for wisdom,See, If you were paying attention,you should have the … Continue reading Poem: It bends like a sheet
Sounding Slightly Off 