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, 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
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
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
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
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
Do not attempt to tackle complex, wicked problems without amply anticipating and preparing for the very real possibility of failure: On every attempt and at every stage. I'm talking about actual failure- not safe, fun, exciting failure or even safe failure, because it might not ever be emotionally 100% safe. I'm talking about the real stuff. The painful, uncomfortable, embarrassing type of failure. The kind you look in the eye and learn from... that looks back and tells you things you didn't know or care to admit...
All of the conversation, anxiety, and support around Simone Biles saying "no" to playing a game this week has me thinking about our societal relationship to sports again. It's something I think about a lot because of my experience with the price of playing games. When I was young, I repeatedly injured my knees and my ankles playing … Continue reading Thoughts on Sports
I like a lot of the points the author made in this NYT opinion piece about the dubious purpose and primary trends in the debate over Critical Race Theory. I, for one, have been quite guilty of being what she refers to as "anti-anti-CRT", because of how often I've seen tribally-aligned opponents use what I … Continue reading On the Debate Around Critical Race Theory
We left our house on the Air Force Academy around noon on the 10th of June, 2021. We didn't have a strict or predetermined agenda for the journey other than a few required destinations. I'd taken 2 weeks off of work and we only knew we were headed first to the Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia, the first … Continue reading Grief in Motion, Day 1
Sounding Slightly Off 