I like my books like I like my operating systems. Hmm… maybe that’s a weird way to put it. Let me try again. When I’m choosing which book to read, movie to watch, or series to start, I don’t want to have to faff about using another computer to download wifi drivers so I can find FOSS alternatives to mainstream programs that actually work. Better, but still not really all that clear. If I had to choose between Windows, macOS, or some derivative of Linux, I’m definitely going with Frank Herbert’s original Dune from 1965, and not the extended universe by Brian Herbert which he began publishing in 1999. Look, what I’m trying to get at is, fear is the mind killer. Or time killer. Or both? I recently finished reading the original Dune book. It was slow, but complete. Beautifully written, engaging, and imaginative. After 23 years of believing it was overhyped drivel that my adopted mom’s husband really…

Blogging is set to return with a ferocity that may have never been seen before in the history of the Internet. Social media has failed us miserably. People are tired, and angry, and they’re angry at being angry. No matter what side of any debate you find yourself on, there is no doubt in my mind that you have felt this pain just as severely as anyone else. We’re tired of massive social media corporations manipulating the algorithms to subtly utilize their free services more and more and more and more… all while their real customers and beneficiaries make big bank off our suffering. We want control again. We can’t simply ignore the tired trends of social media, though. Look at how the most viral threads, posts, and micro-videos catch on: They are longer than a few years ago, thriving when accumulated as a series rather than a one-off comment, with more links to external sources, and more visual and…

If you’ve read my blog before, you may have noticed a past article I published about how I’ve been reworking my online presence with minimalism in mind. So far, that effort has been paying off well! And I’m glad to share some lessons I’m learning along the way. When it comes to minimalism, it’s easy to take the wrong approach and believe that means putting in low effort or thinking small in scale, but neither of those could be further from the truth. Minimalism isn’t about reducing the quality of the efforts you put into your work – it’s about maximizing the impact those efforts have in bite-sized pieces. Lately, I’ve been playing around more with releasing content publicly that I promote very little (or not at all) through my main “brand”. This has allowed me to experiment with some unique, small ideas, and the results have been eye-opening for me. Rather than trying to create massive projects with a…

When I was younger, I would recreate my website about once every 4-6 months. I was never really very satisfied with the designs or directions, but that was OK. I was learning a lot, practicing my skills, and slowly figuring out who I wanted to be online. But, as I aged, that process slowed down. These days the refreshes only come once every year or two, which is nice for my sanity. Unfortunately, I tend to keep to some similar old habits that I grew into in my younger years. I am a visionary. That can mean different things for different people, but for me it’s about a constant desire to find and execute on improvements. I seek out change, growth, and development. I’m always getting new ideas for how to make things “better”, and I don’t often stop scratching at those improvements until I’m satisfied. The trouble is, this hasn’t ever really been conducive for the type of person…

A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend about your typical controversial topics like vaccines and the government. He’s that type of friend that I can enjoy sparring with on tough topics: Even though I think he’s a fool sometimes (and he rightly believes I am as well), at least we have a mutual respect during our conversations. I genuinely have love for the guy. After some time during that chat, though, I realized that he wasn’t being entirely honest. There’s a lot of context that I’ll skip over, but put simply he believed that the government was evil because it was mandating COVID vaccines that Pfizer, Moderna, and other companies could make money off of. On the other hand, my friend believed that Rand Paul should be applauded for finding a way to use his position in the government to make money off of COVID remdesivir treatments. When this dissonance was brought to his attention he simply…