

Now a newsletterer?

After twenty years of blogging, I have followed my fellow netizens to Substack, where I am publishing a weekly newsletter. You can subscribe via the form to the left and please drop me a note with a link to your newsletter.

Taking Notes

Thinking out loud in my corner of the internets.

About

Best Of

I’ve been writing here for over a decade now. In hindsight, only a handful of those posts are still worth reading.

Colophon

The tools that go into making this website.

See Tools

Latest Essays

Cloud Intelligence

Seven Billion Brains on Planet Earth Every morning we - all seven billion of us - wake up with a certain amount of cognitive energy, our mental fuel tank for the day to come. We use up this cognitive energy every time our brain must process information and apply...

In Which my Grandchildren Call Me a Ruthless Murderer

It was the briefest of observations, an exchange that lasted no more than two seconds, and yet it has stayed with me ever since. CB and I were on Boston's Silver Line, on our way to the airport, and eventually to New York City. It was, apparently, a popular day for...

[Podcast] Spring Forward, Fall Back

Despite my love of the tropics, I've come to appreciate some of the wonders that come with distancing oneself from the equator. Seasons, for example, and their undeniable sway over a city's mood. In the weeks leading up to my departure from the United States several...

Glimpse.org, Travel Writing, and Onbehalfism

When I travel to a foreign country I want to meet local people, taste local food, listen to local music, and read the local newspapers. When I meet people in another country from a different culture who speak a different language then - over time - I begin to...

[Review] Lapham's Quarterly: Eros

Eros - that is, love, lust, desire - as the foundation of all humanity only comes into focus when we realize that you, me, and every other human on earth would not exist were it not for a single night of eroticism between our parents. I know, you don't want to think...

5:25 A.M.

For two years of my life I woke up, more often than not, at 5:25 a.m. It's only bad when you're not used to it. After a week of waking up before sunrise nothing could feel more normal. It's amazing what we adapt to. Anything. My alarm was always set for 5:30, but I...