Writings

It’s something I think many of us realize at a conceptual level, but I wonder how often we make decisions or align our lifestyles accordingly. In reality, it’s wisdom that goes back millennia – “It’s more blessed to give than receive.” Making something, building something, creating something is naturally a better use of our time than consuming. We were arguably Created to create. But thinking of our lives, both digital and physical, how much of our time is spent living this out?...

“Most of what passes for legitimate entertainment is inferior or foolish and only caters to or exploits people’s weaknesses. Avoid being one of the mob who indulges in such pastimes. Your life is too short and you have important things to do. Be discriminating about what images and ideas you permit into your mind. If you yourself don’t choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest....

Click Here to jump straight to my recommendation. There’s a decent chance you’re reading this post on one of three web browsers: if you’re an Apple user, you’re probably on Safari; if you’re on your Windows PC, you might be using Edge; but, most likely, you’re on Chrome. If that’s true, I think you should switch to something else. Here’s a few reasons why: 1. Monopolistic Practices Make the World and the Internet a Worse Place You might like the game Monopoly, but it’s worth noting that monopolies in the real world aren’t great....

These past two weeks I had the supreme honor of taking the Permaculture Design Course on the Greening The Desert project in the Dead Sea valley, Jordan, where they have succeeded in turning a plot of completely dead desert land into a thriving food-generating ecosystem. It was incredibly cool. I had such an great experience meeting amazing people, and learning amazing things about caring for creation. I will surely write more about it in the future....

Frodo: I wish none of this had happened. Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil… And that is an encouraging thought.

Human civilization has existed for thousands of years — eons of empires rising and falling; of knowledge being created and lost; and of stories being lived, told, written, and retold. There is a LOT that came before us… And there will be a LOT that comes after us. You and I only get a small handful of decades to exist and be a part of it. But the bigger story continues on....

It’s been a few years since I watched this clip of former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya sharing his concerns about attention extraction services and the dopamine industrial complex. This video was influencial in my descision to stop using those platforms in 2020. I just rewatched this video a few minutes ago, and Palihapitiya’s thoughts are just as potent and applicable today as they were when he first shared them. Maybe even more....

There are a lot of reasons single-use plastic waste is problematic. However, completely stopping using single-use plastic can be pretty difficult… Improvement, however, is comparatively pretty easy! Take a minute to think through the single-use plastic you’ve thrown away this week. Are there any patterns? Anything you threw out several times throughout the week? Utensils, coffee cups, water bottles, plastic bags, meat packaging? Note one or two instances that stuck out....

The blank page is scary. It’s unclear what “should” go on it. “What should I write about?” “What should I draw?” “What should I make?” Not to mention, there’s the terrifying element of we don’t want to mess this up! If we leave the page blank, it stays clean. We can have the satisfaction of not having made any mistakes. We know we can walk away without having failed. Leaving the page blank is comforting....

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Not an email; not a text message. A letter. When was the last time you wrote an address onto an envelope, and sent it to someone through the mail? It’s probably been a while. Heck, there’s a decent chance you don’t even know the mailing addresses for some of the people you might want to send a letter to. You might not even have paper and envelopes on hand to write and send a letter....