• Advice to My Younger Self

    My son asked what advice I would give to my younger self. I realized it’s pretty simple. Lift weights. Take risks. Read philosophy. Meditate. Be purposeful. Each one has improved my quality of life and my… self significantly. And I could have done them sooner. No regrets, but yeah, that’s my advice to my younger…

  • The Jagged Stones of Dublin: Part Two

    The continuing true-story misadventures of an American in Dublin. Start with Part One and proceed at your own risk. Part Two gets so much worse. But it’s ok to laugh. Things were happening. Some sort of conversation. I felt tired. I heard activity. People talking. I didn’t feel connected to it. I found it irritating.…

  • The Jagged Stones of Dublin

    This is a true story about my last trip to Dublin. It happened over two years ago. Some details may have blurred over time. You have my permission to laugh at my discomfort. I was going to Dublin, Ireland for a payments conference. This was my second trip to Dublin. I love the pub food.…

  • Life Lessons with Levar

    I really enjoy the podcast, Levar Burton Reads. Levar is an actor best known for his roles as Geordi La Forge in Star Trek, Kunta Kinte in Roots, and as the host of the PBS series, Reading Rainbow. Levar Burton Reads is a grown-up version of Reading Rainbow. Mr. Burton — or Levar? I feel…

  • An Updated Pledge of Allegiance

    I pledge allegiance to the Principles of the United States of America;That all people, regardless of gender, race, religion, or whom they love,are created equal with unalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,That Governments derive just power from the consent of the Governedto uphold these rights,That Absolute Power corrupts, and a robust…

  • Drop Your Center of Gravity

    Years ago — too many years — my friend Mike showed me a T’ai Chi practice called Push Hands. It’s a mix of dance, practice, and sparring. You and your opponent (or partner) face each other with one foot forward, your front feet touching. You put your hands up, palms open, pressed against those of…

  • Seeing the Whole Picture

    I wrote and published this internally at my company, Automattic (we’re hiring!). Some of it is specific to us, a distributed technology company, but I suspect some pieces may resonate with others, so I’m sharing more broadly. We often have a sort of narrow-mindedness where we focus on our own tasks or our own areas…

  • COVID-19: April 2

    I’m not gonna lie. Today felt really hard. The hardest day yet. Yesterday I started a conversation at work that I knew would be difficult, it would mean disappointing people, arguing, debating. Leaving people unhappy, disappointed. That’s the job. It just feels harder in the current environment. But I think it sapped all my energy…

  • COVID-19: March 29

    More notes and thoughts… We walked into the cul-de-sac today, joining our neighbors singing happy birthday to a neighbor boy turning 18. Later, we took some family portraits as a photographer drove past people’s houses taking “porch portraits” for donations. This weekend (Saturday) was Max’s birthday. He got a decent haul of gifts that he…

  • COVID-19: March 22

    I started writing this post over a week ago, but never finished. I’m going to post it as-is to keep track of what was going on at the time. The world feels very surreal right now. In less than a week we went from being excited about our spring break trip to Disney World to…