A Brighter Tomorrow

America has been through a lot in the last twenty years:

• Endless foreign wars on multiple fronts (2001, 2003-onward);
• The 2008 financial meltdown;
• Racial inequality & division;
• Dysfunction, & government shutdowns;
• Education costs, degree inflation, and student loan debt stifling innovation;
• Supply constraints, pervasive red tape, & not-in-my-backyard (“NIMBY”) policies increasing housing costs.
• The election of Donald Trump, and the straining of Western alliances;
• National debt of $26.5 trillion (more than $80,300 per person — including children);
• The loss of trust in objective truth online;
• A public health nightmare in the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic; and
• A loss of love for…

A Brighter Tomorrow

February 24, 2051.

You open your eyes to a world of color and light.

You know that what you’re experiencing isn’t real. But it might as well be.

Cliffsides and sheer rocks rise from thick ocean mists. A radiant sunrise gleans through the bluff faces. You can feel the seawater on your skin, taste the lingering salt in the air. You’re conscious inside of this controlled lucid dream. You can meet up with online friends here. You can live, work, explore in peace… anything you want.

A year ago, Big Tech released its first cloud-linked temporal implant. …

Learning from the Titans

Silicon Valley has a saying.

“Don’t bet against Elon Musk.”

In the last decade, one person has become America’s name for big ideas.

• Mass-market, self-driving, auto-navigating electric vehicles (via Tesla);
• Cost-competitive solar and battery technology (via Tesla);
• Reliable, cost-efficient private space flight with reusable rocket boosters (via SpaceX);
• Traffic-bypassing tunnels underneath LA (via the Boring Company); and
• Neural laces shunted into living beings with robotic surgeons (via Neuralink).

What will he do next? The wildest of Elon Musk’s visions have a tendency to become a reality, given enough time.

A few years ago, these were all sci-fi concepts. Now, they…

Simplify, Meditate, Walk with Nature, Organize

How do some people stay focused through hard times?

What is the link between focus on the one hand, and resilience on the other?

In this TEDx talk, neuroscience researcher Marvin Chun discusses the limits of the brain’s potential to multitask. He provides three tips for improving concentration — “simplify, relax, unitask.”

The full talk is well worth a watch. Below, I distill Chun’s three points into four related ones.

Self-Determination

“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”

-Lucius Annaeus Seneca

December 1, 2021 — what does the image conjure in your mind?

Your actions today are already shaping that future.

• Your thoughts, and your relationship with them (shaped through contemplative practices);
• Your assumptions about yourself;
• Your daily habits, conscious or not;
• Your plans;
• Your mood, and your outlook;
• Your health.

Every choice matters. Even your subconscious shapes what’s coming for you.

So many people go through life without introspection — without planning. This is a form of surrender. If you don’t plan…

Do you ever wonder how “breakout” success happens?

How do the very best people go from ordinary, even painful circumstances — only to achieve explosive success?

Is it intellect? Talent? Or, something else?

Consider this.

• Seven years after university, J.K. Rowling was unemployed, on welfare, suffering from clinical depression and contemplating suicide. She wrote Harry Potter on an old manual typewriter.
• Steve Jobs left Reed College when he was 19 because it was too much of a financial burden on his family. He built Apple Computer.
• Walt Disney naively signed away the ownership rights to his first cartoon in 1928…

Self-Determination

“A little action often spurs a lot of momentum.”
― Noah Scalin

In any new endeavor, the first 4–12 weeks are the hardest part.

There are several reasons for this. During the initial growth period:

• Your performance is weakest — you have the most adaptation and growth ahead of you.
• You are constantly improving — you have to face your failures every day.
• You have the greatest need for resilience — it’s very easy to adopt a negative self-image in the face of what seems to be repeated failure.
• Your improvement is “stealth” — competitors are so far ahead of…

Self Determination

1 — Clarity

Say what you’re going to say, then move on.

Watch your adverbs. Watch your “complex” words. A fifth-grader should be able to understand your words.

Grammarly features the “Flesch Readability Score” — a simple number to check how easy or difficult your writing is to read. (This is not the Grammarly Score.) The higher the Flesch Score, the larger your potential audience. Ideally, your writing should be above 70.

If you don’t have access to Grammarly, that’s okay. It’s not rocket science. Use short sentences. Write simply. Communicate clearly.

Anything worth saying is worth saying simply.

2 — Concision

Don’t waste words.

It’s…