Jurassic Park is a wonderful movie, but you’re cheating yourself of some fine philosophy if you don’t read the book. In the original Michael Crichton novel, the mathematician and Jurassic Park skeptic Ian Malcom delivers a fantastic speech on the […]
It’s really easy to act like a doofus when you are “just being yourself.” Trust me, I know from personal experience. There’s something to the idea of being entirely your own man and not caring how your actions reflect in […]
Remember that your father will die one day. “Memento mori” reminds us that we will die one day, and prompts us to act accordingly – to seize the day, to be all we can be, and to be grateful for […]
Gary Vaynerchuk says you should double down on your strengths and hire for your weaknesses. I think that’s probably right. But you should be aware of the nature of your weaknesses: they are a tightening noose. With every day that […]
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, […]
The ability to do (morally aligned) violence independently is kind of essential to adventure. Fighting pirates, beating up bullies, dueling your mortal enemy, even shooting dangerous animals – you get the picture. It’s violent and dangerous stuff. And these used […]
When most of us hear of “the American dream,” we think of a house in the suburbs with a little white picket fence. How did the American dream get so lame? There was another American dream before that (as there […]
Sometimes I think about which adventure goals would be worthwhile. To prepare for an adventure is a wonderful motivator and clarifier and compass for all work and learning. But it can be discouraging to realize how much has already been […]
Today I saw a backed up line of cars and choked up a little bit. Now normally I hate traffic, I hate commuting, and I hate most of what they portend for my drive and for the place I live […]
Catching redfish (or “spottail bass”) is a favorite pasttime of folks in the South Carolina lowcountry. I’ve been doing it in some form all my life, but usually as a tagalong with my father. To concretize my learnings from my […]
It’s amazing how close you can feel to someone when you finally learn to speak even a little of their language. Language differences create huge barriers of understanding between two people, and they’re often compounded by the fact that one […]
We would probably find it incredibly boring to tune in to people tuning in. A person watching TV is often enough expressionless, usually sedate, and – at the end of the day – doing nothing unusual or noteworthy. They are […]
Every man should know how to landscape – and I don’t just mean mowing grass. Doesn’t the idea of a square, expressionless suburban lawn bore you to tears? Half of what makes the homes of the wealthy (and tastefully wealthy) […]
If you’re like me, you probably think that the world is becoming too small of a place – that things are getting too “same-ish” and average wherever you go. I want the different parts of the world to get weird […]
Today I had the great honor of being the event photographer for someone’s gender reveal party. They counted on me to document one of the most important events of their pregnancy, and I think I delivered. I’m still young, so […]
It used to be that adventure was something you had – not something you could purchase with a credit card. Now there’s an “adventure industry.” A lot of things seem to be going this way. Now you can buy the […]
You think about your diet. You think about your exercise. You think about your friends. How often do you stop to think about the sounds around you? We’re surrounded by sound, from the humming air conditioner to the clacking of […]
Want to learn any serious skill the serious way? You’ll pursue some kind of apprenticeship, or some kind of learning under a master. But wanting to learn a skill is one thing. Getting (and deserving) a good master is another, […]
Like it or not, we now live in an age of surveillance. If the state isn’t actually surveilling you, a corporation or business is gathering data about your location, your browsing history, your interests, your employment, and more. You’re also […]
It takes as much equanimity to accept the past as it does to accept the future. Friedrich Nietzsche (I think) introduced the notion of “amor fati,” or “love of fate” as a way for humans to reconcile themselves to the […]
Going to sleep should be more exciting for us. Who needs a Netflix show before bed when you’ve got dreams to look forward to? I’ve dreamt of fighting Egyptian mummy-sorcerers, skiing to a mountain castle, and helping to keep a […]
“I’m so sorry for the way I acted. I was a fool.” I’ve had some times when I’ve had to admit to other people (or to myself) my foolishness. I’ve looked back on times in my life when I was […]
Staring at a screen. Sitting in a dark room alone. Stuffing your face. This is the experience (for many people) of watching movies and TV alone. Contrast that with gathering together with your family to watch a beloved movie. Your […]
This blog post is for men. I’m learning that “meeting for coffee” should be rare and used only in the last resort as a way to hang out with your bros. Can you really look at the world around you […]
What makes for a good gym? I was checking out a local one online recently and noticed that it had all-new (or else very recent) equipment and that polished, clean, modern, “new” look which seems so common in many chain […]
It’s a truism that rural communities tend to be more tightly-knit. We think of cities as places full of strangers and countrysides as places where “everyone knows everyone.” This is true to a great degree. But it’s a bit more […]
Have you ever seen the chaos of a large meeting in a corporate boardroom? It’s the guy who goes in with the agenda, the notes, and the pre-meeting-prep who typically ends up leading the direction of the room. He (or […]
““Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And weak men create hard times.” I was born a son and a grandson “hard men.” They farmed, led businesses, shaped land, and raised families through good times and bad, and if their stories […]
Suffering alone is one of the worst human experiences. Suffering in fellowship is probably one of the best. Tonight I watched the movie Master and Commander for he first time, amending a serious gap in my movie-watching resume. And I […]
“That’s not good enough.” “You’re unfocused.” “You’re not working hard enough.” “You’re not bold enough.” Like all sorts of people, I struggle with internal voices and internal self-talk like this. It can be limiting at times, keeping me from taking […]