Published in Age of Awareness·Aug 9, 2020Member-onlyHas COVID-19 Ruined The Digital Nomad?How the pandemic inverted millennial values — It’s the millennial manifesto: experiences over things, community over privacy, minimalism over consumerism, optionality over stability. These values are trumpeted from every direction — self-improvement podcasts, pop psychology books, and glistening instagram feeds. They’re proclaimed by individuals like self-styled millennial philosopher and digital nomad Nathaniel Drew.Lifestyle4 min read
Published in The Startup·Jul 1, 2020Member-onlyHow To Take A Road Trip During a Pandemic“I was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.” — Jack Kerouac, On The Road I awoke one morning, several weeks ago, and decided to take a road trip. Or, rather, the decision thrust…Travel6 min read
Apr 24, 2020Member-onlyWhy Is Quarantine Making Me So Sad?When starting a garden just isn’t enough — I walked by my girlfriend taking a shower yesterday. She turned off the tap and whispered, “I’m so sad.” I laughed. We both laughed. I’m a notoriously bad listener, so the fact that I heard this secretive whisper was doubly funny to us. …Mental Health4 min read
Apr 20, 2020Member-onlyCOVID-19 is Chess. We’re Playing Checkers.Why America Just Can’t Get This Right — We’ve lost so much to COVID-19 — we’ve lost people. We’ve lost jobs. Time. Opportunities. Money. Freedom. But first, we lost nuance. The rest followed. Recent decades have borne witness to a great flattening of American dialogue; an intellectual and cultural hollowing out. But as the American national conversation simplified…Coronavirus6 min read
Mar 11, 2020Member-onlyAmerica Is Spiraling Toward an Unmitigated Coronavirus DisasterToday is March 10, 2020. It’s important to note the date of publication when talking about COVID-19. Each 24 hour news cycle is a new reality. Articles written days ago may as well have been about a different planet. A little over two weeks ago, Italy had 21 cases of…Coronavirus4 min read
Feb 12, 2020Member-onlyYou Should Start Wearing A Face Mask Right NowHow coronavirus could change the West — Update as of March 9, 2020: This story was written before serious face mask shortages threatened healthcare workers. Please do not buy/stockpile. However, the cultural dynamics discussed in this article are playing out in a far more dramatic way than I could have imagined when I first wrote this. …Health4 min read
Published in OneZero·Feb 7, 2020Member-onlyWe’re Too Lazy to Stop Facial RecognitionWhy the end of privacy is comfortable — I had an experience the other day that should have been quite normal. I boarded a Delta flight. As I boarded the plane, I went through the same robotic motion I’ve performed a hundred times: arm out with passport and ticket. Only this time, the smartly dressed flight attendant refused…Technology5 min read
Nov 20, 2019Member-onlyWhy We Can’t Ignore “OK Boomer”Ten years from now, we probably won’t be saying “OK Boomer”. As a matter of fact, I’d be surprised if it’s still popular ten weeks from now. We’ve likely already observed the high water mark: a politician in New Zealand citing the phrase on the floor of parliament. It’s gone…Generation Z4 min read
Published in OneZero·Aug 22, 2019Member-onlyMy Friend Posted a Violent Manifesto on FacebookWatching mental breakdowns in the age of social media — Not-quite-forgotten acquaintances sprinkle our Facebook feeds like nostalgic speedbumps. There are the usual surprises that slow our browsing — marriages, dogs, jobs — but every now and then, someone makes us stop. Danny* made me stop. I never would have expected it — Danny was normal, like an indistinct side…Mental Health7 min read
Published in The Startup·Apr 19, 2019Member-onlyHow I Got Addicted to Reading ReviewsThe brutal tyranny of small decisions — Eleven hours. That’s how long it took me to buy hiking trousers. Eleven hours of reading reviews. That’s one fourth of a working week. That’s a whole season of Game of Thrones. That’s enough time to learn a new language. Eleven hours. Buying a computer mouse? Four hours. A sleeping…Psychology5 min read