An old rant from my time studying abroad… A decade ago, Europeans looked at the US as cool and desirable, with a flourishing economy and a vibrant culture. Since the 2016 election and the George Floyd riots, people worldwide have come to look down on the US as unsafe and an unpleasant place to live. While the US has its problems, it is not comparable to an individual European nation, it is comparable to the European Union as a whole. The US formed what the EU is trying to form now 300 years a...

An old rant from my time studying abroad… A decade ago, Europeans looked at the US as cool and desirable, with a flourishing economy and a vibrant culture. Since the 2016 election and the George Floyd riots, people worldwide have come to look down on the US as unsafe and an unpleasant place to live. While the US has its problems, it is not comparable to an individual European nation, it is comparable to the European Union as a whole. The US formed what the EU is trying to form now 300 years a...

I actually wrote this essay in early 2024 when AI was just starting to go mainstream. I revisited it this weekend and it feels even more important than it was back then.TLDRAs AIs get smarter, many fear we face an existential crisis. Up to now we have derived our value as a species from our intelligence and being smarter than other living creatures. We can write novels, solve problems, and use language in ways no other species can. Now GPT can do that too, so what's our worth? What made ...

I actually wrote this essay in early 2024 when AI was just starting to go mainstream. I revisited it this weekend and it feels even more important than it was back then.TLDRAs AIs get smarter, many fear we face an existential crisis. Up to now we have derived our value as a species from our intelligence and being smarter than other living creatures. We can write novels, solve problems, and use language in ways no other species can. Now GPT can do that too, so what's our worth? What made ...

In another post, I wrote about our need for a new moral system based around empathy. In this essay, I tease that idea out some more.The goodEmpathy as the ultimate good means that connecting with others is the most meaningful thing a person can do. People are judged by their capacity to connect and understand others, even those from different backgrounds, cultures, and languages. Patience and communication are skills we intentionally develop. From this deep empathy, everyone feels a sense of ...

In another post, I wrote about our need for a new moral system based around empathy. In this essay, I tease that idea out some more.The goodEmpathy as the ultimate good means that connecting with others is the most meaningful thing a person can do. People are judged by their capacity to connect and understand others, even those from different backgrounds, cultures, and languages. Patience and communication are skills we intentionally develop. From this deep empathy, everyone feels a sense of ...

The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole ea...

The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole ea...

The start up I work at was recently acquired by a leader in the space. It was a huge success and a life changing moment for everyone at the company. We did it as a team. The company was able to succeed because it was composed of a group of high skill people who were able to work together. We have generational leaders in our founding team who enable all of us to do our best work and keep us all coordinated and organized. When the CEO of the company that acquired us spoke about why he chose us,...

The start up I work at was recently acquired by a leader in the space. It was a huge success and a life changing moment for everyone at the company. We did it as a team. The company was able to succeed because it was composed of a group of high skill people who were able to work together. We have generational leaders in our founding team who enable all of us to do our best work and keep us all coordinated and organized. When the CEO of the company that acquired us spoke about why he chose us,...

I spent the weekend in San Francisco, a city at the cutting edge of our nation’s economy. Everytime I visit I am inspired and awed at the power of what people are building. But this time I was left with the unsettling curiosity of what was driving all these builders on a personal level. I am an engineer and like to believe I enjoy the act of building for its own sake. It’s a fun intellectual exercise to be presented with a problem, break it down into smaller parts, and build up a solution. I ...

I spent the weekend in San Francisco, a city at the cutting edge of our nation’s economy. Everytime I visit I am inspired and awed at the power of what people are building. But this time I was left with the unsettling curiosity of what was driving all these builders on a personal level. I am an engineer and like to believe I enjoy the act of building for its own sake. It’s a fun intellectual exercise to be presented with a problem, break it down into smaller parts, and build up a solution. I ...