How a Trip to Uruguay Changed the Way I Think About Money “Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.” —Genesis 13:2 Three weeks ago, I stepped off a plane in Montevideo and spent two weeks exploring Uruguay—endless empty beaches, rolling green hills dotted with cattle, gauchos…
Lessons on chaos and emergence from the universe itself “The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.” – Arthur Eddington The Dissolving World Open a news feed, scroll a timeline, wander the comment threads, and you can watch competing realities collide in…
“Our intellect has created a new world that dominates nature, and has populated it with monstrous machines.” — C.G. Jung, The Earth Has a Soul Last week, while picking up a book at the library, I noticed a small box marked “Free Books.” On top of the pile lay a…
“The way up and the way down are one and the same.” —Heraclitus Last week I went to see an orthopedic surgeon. A nagging shoulder–elbow issue I’m trying to sort out. That same evening, an ad popped up on Facebook: a Free Shoulder Rehab Masterclass. Like magic! Except it wasn’t…
“Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero.” — Voltaire Last week, I read Scott Bessent’s paper, “The Fed’s ‘Gain of Function’ Monetary Policy,” which presents a striking critique of the Federal Reserve’s unconventional monetary strategies. Bessent argues that over the past decades—particularly following the 2008 financial crisis—the Fed has engaged…
“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” —Aldous Huxley, Author of Brave New World If you are old enough to remember the rise of the digital age, you probably recall the split: when paper photographs became pixels, when handwritten letters turned into emails and…
“The most powerful forces in the world are invisible—debt, energy, and belief.” — Anonymous As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the next time headlines light up with Trump versus Elon, ask yourself: what’s really going on behind the drama? It happened again just last week. Trump accused Musk of…
“The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.” — E.O. Wilson This past year has been unlike any other. I haven’t left Southwest Michigan—haven’t seen any other part of the world. Instead, I ventured into a more elusive frontier: reality. Writing…
“In the silence of the heart, God speaks. In the labor of the hands, the soul is restored.” — adapted from Mother Teresa and Catholic tradition This past week, I spent days on my knees, cutting through dense grass and loosening soil to build a new vegetable garden. The work…
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.” — H.L. Mencken America Is Cracking—Can You Feel It? Some see the tremors as natural; others suspect a calculated scheme. I see both:…
“Outstanding, sophisticated, and mesmerizing…a spiritual intrigue similar to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.” —ForeWord Reviews