I just worked for about 10 hours in the scorching sun framing a complicated deck. I'm relaxing now and I feel pure euphoria... My body feels like it's buzzing.

Throwing things away is one of my top five favorite activities. The more expensive, the more pleasure...

Commute distance has had a much stronger correlation to my professional happiness than how much I've earned. Some of the best seasons of my life have been when I work close to home and some of my worst were working high income jobs with hour+ commutes.

Retail, like the airline industry, is increasingly becoming an extension of credit card companies. The most valuable activity a retail employee can perform is getting someone to sign up for a credit card. This is the decades long, droning death knell of a debt spiral.

A friend of mine who isn't on #nostr yet said something that really stuck with me a few weeks ago. The modern game of business is essentially figuring out ways to repackage and expand debt with methods that are so complex that their net impact is undescribable.

If you ever fly through the Nashville airport, there is a good chance you will see my dad playing music there. He is an insanely good songwriter. I learned a lot about writing and storytelling from him. A few years ago, I was at a special show that commemorated the premier of a documentary about my grandparents. They were one of the, if not the first, black country music duo to tour in the US. As I listen to him play songs that were probably 30 years old, I had the most nostalgic moment I've ever had, surrounded by old friends and family. In that moment, I realized something really important. If I was the only person in the world to hear those songs, they wouldn't be any less powerful. My dad could have sold out 1000 different times in his life, but he chose to make art that was meaningful and authentic. He is a reminder that legends walk among us in the humdrum of daily life. Greatness doesn't come from internet fame, it come from a life well lived. I love you, dad. I hope I can be half the father you are.

I'm not sure who is more excited. The wife and I or the kids. 😆

Thoughts about Tolstoys "The Death of Ivan Ilyich". The beginning is quite funny but ultimately a very bleak story. It chronicles the slow and painful death of an upper-middle-class bureaucrat. The dissonance between the gravity of his prognosis, his prolonged denial, fleeting flickers of hope, and the casual and carefree prattle of daily life is beautifully written. It's ultimately a meditation on an untimely death, unveiling the vanity of a conventional middle-class lifestyle. Though he was successful by societal standards, it's only in his very last hours that he had the clarity to grapple with whether his life was meaningless.

My oldest do jujitsu. Every now and again a kid really smashes him in a long round and I see him get emotional, but he always picks himself up and never backs down. It really got me today... I'm so unspeakably proud of him... I hope you find this post one day, kid.

As AI does increasingly more meneal thinking, the freed up mental space will force humanity face itself. Matters of the heart have been historically diluted by necessity of laborious daily tasks.

I don't know anyone on here so I thought it be fun to announce baby #6 is on the way!

#Gm nostr! In the process of moving off grid for the next few weeks. Wish me luck.

The most peace spreading, civilization advancing, life improving act in our lifetime isn't voting, having the right job, or philanthropic endeavor. It is stacking SATs.

Number-go-up is obviously amazing, but there is another scarcity that we should treasure: These precious moments with family and friends that we will never get back. Stack them like sats.

I just finished Tolestoy's "Family Happiness." I won't spoil the plot, but it is amazing how much it relates to the red-pill cultural conversation. Very prescient. There really isn't anything new under the sun. When romantic intensity recedes, what does it mean to love? Our culture often views this shift as a tragedy but it's a question better left open ended. Highly recommended. Favorite quote from the book: "A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness."