Okay, okay, okay… I’ll write the gear post before the year’s over! One of the things that keeps me from writing all year is that it never really feels like the stuff in my pack has changed all that much. I switch one item at a time, never thinking I have much to write about.…

When I talk about working like a maniac for 10-14 hours a day, I sometimes get criticized for working too hard. I need to relax or enjoy life more, people say. When I read this, I assume that I’ve done a poor job explaining how I feel about work or how I actually construct my…

The benefit of having your subconscious make decisions isn’t so much that it’s a better decision maker than your conscious mind (it’s probably not), but that it can make decisions much much faster than your conscious mind. You don’t have to spend your focus and energy making decisions that you already have heuristics for. For…

When I first released SETT, a common bit of feedback I’d get was, “It’s nice, but it’s really slow”. This shouldn’t have been too surprising to me, given that I hadn’t spent any time optimizing it, and didn’t know how to, anyway. So I sat down and decided to fix the problem. Now SETT is…

I had only the roughest of plans coming to China– hang out in Shanghai, make it to Hua Shan, and drink some good tea. With a couple weeks of Shanghai loafing and a trip to Hua Shan under my belt, only tea was left on my checklist. China has very high quality famous teas in…

We’re getting pretty close to being ready to launch SETT to the (unsuspecting) public. Shooting for mid December, but no later than January no matter what. If you’re a blogger, you can do us a HUGE favor by answering this quick one-page survey about blogging. *** If you’re not a blogger, sorry about the clutter…

It started about five years ago. On the internet I saw a picture of a really janky looking pathway that was nothing more than some two by fours bolted high into the side of a mountain. I immediately wanted to go do it. I did some searches, but came up empty handed. The name and…

In poker you often win not by playing your cards, but by playing your opponents cards. My good friend and sometimes poker mentor once told me that to become a winning poker player, you must learn to win the pots that no one has a legitimate claim to. If you have an excellent hand, you’ll…

I slept most of the flight from San Francisco to Vancouver. I was up until one thirty in the morning the night before, and had to wake up at five in order to get to the airport on time, so I was exhausted. Upon arriving in Vancouver I shuffled half-asleep to the customs station, which…

Eight years ago today I started my blog. It actually started as a livejournal blog which I used to chronicle my third (and successful) attempt to get onto a polyphasic sleep schedule. I had no readers and had no intention of attracting any. I had just remembered how hilarious my attempts to get on the…