I pulled my late 1980s backpack out of storage. My first thought was that it was heavier than I remembered, just over seven pounds empty. Backpacking gear has gone through an ultralight revolution. Materials are stronger and much lighter. For my Grand Canyon Rim to Rim and future trips, I ... Read More

I pulled my late 1980s backpack out of storage. My first thought was that it was heavier than I remembered, just over seven pounds empty. Backpacking gear has gone through an ultralight revolution. Materials are stronger and much lighter. For my Grand Canyon Rim to Rim and future trips, I ... Read More

In August of 2024 I stopped in my local book shop (shoutout to The Raven Bookstore) as I often do to browse the shelves and see if there was anything I couldn't live without. A very colorful book jacket caught my eye. It was Kevin Fedarko's A Walk in the ... Read More

I hadn't intended to drive for 16 hours. It's around midnight and my friend and I are about two hours away from Bright Angel Lodge at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I pull over for gas, to stretch my legs, and wake myself up. "Can you drive for a ... Read More

Existential risk from AISome believe an existential risk accompanies the development or emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Quantifying the probability of this risk is a hard problem, to say nothing of calculating the probabilities of the many non-existential risks that may merely delay civilization's progress. AI systems as we ... Read More

 "That's the end of our Joplin era," my wife said to my oldest daughter.We were still crying and wiping our tears.I didn't say it out loud, but I thought "That was the end of our dog era,"We'd just returned to the car from the vet's office where the three of ... Read More

This is the fifth post in a series of posts inspired by reading Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. We've previously looked at some of Sandberg's evidence That women are underrepresented in positions of power and leadershipHow lack of confidence contributes to the issueHow decisions about having children play ... Read More

My previous posts in this series have touched on the core issues that Sheryl Sandberg addresses in her book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. If you're interested in these issues, I encourage you to read the book and read the criticism as well.In this post I want ... Read More

This is the fourth post in a series of posts inspired by reading Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. Previously we discussed lack of confidence as one of the causes that Sandberg cites for the lack of women in leadership roles. Another reason she gives is pregnancy and ... Read More

This is the third post in a series of posts inspired by reading Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. In the previous post, I shared some of the statistics from Sandberg's book and other sources that show that women are underrepresented in leadership and technical roles. Even ... Read More