Category: Culture

  • Berlin Impressions, 29 Years Later

    This summer 2018, I travelled to Berlin, Germany, for a conference. The last time I had been in Berlin was about two months before the Berlin Wall came down. My friend Brennan Novak, now a resident of Berlin, encouraged to write down my impressions, so here I am. My last trip, so many years ago, […]

  • Almost half of US households can barely make it

    This is incredibly awful and shameful. According to the United Way ALICE project, a research project run by a group of charities, almost half of US households are barely getting by. ALICE stands for: Asset Limited Income Constrained, but Employed. and it means: a “household who cannot always pay the bills, has little or nothing […]

  • I’m done with War On Anything

    The older I get, the more I realize that I have no interest whatsoever to make war on anybody or anything. I don’t care for: War on other countries, people or religions War on drugs, poverty, and so many other things War on competitors, etc. etc Renaming the “War Room” at Uber to “Peace Room” […]

  • About Values and this Election

    My friend Ben Werdmuller wrote a piece about the values that drive his vote in this election. I don’t get to vote (because I’m an alien, a legal one, but just an alien). However, he inspired me to write down my own values. They are quite short: We got to take care of our kids. […]

  • The political cage fight drug

    If you had to design a political system where big, urgent problems can remain unresolved and connected criminals can stay out of jail, without (much) protest or repression, how would you go about it? I think I’d invent a supposedly all-powerful “grand prize” position called the Presidency, and make sure everybody believes it is a […]