November 2011
1 post
“I think most creative people want to express appreciation for being able to take...”
– Steve Jobs
October 2011
2 posts
Casual Work Environment
Andrea: helllo dave are ou there?
Tim: Is that French?
Tim: Oh, NVM. I saw your email. It's drunk :)
Andrea: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, i'm very drunk and i'm tryring to fugures our how ot turn off adds'
Andrea: i'm taking a vacation from friday-monday
Tim: Haha, I'll get your ads.
Andrea: dear tim, i love you very mush
Dave: Wowza
September 2011
1 post
August 2011
2 posts
“The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are...”
– Steve Jobs - Fortune, Jan 24, 2000
July 2011
3 posts
“Talk about what you have written, by all means, but do not read from it while...”
– Walter Benjamin - One Way Street
June 2011
1 post
May 2011
2 posts
One True Thing →
Sometimes when I ask people about the majors they picked in college, I get an answer—regardless of the major—akin to “because it’s like, just so fundamental, you know?” The neuroscientist thinks, the brain, the brain! Everything starts with the brain. The writer thinks, where would we be without language, without the ability to communicate our ideas? The investment banker thinks, money runs the...
April 2011
2 posts
“Darwin’s notebooks lie at the tail end of a long and fruitful tradition that...”
– Where Good Ideas Come From
March 2011
1 post
What Should I Do With My Life? →
I wanted to be an engineer. My uncle Jack was an engineer, and I love my uncle Jack.
When Uncle Jack’s family visited from Minnesota, he and I would play catch. Sometimes we’d even play a modified, capitalist version of the game 500. Jack would throw a tennis ball (or baseball, as I got older)…
I wrote this for the Real HQ blog.
February 2011
1 post
January 2011
1 post
December 2010
3 posts
“The next real literary “rebels” in this country might well emerge as some weird...”
– David Foster Wallace - A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again
Matt's Dream
Matt just sent me an email about a dream he had last night. A dream that painted a “perfect picture of our friendship and respective personalities” he said - and I agree.
Here’s Matt describing his dream:
We were both going to Alamo Drafthouse to see Black Swan (a movie I really want to see). We were walking up just as the movie is starting and we see a disheveled man sitting...
November 2010
2 posts
October 2010
3 posts
“Find something you love, for reasons you understand, that not everyone agrees...”
– Gene Siskel on investing (The blank is “money,” but the sentence could be about a lot of things if you put different words like “time” and “energy” into it.)
September 2010
3 posts
“Our thinking mind is mainly two-fold: (1) a judicial mind which analyzes,...”
– Alex F. Osborn - Applied Imagination
“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like...”
– Biz Stone
August 2010
13 posts
This is Mike Birbiglia reading his story...
WatchThis was Saturday night at Conjunctured. Careful viewers might catch a glimpse of me in a blue-checked shirt. Perhaps even a few glances.
Via Kienan. Created by Nick Simonite.
Grandpa's New Story
Grandma cooked us a vegetarian lunch.
She’s a good cook, but vegetarian food is her achilles heel. Crazy how a lifetime of kitchen experience can be rendered useless by the removal of meat.
Lunch is delicious, though Gramps doesn’t agree. In any case, it won’t be served again. Grandma never makes the same meal twice.
After 60 years, you’d expect her to have some favorite...
“Talent renders the whole idea of rehearsal meaningless; when you find something...”
– Stephen King - On Writing
Analogy Surplus →
I keep a list of analogies. They’re things that I observe, but I don’t know where they go. They’re orphans. I don’t know what larger idea they tie to. They’re the last half of the metaphor. Imagine “You know, it’s kind of like…” at the beginning of these. They’re insight without meaning, maybe. Or…
It’s near impossible to conjure up a good analogy on command, so I write them down...
“Some material things make my life more enjoyable; many, however, would not. I...”
– Warren Buffett
Possible Reasons Why There Is A Bird In This Whole... →
“We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness - curiosity, adventure,...”
– John Taylor Gatto
July 2010
5 posts
True Expression, age 12
I helped out at Austin Bat Cave on Tuesday, editing their soon to-be-released student anthology. After pouring over dozens of poems, short stories and writing exercises, I concluded that teenage writers can be classified into two groups:
Kids writing like a writer.
Kids writing the way they think.
The first group is comprised of “good students.” Their writing receives top marks for...
Dan Gilbert's Personal Guarantee →
Once in a rare while, someone really pisses me off.
After a healthy dose of whiskey, I open Gmail and draft a letter so scathing, it makes paint peel and school children cry.
Rationality returns with mere seconds to spare, however, and I opt for the button labeled “Discard.”
Dan Gilbert?
He hits “Send.”
Deer Tick - Dirty Dishes
It’s a good thing...
June 2010
10 posts
Sharing Time
On Youth and Young Manhood, I try to post things I’ve created. If you give me your attention, you can be fairly certain you’re reading something new…something I made for you.
This also means I don’t share the great things others have created, however, and I wanted a way to do both.
Over the past two weeks I made big changes to YYM. I now have a place to showcase the great...
Lacey's Travel Advice
You can use travelocity to book it because if you want, you get to swim with the dolphins for free as a bonus. Although I wouldn’t recommend this because dolphins are extremely unhappy in captivity and are killed in large numbers because of places like that.
Advice on your "Someday" List
Start now. It will take longer than you think.
