I was in a position to provide some talking points for my company’s upper-level math textbooks. It was written in the aftermath of customer-induced pique regarding how we sell ourselves. While it’s focused on my company, the core idea of a problem-first approach extends beyond what we do in particular. ...

The Texas Rangers won the World Series in five games over the Arizona Diamondbacks, and by the end it looked as inevitable as the 4–1 victory shows. I was fairly neutral going in—I have some connections to the Rangers via the Twins, but felt myself rooting for the underdogs in Arizona more often than not—and so my hope, as always, was for a tense series that went at least six games. That didn’t transpire, and viewership was down as the matchup was panned across popular sports media, but that hardly matters to me. ...

I’ve done something for National Novel Writing Month each year since 2019. That first year was the only time I’ve “won” by getting to fifty thousand words, but I’ve always appreciated the exercise and change of pace required to make a reasonable attempt. November is just around the corner, so it’s time to consider my plans for this year’s effort. ...

I switched back to Ulysses and refined the Writing homescreen on my iPad. I have no idea how long this particular setup will last considering the short time spent since I previously discussed this, but it feels stable, all my writing can live in a single app, and I can drop the dance I’d tried with iCloud to make iA Writer work across all my devices. ...

I had a moment of panic followed by clarity and motivation when I realized my tenuous approach to managing tasks at work was no longer tenable. I needed to make a change. ...

Last night the wedding of Erin’s younger brother and his lovely now-wife. It was fun to participate in the process of wedding preparation from a new perspective—one where we have tangible advice to offer, a calmer presence from experience—only one year after our own. This took form in a few ways. Erin saw how our coordinator worked through each little detail as we got closer to the date, so she made sure to do the same with the bride who had painstakingly planned venue decoration. I mainly acted as a role model to the groomsmen who, though absolutely great friends and nice guys, still end up a little immature for self-governance.1 This also meant during decorating in the morning and post-reception teardown, I could yield my influence to direct their help. ...

With the iPhone 15 series switching to USB-C, my last tangible reason for holding onto Android phones has been erased. In part thanks to the huge trade-in promotions offered in exchange for cell carrier lock-in, I’ve given up my Pixel 6 Pro and switched to an iPhone 15 Pro. ...

Erin and I decided to cancel Netflix the other week after subscribing for about eight years. I’d been infrequently toying with the idea for a few years, but while recording a recent episode of Comical Start Grant asked me something that solidified my reasoning. ...

One year of marriage has sped by. We unintentionally packed it full of travel, hosting visitors, and yet another road trip back to Minnesota. We spent time with friends, watched plenty of movies, found good restaurants, and made excellent meals. Throughout it all was a comfort, security, and joint responsibility of finally being married and working through what that means to us. ...

I recently came across William MacAskill and his books Doing Good Better and What We Owe the Future.1 The former details a template for a model of approaching the world called effective altruism, while the other looks at an adjacent set of ideas called longtermism. While I’m still working through the second book, I’ve become quite interested in the concepts laid out in each and thought it was worth sharing. ...