Analysis of an old essay about a current problem, and a cry for help

Current and future bottlenecks, and of course, “AI”

A reminder that people motivate people, and the people who motivate people are the tensile strength of any organization

How corporate America’s addiction to “urgency” is costing you and your company

An open letter to my mom’s cat after a disturbing incident

Going with the flow will make you flat — how work, media, and biology conspire to render us less interesting over time.

Knowing, remembering, doing, and the side-effects of screen-based self-help

The systems that govern our lives are prone to developing gaps. Remarkable, generational success comes from finding those gaps and exploiting them in an elegant way.

The performance art of venture capital, hype as a service, and why it’s maybe all changing

I want to be in more feedback-rich situations, where it’s hard to lie to myself about how good I am or my contribution to a team.

The role of non-urgent important work and why complexity should be your Bat-Signal.

Self-aware people can live openly, confidently vulnerable, forming meaningful connections with others on the basis of shared vulnerability, secure not behind overlapping walls, but secure in their ability to manipulate themselves better than anyone else can.

The natural equilibrium is attentional entropy. Learn the cracks and crevices and vulnerabilities of your attention. Practice resisting entropy and find your better, second nature.

As a... human concerned about the quality of my mind,
I want to... adjust my own dials,
so that... I can live rationally and in greater accord with my values.
Why do I need this product? The short answer is that I lack self-control. The long answer is... longer.

In this essay, I'll argue that your attention is worth a whole lot, with the help of a motley cast of concepts, including a definition of value devised by 18th-century economists.

The implications of the Communication Problem are sobering: I'll never fully understand you, you'll never fully understand me, and we should think about how we want to handle that.

Most people live a more carefree life; some small percentage of them, on any given day, will get pooped on. Then there are people like me, people who turn their eyes skyward every time a pair of wings darkens their path. I may never be pooped upon, but at what cost?

I’m Ethan, and this is my personal blog.