Book Review of The Art Thief, Or How to Steal Beauty Without Selling a Thing

I came for the heist, but stayed for the unsettling portrait of obsession. The Art Thief is a slow-burn true crime story that got under my skin.

My First Pinball Machine, My New Obsession

A 1980 Bally Space Invaders pinball machine turned out to be more than a game. It’s a puzzle, a project, and a family teacher.

How a Family Board Game Became the Perfect Metaphor for Inequality

Monopoly doesn’t just predict capitalism. It simulates it, from OPEC to Wall Street to the IMF.

The Lost Art of Not Being Available

Being offline used to be sacred. Now it’s just a setting.

Book Review: We’ve Got to Try—and Keep Trying

Beto doesn’t write like a politician, he writes like someone who still believes Texas can save itself.

Nighthawks at Home

We learned our city through windows and quiet streets, like living in the glow of Nighthawks.

There’s No Such Thing as Left and Right in Space

Space breaks “left” and “right.” Navigation there is built on absolutes, not Earth’s shortcuts.

Why Do Airplanes Look Like That?

The design secrets behind the world’s most recognizable silhouette

Learning to Be Wrong

The smartest people aren’t always right—they’re just the fastest to admit when they’re wrong.

The Strange Comfort of Typing Over Writing

Somewhere along the way, typing became the default, and my handwriting started feeling like a backup skill I haven’t practiced in years.

The Most Useful Concept You’ve Never Heard Of

That door you pulled the wrong way? That wasn’t your fault. It was bad affordance design. Let’s talk about the hidden rules that shape the world.

What We Know and How We Know It

From tribal intuition to documented facts, knowledge takes many forms—and each one matters in different ways.

Thinking

Seeing the Future with Second-Order Thinking

Second-order thinking helps you make decisions that hold up over time by forcing you to ask not just “What happens?” but “What happens next?”

Philosophy

What Is Aesthetics? The Philosophy of Beauty and Art

Aesthetics is more than art theory. It’s how we make sense of beauty, taste, and the feelings that art awakens in us.

Productivity

What is Systems Thinking and How Can I Use it Today?

Systems thinking is a powerful mindset for understanding the world not as a series of isolated events, but as an interconnected web of relationships and influences. It invites us to see complexity clearly, to grasp how seemingly unrelated parts can work together, and to identify how small changes might have

Aviation

The Airport as a Microcosm of Human Systems

Every time I walk through an airport, I’m struck by the choreography of it all: families juggling suitcases, business travelers pacing during calls, signage trying to cut through a fog of fatigue and urgency. It’s easy to think of airports as simply functional infrastructure—a way to get

Aviation

How Aviation Embodies the Spirit of Continuous Exploration

There is something timeless and universal about humanity’s fascination with flight. From the moment people could look up and see birds soaring above them, the desire to join them became more than a fantasy—it became a calling. Flight has always symbolized freedom, ingenuity, and a kind of sublime

Work

What Game Designers Know that Corporate Leaders Forget

What if work felt more like a well-designed game? Lessons from game design that could transform how we lead, train, and manage.

Work

The Curse of Expertise

We tend to assume that the smartest people—the domain experts, the senior engineers, the seasoned leaders—are naturally the best ones to explain how things work. They’re the ones who know the system inside and out. But here’s the paradox: often, the more someone knows, the harder

Books

Book Review: Measure What Matters by John Doerr

Measure What Matters reframes leadership around focus, outcomes, and purpose—OKRs aren’t a tactic, they’re a mindset.

Psychology

The Paradox of Choice

More choices, less happiness. The paradox of choice explains why freedom can feel like a burden.

Technology

Why Do We Stick to QWERTY Keyboards?

The QWERTY keyboard layout has been the standard for over a century, despite the existence of alternative designs that claim to be faster, more ergonomic, and more efficient. From mechanical typewriters to modern touchscreen devices, QWERTY remains the default input method for billions of people worldwide. But why? Many assume

Design

What Makes a Pen Comfortable to Write With?

Despite the rise of digital technology, pens remain an essential tool for writing, sketching, and note-taking. Whether signing documents, journaling, or taking lecture notes, the right pen can make a significant difference in comfort and writing quality. But what exactly makes a pen feel comfortable to use? Some pens glide

ADHD

The 48-Hour Rule

Here’s something I’ve learned the hard way: if a problem spans more than 48 hours, there’s a good chance I won’t solve it. Not because I can’t, or because I don’t want to—but because, by then, the mental thread I was following is