Essays
Thoughts and reflections on various topics.
Akerlof’s Market for Singles
Dating apps are broken due to adverse selection. Microeconomic theory can help explain why people looking for serious relationships are driven away from apps...
Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Health Indulgences
A modern reformation against the wellness industry’s corrupt practice of selling expensive health products through manipulative Pascal’s wager-style argument...
Incrementally Monumental
Exploring every federal monument in Washington, D.C. to understand what the most powerful country in the world chooses to memorialize and the bureaucratic pr...
The Match
A dystopian tale of algorithmic marriage matching where the elite game the system to preserve their status while average citizens wait anxiously for their as...
Problems with Army Tuition and Credentialing Assistance (ft. Possible Solutions)
An examination of how the Army’s $200 million voluntary education program falls short and what could be done to fix it
Casual Encounters with Strangers
Because I believe that other humans are the most interesting and valuable thing in the world. This will be a running log of mildly interesting casual encount...
The Migrating Moth
A dramatic tale of survival, combat tactics, and territorial defense in suburban Colorado
Airport Creatures: A View from Space
Observing the de-evolution of humanity in the modern airport terminal, from polite society to primal survival mode
Truckers: The Salt of the Earth
A front-row seat to America’s melting pot through coordinating 50+ trucking contracts and meeting the hard-working characters who keep the country moving
Ode on an American Football: The Greatest Team Sport
Every year, around 100 million people tune into watch the Superbowl, an annual sporting event informally elevated to a national holiday. There’s a reason: fo...
A Fleishman Carol and its Glamour-less Defense of Marriage
I finished Fleishman is in Trouble weeks ago, but it has lingered in my mind, which is something I consider to be a hallmark of a worthwhile piece of art. Ro...
On Siloing the Elderly
Dear Alex, I hope you enjoyed your trip to Europe. They have such pretty castles there. I am doing fine. I wish I heard from you more. I would apprecia...
A Cold Night at the Airport
Phil sat by the gate waiting for boarding to begin. An extreme winter storm had brought temperatures in Denver to -20 F. Weather-associated delays swept acro...
Modest Proposals for the Improvement of Commercial Air Travel
TLDR: Flying can be miserable and it seems like they could fix it.
On Donuts and Instagram
We’re trapped in a novelty arms race where social media forces us to manufacture Instagram-worthy moments, even if it means torturing perfectly good donuts.