In July of 2018 my son and I hiked the John Muir Trail. This was my second time and his first. The trail covers 211 miles from Yosemite National Park to the summit of Mount Whitney. It includes over 84,000 feet of elevation change and some of the most stunning scenery in the Sierras. We hiked it in 17 days. What follows is a collection of thoughts and observations. In one sense they are simple and obvious. Read more...

You are not you. Not in the sense that you imagine yourself to be. That internal monologue in your head and that world view you have, that’s not your singular identity. It’s an assembly of complex and conflicting components that your brain smooths out into an image of unity. Western civilization says that we’re all unique individuals. Zoom out and abstract enough and you can fool yourself into thinking that. Read more...

“That man lives badly who does not know how to die well.” - Seneca We are a limited and temporary process of becoming and ending. I am going to die, so are you, so is everyone we’ve ever known or loved. How frequently do other people consider their own mortality? Such reflections can arise when the universe throws us out of our usual patterns - perhaps with the sudden death of a loved one, a health scare, a major accident narrowly avoided, or some other upending of the status quo. Read more...

The practice of software development is frequently described in terms of metaphors. The point being to establish a non-obvious connection or analogy between the creation of abstract logical structures executed by computers and other pursuits that are somehow similar. Metaphors are powerful cognitive constructs by which two words or ideas are linked by association or identity even if they seem dissimilar. When Shakespeare said “all the world’s a stage”, he was using metaphor. Read more...

I tend to think about a lot of different things. It’s more than a bit annoying and it doesn’t mean that my observations and conclusions are accurate, just that I’m constantly making them (and sometimes changing them). I assume the world is in many ways knowable, and in a lot of ways not knowable, at least not by creatures of our limited intelligence. Whether an object of thought is somehow knowable or not, we can still attempt to reason about it. Read more...

I aspire to equanimity. To calm acceptance, gratitude and understanding. This is often harder than I think it should be. I’m frequently frustrated or annoyed or irritated by the actions or inactions of others. Even from people and environments I have known for years and decades. The source of frustration is unmet expectations. Reality simply isn’t conforming to my view of how things should be. Of course this is ridiculous. Reality and other people are under no such obligation. Read more...

I reflect quite often on what it means to live a “good life”. I suspect it predates my philosophy degree but I don’t trust my memory on such things. After years of doing this, I’ve decided there is no one way to view living. At best, my thoughts are a set of lenses and perspectives to think about. A way of turning life this way and that, to see it differently, to catch the light in other ways. Read more...

I love the outdoors, most notably the forests and mountains. Solo hikes and backpacking trips are some of the most enjoyable and fulfilling experiences I’ve ever engaged in. Wilderness is one of the places where you can find the distillation of human experience. What matters can be found on the trail - solitude, challenge, quiet, focus, danger, connection, transcendence, beauty. It’s where we came from, or at least the closest thing we have left. Read more...

I aspire to being a good stoic. Orient your perceptions, will, and actions to accepting what you cannot change and changing what you can. All well and good, but what about the human tendency to complain. How does it jibe with stoicism and is complaining a problem? If you can do something about the source of your complaint, then perhaps you should get on with that. If you can do nothing about it then complaining is not a stoic course of action. Read more...

“Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.” - Soren Kierkegaard My first degree was a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. Had I not gone on to get a subsequent degree in computer science, this might have been a mistake for anything other than contemplating my own lack of employment. Fortunately, philosophy includes logic, analytical thinking, and other tools that are useful in programming and in life. Read more...