Happy 4th of July: Think Independently!
Every 4th of July I like to reflect on what it means to be independent. Today I wrote nearly an entire post on production independence, starting with energy independence. But I have decided to post that another day because there [...] Read more
Joseph Tainter: The Collapse of Complex Societies (Book Review)
Given the ongoing decay of our institutions and their utter failure to address the climate crisis it is not far fetched to ask whether we are headed for some kind of societal collapse. A highly relevant book is Joseph Tainter’s [...] Read more
How Much is Enough?
I had lunch the other day with a friend. He has a has a reasonably high paying job in consulting which he sort of enjoys but would rather be an artist. So the question he posed was “How much is enough?” [...] Read more
Personal Update: Rage Against the Dying of the Light
I have been away from writing here for an entire month. It was a combination of travel followed by a health crisis that is now thankfully nearly over (a “routine” surgery that turned out to be anything but). But there is [...] Read more
Shift EV
Transportation is the sector with the largest CO2 emissions, accounting for 37% of total CO2 emissions from end-use sectors globally. A crucial strategy for the reduction of those emissions is the electrification of transportation. In that regard it is exciting [...] Read more
Ishmael (Book Review)
Recently someone tweeted at me that I should read Ishmael by David Quinn in response to a piece I posted about the need for unlimited growth in a finite world . Well I have read it and now find myself [...] Read more
To Infinity and Beyond
“Infinite growth in a finite world is an impossibility” goes a popular quote. It is usually rolled out to illustrate that sustainability requires humanity to impose limits. Sometimes people then point to a specific element that they argue we will [...] Read more
WalletConnect
For the original web to be widely adopted, people needed a web browser. This seems trivial today as every new computing device comes preloaded with one or more browsers. But early on this was a chicken and egg problem. There [...] Read more
REVOS
Increased mobility is one of the great accomplishments of the industrial age. We can get to places much faster whether it is for work, to visit friends and family, for sightseeing, or to participate in an event. Those gains, however, [...] Read more