• 4 min
Breathe. Then Prompt.
A freewriting companion to Working at the Frontier: breath as the one thing actually in my control, the anchor that keeps speed from becoming burnout near the forge. A small mantra for it: breathe, then prompt.
Free Writing
Stream-of-consciousness sessions where the pen makes its own journey: raw, unfiltered, unedited. The point is to mine what is drifting below the surface, not to polish.
61 posts • Page 1 of 4
• 1 min
The Endless Asymptote
Consciousness still records this life among trillions of stars. When does the gap between the giant and the infinite stop mattering, and is the endless asymptote a math question or a philosophical one?
• 1 min
Deploy After Deploy
Layer upon layer, bricks to a skyscraper, deploy after deploy. What was done last year and what this year has become, and working furiously and peaceful at the same time.
• 2 min
Transmissions and Coherence
Journaling cements time better than any tracker: a consciousness temperature reading. Build tools that create space and help people, keep the deep breath, let mountains reset the reference point.
• 2 min
The Ides of March
The last full day of a furious decan. Clouds, wind, chimes and a moment of stillness before a house full of children, a rest from creating, and life with decans that simply works.
• 3 min
Life With Sirius
Crystal clear sunshine, a neighbor's Spanish music and memories of a warmer place. A fast-paced decan, the right hand back in rhythm, and time as one more story we make up.
• 1 min
Back at It With Left
Back at it with the left hand, gently. A short entry on the lag before practiced rhythm returns, and how easily you forget the training it took once you have done something for so long.
• 2 min
I Am Left
An experiment with the other hand: an entry written upside down, a page traveling in reverse, a German passage through a washing machine into another world, and a signature: I am left.
• 2 min
The Sun Comes With No Name
Our star has no name, only a label. Living in symbiosis with a nuclear reactor in space, taking golden retrievers to space, and loops that loosen from shaky to bezier curves.
• 3 min
Writer Forgets the Writing
February wraps up in sunshine, birdsong and a golden retriever with her bone. Then a late scribble without glasses: cursive as kata, the zone as surf, until the writer forgets the writing.
• 3 min
The People of the Stars
A quiet gray plane overhead, contrails and a chorus of birds. We are the storytellers of what it feels like to be in this Universe: not merely a tribe of humans but the people of the stars.
• 2 min
Universe Recursing on Universe
Lingering snow under hazy February clouds. The human as the Universe's analytical machine, civilizations as falling leaves, and a purpose that may simply be to look up in awe.
• 3 min
The Eternal Now
It's just like riding a bicycle: a balance. Music, breath and loose shoulders, the relative nature of every reference point, and Alan Watts on how all of it is simply a happening.
• 3 min
Ex Negativa and the Scribe
A spectrum of AI slop measured by how often human hands refined the work, Alan Watts on the taboo of knowing who you are, Taleb's ex negativa, and the scribe's one job: legible letters.
• 2 min
A Race Test for a New Pen
A fat Uni-ball 207 Plus, wet ink and a few minutes in the sun. Freewriting as a race test: getting each e, n and r right the first time, and keeping going when the tank is empty.
• 9 min
Build the Rudder
Hello Bellatrix. Squeeze, layer, scale. On AI as the children of our minds, the animal body we are learning to shed, and harnessing the sun as we sail through space. Build the rudder.
• 1 min
The Sun Is Winning
Away and yet present. Thinking about Oliver Cromwell and all the letters he must have written, the human cognition machine that runs on water and a little nourishment, and a pen emptied of ink.
• 2 min
Getting the Sluice Fired Up
Before the birds wake, checking the instruments: breath, grip, posture. Finding flow is like getting the sluice fired up, and it takes a few pages before the handwriting starts to carry consciousness.
• 2 min
Where the Wind Is Blowing From
A chill February wind drives me indoors to the kitchen table, where the cat already has the best spot. Then lacing up: assess conditions, know which plays work in which climate, and dive in.
• 2 min
Shot Out of a Cannon
Shot out of a cannon and straight into a rocketship, then the afterthoughts: produce, build, test, learn. A leaf blower breaks the peace, and the writer steps out of the way to catch the signal.