[Silicon Valley] used to believe it could change the world. Now it just hopes the world won’t change its stock price.
What I’ve heard plenty of: talk about how Anthropic’s “Legal” plugin has disrupted tech, among other industries
What I’ve yet to hear: that the plugin is actually good
Why don't he write?
I’ve been silent on this newsletter for a while. There are some personal reasons (all of which are in decent places now). But let’s focus on the matter or matters that matter or matters for you.
A few questions keep coming up, as they always do whenever I write on a public platform:
- What is the point of the project?
- Why should others care?
- What should they hope to take away?
I’m hesitant to call this newsletter purely personal, though it’s undeniably personal in nature. But I like to think I share myself in a way that some–but not all–people can relate to, and find a takeaway or two. These hopes are the best themes I can find for this newsletter.
So, if you never know what to expect as far as topics go, what can you expect as a common thread?
Here are a few things I’ve come up with:
- An acknowledgement that little in life is black and white, as we all live in the grey all day, every day; ambiguity is a feature, not a bug, of the world around us.
- A realization that there are few absolutes in life; and, somewhat related:
- An understanding that asking the right questions is far more important than the need to have all the answers.
Where the hell will this framework take us? No idea. The path will be meander, but I think it’s bound to take us somewhere good in the end, if only we’re patient enough.
P.S. If you’re interested in the title of this edition, you’ll find the answers on a short video.
RSS subscribers: Because I’ve moved my site back to micro.blog, my default RSS feed now includes both longform posts and microposts. If you wish to see only my longform posts going forward, please check out my feeds page.
Windows 11 is the most pointless “upgrade” ever.
I’ve yet to find any change that justifies the hassle.
And it just feels half baked…like management set an unattainable deadline but then told the developers to push it out anyway. “We’ll fix in post.”
But, surely, that couldn’t be the case…right?
There’s no point in writing science fiction about AI anymore.
The reality of the situation is unfolding, and it’s far scarier than anything anyone can imagine, if for no other reason than it’s real.
My son sent me a sweet YouTube video, with a totally awesome song in the background.
A new artist he likes, influenced by some of my favorite artists of all time…
Sometimes life is so beautiful in the simplest ways.
i don’t know if sky news is a great source
but i do know (for what it’s worth) i agree with these thoughts on why america would invade venezuela
What's on your 2026 bingo card?
I'm not really in the prediction game, but 2026 got me feeling a little frisky.
What follows aren't predictions so much as what I'll keep my eyes on for the next year, though you'll be able to see my bias in how I present the following stories of interest.
So let's get to it and dig into what lies ahead.
Especially because one of my bingo card items already hit.
The US will invade Venezuela
As of January 3, 2026, this one's a gimme, as President Trump claims the US has captured Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
Another reason this one was a gimme: You don't rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War if you plan to sit on the sidelines.
The Russia-Ukraine war will continue
I know there have been reports of peace negotiations taking place, but I still say this one's gonna keep on keepin' on in 2026.
For the record, if a peace agreement is reached but Russia attacks again, then that counts as a hit on my 2026 bingo card.
Israel-Gaza will end
This one feels like it will come to an end. The world can't have too much conflict, right? We gotta get a break somewhere.
China will invade Taiwan
You didn't think we were just gonna get rid of one conflict (Israel-Gaza), did ya? No, we gotta make room for the BIG ONE!
China wants Taiwan back. America will stretch itself too thin with other conflicts. Now is the time to strike.
Once China goes after Taiwan, we can say goodbye to the Democrat hoax we call 'affordability', because no one will be able to afford an electronic device ever again!
The AI bubble will burst
I've been calling this one since 2021, and I've been wrong every year since.
But 2026 will be different. Why? Because I gotta be right at some point. I mean it--any day now, the bubble will burst. It has to, because it has little substance. There's just no there there, ya know?
While the bubble must burst, the last few years have shown that desperate money can prop up a house of cards far longer than you'd think possible.
Trump won't finish the year as president
I'm not predicting an assassination, or another impeachment, this time followed by removal/resignation from office.
I'm not even saying Trump will die from natural causes. But I think natural causes will lead to his downfall.
MAGA is a coalition. And coalitions are weak, because they're made up of people with conflicting priorities who banded together to conquer a common enemy.
The problem comes when the coalition starts winning, making progress, changing things. That's when everyone disagrees about what the future should look like, and that's when the cracks starts to show.
MAGA appears to be fragmenting. Or, at least, it doesn't appear as strong as it once did. Whenever there's a power vacuum (or appearance of), people look to fill it. So I expect more conflict within MAGA.
Because MAGA is a coalition, they have no real shared values, aside from owning the Libs. (I'm a big believer that being against something isn't nearly as meaningful as being for something. Whatever you're against changes according to your opponent, but whatever you're for is consistent, regardless of the parties involved.) As soon as Trump is weak enough for others to pounce (to force him out of office for their own gain), someone's gonna pounce. Maybe someones. Maybe too many someones.
What's got you feeling frisky?
My bingo card is kinda boring: war, AI, Trump (the usual headlines in post-COVID America).
It's a big, bright, beautiful world out there, so I know I'm missing a lot.
So help me out: What's on your 2026 bingo card?
What do you know is gonna hit that everyone else is overlooking?
Drop me a line and let me know.
first creative act of 2026:
printing off the first ‘draft’ of my novel
haven’t touched it in 8 weeks
this baby ain’t gonna revise itself
a wonderful message for 2026 and beyond:
‘Embrace the absurdity, and stop making sense for long enough to actually sense what’s happening here.’
is anyone familiar with grokipedia?
is it as bad as it sounds?
wondering how i should feel that i picked up a backlink from the site
now i can’t talk trash about where ai gets its information from
in the middle of negotiating an oil and gas lease for a personal connection, i asked myself:
would billy bob thorton be proud of me?
in which i ponder:
did you still win if you failed to reach your goal but instead reached a personal milestone?
Do milestones make up for writerly failures?
I can't tell you if I reached most of my goals in 2025, for one simple reason: I forgot what goals I even made at the beginning of the year. And, somewhere in our latest pass around the sun, I deleted the (digital) paper trail.
But what about that one goal I do remember? You know which one I'm talking about. The one I've talked about on this very newsletter, on LinkedIn, among my friends and colleagues, and even with unfortunate strangers who couldn't escape our conversations: finishing the first draft of my novel.
Back in October, I declared my first draft done, and I put the project on the back burner until 2026 rolls around. But, now that I've had some time to reflect, I'm not so sure I did in fact reach my goal.
Below are a few reasons I may have declared victory too soon.
The word count is far too low
Because my novel is literary, I'm flexible in regard to certain specifics, including word count.
Rather than make my own arbitrary goal, I stole NaNoWriMo's arbitrary goal of 50,000 words for my first draft. (I stayed clear of their 30-day deadline and instead spent most of the year working on my novel.)
The only problem is that my first pass at the novel consisted of only around 32,000 words.
I could argue I succeeded merely because I finished a draft—it just happens to be a really short draft. Regardless of how I told the goal to others, I knew I wanted about 18,000 words more than I got.
So, you can see one of my major focuses when I return to the novel next year.
A mess in three parts
Nothing about my alleged draft suggests orderliness, as it's divided into three parts:
- Prose
- Scenes yet to find their way into the novel
- Notes for revisions
It's going to take a lot of work to make sense of these materials. I'll need to make some flowcharts and outlines to keep track of my story threads and see any structural problems.
While I want to jump straight into prose in 2026, I know I must slow down and tackle other issues first. Great writing is iterative, after all.
The voice likely ain't there yet
When I jump back into my draft (or my 32,000-word outline, whatever you wanna call it), I'll be paying special attention to the voice because I drifted in and out of styles and methods. That's okay, because I started this novel without a plan or outline. Instead, I found a weird premise and ran with it.
Now, I got a mess on my hands. But this mess is a big step in the right direction.
Reaching milestones while missing goals
While you can easily make the case I failed my goal of writing the first draft of my novel by the end of 2025, you can't deny I reached a personal milestone.
32,000 words.
That's a lot of work. That many words don't come easy.
But there's a lot more work needed yet.
So did I reach my goal or not? Who cares.
Because, either way, this story ain't ready for the public yet.
Now that you know my focus for 2026, let's turn it back to you:
What project are you excited to take on in 2026?
Also, what are some milestones you're proud to have reached while failing to reach your goals?
Feel free to let me know by replying to this newsletter.
Oh, and one last thing:
Happy holidays and happy new year and all that jazz,
Jake
gonna reinstall bazzite on my rog ally
windows SUCKS in general, but especially for handheld systems
me when using windows: WHAT THE EFF, WINDOWS!
me when using mac: WHAT THE EFF, MAC!
me when using linux: WHAT THE EFF, LINUX!
what i should be saying: WHAT THE EFF, COMPUTER!
we need a multi-pronged approach to fixing the male loneliness epidemic
one tactic i suggest–entertaining yourself via the random texters trying to scam everyone
ignoring them ain’t working, so you might as well have some fun
An unexpected revelation at 34,000 feet:
My individual legacy is mostly done. My legacy now goes through my family.
Homesickness, and the cure
My favorite part of my most recent business trip came when I walked out of the Uber and into the arms of my loving (and lovely) wife.
Breathe, Jake. You're home.
I don't much like traveling. I like being in new places. But I dread going to new places. After a night or two of travel, I miss the comforts of home:
My bed.
My possessions.
My family.
And, yes, even my dogs who tried to kill me in their Crooked Canine Conspiracy (great name for a noise rock band, don't you think?) nearly six months ago. (The truth is I tripped over my dog and sprained my shoulder when I fell in an awkward position. My shoulder is still healing from the betrayal, as is my heart.)
Transitioning to middle age has at times been tough for me.
Age is far more than just a number. It's also a gateway to shifts in perspective and priority, both of which I accepted 34,000 feet in the air on yesterday's flight home, somewhere between Omaha and Dallas-Fort Worth, when I had the following epiphany:
My individual legacy is mostly done. My legacy now goes through my family.
For nearly 40 years, I tried my damnedest to be self-sufficient whenever, wherever, and however possible.
Why?
Because anything earned or given to you can be taken away. Also, the people closest to you are often the first in line to let you down. (This constant theme is one reason there will always be demand for mental health professionals.)
So what's the easy solution?
Keep it all at arm's length, of course.
Ask the waiter for a seat with a view of the nearest exit.
Keep one foot out the door.
That strategy worked great.
Until it didn't.
I've reached a stage of life in which I'm undeniably nothing on my own. I suppose it's always been this way, but I've only just now noticed and accepted it, thanks to the wisdom that accompanies life experience and appropriate reflection.
Life would be so much simpler without a family. I could work a simpler job that doesn't challenge me yet still pays enough for a studio apartment. And all my free time would be truly mine.
I don't judge or fault anyone who lives this way. But, as I age, I find it easier to see through bullshit, including my own. Especially my own.
While the solo life is ideal for some, it's not for me. I'm too needy in too many ways I've denied for too long. And, though it drives me crazy at times, there's a part of me that needs to feel needed. And, if nothing else, I need the kinds of hugs you get only from the people you can't imagine living without.
What a fitting revelation as we find ourselves on the downward slope to American Thanksgiving.
It's good to be home.
Songspiration:
'Homesick' by The Cure on YouTube
