Our myths about creativity and creative work feed a mythos we have about work in general. That mythology can be summarized by 2 prevalent delusions about playing the quintessential instrument of popular music—the guitar. Myth 1: You can play guitar with 3 (or some number of) chords. Heard in countless…

I can be killed, but I can’t be stopped. I can die, but I can’t be made afraid. I have 3 stories for you. One about the Ku Klux Klan. One an armed robbery. One about gangs in South Korea. First, a bit of prologue. Skip to the next headline…

To Hell with Rome. 31, I was teaching English in South Korea. Once I made a funny face at a kid — which American men of my generation grew up doing to express playful regard. The kid burst into tears. Later someone told me it’s because he would have been…

Saved by some cigarette coupons. 18, robbed at gunpoint while working a cash register, I frustrated the robber by having only $12 in the drawer. The robbery was not going well. It was the wee hours on the overnight shift. The store’d had a good night, and he knew by…

My brief childhood encounter with the Klan 15, I lived for a while at a boarding school in the deep, deep South. In the foothills of remote mountains where people drank turpentine, picked up snakes, walked on hot coals, and “no harm shall come to ye, if ye believe”. …

I own an American company, but it didn’t have to be American. I have the means and resources to base my business anywhere. I can work entirely remotely, choose any domicile, and deliver the same value from any location. And I’d pay fewer taxes, in many cases, if I did. I have chosen America because America honors the rule of law. By that rule: …

It is my hope that the doctrine of deep personal disempowerment which has most recently emerged as Trumpism — its leader continually citing his victimization by institutions from the media to the IRS — its followers blaming immigrants, democrats, & nonwhites, will now give way to a healthier narrative instead…

City + Education without Correctness; Land + Work without Parochialism — Why must we choose the worst tendencies of each vs. the best each has to offer? I come from a mixed (blue-collar / white-collar) background. Fathers side: educators & engineering. Mother’s side: military & farmers. I speak both languages. …

One of my favorite artists, if one can have such things, hated (according to his obituary in The Guardian) the idea of his work going for money. He despised the gallery system, the world of art dealers and critics, promotional magazines, and collecting by the wealthy — who he would…