Paper and Smoke: A Technologist's Journey Through Digital Detox

I bought an MP3 player for my daughter.

That sent me down a rabbit hole of downloading old purchases, ripping CDs, and realizing I don’t actually own most of the music I’ve paid for.

It started with trying to avoid smartphones and finding a simple ... more

Someone recently told me that they can’t leave the house without their phone. I call Bull.

We’ve been reprogrammed to thing we need it at all times. Even my parents, who spent almost as much of their lives without cell phones as with them, think the... more

I finished reading FROM SILK TO SILICON: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives by Jeffrey E. Garten and enjoyed it.

He tells (as you might surmise) the story of how we became a globalized society through the lives and accomplish... more

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they’ve consumed too much of something, and they find the very notion of consuming more sickening. This is the very basis for my yearly theme. 2025 was finally the year were I felt my overconsumption of tech... more

It’s likely a coincidence that the best quarter in my business was also the quarter where I left nearly all social media behind. The truth is that it’s been a gradual process that started when I left Twitter in December 2024.

I was tired of reading ... more

I knew from a young age, I wanted to play the drums. I got my first small kit when I was five, and when my friends and I started a "band," heavy quotes, I played paint buckets. When I was 15 years old, I knew I needed a real kit.

This is the story o... more

I am no Luddite. I have three pieces of technology that monitor my health and wellness. I’ve come to rely on many devices.

That is why I am doing a digital detox.

This is Paper and Smoke. It’s a look at how real-world craft happens, through the len... more