News
Thank you for reading Mind over Mechanism. This newsletter sits at the confluence of technology and literature — two fields that rarely shake hands without muttering about each other behind their backs. Monthly might be too often; quarterly too infrequent. So I’ll publish when there’s something worth your time.
Fun
A ridiculous, rapid-fire parlour game of metaphors, competitiveness, and mild family chaos — guaranteed to make you simile Players: 2–10 Time: 1 minute per round Materials: Paper and pens (or phones) Classic The Judge Chooses a Seed Word The Judge picks an adjective for the round: nervous, festive, brittle, smug,
Part One: The Return & The Stranger in the Diner Forty years ago, the barren sun-baked parking lot behind me was the best diner on Atlantic Avenue. Forty years ago, I spoke like a kid from Queens instead of in the Queen’s English. Forty years ago, the building I
News
Writing The only profession in which you can get away with murder before breakfast. Wife: So why do you write? Me: I can't answer that question clearly. But the most distressing thing about it is that after a lifetime of advice giving and sales winning, I have discovered
Poetry
Metal Memory — Dissected Introduction Why poetry — and why a Poetry Smack-down of all things? Fair questions. Poetry rarely gets the credit it deserves. A poem might take five minutes or five months, and either way the poor thing still gets judged in ten seconds. I like knowing what makes someone
Science
Welcome to the reformation — Part One. Imagine you are an exceptionally intelligent individual born in the mid-17th century. You keep horses. They plough your fields and pull your carriage across your country estate. You know exactly how many horses it takes to drag a plough through stony ground. This is
Technology
The fear that misleads us The conversation around artificial intelligence tends to whirl itself dizzy over the Big Question: can we create sentient machines? Fine. Charming. Riveting. But there’s a quieter and far more awkward question standing just behind it: and what exactly do we plan to do with
Part One: The Return & The Stranger in the Diner Forty years ago, the barren sun-baked parking lot behind me was the best diner on Atlantic Avenue. Forty years ago, I spoke like a kid from Queens instead of in the Queen’s English. Forty years ago, the building I
Writing The only profession in which you can get away with murder before breakfast. Wife: So why do you write? Me: I can't answer that question clearly. But the most distressing thing about it is that after a lifetime of advice giving and sales winning, I have discovered
Welcome to the reformation — Part One. Imagine you are an exceptionally intelligent individual born in the mid-17th century. You keep horses. They plough your fields and pull your carriage across your country estate. You know exactly how many horses it takes to drag a plough through stony ground. This is
The fear that misleads us The conversation around artificial intelligence tends to whirl itself dizzy over the Big Question: can we create sentient machines? Fine. Charming. Riveting. But there’s a quieter and far more awkward question standing just behind it: and what exactly do we plan to do with
Mens insana in corpore sano