Ben Cuan

The world until recently was overflowing with onramps of opportunity, even for children, and we seem to do poorly at producing new ones. Modern complexity may have erased some avenues for agency (no boy can meaningfully learn the telegraph), but I suspect how we have oriented the world, not technology, is the main problem.

I must have magic. I demand a life that I love.

I know that sometimes, persistence is not a virtue. I would trade my other abilities to be an exceptional songwriter. I gave it a serious enough try to know that I don’t have the knack, for years, and I’m not interested in being publicly mediocre at the performing arts. My life is incalculably better for having let the dream go.

Write about what you build. Build what you write about . But the quality bar is high. Each needs to stand on its own. Because in this increasingly noisy world, only the best will break through.

Links on the In­ter­net last for­ever or a year, whichever in­con­ve­niences you more. This is a major prob­lem for any­one se­ri­ous about writ­ing with good ref­er­ences, as link rot will crip­ple sev­eral per­cent of all links each year, and com­pound­ing.