Brenden's Blog

When most people contemplate technology, their minds immediately conjure sci-fi spectacles: humanoid robots, sentient AI, and interplanetary travel.

John Maynard Keynes coined the term “animal spirits” to describe the human emotions that drive consumer confidence.

The difference between growth and grind matters.

Okay, the title is clickbait, and I am ashamed of that.

We humans are complex animals, and our brains developed over hundreds of thousands of years to survive on a rugged unforgiving planet.

Speaking broadly, there are two ways to think about life: passively or actively.

Young people are often fed some variation of the belief that hard work will be rewarded; therefore, it’s good and virtuous to work hard.

If you pay much attention to the mainstream media, you’ve likely heard the phrase “energy transition” thrown around, which alludes to an ongoing global effort to transition away from fossil fuels and move toward so-called “green” energy sources1.

Maybe being a good neighbor matters more than we like to admit.

When I look back on my life, I’ve made countless mistakes, some more costly than others.

Fluidity and rigidity show up everywhere once you start looking for them.

There’s a trope in New York City that you can identify tourists from their propensity to walk around staring up at the tall buildings.

When someone asks me, “s’whattaya do?”

Most of us experience life through the lens of social expectations—the generally accepted norms and implicit guidelines about appropriate behavior in various contexts.

Humans have accomplished remarkable things throughout our history.

When examining human behavior, you can usually answer the “why?”

I’m learning to get better at being bored.

In the Linux kernel project, Linus Torvalds has made over 70,000 commits since 19911.

I’ve never liked the word “invention”; instead, I prefer the term discovery.

We often must judge others, such as when hiring, choosing who to work with, or selecting friends and partners.

The most challenging relationships I’ve experienced, both personal and professional, have involved highly neurotic individuals.

Survivorship bias often gets discussed as a cautionary tale.

In Daniel Kahneman’s influential book Thinking, Fast and Slow, he argues that we have two distinct systems for thinking.

Software engineers tend to be smart people.

Tools are often cited as an example of what separates humans from most other animals.

Lies are easy.

Companies collect an absurd amount of private data about you, sometimes with your consent and sometimes by burying it in defaults and dark patterns.

I can write about a philosophy a lot more easily than I can live it.

You may occasionally hear about “yield inversion”, which is usually referring to the difference in yield between the 10 year and the 2 year US government treasury bonds.

Life is a series of random walks.

I realize this is a click-baity subject, but I couldn’t help myself.

I remember when my first serious girlfriend broke up with me decades ago.

We’re told early on in life that memorization is the path to success.

I’ve made my share of bad predictions.

Once upon a time, the US government enforced antitrust legislation.

I had the recent pleasure of speaking with someone from a big tech company about their interview process.

Photo by Denys Nevozhai Cars kill 1.3 million people every year, eat up huge chunks of our cities, and pump out a depressing amount of pollution.

Humans are pretty bad at intuiting about exponential growth.

You’ve probably heard about the “labour shortage” everywhere.

We’re neck-deep in self-promotion and personal branding.

I’ve noticed a trend amongst startups (particularly those in the financial-ish space) which amounts to some variation of “hey guys, maybe we can get customers if we use memes?”.

I’ve been thinking about the relationship between friendship and therapy in our modern world.

Software engineers are likely familiar with the CAP theorem, coined by Eric Brewer.

One harmful myth perpetuated by the various cultural medias is the idea that there exists some people in the world who have it easy, and aren’t struggling their way through life.

There are 2 ways to go through life: you can either play the game, or you can play the metagame.

For a long time I was a futurist, and an optimist about technology in general.

I still remember a time when leetcoding interviews were less common, and then all of a sudden, they became the norm.

The big news today is the US Federal Reserve’s big FOMC meeting.

By 2050, scientists predict there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans by weight.

One thing that stood out to me around the 2020 Biden election was how many people seemed to think normalcy would just snap back into place if their guy won.