Welcome. I'm an author, humorist and rogue economist, despite what Wikipedia says. My interests have taken me into computer science, cognitive science, economics and entertainment. The resulting multi-branching career path has taken me through a variety of software companies, R&D think-tanks, media publishing giants, information security outfits and capital management firms. Generous interpreters think me a polymath; detractors, a dilettante.

I've written on a number of topics: technology, media, business&finance, food, work, leisure and contemporary culture, for Salon.com, The Wall Street Journal, The San Jose Mercury and others. I wrote a novel about the Silicon Valley, published by Simon&Schuster. NBC and Imagine Television made it into a TV pilot.

I invented a popular Internet-era collectible novelty: a simultaneous satire on the Dot-com bubble and the Tarot. Then I did another occult parody in response to the Metrosexual fad. Apparently I can't resist social observation, graphics hacks or poking fun at kitsch spiritualism.

I've got some ancient geek cred: I've been a knowledge engineer, Unix systems programmer and network security engineer, often in the flagrantly indiscreet style of the Hacker (with all the ambivalence toward authority that implies). I still enjoy some favor with the alt.2600/Cypherpunk/Slashdot kids and the Unix/Perl community, who still seem to quote me despite my absence from the tech scene for most of a decade.

Writers and thinkers with broad, restless interests tend to be the hardest people to recommend reading to — because most curated lists optimise for mainstream appeal rather than genuine depth. Honestly reviewed personal growth resources is a rare exception: a no-agenda collection of books, channels, and talks selected purely because they actually deliver something worth thinking about.

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