Virginia Beach, Virginia
About
The short version: I build systems for living, tools for thinking, and worlds for play. The longer version is below.
I am interested in the hidden systems underneath things — the rules that govern a day, a body, a business, a decision, or a battlefield. Most of what I build is an attempt to make one of those systems clearer, more beautiful, and more responsive to what a person actually intends.
I manage a bar in Virginia Beach, which is where a lot of my ideas get stress-tested. A venue at capacity is a live exercise in constraint and sequencing: inventory, staffing, throughput, and the gap between a plan and what is actually happening at one in the morning. Before that I sold cars and remodeling, and cooked on a line. Most operational problems turn out to be design problems wearing a costume.
Homeostasis came out of frustration with software that can list your tasks but cannot tell you which one matters or why. Longbarrow came out of frustration with strategy games where a coin flip overrules a better decision. The Grammar of Grappling came out of watching beginners drown in technique lists when what they needed was the mechanics underneath. Different subjects, same complaint.
Otherwise: I train, I read more strategy and history than is strictly reasonable, I take photographs, and I am slowly working toward a boat that can cross an ocean.
How I work
I start from the end state and work backwards. Define what the finished thing actually is, find the prerequisites, work out what can be automated, then sequence it. Most projects fail in the ordering, not the effort.
I would rather run one thing to completion than six things to seventy percent. The backlog can be enormous; the active list cannot.
What I believe about design
A system should be able to explain itself. If it makes a decision on your behalf and cannot show its reasoning, it has not earned the authority.
Beauty should amplify function, not compete with it. An interface that is gorgeous and unreadable has failed at the only job it had.
Randomness should not overrule a better decision. That is true of games, and it is mostly true of lives.
Availability
What I’m open to
Open to collaboration, media and partnerships. Not looking for freelance or agency work.
The Valentine Dispatch
Follow the whole project.
Development notes, new releases, essays, experiments and the occasional strange idea. One list, sent when there is something worth sending.