About
Off the clock.
The rest of this site covers my work. This page is for the books, shows, apps, and slightly obsessive way I plan trips. The list changes as I do.
Reading
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline
Nostalgia, technology, and a story written for people who grew up around computers.
Kitchen Confidential
Anthony Bourdain
Required reading from my first career. Bourdain wrote down what every kitchen already knew.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72
Hunter S. Thompson
Political journalism that does not pretend the writer is invisible.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
Short sentences, big stakes. I think about the prose as much as the plot.
Europe Through the Back Door
Rick Steves
The manual. Half my trip-planning habits trace back to this book.
In print
Wildsam
Travel writing with hand-drawn maps. I like how slowly it asks to be read.
Ori
Travel stories that give people and places room to breathe.
The Flow Trip
Lifestyle and culture in a format worth keeping around.
Watching
- The Bear
I ran those Friday nights. It’s accurate enough that my shoulders tense.
- Slow Horses
A group of supposed rejects doing good work. The writing is wonderfully mean.
Mike OkayYouTubeTravel videos that feel more like walking with someone than watching a guide.
Bald and BankruptYouTubeHe goes to places the guidebooks usually skip.
Peter SantenelloYouTubeHe spends time in communities many of us know only through other people's opinions.
On my phone
Flipboard
App Store
Part of the inspiration for Ripple.
Claude
App Store
Lets me work on my projects from my phone.
Libby
App Store
Books and magazines, checked out from my library.
Codex
Web
Another way to keep a project moving when I am away from my desk.
Poke
Web
AI inside iMessage. It watches my email and texts me when something needs me.
Doing
I am almost always planning a trip. Right now it is Japan or a month alone in Europe, whichever wins. There is usually a new app taking shape too. The folder count on my Mac keeps climbing.
One habit that may sound odd: I watch walking-tour videos on YouTube with Google Maps open on my phone, following along street by street and bookmarking places where I might eat, drink, or wander. By the time I arrive, I have already walked the neighborhood from my couch. It comes from the same curiosity that led to Ripple: wanting to understand places beyond the one where I am standing.