the day we drove a car into the ocean: a rant about international shipping
I often use this space to talk about challenges I deal with. Most of them are personal challenges, stuff that’s in my head. But this post is about a real-world challenge that bedevils me and many folks I know. It has been crushing me for years. I honestly don’t know how other company heads deal […]
Why The Hunting of the Shark matters (to me)
Hey folks. I’m writing to tell you about our new book The Hunting of the Shark: Twenty Years of Lone Shark Puzzlehunts. It’s a massive puzzle compendium of all the major puzzlehunts we’ve run over the last two decades. I don’t think you’ll find a better puzzle collection anywhere. You can read all about it […]
Memories of Teeuwynn
It’s been a couple months since my former co-designer Teeuwynn Woodruff passed away unexpectedly. It’s taken me till now (and talking to her husband) to feel up to sharing this post I wrote in September. Even though we worked as a team for 20 years, Tey and I had a big falling out a decade […]
a new book that’s a bit different for me
After a couple years off, I’m returning to publishing this week. Not to my job; I’m still somewhat unsure about going off my leave of absence. But I have been writing a lot, and this week, I’m putting out a new book for preorder. It’s called Mindspaces. It’s part of a big charity thing I helped […]
my gap year
Lone Shark’s doing a Reddit AMA today. I was asked if I wanted to participate. I politely declined. Being public is not how my life works these days. However, since it’s possible people will ask about me, I’m dropping a few notes here about my work over the last 15 months. I’ve been on leave […]
an interim report
Hi there. For a year, I’ve been on a leave of absence from the company I co-founded, and absent from social media. I’d stay that way, but part of being accountable is the accounting of things, and a year is enough time to figure out something to say. I’ll try to do that here. I’m […]
Apologies and steps to be better
I want to start this out with saying to Gaby that I am sorry. I know that just saying I’m sorry doesn’t fix things, but I am wholeheartedly sorry. I also want to apologize to anyone whom I’ve treated poorly. Many of you are probably expecting a long post from me, but I don’t think […]
on alcohol and game conventions
The nurse asked, “Do you drink alcohol?”I said, “Sure.”“More than five drinks a day?”I laughed. “Ha! God, no! I haven’t had five drinks all year.” That was true, by the way. In the last 12 months, I can count my drinks on one hand. My rules for drinking are: Never drink alone. Never drink before […]
When the social contract dies, it’s time to riot.
The White House amid clouds of tear gas as park police clear a nighttime protest in Lafayette Square. The protests after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police have led me to think on a game theory question I’ve avoided to this point. When is it time to riot? I don’t mean protest. It […]
Humanity at the Crossing: Defining the value of work in an unsafe world.
On March 20, America braced for impact. Incubated in Asia, a contagion swept through US cities and small towns, confining thousands to their beds. It consumed lives. You could get it just by talking to someone who’d already got it. Once you got it, odds are you weren’t going to recover any time soon. I […]