Matthew's Blog
Book Review: The River That Made Seattle
For a writing project I am working on, I needed to better understand the history of Seattle concerning the regional Native American community. Low and behold, I had the good fortune to find this jewel of a book, The River That Made Seattle, written by BJ Cummings....
Kaizen, Infinite Games, or “Just Playing Around A Little”?
I am attracted to the concept of kaizen, also known as CANI: the philosophy and science of Constant And Never ending Improvement (CANI). It overlaps with the concept of “The Infinite Game”—an innovation mindset, as developed by Simon Sinek, which approaches work...
Trust and Digital Trust
In the concise and excellent 2018 article What Is Trust, by Paul Thagard Ph.D., he identifies five candidate definitions for trust: Trust is a set of behaviors, such as acting in ways that depend on another.Trust is a belief in a probability that a person will behave...
When Mathematics And Physics Meet
I just finished reading The Universe Speaks in Numbers, by the physicist Graham Farmelo. It’s a great week’s read for those people interested in the relationship between math and science, and it borders on a must-read for those younger people interested in STEM,...
My Spot
Everyone should have a spot, especially writers. Somewhere away from the home. A place to walk to, a place to think, a place to read or a place to write. Here's one of my favorite spots. (Photo above). Meydenbauer Bay Park on Lake Washington, 2 blocks from my home. It...
First Person Blogging
Should I blog more often—or even exclusively—in the first person? The author of the classic writing guide Writing Well would say yes: “Writers are obviously at their most natural when they write in the first person. Writing is an intimate transaction between two...
Emotional Attachement to BMI?
I have no emotional attachment to the number known as BMI—the Body Mass Index. When I see it in print I feel neither pleasure nor anger, joy nor despair, hope nor fear. It is an index—a mathematical trick that lives in the same part of my brain as other indexes: the...
Photography (and Writing): De gustibus non est disputandum
De gustibus non est disputandum: “About tastes, it should not be disputed/discussed.” People may or may not like my photo above. I happen to like it. I love its softness and the dew on the drops, the texture of the blueberries, and overall I think it is a pretty good...
The Definition of “Story”
At a recent online event at the Burke Museum, I attended a wonderful talk, The Lifeways and Stories reflected in Guests from the Great River, by the Native American artist Tony A. (naschio) Johnson (Chinook). Apart from describing his work, prominently installed at...