For people who I’ve spent time with, it won’t surprise you to know that I am a fan of Sam Harris. I owe a lot to the man—from a greater understanding of self and consciousness, to better reasoning skills, to my meditative practice. Sam, along with Tim Urban or Wait But Why fame, will get a bunch of mentions here. You have been warned.

I fell like I have to say something about our present time, but honestly, I am gripping so tight, and trying so hard not to get angry, depressed, despondent, that I can only pay so much attention. Sam is one of those people to whom I give my attention, even when hard.

This isn’t my long-form blog. Nor is it where I expect to discuss politics and society to a large extent. But I did figure I should leave this here. To document the great unraveling.

Up at our little house on the mountain, we’re about to embark on a big undertaking: more than doubling the size of the house and connecting it to our currently detached garage.

There are a few reasons for this:

• We’d like to each have our own office. Right now, Jena and I swap in and out of the same small office/workout studio.
• We’d like to host more guests than just two people who want to share a small office/workout studio/guest room space
• We need more storage. With all the gear that comes with skiing (multiple kinds!), climbing, hiking, kayaking, paddleboarding, and camping, space is at a premium.
• At night, walking between the house and the garage means running a gauntlet of bears, coyotes, and—most worryingly—mountain lions. We’d rather not roll the dice on an encounter every evening.

I am sure the progress of this project will provide ample opportunity for sharing on this site.

Here are some “before” shots:

There are 3 reasons why I find it so much easier to blog here than I do on my “main blog” alttext.com.

1. Somewhere along the line I determined that I had things to say, but those things needed vetting, research, thoughtfulness. Who’s got time for that?

2. I also created a sense of audience that I had to consider, to please. This is pretty dumb given my current subscriber count. Maybe back in the day when I was pulling thousands of uniques a month, but certainly not in 2025.

3. Much of the time I just want to jot down a quick thought and share it—without the “pressure” the two points above allude to. I had been trying to figure out how to get short form posts integrated into Alt Text (as some had done on Ghost CMS) but it as just outside the amount of time I wanted to spend.

With micro.blogging here on BenEdwards.org I am freed of these things. Plus, I can wax poetically (read: longer) and it still works. Also, no one (almost) is reading this so ¯\(ツ)/¯

Still. I am hopeful that writing here, exposes some more desires to research and write over on alttext.com again. Perhaps even at a greater clip than once a year.

This is why I have unsubscribed from society.

I know I am only a few days into my micro.blog journey but the whole thing—from the tools to the community—feels very retro in the best possible ways. There are certainly things I have become accustomed to on other platforms—embeds/unfurling chief among them—but if I can relax and understand that many of those things don’t matter, I can find a lot to like here.

There is such a great community. Feels so insular and elite but in the best possible ways—like the early web did. Not like we are better than anyone, but that we found this secret place that is filled cool stuff. Like we are part of a community of people who care about the same core stuff but aren’t at all homogenous—we’re all bringing something to the table.

Combine this with the recent spirit of building that some AI tools have resurfaced in me, and I feel like I’m in a new renascence on the web. Excited.

Since, this year (and maybe the next 4), I cannot really stomach looking outward onto the world, to my nation, sometimes even to my community, I am placing my attention upon my immediate surroundings. I’ll be undertaking (and sharing) some large and small projects around the house (in a category, I sorta tongue-in-cheek refer to as homesteading) as well as doing some hiking, reading, and undertaking some creative endeavors with AI and technology. I’ll outline each of these more thoroughly in future posts. Looking forward to it.

Love this from IKEA Australia (and, of course have loved Severance 📺 —but now begins the long wait for season 3)

kottke.org/25/03/004…