Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Rethinking My Morning Routine
May 21, 2025
morning exercise

I’ve been thinking again about my morning routine and ways to improve upon my currently relaxed weekday schedule.

Right now, my mornings consist of coming downstairs, making breakfast, and scrolling through email and social media with my coffee and bagel. Literature suggests this digital-first approach isn’t ideal, and I’m beginning to agree. However, I still need a dedicated time slot for these activities, as processing them too late in the day reduces their usefulness.

Mondropop
May 17, 2025
ios mondropop app code coding iphone

I’ve been creating a new game for the iPhone that I am calling Mondropop. The idea of the game is, like many other games, you have blocks in a grid that are all different colors. When you touch any of the groups of blocks of the same color, that group is removed from the board and all the pieces above those blocks fall into the open spaces.

You get points for clearing blocks using a specific formula where the larger the group, the more points you get. Towards the end of the game, if you clear a column, the columns will slide together to close the gap, allowing blocks on either side of the empty space to connect. At the end, you get a score to see how well you did.

The Art of Obvious Clues
December 04, 2024

I’ve been thinking about game mastering lately, particularly about how we present clues and plot hooks to our players. A friend recently mentioned they were working on adding clues to guide their players toward a specific storyline, and it got me reflecting on the whole concept of “leading” players through our games.

Here’s the thing: I’m incredibly fortunate to have players who actively listen for and follow my plot hooks, even when they’re not particularly well-crafted. But should we really need to “bait” players into having fun? The whole process of deliberately planting multiple clues, creating diversionary scenery to hide them in, and hoping players pick up on the right threads seems unnecessarily complicated.

Books in 2024
November 23, 2024
reading library books

The year isn’t over, but I’ve been reflecting on books that I’ve read this year. I recently started in book two of the Hyllis Family series, Teleporter, after having finished the inaugural book, “Telekinetic”. It’s an odd little book with an interesting premise, about a family with subtle/small psychic talents in the midst of a post-apocalyptic return-to-pre-industry Earth setting. I enjoyed it and I’m anxious to see where the story that focuses on the main character’s sister goes.

I pulled together a list of books that I remember (whether vaguely or not) read this year, including some books that I’ve re-read, like Seveneves and The Three-Body Problem. There were a few in this list that I re-read because the kids were interested in something new and I was wondering if they’d be interested. There are also a handful of books in this list that I know I read but I have no memory of beyond the book flap. Pretty weird.

Importance and Urgency
November 17, 2024
urgency work management importance

One of the weird things about being an Engineering Director (ED) is that the stuff that lands on your plate is almost always very important but not urgent. This happens often and is a constant cycle of evaluation. Misjudging urgency or importance can cause a ton of problems for you and your team. Here’s how I think about navigating this.

The first big pitfall is treating non-urgent tasks as urgent. This feels good in the moment—it’s nice to check something off your list or swoop in to save the day—but it doesn’t take long before the cracks start to show. Constantly working in “everything’s on fire” mode will: