Books read in 2025
January 5, 2026 
This past year, much of my reading was inspired by my travels. Mexico, Vienna, Budapest, and South Africa (photos coming soon) shaped the book list to help me make sense of where I was. That ended up pulling me toward novels and histories about memory, power, and exile. I also read a few classics, and theories of how knowledge and our models shape the world. A few fluffy books on business leadership and strategy round out the selection. The question underneath most of them was how do our ideas about money, identity, justice, even literature itself, end up remaking the worlds they describe? Continue reading...
Budapest, 2025
November 23, 2025 
Following our Vienna visit, we headed to Budapest. We could immediately tell Budapest was the poorer sibling. It felt a lot more run down, but the city is still beautiful, has a lot of history, great wine, and many things to see and do. Continue reading...
Wien, 2025
November 17, 2025 
Earlier this year, together with my brothers and their families, we booked a trip to Vienna and followed it up with a few days in Budapest. This was the first time we were all on a vacation together in a long time. After years of asking for it, my mom finally got her wish to do a big family trip where no one was working part time.
We took a lot of photos on everyone’s cell phones, but I brought my film camera and did my usual street photography thing. Results below. I also got a disposable camera for each of my nephews and nieces (yes, even the 2 year old). Those I’m keeping out of the blog but needless to say, they were a lot of fun to look through. More...
On hyper-personalization
October 11, 2025 
Imagine each of us surrounded by content, tools, and teachers that know us intimately and reflect us back perfectly, but which have little in common with what others are experiencing. Continue reading...
Books read in 2024
August 12, 2025 
Another round of book reviews, arriving fashionably late, but earlier than last year. While compiling the list I realized last year I’d missed two books I began in 2022 and finished in 2023. I’ve included them here, together with the books from 2024.
The through-lines this time around were people vs. systems; how media and technology mediate our lives and reorganize identity; the ethics of knowledge and progress; and the pull between belonging and otherness. I didn’t notice it myself, but Hannah pointed out as soon as she read my first draft that Judaism was another key theme. In the words of DFW, what the hell is water? Continue reading...