St. Petersburg, Florida / Still becoming.
I’m Dan. Engineer by training.
Counselor by experience.
Builder by compulsion.
I make things that ask better questions. Sometimes that’s a conversation. Sometimes it’s software. Occasionally, it involves a welder.
01 / Out in the world
A microphone. A codebase. A pile of wood.
Different tools. Same question:
Can we make something that matters?
Conversations worth sitting with
Not inspiration. Interruption.
Human behavior, relationships, and the stories we tell ourselves. Research meets lived experience. Bring your questions. Your certainty can wait outside.
Also on the workbench
Some shipped. Some still covered in sawdust.02 / Notes from the middle of it
4 notes
03 / A way of finding your bearings
I keep coming back to four questions. They help me move from noticing a problem to owning my next move.
The lighthouse shows you the rocks.
You still steer the boat.
First, separate the signal from the noise.
Name what you can observe. Set the labels, assumptions, and imaginary courtroom arguments down for a minute.
“We’ve cancelled our last three plans” gives you more to work with than “Nobody cares.”
Four prompts. A little space to think. Your words stay in this tab.
04 / The human behind the tabs
Dan, for short.Portrait from the i4L Podcast.
At fourteen, I built a cabin in the woods.
Apparently, that was the beginning
of a very long pattern.
I grew up in rural western New York, the oldest of six. Woods, fishing, and figuring out how to make something with what was available.
That became ten years in Air Force civil engineering. Then psychology, a master’s in rehabilitation counseling, and six years working with veterans. Different kinds of structures. Different ways things break. A lot to learn about repair.
These days, home is St. Petersburg, Florida. I’m “retired,” which apparently means starting a podcast, making music, writing, building software, and setting up a shop. My curiosity has been very unprofessional about the whole arrangement.
I’m interested in the gap between what we say we value and what we actually do. In useful tools. In relationships with room to breathe. In changing my mind when the evidence earns it.
Still building. Still revising.
Still occasionally using the wrong tool.
A couple of side roads worth taking
The listening room
Music, experiments, and inner states with a soundtrack. Another way to get an idea out of my head and into the world.
Find me on SoundCloudThe longer conversation
Unlocking Life, Volume 1. Insights and ideas from Information for Life, gathered into a book you can sit with.
Explore the bookLeave with a question. Or something to build.
If something here made you pause, follow that thread.
Then tell other people what you found.