Writings

“What is everyone’s...” Pothole! My thought was interrupted as I swerved to avoid another large ditch in the road, not uncommon in the Costa Rican jungle. I tried again, “What is everyone’s condition for happiness today?” It was day three of spring break, and I was looking to be intentional about making the day successful for everyone involved.

Hardship is inevitable. But it does not affect everyone the same way. Some people become cynical. Others become more daring. What’s interesting is that the events themselves often aren’t that different. Two people can go through similar hardships and come away with completely different outlooks. The difference seems to be the lesson they take from it.

Everyone knows King Arthur, the boy who pulled the sword from the stone and became a king. As children, we wonder if we might do the same: receive a letter from Hogwarts, lift Thor’s hammer, discover some hidden destiny waiting just beneath the surface. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to believe we can learn less from Arthur and far more from his wizard, Merlin.

Around this time of year, gym memberships skyrocket, social media apps vanish, and leafy greens appear on kitchen shelves everywhere. Why? The New Year gives people another reason to set goals and another opportunity to change their lives for the better. Yet, judging by the number of gym memberships canceled, social media apps re-downloaded, and bags of wilted spinach left in refrigerators, those

People often say science disproves the divine. The world wasn’t created in seven days; the universe unfolded over billions of years. Yet in the Lex Friedman/Dr. Kirtley podcast, when Lex asked Dr. Kirtley what surprised him most, he answered simply: “That it all works.” The strong force, the weak force, gravity, the Earth’s precise orbit… so many variables must align perfectly for life to exist at

A reporter once asked an up-and-coming tennis star, “How do you deal with your nervousness?” She looked puzzled and said, In my freshman philosophy class, I learned about Socratic Rationalism, the idea that every action is logically rational, even if it’s not immediately apparent. For example, if someone were to steal my scooter, their intent would be as logical to them as mine would be in trackin

I like typewriters. They scratch an itch. They’re tactile, understandable, and enjoyable to clank around on. But when I need to write an essay, I reach for my keyboard. Some people still use typewriters. In 1816, the first camera was invented. Before then, if you wanted to capture a landscape or portrait, you needed a steady hand and paint. Then everything changed. Not all at once, but for the fir

I loved Harry Potter as a child. The world-building, complex characters, and endless depth of the wizarding world struck a chord like few others could. Recently, I came across the video above in which Harry drinks a potion called Felix Felicis, a Latin phrase that translates to “Luck upon Luck.” While we don’t have Liquid Luck, Harry shows how a lucky person behaves: trusting his intuition, carryi

We are in a liminal period of AI’s adoption. It’s here, but not evenly distributed. Think about Steven Spielberg’s 1975 Jaws. We know the shark is coming. But we’re probably four or five “duh-duh”’s away from blood in the water. However, the tide has already started to shift. While these are small changes relative to what’s to come, they represent the fact that in the world of AI-enabled tools, on

M.D. Singer — June, 2025 There’s a debate around taste. People say, “AI may be better at writing code, playing chess, or doing homework, but it will never replicate human taste.” We like to think of taste as uniquely human—an expression of identity and judgment. But maybe it’s just a tool for managing choice. And maybe algorithms are getting better at it than we are.

My dog is named Jetson—though I’m not sure he knows that. This month, I returned to Vermont. Beyond reconnecting with family and nature, I saw my dog for the first time in several months. However, my excited ‘Jetson!’s were met with utter indifference. I quickly found that with all the varying nicknames, copious treats, and lack of obedience training, he had forgotten his name. (His hearing is fin

M.D. Singer — April, 2025 A friend recently told me about an interview with famed German filmmaker, Werner Herzog. Herzog said: His point was this…if you’re an artist, you won’t make enough money to support yourself early in your career. You must work other jobs. So, let those jobs push you to life’s extremes and enrich your human perspective.

M.D. Singer — March, 2025 Imagine you are face-to-face with your ideal partner. What do they look like? What do the sound like? What do they like to do? I am a strong believer in the power of manifestation (and attribute both of my previous relationships to it.) To me, manifesting boils down to these three steps:

M.D. Singer — February, 2025 There’s a famous book by Israeli-American psychologist Daniel Kahneman titled Thinking Fast and Slow. I haven’t read it. But I do know that Kahneman classifies thinking into two types: fast and slow. Fast thinking is instinctive and automatic, while slow thinking is deliberate and analytical. While the way we think matters, I’ve been contemplating something else—a bimo

M.D. Singer — January, 2025 Everything is the way it is for a reason. If you needed open-heart surgery, would you choose a doctor straight out of residency or an industry veteran with 40 years under their belt? Of course, experience wins. Historically, time served as a useful heuristic for experience and, therefore, value. Or as Ronald Reagan quipped, “I am not going to exploit, for political purp