idea topology What I write about

the substack archive

Essays

A monthly dispatch since January 2023 — 59 essays and counting, braiding three voices: literature & ideas, the founder, and the photographer. Grouped by voice below; each card opens the piece on Substack.

59 essays · 3 voices · 2023–2026 · 29 live on Substack, the rest earlier issues

Literature & Ideas

26 essays

Epigraphs and arguments — McCarthy, Rand, the Greeks, Freud, Hegel. The reader thinking out loud.

STUDY GUIDE | Quantum Gravity

A star. Take one twenty times the Sun’s mass — and everything in this first stretch is layer one, as tested as physics gets. For millions of years…

8 minread on Substack ↗

The Stoddard Temple is a threat to many things.

If it were allowed to exist, nobody would dare to look at himself in the mirror. And that is a cruel thing to do to men. Ask anything of men. Ask…

1 minread on Substack ↗

MAR 26 PT2

Top of Mind: Greek philosophy. The closest understanding we have to the developmental mind. Sourcing of western ideals — Socrates and Plato and…

1 minread on Substack ↗

MAR 26

Hegel, Blood Meridian, and shots from space

1 minread on Substack ↗

FEB 26

Journal Entries.

1 minread on Substack ↗

Primitive Anthropology

The vast majority of early cave paintings were that of animals. Large herbivores — bison, aurochs, and horses. Or dangerous predators — lions, bears,…

1 minread on Substack ↗

DEC 25

Great authors, market cap, and living with my brother

5 minread on Substack ↗

SEPT 25 — PT2

Upward.

1 minread on Substack ↗

September '25

Let's dance

3 minread on Substack ↗

Nov 2024older issue

November '24

Audrey Hepburn in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ :eyes: :flame: :rocket: Riff I haven’t done any creative writing in almost a year, but here’s to hoping I…

5 minread on Substack ↗

Oct 2024older issue

October '24

Do You See Stars, Fascist Superman? by Raymond Pettibon Some Poems A few of my favorites. When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman [LINK]…

5 minread on Substack ↗

May 2024older issue

May '24

Leonardo DiCaprio starring in ‘The Aviator’ 10/23/23 Purple pettled peonies All bundled up In my hands And I got here early Sat down and scoped the…

4 minread on Substack ↗

Apr 2024older issue

April '24

7.3.89 (SILS MARIA) by Gerhard Richter Social Media (and self control) Social media is as polarizing as politics these days. At the root of which,…

6 minread on Substack ↗

Mar 2024older issue

March '24

Untitled (Boxer) by Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982 The Homeric Question I was doing some research the other night, trying to find a good book that…

5 minread on Substack ↗

Feb 2024older issue

February '24

Scene from the film ‘Saltburn’ The Nightclub Industry I’ve always found the nightclub scene a fascinating enigma. It’s one of those social strata’s…

6 minread on Substack ↗

Jan 2024older issue

January '24

Scene from the film ‘Aftersun’ Preface I actually wrote an entirely “traditional” Substack for January and had fully planned on sending that out this…

10 minread on Substack ↗

Dec 2023older issue

December '23

21.3.92 by Gerhard Richter Creative Riff let's get sentimental babe Ideas Inherited Morality Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most influential (and…

5 minread on Substack ↗

Nov 2023older issue

November '23

The Devil’s Dress, 2011 by Michaël Borremans (b. 1963) Ideas Just one essay this month. Human Evolution in a Digital World The digitation of society…

4 minread on Substack ↗

Oct 2023older issue

October '23

Pretty famous scene from Donnie Darko. Creative Riff He eventually reached the coast. The lands of wolves and failed fathers behind him. He made…

7 minread on Substack ↗

Sep 2023older issue

September '23

Scene from the film ‘Ex Machina’ Creative Riff This was formerly a “news” segment, but in all honesty, it was the only segment I disliked writing. I…

7 minread on Substack ↗

Jun 2023older issue

June '23

Film poster for Blade Runner 2049 by James Jean The News Netflix: Summer 2023 Its that time of year again. I usually only pay for a streaming service…

6 minread on Substack ↗

May 2023older issue

May '23

The Blue Bird I, 2019 by Natalie Frank (b. 1980) (no - this image doesn’t have some hidden implications with my love life — lol — I just enjoy the…

7 minread on Substack ↗

Apr 2023older issue

April '23

The Eternal City, 1937 by Peter Blume (1906–1992) The News US National Security Leak I’ve been following (though very briefly) the US national…

7 minread on Substack ↗

Feb 2023older issue

February '23

Exodo, 2022 by Julio Larraz (b. 1944) The News Love Thine Neighbor I heard recently — via various news outlets given I don’t have TikTok — that clips…

7 minread on Substack ↗

Jan 2023older issue

January: Part 2 '23

The Prophecy, 2021 by Kent Monkman (b. 1965) The News Gonna be a short news segment since I haven’t been following things the past couple weeks (more…

8 minread on Substack ↗

Jan 2023older issue

January: Part 1 '23

Without Even Looking by Nigel Van Wieck The News Wild Shit in Idaho Apparently I've been "living under a rock" (according to a buddy) given how late…

7 minread on Substack ↗

The Founder

19 essays

AI, markets, and the operator's notebook — Claude Code, the bubble, antitrust, the stock that got away.

Rodent Inspections | ARCHIVE

This started as a project for my postgrad at Columbia — but turned out to be rather interesting. The Apriori algorithm , more commonly referred to as…

2 minread on Substack ↗

Opinions on the stock market

My biggest miss this past year was selling my Google stock 9 months ago. Diversified it into AI datacenter infrastructure. Companies like VRT & FIX…

1 minread on Substack ↗

Publishing a newspaper.

Physically mailed. Or rather, a periodical. Op-Ed’s from my friends. Art and humor. Small business insights. Sector movements for the analytical…

1 minread on Substack ↗

Thought Experiment

As AI becomes better than humans at certain things, it raises the potential of replacing that person’s job. Doesn’t have a body (yet) so mechanical…

1 minread on Substack ↗

Working w/Claude Code

AI orchestration. Instead of writing a script (or a class) to do something, think of all your architecture as either 1) an AI agent or 2) a tool that…

1 minread on Substack ↗

APR 26

Brain dump.

2 minread on Substack ↗

The AI Bubble

Follow the money.

3 minread on Substack ↗

OCT 25

Banking, flight, and film exposure

2 minread on Substack ↗

August '25

Thinking big (and going blind)

3 minread on Substack ↗

Jun 2025older issue

June '25

Shot By: m_poluchowicz Early Adoption Amazon and Apple scaled Alexa and Siri well before the dawn of modern AI. And while newer models continue to…

3 minread on Substack ↗

May 2025older issue

Monopolistic Behavior in Modern Business

There have been three major anti-trust action suites taken against American businesses historically speaking: The breaking up of Standard Oil in 1911…

1 minread on Substack ↗

Apr 2025older issue

April '25

Shot: Lised d'eau douce - Camera: Canon AE-1 - Film: Kodak Gold 200 Market Movers Google Losing SEO dominance with the rise of LLMs So much of G’s…

2 minread on Substack ↗

Feb 2025older issue

February ‘25

Adrien Brody starring in ‘The Brutalist’ Startup Trends Y Combinator is a startup mixer that takes business pitches (Shark Tank style) and connects…

3 minread on Substack ↗

Jan 2025older issue

DeepSeek

If anyone’s been following tech this week, they know my prediction from last week came true: But the real news is DeepSeek — a model developed by an…

2 minread on Substack ↗

Jan 2025older issue

Titans and Transformers

An interesting research paper came out of Google DeepMind this week (and it’s making some waves in the AI space). First, Google has proposed a new AI…

2 minread on Substack ↗

Dec 2024older issue

December '24

Ubik, 1982 by Bob Pepper Social Media’s Paradigm Shift Social media started out as following your friends and interacting with their content; whether…

4 minread on Substack ↗

Aug 2023older issue

August '23

Film poster for the film Ad Astra (2019) The News The Black Sea Grain Initiative (is no more) Oft-termed the “breadbasket” of Europe, Ukraine’s…

7 minread on Substack ↗

Jul 2023older issue

July '23

Greek model Theopisti Pourliotopoulou (who got famous after posing for the Venice soccer club Venizia). Welcome to the thirst trap :D The News Meta…

8 minread on Substack ↗

Mar 2023older issue

March '23

Anastasis of the Wild, 2019 by Celeste Dupuy-Spencer (b. 1979) The News Amazon: World’s Largest “Advertiser” There was a really interesting piece by…

6 minread on Substack ↗

Field Notes

14 essays

The photographer's voice — travel, film stock, dream diaries, and gratitude. Physical-media journals.

JUN 26

All heart.

2 minread on Substack ↗

FEB 26 | ARCHIVE

Just a vibe.

1 minread on Substack ↗

Astroid Trails.

gtrianta Write letters to your parents. Your friends. Past lovers. Filled heart. Dropped in…

1 minread on Substack ↗

Last night there was a huge storm here in Minnesota and I woke up at 3am to this eery hum of voltage.

And a second later a massive crash of thunder. Then the power went out and the rain stopped and I was worried as f*ck that a tornado was gonna drop.…

1 minread on Substack ↗

Something Greek

Last night did deep stretching yoga and came back like I’d achieved new ranges of motion in my deep hips. Couldn’t fall asleep all night because of…

1 minread on Substack ↗

Appreciative.

Of my family. Of my friends. Of the people in my life. Take a step back and realizing what you have. Of the myriad of influences that made me who I…

1 minread on Substack ↗

Soulful

Being pre-occupied with prior emotion. Letting it project to those around me. Especially when I’m tired — or stressed. Long walks and blue skies the…

1 minread on Substack ↗

Physical Media Journal

Cicero fish ponds. The idea that the most able statesman of a society move to the suburbs and build high walls. Spend their time perfecting fish…

1 minread on Substack ↗

NYC

Texting a buddy.

1 minread on Substack ↗

Italia

La Spezia, Italy —…

1 minread on Substack ↗

DEC 25 — PT2

Train Dreams.

2 minread on Substack ↗

Mar 2025older issue

South Africa

Painted Dog by Ann Gadd 02/16 Arrival. Cape Town is incredible. Never seen anything like it. Mediterranean climate and coastal architecture meets…

6 minread on Substack ↗

Jan 2025older issue

January '25

Sentinel, 2020 by Tilo Baumgärtel Cold Approaching Everyone wants a “meet cute”. Where you’re at the grocery store or grabbing a coffee. Standing in…

4 minread on Substack ↗

Aug 2024older issue

August '24

18.1.89 by Gerhard Richter Pretty Privilege Driving into work this morning, having just taken the 7th Street exit into downtown Minneapolis, I…

7 minread on Substack ↗