It was 2:00 in the morning. I had an information security assessment report due in a matter of hours. FRSecure was young — just a handful of employees — and I was routinely working 90-plus hour weeks. Not because I was lazy with my time. Because there was that much work to do. I wasn’t procrastinating. I just hadn’t had time to finish. Sitting there,…
We’ve got it backwards. The cybersecurity industry spends billions on tools, certifications, frameworks, and compliance programs. Companies hire armies of analysts. Vendors peddle the next “AI-powered” solution that’s going to save us all. And still — still — the breaches keep coming. The scams keep working. The ransomware keeps paying out. Why? Because we’ve been focused on the wrong things. We’ve made cybersecurity so complicated,…
How to Disagree Like an Adult — Part 5 (Final) This post is part of the How to Disagree Like an Adult series. If you missed earlier posts, start there. Not every conversation deserves your energy. That might sound like giving up. It’s not. It’s one of the most underrated skills in disagreement — and the one most people never develop. We’ve spent four posts…
The Skills Nobody Taught Us How to Disagree Like an Adult — Part 4 This post is part of the How to Disagree Like an Adult series. If you haven’t read the earlier posts, start there. This one builds on them. So far, I’ve written a lot about what’s broken. Why debate has collapsed. Why identity hijacks thinking. Why insults replace arguments. Now it’s time…
In my previous post, I made the claim that as long as Americans keep buying drugs, someone will keep supplying them. Mexico has not always been the primary supplier of drugs to American consumers. The supply has shifted repeatedly over time, tracking enforcement pressure, geopolitics, and—most importantly—where demand could be profitably met. This is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that the drug war…
And Mexico Keeps Getting Stuck With Ours WARNING: This post may trigger some people. If you are one of those people, my advice is to buy a mirror and use it. The drug war is not complicated. We pretend it is. We wrap it in politics, policy debates, border arguments, and moral posturing. But at its core, it’s a simple supply-and-demand problem. And the…
How to Disagree Like an Adult — Part 3 This post is part of the How to Disagree Like an Adult series. If you missed earlier posts, start here: 👉 Part 1 — When Debate Dies, Insults Take Over 👉 Part 2 — Ideas Aren’t Identities Most people think insults are strength. They’re not. Insults aren’t proof of righteousness. They’re the intellectual equivalent of raised…
I saw this post that said Amazon plans to replace 600,000 workers with robots. The response? “We’ve got to fight back.” Let me say something that might irritate both sides: You can’t fight back against technology. You never could. And you never will. History Doesn’t Care About Your Slogans We tried this before. We tried it with the printing press. We tried it with…
How to Disagree Like an Adult — Part 2 This post is part of the How to Disagree Like an Adult series. If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, start there. If there’s one thing I do (maybe too often), it’s say the quiet part out loud. So, here it is: Most people don’t defend ideas. They defend themselves. And that’s a big reason why…
Last week, I introduced you to Violet. Violet is presence. Violet is authority. Violet doesn’t bark because she doesn’t need to. She walks into a room and the room adjusts. Today, I’d like you to meet Rita. Rita weighs 4.5 pounds. Rita barks whenever she wants to. And Rita believes everything is her responsibility. If Violet represents quiet authority, Rita represents something equally important in…