Tribalism Humans are tribal and most of us belong to one or more tribes. Historically, these tribes were heavily influenced by family, location, and religion, and there often were not a lot of options for choosing your own tribe (especially in smaller villages with little diversity). Today, we have a lot more options for choosing our own tribes. Examples of modern tribes include: Family, Friends,…
In 1976 I bought The Dark Side of the Moon album, played it to death, and decided that Pink Floyd was my favorite group of all time. Almost 50 years later, that hasn’t changed. But at the time, I didn’t think too much of the songs The Big Gig in the Sky and Us and Them (they were the songs I had to endure to…
5 Stars, would recommend Harmony Road Retreats organizes weekend retreats for members of the LDS/Mormon community who are on a faith journey. Their mission is to create compassionate settings where those experiencing faith challenges can heal, learn, and grow. They were fully supportive and made no attempt to steer our journeys in any specific direction (other than healing). I attended a retreat spanning April 11…
We all have beliefs, and most of us are pretty sure that our beliefs are correct (and that any belief others have that differs from mine is wrong). Beliefs are energy-saving shortcuts that allow us to get to the truth more quickly. We take the input, filter out the parts that we want to ignore, make some simple inferences based on our beliefs, and voilà…
On Jan 28, 2025 I awoke to an email stating that Nuna (the company that I worked for) was dropping their core business and that I was laid off. I was neither surprised nor upset. The severance package included 2 months paid cobra and a lump sum payment covering 2 months salary. I figured that I’d spend a few days relaxing, and then catch up…
Many people, churches, and religions take a negative stance on transgenderism. This post is not going to argue why I think that they are wrong, but rather, I want to point out that the LDS/Mormon stance is uniquely inconsistent with their other teachings (in ways that probably don’t apply to most other religions). Many religions teach that there is a difference between a soul and…
My nephew is applying to a design school at Western Washington State University and decided that he needed a new wood working project to round out his portfolio. I have a very modest wood working shop in my garage, so he came over looking for some ideas and he decided that he wanted to turn a wooden bowl with a resin lip. Of course, I…
Every few weeks, I see a question posted by Christians on Quora questioning if atheists have morals. For example: “If there is no God, no hell and no heaven, then why have we developed a conscience? Why don’t atheists commit crimes and what stops them?” “This may sound naive, but what keeps an atheist from committing adultery and doing other things that a Christian wouldn’t…
I was invited to speak on Jan 23, 2025 at a community event in Shoreline, WA on the topic of homelessness, with the goal of raising support for Camp United We Stand (a county sanctioned homeless camp for which my wife and I volunteer). The event was attended by various church leaders and by the mayor of Shoreline, WA. I gave the first speech of…
Complexity 1: We generally do not receive claims in a timely manner If we always received the claim data during the same month in which the visit occurred, things would be much simpler, but we receive the claim data only after it has been paid and that can take several months. Medicaid pays 99% of their claims within 90 days, whereas commercial payers generally average…
