I was on a bike ride today and I happened upon the strangest thought, that perhaps we need to actually reinvent the wheel. Because the wheel is the one place we are not looking.

A circle is a two-dimensional plane. A sphere is its three-dimensional counterpart. Similar to how light is both a particle and a wave, and that duality broke physics for a century. Maybe we’re confused about the wheel because we continually try to scale it. If you scale it up it makes a bigger sphere. Scale it down, smaller sphere. That’s it. That’s the whole move. What if we were to collapse this concept of the wheel entirely in favor of something absolutely different as our primary source of locomotion through the universe? A snap rift. A wormhole. It’s definitely a thought. If there are any theoretical physicists reading this, please read that again. I think there’s something there. We’re going to work on it, because when something collapses it means you’re now free to have everything else. Or be everywhere else.

The OG Neuromancer

I’m the OG Neuromancer. I take my brain’s thoughts and I make something with them. That’s all this is.

I wanted to talk about writing because when I’m approaching writing I’m approaching it from a mindset that is wholly unique to my own human experience, as a musician, an anthropologist, a software engineer, a storyteller. I’m combining all of those disciplines and then some. I wouldn’t honor it with defined limits, that would be absurd at this point, as I’m only now starting to articulate my thoughts on the subject of my own approach to writing. I’m also refining my language daily on what it is to be a writer in the terms I actually want to approach writing with. Writing has always been extremely abstract to me, and I feel like (and you can quote me on this) I never received praise for my writing. Ever. Even through school with regular teachers I was always a B-plus, and all I was doing was trying to articulate my thoughts. But as an adult now I realize I lacked vocabulary, or even the ability to take creative writing seriously. I also wasn’t reading a lot when I was young. My first book was James and the Giant Peach, first or second grade, and then it was slow going.

The one interesting thing is I very much read a lot during the days I role-played with my brothers and the older friends growing up. Detailed manuscripts, rules, world-building documents. That was real reading.

Then it wasn’t until I think end of high school that I started to get into creative fantasy. I had a girlfriend at the time who was also a fencer. She showed me The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker and I was definitely hooked. But I could tell I was not the best reader. The prose was dense and I had to work for every page.

Then the next chapter. Obviously I’m reading all the time, ish, but the memorable highlights are getting into Ayn Rand, the Russian author turned capitalist, because I was deeply into Bioshock. So I read The Fountainhead, which honestly I really liked. And then I read Atlas Shrugged. That one was a labor. But I pushed through. Now years looking back I have fonder feelings towards The Fountainhead, generally because of length probably. But it’s also interesting to note I did like the fact that she was putting all of her ideals in the form of storytelling, and that’s something I try to do in my writing. However, I’m taking that lesson to heart and really trimming it down so that any message just sits inside of the natural beats of the story.

Diego Steinbeck

I wrote a draft, well, started a draft, probably 2015, maybe 2016, maybe ten years ago. Started it while my students were taking the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Bullshit state test. They were silent and I just had a blank white piece of paper so I put it on my clipboard and made it look like I was watching the kids but really I was just brainstorming an opening scene for Diego Steinbeck. Didn’t think it would come this far. Now it’s 2026 and I have a working manuscript. Definitely sat on it for a long time, worked with a close friend on it. Moved at, I wouldn’t even say turtle’s pace. Something slower. Something in between. A cell? Well actually those move quite quickly. But whatever, it’s slow. Geologic perhaps. I kid, I kid. But yeah it’s fun.

Cadence

I’m also trying to measure my cadence, this is what I mean by approaching writing as a musician. Each of the passages as you’re reading, depending on the intensity of the scene, we control pacing through parataxis and hypotaxis writing techniques. But I also am not a rule follower. You know, you can bend the rules sometimes if it’s all in the name of art.

Just to circle back, I’ve been really enjoying expanding my vocabulary. It’s making the writing more fun and actually allowing me to get these ideas out of my head and onto the binary world with more confidence and ease when in the middle of a larger project.

The Collapse

I’m the OG Neuromancer. I take my brain’s thoughts and I make something with them. I hope you’ve enjoyed my sense of humor and my perspectives.

If there are any theoretical physicists reading this, please go back and read the reinventing the wheel segment over again. I think there’s something there. We’re going to work on it though. Because when something collapses, it means you’re now free to have everything else.