On my mind - February 2026
I find it deeply intriguing that I can hijack your entire consciousness for two minutes. You read a piece, and your entire life’s focus is on it for that minute or two. The Stoics say we share a common trait to reason. I agree. When we engage with the same idea, we are essentially sharing a brain state.
Because I stay off social media (not entirely true, I still find myself wandering the dodgy abyss of YouTube shorts, ugh), I miss out on the weird, fascinating rabbit holes people fall into on a daily basis. I am admittedly a bit nosy. More importantly, I genuinely want to know why you have decided to dedicate your time to a specific idea. What makes it fascinating enough to earn your excitement? Why should anyone else care? Understanding what captivates you is my attempt at living your life for a minute.
I am making this a monthly ritual. At the end of every month, I am going to share the specific safe thoughts that have occupied my mind, and I invite you to do the same.
Here is a dump of the things taking up space in my head as we close out February 2026:
- The Mechanics of Conversion: Does a spiritual conversion always require a deep sense of limitation? We usually assume people seek a higher power only when they need saving from a problem they cannot solve themselves. I am curious if conversion can happen without hitting rock bottom, which naturally leads me back to examining the Apostle Paul.
- Judging History: We constantly debate whether we should judge history through a modern moral lens. Saying “we shouldn’t judge the past” is highly convenient when you belong to the demographic that came out on top. The historical loser, conversely, demands we acknowledge their victimhood.
- Relational Compatibility: We (I dare say I) treat compatibility as a strict prerequisite for a relationship. Marriages before the 18th-century dawn of Romanticism operated on a completely different premise: if two people are willing to make it work, it will work. I am currently wrestling with the limits of this idea. I want to believe compatibility is a fruit of love that grows naturally out of commitment. Yet, I am questioning what happens when two people simply experience reality on entirely different wavelengths. Can sheer willingness actually bridge a fundamental gap in how you perceive the world?
- Urban Infrastructure: I have been thinking about how traffic lights and pedestrian crossings actually work under the hood. There is a hidden logic to the pacing of our cities.
- The Future of Software Engineering: Coming off the recent layoffs at Block, I am looking closely at our craft (who isn’t?). With agentic systems becoming an absolute no-brainer, I cannot imagine what the rest of the year will look like once Anthropic, OpenAI or Google drop their next models. Software engineering is fundamentally changing. Are we all just going to end up managing agents? This will certainly be a recurring thought throughout the year.
- Wrestling with Leviticus: It is such a tough, frustrating read. I am trying to figure out how to make the text more accessible and understandable without losing its historical weight. Can I generate a movie with one of these AI models to act out the book, will this count as me still reading the Bible? I’ll ground it in the text but infuse plots to depict everyday life back then.
- The Pull of Classical Antiquity: What is the actual appeal of the Greek and Roman eras? Why do we dedicate so much of our collective intellectual energy to this specific period over any other random point in human history?
A Call for Original Thoughts
I have laid out my current rabbit holes, and now I want to hear yours.
So I beg you to track your thoughts. Whatever is strange, whatever is quirky, whatever is deeply fascinating, whatever is completely obscure, if there is any curiosity, if there is any rabbit hole worth falling down, think on these things.
And then, share them with me.
This is my open invitation to you. Your submission does not need to align with my current interests. If your rabbit hole hooks me, I want to explore it with you. I debated building a public voting system so everyone could choose which topics we dive into next. For now, I am keeping it simple and making the final call myself. If an idea grabs my attention, we can talk about it, and we might even co-write our thoughts into a published essay. I will proudly attribute the inspiration to you (“insert your name thinks X is fascinating”), or we can keep it completely anonymous if you prefer.
Please, drop your current fascinations below. Let me share in your excitement. No rush, you can always come back here or just text me later when that interesting thought hits.
Drop a thought ↓
Thought captured. Thank you!