Finished reading: The Genesis Machine by Amy Webb 📚

I completed reading “Play Nice” by Jason Schreier.

Finished reading: Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum 📚

The Strategic Shift: Why UPS is Rethinking its Amazon Partnership and What it Means for Last-Mile Delivery: We’re well in the middle of earnings season, but something stood out to me regarding a firm in particular. UPS revealed a significant shift in its strategy: a reduction in its delivery volume for Amazon by 50% by the end of next year. This move, while surprising to some, is a calculated step aimed …

Finished reading: The Big Nine by Amy Webb 📚

One of my goals going into 2025 was to talk less and listen more. In this goal, I’m attempting to become more knowledgeable and a more well-rounded person. Self-improvement is important to me for my personal and professional lives. In this endeavor, I’ve been reading and listening to …

Finished reading: Chip War by Chris Miller 📚

DeepSeek's Surprise Entrance into the AI Arena: DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has rapidly become a major disruptor in the AI landscape with its new AI model, R1. This model has gained global attention for its ability to compete with models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but at a significantly lower cost. The emergence of DeepSeek has caused …

Ditching Instagram: Focusing on Meaningful Connections: Yes! You heard it here first. Like all of you, I was excited for Instagram when it first hit the scene back in late 2010 and still had my original account from that time. Meta (formerly Facebook) famously purchased the business for $1 billion and successfully integrated it into its ad network and …

LLMs will Augment Employment; Not End it.: LLMs, such as GPT-3.5 & 4 developed by OpenAI, possess impressive language processing capabilities. However, despite their remarkable abilities, LLMs are not poised to replace human workers. In this blog post, we will explore how LLMs will augment employment rather than supplant it, providing …

Divestiture Debrief: The Kellogg Split: Earlier this morning before the bell, Kellogg announced that it would be splitting itself into three-separate tax-free spinoffs: the slow growing cereal business, a snacking business, and an unnamed plant-based food business mainly consisting of Morningstar Farms. In the press release, the company …

On this Day in 2001: The Robert Hanssen Case: Yesterday, I was reminded on LinkedIn that yesterday in 2001, the State Department notified the Russian government that four of its diplomats were considered persona non-grata and immediately jetted from the country (National Counterintelligence and Security Center, 2022). This is an older piece I …

Apple's Newest Diversification: Business Essentials: Much like your own investment portfolio, companies continually must diversify to negate the ebbs and flows of their business segments. Up until 2001, Apple, then still called Apple Computer, was primarily a hardware company. The iPod was released and forever changed how the music industry conducted …

Google's Tensor: The Data Company's Data Chip: Ever since the release of the iPhone in 2007, Apple has designed and fabricated its own chips for its own devices. At the time, "owning the supply chain" or the vertical, was the way of controlling the full stack of hardware down to software of the manufacturing and distribution process. Since then, …

Primary Source Material is Crucial for Facts & Research: Back in college we all had access to those often bulky, hard to use research databases, that sometimes worked, but often steered us in the wrong direction. We had to teach ourselves Boolean operators to properly navigate them. There was a reason other than torture for utilizing those; to help us all …

One Year at a Non-Profit: Volunteering has always been a part of my personal ethos. I'm reminded of my time as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Engaging Creative Minds, which I spent a year from 2017 until 2018. I wrote this post some years ago, but it is an experience that I hope that all younger folks will take advantage of. In …

A Reminder of Intelligence Leadership and National Oversight: As the Intelligence Community (IC) works to rebuild trust between its agencies, it's citizens, and other partner nations, this is a great time to remind us all about the basics of how leadership within the IC and it's ongoing struggle with national oversight through checks and balances. I originally …

A Primer on Apple's Q1 2021 Earnings: I won't normally write about quarterly earnings reports from companies. You can get that story from many various sources. For the purposes of this article, I want to discuss why Apple's most recent earnings report was remarkable. I am also not recommending buying or selling Apple stock one way or …

Arms Race in the Arctic: Gone are the days of the threat of nations stockpiling ICMB's to deter one another from catastrophic launches, and the last known war. With the threat of climate change, and the need for natural resource consumption and build up, the Arctic is quickly becoming the most sought-after area for these …

The Edge Case: Redux: For years now, businesses have migrated a full cloud solution; if not in the process of adopting a hybrid system at the very least. The continual building out of data centers by the major tech companies coupled with low power consumption chips from the likes of ARM and TSMC have created efficiencies …

The Rush to Public: Over the course of 2020, the global IPO market was on fire. For these purposes, I'd like to focus on the United States market. The stock market crashed in March when it was evident that COVID would not subside soon; most investors believed that both public, and private, particularly venture capital …

Assessing U.S.-China Diplomatic Solution to North Korea: Note: This piece was originally published at RealClear Defense on January 16, 2018. During the past year, The Trump Administration and the Kim Jong-Un Regime have been trading consequential barbs regarding nuclear testing and first/second strike capabilities. While rhetoric may seem that war on the …

Options for U.S. Sanctions Towards Russia for Aggression in Ukraine: Note: This piece was first published on Divergent Options on April 17, 2017. National Security Situation: U.S. economic sanctions towards Russia following its aggressive actions in Ukraine. Date Originally Written: March 1, 2017. Date Originally Published: April 17, 2017. Author and / or Article …

Why I'm Taking a Year to Volunteer: Life experiences make up the structure of a person. Choosing to give time and effort takes dedication and sweat equity. Some may choose to give donations over their time. This all depends on what each individual is willing to commit and how dedicated they are to engulfing themselves into the effort. …

Agile Methods Aren't Just for Startups: The very definition of agile is the ability to move quickly, make changes, and adapt as needed to changing circumstances. Agile is a frequented term in the development of software and startups, but these principles can also be used to improve the quality and outcomes of life. More importantly, it is …