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Boisterous Inquiry

When people ask questions to sound smart, rather than because they genuinely want to know the answer, the passion for discovery atrophies. The most interesting takes are often not the manicured, official ones, but the late-night, slightly unhinged hot takes, ideas someone has actually put something of themselves into. We can all get the milquetoast version from AI. What I want is intellectual skin in the game.

I graduated about ten years ago, and have now seen my fair share of curated personal branding and carefully packaged ideas. It gets pretty tiresome. So, in creating this blog, I'm advancing a posture of boisterous inquiry. What does this mean? Cleverness ought to be put to use rather than put on display. Performance should entertain rather than beguile. The audience should feel endeared, rather than merely impressed.

My ideal model for how culture works is something like this:

  • Artistic, intellectual creation is authentic self-expression. You paint the dream because it's stuck in your head. You write the essay because the idea keeps turning in your mind.
  • You share these things with other people because you genuinely want to delight them, and perhaps teach them something, if the lesson has been earned.
  • Through this human resonance, you sometimes glimpse something eternal and universal.

This model requires taking on some risk, and the clearest sign you've risked something is embarrassment. Looking back and cringing is perhaps the experience unforgeable to the self that you once dared to try, and maybe even learned something. Returning to old ideas with fresh rebuttals is proof you've grown. If we can call such a thing currency, then what wealth we possess in being willing to look foolish.

I aim for three things:

  1. I only publish pieces I believe in and love.
  2. Everything is genuine, but nothing is sloppy. You can have craftsmanship without curation.
  3. I aim to intrigue, refresh, or entertain my audience.

Since launching, I’ve been grateful for the warm reception. Nine months into the project, the central challenge is the tension between two and three, balancing rigor with accessibility. Some of my essays are far too heady. I’m still figuring out how to make them inviting without sanding away the things that make them true, rigorous, and interesting. How do you entertain without becoming SEO slop? That's the second-order problem of this project.

What you’ll find here: essays, notes, film readings, translations, and whatever else I happen to be working through. Subscribers are encouraged to reply and suggest topics they’d like to hear about.

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