Things I Like

Published: Mar 29, 2022
Updated: Jul 19, 2022

A list of things that I like, in no particular order. This is in draft stage, and intended to be a living document, inspired by Zachary Betz’s list.

Tools #

• Drafts - App for drafting content in Markdown
• Joplin - Note-taking app with a desktop option and syncing
• SwiftText - Using as a GTD quick capture tool
• Sketch - Graphics editor
• Netlify - Modern deployment for the JAMstack
• Hugo - Static site generator

Hobbies #

• Making music
• Amateur geology
• Orienteering + Hiking

Work #

• Complexity Explorer, Santa Fe Institute
• Cynefin Framework, Dave Snowden (Cynefin is a Welsh word pronounced as “kaNEVin”) - Also see this
• Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
• The Bed of Procrustes, Skin in the Game, and Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition, Michael J. Mauboussin
• Six Simple Rules: How to Manage Complexity without Getting Complicated, Yves Morieux and Peter Tollman
• The Chaos Imperative: How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation, Effectiveness, and Success, Ori Brafman, Judah Pollack
• The Four Disciplines of Execution, Sean Covey, Chris McChesney
• Toyota KATA, Mike Rother
• The Danger of the Dream Job Delusion, Cal Newport
• Fanatical Prospecting, Jeb Blount

Jazz musicians #

I’ve added short notes next to names lacking a presence on the internet or not well-known in the U.S.

Guitarists #

• Charlie Christian
• Freddie Green
• Wes Montgomery
• Barney Kessel
• Tal Farlow
• Django Reinhardt
• Herb Ellis
• Charlie Byrd
• Jim Hall
• Joe Pass
• John Scofield
• Pat Metheny
• Larry Coryell
• Mike Stern
• Mark Whitfield

Vibes players #

• Ray Estwick (Expatriate jazz genius, based in Paris. I took lessons from him when I was 14 until we left Paris for New Zealand and Ray left Paris for Amsterdam. He would generously lend me a stack his priceless original records each week, wrapped in newspapers and tape. These would include 78s of greats like Barney Kessel. I’d carry the heavy stack home on the metro and record them.)
• Milt Jackson
• Red Norvo
• Cal Tjader
• Lionel Hampton
• Mike Manieri
• Gary Burton

Hammond B-3 players #

• Jimmy Smith
• Rhoda Scott (Another expatriate jazz musician based in Paris. Ray introduced me to her music.)
• Barbara Dennerlein (German virtuoso of jazz and classical)

Trumpet players #

• Dizzy Gillespie
• Clark Terry
• Chet Baker
• Roy Hargrove
• Freddie Hubbard
• Kenny Wheeler
• Wynton Marsalis

Sax players #

• Coleman Hawkins
• Art Pepper
• Lester Young
• Charlie Parker
• Sonny Rollins
• John Coltrane
• Lee Konitz
• Stan Getz
• Cannonball Adderly
• Sonny Stitt
• Dexter Gordon
• Michael Brecker
• Wayne Shorter
• Archie Shepp

Bone players #

• J.J. Johnson
• Kai Winding
• Urbie Green

Pianists #

• Oscar Peterson
• Thelonious Monk
• Tommy Flanagan
• Herbie Hancock
• McCoy Tyner
• Toshiko Akiyoshi

Bassists #

• Ray Brown
• Milt Hinton
• Paul Chambers
• Monk Montgomery
• Oscar Pettiford
• Eddie Gomez
• Percy Heath
• Red Mitchell
• Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
• John Patitucci
• Esperanza Spalding

Modular synth artists #

• Richard Devine (sample: Harmonic Symmetry)
• • Check out his demos of novel sound generators, like the Sound Urchin and RareWaves Lite2Sound
• Sébastien Léger

My music gear history #

Guitars #

• Sears Silvertone acoustic (still have it!)
• Harmony electric (which I bought from the kid next door, with an amp, for $45)
• Les Paul Recording
• Les Paul Signature
• Gibson ES-175
• Kramer Pacer (yes, an original one)
• 70s Strat (reliced before there was such a thing)
• Shechter Classic
• Cort Curbow 5-string bass
• PRS Custom 24
• Nashville Tele Deluxe
• Nashville Tele (no Fishman bridge)
• Cort Curbow 5-string bass (again)

Amps #

• Harmony amp
• Heathkit piggy back head and 2x12 combo (built from a kit)
• Yamaha
• Marshall half-stack
• Line6 Flextone3 + other models
• Positive Grid Spark

Conclusion: Tubes please, no modeling

Rack gear #

• Digitech effects unit w/foot controller
• Sabine rack-mounted tuner
• Furman power conditioner with pull-out lights
• Line 6 XT Pro
• SKB cases

Stompboxes + pedals #

• Small Stone Phase Shifter
• MXR Phase 90
• MXR Envelope filter
• Ernie Ball volume pedal
• A/B box
• Line6 Looper
• Dunlop Cry Baby Wah (only pedal I use now)

Strings, Necks, Frets, Machine Heads #

I used 12s on the top for the ES-175 jazzbox, and 10s on the top for solid-bodies. After getting the Strat and getting some custom work done on it (had the neck shaved down to a #1 at the suggestion of my luthier) I started using 9s on the top.

• Brand: I’ve used DRs ever since they came out. Usually use Hi-Beams.
• Frets: Skinny please, not jumbo
• Necks: prefer Les Paul or PRS dimensions, minimal (oiled) finish, not heavy lacquer
• Locking tuners: Sperzel Trim-Loks

Politics + Culture #

• World's smallest political quiz
• Interviews with Daniel Schmachtenberger, like this one
• Arnold Kling's review of Michael Huemer's The Problem of Political Authority
• Marlène Laruelle's sense-making work on Russian illiberal movements
• Institute for Justice
• Anacyclosis Institute: "Democracy in America is showing its age, stumbling toward the next step of political evolution: the contest of demagogues. It is long past time to reclaim from antiquity the word that anticipates democracy’s fate, as it narrates the course of Western Civilization itself: Anacyclosis."
• "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• 2081 - a short film based on Harrison Bergeron
• MPI films

Sports I enjoy doing #

• Airboarding Fastest slope run? 70mph - by accident (took the wrong ski lift up!)
• Krav Maga
• Hiking

Non-profits #

• Kiva.org
• Gerando Falcões’s food for the favelas program
• Institute for Justice
• Santa Fe Institute