So this morning I started to wonder what happened to camp. It seems to me that summer camps in general have just disappeared. For a moment I considered the theory that maybe the ghost who live in the abandoned cabin did really take all the campers away and now there are none left, but for some reason I was not 100% convinced that theory would hold up.

Now let me be clear, when I say camp I mean real camp. The kind of summer camp where you sing cult-like chants that were written before the invention of a dictionary and where clothes end up getting burnt to ashes (ask me about that later). The kind of summer camp where you made crafts that only your grandma could appreciate and where you would inexplicably find yourself in the water rather than in the canoe you were supposed to be in. What I do not mean is math camp or science camp where kids sit in a classroom doing the same exact things that they would be doing during the school year, but because it’s “summer camp” they eat their lunch on the playground instead of in a cafeteria.

I can say this is true because I still get mail from summer camps who still don’t know that I am an adult, admittedly an adult that still enjoys eating Fruit Loops every once in a while. All of the mail I get for summer camps are academic camps, which to me is a way to trick kids into going to school over the summer.

Now I have a few theories on why summer camps have disappeared, none of which are factually sound but indulge me anyways:

First off there’s the theory that kids are just more advanced nowadays and they are capable to skip straight to the soul sucking part of education without having to “waste” the first few years of their lives learning how to play. Now this may seem true to all the grandparents who believe that their three year old was born a genius, but this buzzfeed post seems to prove otherwise.

Secondly, there’s the theory that parents are trying to be protective of their kids. They make sure that their kids never touch anything sharper than a the side of their pencil case or dirtier than the handle of a tennis racket. This also is quite true and also the reason that cups of coffee at McDonalds now have warnings that the contents may be hot. I envision at some point in the near future parents setting locks that prevent their children from going to the backyard the same way parents currently lock their iPads to limit screen time. As a 19 year-old with no kids, I must give my expert opinion that while it may be great to protect your kid from every scratch and inkling of foul language, at some point they will experience these things and will be woefully unprepared. The kids I know who have grown up using knives and playing with fire have a much better understanding of how to stay safe compared to those who encounter them later on and don’t know how to safely handle them.

Lastly, there is the theory that parents feel that they are giving their child a leg up by making them well rounded. But the truth is that we need (and colleges look for) well rounded human beings, not students who are semi-versed in every subject. We need kids who are willing to design and build things by themselves, not follow directions that tell you how the pieces fit together. We need kids who will ask questions themselves, not just answer multiple choice questions. We need kids who will read stuff that they find interesting, not just books that they were assigned by someone else.

Now this next bit that is going to make me sound like an old fart. We NEED camps, because without them we end up living in a bubble of a society. I’ve grown up knowing my fair share of brilliant kids who are socially inept and I fear living in a future where everyone is like this.

So here are my thoughts, the thoughts of an 19 year old individual with no knowledge about parenting or child development, let’s bring back real summer camps and thank you to the adults who helped make going to summer camp possible.

This is probably one of my more serious posts. I know that many people will not read until the end of this post, so before I truly begin I want to make it clear that I am not in favor of being easier on crime. Rather I believe that our current prison system is ineffective at actually rehabilitating prisoners. Secondly, I am not criticizing our judicial system. Though that is because to do so would be moot and it is much more effective to focus on areas which we can easily improve on.

Regardless of how we cut it, an astounding number of individuals go through our country’s prison system. Irrespective of how those individuals ended up in the prison system, we must recognize that a good number of them will be released at some point in time and they will return to society. Furthermore, many of these individuals will return to society not having been rehabilitated; they will be unprepared and incapable of living in regular society.

These are facts. You can go to whatever source you believe credible and these statements will be supported. Now for the bit where I interject my own humble opinion and attempt to connect the dots. Many of the former prisoners return to society incapable of providing for themselves, thus a fair number of the return to prison. In other words, we have  a high recidivism rate. While I cannot say with 100%certainty that the high recidivism rate is due to inadequate rehabilitation, it is certainly a major factor.

So, how do we solve this?

One solution is to change the judicial system so that it fairly and more effectively deals with criminals and offers a more expansive set of options. But of course that is quite unlikely. Our judicial system is an area of great stagnation, though considerably adaptive compared to our legislative system. Realistically the place to look for change is within the prison system itself.

Considering that prisons are often managed by private non-government organizations, we see a chance to reform how prisoners are treated within the prison system.

I make this call not as another social justice plea or idealist fantasy, but rather as a business proposition.

Let’s build private prisons that profit based off of their ability to rehabilitate the prisoners they manage. At the crux of it, why not align the incentives for prisons and their prisoners.

Part of the process would involved more expensive cognitive  therapy up-front. But once these individuals are past any physical or psychological issues they may have, they are now a blank slate with a great deal of potential. For the remainder of their sentence they are both an asset to the prison as well as an opportunity to gain skills that can be applied in the real world. Why not invest into treating their existing conditions and providing them with vocational training early in their prison career. Then having them gain experience and develop those skills while working for the prison. The profit earned during their work sentence is then dispersed in part upon their exit and then in part monthly as a basic welfare program. This would provide the prison management company a large source of capital which they could then manage and also profit off of.

Of course these are just ideas for a better prison system, one that fails to even address some of the fundamental problems inherent within our legal system. But keep in mind that any improvement, even a slight one would make a tremendous impact on the millions of individuals who are part of the prison industrial complex.

Let’s discuss, what are you’re thoughts? Comment below or shoot me an email! Either way I would love to hear what you think.

A few days ago I flew back from Austin to Chicago. For all intents and purpose it was a very normal flight. It was as normal of an experience as traveling at a few hundred miles per hour in a flying pressurized metal tube could possibly be. During this almost magical process, I spent my time by taking a nap, drinking a coke, and getting through a few episodes of Breaking Bad.

As usual I had selected the aisle seat when checking in. Now any experienced traveler knows how sacred the aisle seat is. It is about as much freedom as you can get on an airplane, especially now that SkyMall is gone and we are no longer free to buy a toilet paper holder iPhone dock (feel free to look this up, it was a real thing at one point).

But something interesting happened on the first leg of that flight which reminded me about how great flying is. The airplane was more than half empty; in fact my whole row was empty. So during takeoff, I slid over to the window seat so I could get a better view. Side note; in the event that American Airlines sees this post, this is not an admission of guilt…please don’t charge me an additional $732 dollar fee for switching seats while aboard a flight.

Regardless, this made me consider why I stopped sitting in the window seat to begin with.

Over the past few months I have flown more than my fair share. In the last five months I have been on around fifteen flights. While this pales in comparison to consultants who fly on a weekly basis, I have been “randomly screened” one too many times to truly enjoy flying.

Similarly, I gave up taking the windows seat and the awe that comes along with it in exchange for the practicality and freedom that the aisle seat affords.

I think one grows up the day they no longer seek the window seat on an airplane. The day that the practicality of the aisle seat outweighs the desire to stare out of the window in wonder. All I can say is that for the second leg of that flight I took the window seat and I plan to the same next time.

A few months ago, I sat down to find some portable cell phone chargers that we could sell as a fundraiser for DECA. I found myself up on alibaba.com.

Before long, I got distracted (something that occurs quite commonly with me). I moved from looking at portable cell phone chargers to looking at used Boeing 747’s for sale (that is the power of the internet folks). All of a sudden, I felt a sense of giddiness which I hadn’t experienced in a while (I last experienced that same feeling when I found myself in moon jump). Looking at the cost, I found that a working jumbo jet would cost much less than even a basic home in the city where I live. Instantly I began to think about the idea of having a plane as a home; not as a practical matter, but as a mental engineering feat.

Soon enough I found myself in an endless cycle trying to find some of the craziest things that I could purchase on the internet. This included roller coasters and cruise ships which could be bought with the click of a button.

In that moment (and in the following days where I spent much time thinking about this), everything seemed possible once again. These childhood fantasies of having a plane/living in it or having a roller coaster in your backyard now seem within reach (at least to my adult self). But my mind kept on wandering back to the idea of living in a plane.

Regardless of it’s impracticality it could be done. Of course there are many logistical challenges that I have yet to even consider, but I spent the next hour frantically reading up on every aspect of turning a jumbo jet into a home. I had a passion to learn more that I have not quite felt in years. It was a state of bliss where I lost track of time.

I talk about this experience because it disproves a commonly held belief. It disproves the idea that more information is always better. But to quote George Orwell out of context, sometimes “ignorance is bliss.” Having just enough knowledge allows us to dream. It allows us to distort reality and see things differently. It allows us to ask questions that others would never dream of.

As kids we cannot wait to grow up so that we can do the things we want to do and as adults we wish were kids again so we could be ignorant.

What this random jaunt on alibaba.com reminded me is that every once in a while it is important to ignore reality for a bit and simply dream.

P.S. To all those who have entertained this idea in the days after I had, regardless of it’s impracticality, thank you.

This post probably should open with the obligatory fireworks and USA chants. Seriously though, if this post ends up being much more than a rant on America’s greatness I will be pleasantly surprised.

I have to say that the fourth of July is probably one of the best holidays of the year. It combines food and fireworks…two things that all American’s must love and unlike New Year’s takes place during a time of year when the weather is not chilly enough to give a yeti hypothermia.

It’s weird that we are the “greatest nation on earth” (cue fireworks) and yet we are so fucked up.

We live in a state where our health care system is in shambles (the Surgeon General is unable to comment on the exact state because he has been on hold with his health insurance company for the last 6 months trying to figure out whether is bi-annual dental checkup is covered, our education system is so bad that there is no individual educated in the United States who understands the statistics that the Department of Education puts out (that is a 100% accurate made up statement), and our prison system is so bad that the Department of Justice is considering turning Georgia into a penal colony again (which would elevate the state’s status from being completely useless to semi-useless and be the first worthwhile institution in the state).

Admittedly on the fifth, we found out that Greece voted no on their referendum and is now going to plunge into a state of economic turmoil that even Keynes would be hesitant to touch. I guess regardless of how messed up things get we can always say that at least we are not Greece.

I imagine President Obama being briefed on the fourth of July and the conversation going something like this.

White House Staff: In today’s news the stock market has dipped 40%, we lost the key to all of our prisons, China has declared war on the United States, OPEC has banned all oil exports to the United States, and we have lost track of Joe Biden again.

President Obama: At least we aren’t Greece. *Sips home-brew beer (fireworks go off in the background, the Star Spangled Banner plays, and a Bald Eagle swoops across)

So there we have it. America is the greatest country on earth and will remain to be simply because every other country is just slightly more messed up than us…that is unless you live in Best Korea.

So here I stand, one month in with fewer posts than I expected to have at this point. In fact I have exactly 30 fewer posts than I expected to have at this point. This leaves me in an interesting predicament because there is nothing binding me to my goal of writing a post a day; therefore I am left with two options. I can either give up on the goal of writing a post a day or I can start buckling down and write two posts a day to catch up.

Admittedly I am not as behind as it seems to be. There is a good number of posts waiting to be published sitting as drafts, but there is something to be said about not having published any posts.

But this is not my first time being behind. Having been through high school, I have spent my fair share of nights spent trying to bullshit my way through weeks worth of missing work.

So here we go, attempt number two. See you on the other side….hopefully with 60 posts under my belt.

I just used FlightCar for the first time last week and I have to say the experience was more than underwhelming.

We choose to use flight car primarily for its novelty; of course the notion of saving eighty bucks or so in a week played into the decision, but primarily the idea of this peer-to-peer rental seemed interesting.

Admittedly the initial part of the experience went well. The online booking was quick and went without a hitch. The fulfillment once we got to Austin though was notoriously poor.

The vehicle provided upon arrival to the hotel where the vehicles were held was a 2003 Audi A4. Now one would expect a 12 year old Audi to be as reliable as a rat given meth even without it being used as a rental, so the fact that it was approved to be used in the service was quite astounding to me.

The issues with the vehicle were not only surprising but even downright unsafe. The engine constantly overheated and the hazard lights would not turn on once the button was pressed (and once on would not turn off). The overheating of the engine meant that we could not use the air conditioning (keep in mind we were in Austin in June where the weather is roughly the same temperature as the sun), but more importantly the issues with the hazard lights made signalling on the highway impossible.

On Monday (June 8th), we decided to give FlightCar a call and ask how we should approach the situation. The agent on the line simply told us to return to the pick-up location and that a vehicle would be ready for us to swap out with; she then abruptly hung up the phone before we could ask any other questions. While this inconveniently disrupted our plan for the day we decided that we did not want to take any chances with this vehicle. Once we drove out half an hour to the hotel that hosted FlightCar we stepped into the hotel to find that the FlightCar agent was offsite and had not been alerted that we would be coming in. It took another 35 minutes for the agent to arrive; this threw off our plans even further. This whole experience was exacerbated by the very rude/disinterested behavior of the agent once he finally arrived.

After a few minutes we were provided with a new vehicle, but as turned the key in the ignition we noticed a tire pressure sign light up. We stepped out to look for the agent but he had already driven off of the premises by that point.

We continued driving as we were already behind schedule and thought it would be best to get it checked out the next day. The next day we noticed that the front right tire was noticeably under inflated. We stopped to get it inflated at a service shop and found that the other three tires were well over inflated.

Ultimately the issue that has arisen is that FlightCar is unreliable for any practical matter. Yes it is a novel idea, but when one has to rely on FlightCar it failed to deliver. Personally I am frustrated with the lack of quality control and poor customer service.

But the bigger issue is one that applies to all startups, it is the issue of reliability. All too often startups focus on features and experience and forget about reliability. They need to go back and rethink customer service. Yes twitter works, but that is not a replacement for having skilled customer service employees manning the phone lines. There is a reason why so many huge companies still use excel; that reason is reliability.

That is the reason why Uber has succeeded. It beats the reliability of traditional taxi services. In FlightCar’s case it fails to do so. For a startup to take over the existing gorilla it needs to be marginally better not just cheaper.

I make this observation public for two reasons. One is the hope that it may be of some use, but more importantly for me to remember in my next venture.

P.S. I sent part of this email to flightcar and was told to expect a response in 48 hours….two weeks later I have yet to hear back.

In the present day it seems as if every action requires a purpose. By the same logic, it seems as if any action taken without purpose is boondoggle. The idea of doing something for the sake of doing it seems foreign and a waste of time, but today I am willing to sacrifice a bit of time in exchange to write. Maybe that will change in the future, but that is a bridge to be crossed later.

Every other attempt I have made to create something online has been with purpose, but none of those were rather fruitful. For once I am writing without purpose. For once I am writing for the most selfish reason, myself. As a continuation of that logic, I will not be writing on a schedule; rather I will post as I deem fit.

Some say that they find writing therapeutic….to that I call bullshit. Writing is one of the most painstaking things in the world. The process of process of choosing the perfect word, if such a thing can exist, is anything but relaxing.

The hamartia of language is that it is limiting. Our minds are capable of feeling millions of expressions and beliefs; in comparison the number of words is existence is quite constraining. It is why even the most vivid description of a place can not replace the place itself. It is why as children we cry and laugh when we do not know the words to properly express our feelings. Pure emotion can never be channeled into words, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try.

So why write? To me writing is a lost art. Aside from the occasional letter or the mandated essays for one reason or another, there are very few instances where I find myself writing.

Why make it public? Why let To be quite honest I don’t quite know. For the last 8 months this post has sat waiting to be published.

We live in a world where it is easier than ever to judge someone. But unlike judgment in past eras, where one would be judged on a more complete basis, we now rely on 140 character tweets and 6 second vines as a means of peering into the lives of others. Surely there are some who can condense themselves into a few characters, but I for one cannot. Thus, if judgement is inevitable why not offer a more complete picture. At least then this judgement will hold a bit more value.

As with many things the answer is quite complex.

I think our minds are scary places. We can easily get lost in them. But that is one of the commonalities that we all share. As diverse as we may be, we have

And maybe that is the beauty of having a secret-public journal.