Newsletter Archive

Just in time for the end of Oktoberfest, or just before the Oktoberfest beer goes on sale. As I draft this piece there is a selection of such beverages awaiting sampling in the refrigerator. Most, German or not, know of this two week holiday. Fewer understand the significance of beer to the German culture, and…

It’s fitting this new era begins by discussing another. The 1789 Presidential Election ushered in a new order that would eventually give rise to one of the world’s great superpowers. It did not, however, look anything like the elections of today. The United States after the Revolutionary War It’s important to recall at the end…

As of 11:47AM on Saturday, June 28, 2025, I’m a Microsoft-Certified Power BI Analyst. Crickets. More crickets. I’m glad it’s over. Six months of coursework is plenty for a single subject. It’s the application I now look forward to. Before the certification exam it’d begun percolating into my daily responsibilities as a technology consultant. With…

Yes, I’m still here. This has been the longest duration between newsletters since starting Becoming Polymathic. What necessitated it wasn’t lack of ideas or time, but a need to dedicate resources towards my second novel, Backward. It became apparent after my last piece on May 4th, despite my continued belief its first draft is significantly…

Perhaps its no surprise since turning 30 in December 2024, Becoming Polymathic’s pieces have been more reflective. This week will continue that trend as two more milestones were crossed since the last piece. The first was a long-due ending, the other intermediate but increasing in significance. Furthermore, the latter offers a partial answer to the…

The fall of 2014 was significant for a couple reasons. The first, I started my sophomore year of college. The second, I began drinking coffee. My roommate Collin worked at Babcock Dairy beginning at 5:00AM and he’d leave about two cups in the Mr. Coffee for when I’d need it around 9:00AM. I was, and…

Cicero, IL is known for two things – Al Capone and the Hawthorne Works Factory. In the 1920’s, it became headquarters of the notorious Chicago Outfit. Simultaneously, the factory, operated by the prominent telecommunications manufacturer Western Electric, reached its peak capacity of 45,000 employees spread across 5 million square feet. For perspective, the Boeing Everett…

In 2024, 8.7 million people visited The Louvre. Furthermore, if you take Louvre Director Laurence des Cars’ word, 80% of them went solely to see the Mona Lisa. From that perspective, I was in the minority who couldn’t be bothered. Even at the end of January, the queue was tremendous. I steered to the right…

This will be the second piece centered around Pierre Boulle’s work. Previously, we leveraged Planet of the Apes to discuss theory of mind. Similarly, this piece will center around human behavior, but rather than compare us to our primate ancestors, we will compare amongst ourselves. The Bridge on the River Kwai, which debuted ten years…

There’s a running joke in my family that every 2-3 years, I’ll tire of my location or job and move. I don’t appreciate being the butt of this joke, though attempting to argue would be a fruitless exercise. Since graduating high school in 2013, I’ve lived in five different locales, an average location change every…