Have you seen BoJack Horseman? Do you remember Vincent Adultman?

The character is literally three kids in a trench coat, serving as comic relief as he struggles to shake hands (his arm is a broom) or smears chocolate all over his face. It’s a classic example of dramatic irony: to the audience, his performance of adulthood is entirely unconvincing, but the characters around him fail to notice.

Last week, I got duped (I guess?) by a real-life Vincent Adultman: a “nonprofit” run by middle schoolers and AI.

Hi friends!

After a much-needed break from writing, I’ve been wanting a space to reflect on the media I’m consuming in my day-to-day life.

To give myself a bit of accountability and to share those thoughts with others who might be interested, I’ve decided to start writing a biweekly newsletter. If you subscribe, you’ll get emails from me every other Friday. They might be long or short, and the topics will range wildly from spinning wool to Chicago architecture to the various books, podcasts, TV shows, and video games I’ve been engaged with that week. I may occasionally talk about tech, politics, and society, but only when I have something genuinely new to say.

Up first: the story of that time I volunteered to help a nonprofit with strategic planning but it turned out to be 5 middle schoolers armed with AI and a “founder mindset” (help). Alternatively, what if Vincent Adultman was fluent in business bullshit?