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Central Themes

Theme classification is built on the ideas of Reagan’s 2016 Hedonometer study that mapped emotional arcs across thousands of books by tracking sentiment word-by-word. I adapted their approach for articles instead of novels, which isn’t perfect because articles are shorter, more volatile, and don’t always follow the same narrative patterns as full-length books. But it works well enough to classify pieces into seven arc types: rags-to-riches, hero-in-a-hole, cinderella, oedipus, icarus, riches-to-rags, and wild-card. My system uses three different sentiment models—lexicon-based (like the original study), VADER (rule-based), and DistilBERT (neural) to triangulate each article’s emotional trajectory. Each model scores chunks of text, and the algorithm identifies patterns. Does sentiment rise, fall, dip and recover, or just bounce around? When all three models agree, I’m pretty confident in the classification. When they disagree, well, that’s why the wild-card category exists. It’s worth noting that I use AI to determine the article theme itself, which helps to identify patterns I might have missed. Together, they provide a way to organize and understand this wild corpus beyond just tags. Perfect? No. But it’s a good way to classify articles, and sometimes that’s enough.

hero-in-a-hole

An exploration of Brendan O'Brien's role as a transformative music producer and his work shaping Pearl Jam's iconic album.

The AI infrastructure boom demands sacrifice.

A covid tale, wishing for live music to return.

A remarkeable book; stays with you longer after the last page is turned.

A.J. Fikry stands tall; one of the best ever written. I cried.

Aging is treatable, and the science to extend life is closer than we think.

Behind the drafts, what went into the Day Life Breaks.

Bill Gates gives advice to college graduates. It is a great time to be alive.

Building habits that last, a viral book because it's helpful to people.

Can you clone a writer?

Carpe Diem - Seize the Day.

Choosing Hollywood hope over hardball realism.

Clearing your head and life long learning, a book review.

Creativity can have a long tail.

Designing the Republic; the electoral college still matters.

Do words evolve?

Does the opening line of a book matter?

Does X really marke the spot?

Electronic footprints in old technology.

Finding a spark.

Finding the value in choosing your cares.

First-mover advantage isn't necessarily an advantage.

Flying the 'W' flag all winter long was pure marketing genius.

Governance requires a certain civic responsibility. Values do matter when we write to think verse writing to win.

Guarding the spirit of Nashville's sacred stage.

Has there ever been a player like this one?

Honoring the blur of life on the road.

Independent publishing infrastructure for a new internet.

Internet Archaeology.

Is cannibalization a business strategy?

It takes more than one person to have a good career.

Keeping Cades Cove from becoming a cautionary tale.

Memories can last forever.

Navigating conspiracy-fueled noise online.

Never change a novel ending.

Notes on Saunder's book on writing Craft and Russian Literature.

Passion, attention to eetail, and commitment to excellence in coooking.

Pitching excellence and efficiency in the modern age, without throwing triple digits.

Practical playbook used in most corporations.

Quotes from the Panda, philosophy is strong with this movie.

Rational faith dissected on Jefferson's desk.

Recognizing the pointless loops that drain motivation at work and home.

Reliving the joy of parser adventures.

Remembering Chris Cornell's howl.

Ronald Reagan's Challenger Address, we dare to be great.

Selling only works when the product delivers.

Some children's stories are worth reading, no matter your age.

Some stories are hard to fact check yet still matter.

Sometimes the little things we don't notice catch up with us.

The cartography is important in certain novels.

The eternal city lingers, memories rush back a decade later.

The incentive of writing changes in the AI world. Or does it?

The Internet Never Forgets.

The lion and the gazelle. Competition is meaningful.

The power of a good story, pictures included.

The Princess Bride might be one of the greatest flicks of all time.

The world is changing. It always is.

Tips on building better characters in your work.

Too many rules make seeding an impossible puzzle to solve.

Two coaches, same miss, opposite responses.

Walt Disney was the real-life Tony Stark, inventing the future one dream at a time.

What is the function of landscaping? And can it be more?

When walkie-talkies were peak tech.

Words matter and often reverberate into eternity.

Words matter in the darkest of hours.

Writing a novel, really doing it, is hard.

Writing Craft, a veiled work from George Orwell.

Your perspective matters in life.

rags-to-riches

An investigation into Satoshi Nakamoto's identity through stylometric analysis.

Are all those corporate handouts, really perks?

Baseball legends colliding at Knight Field.

Cardboard memories from the junk wax era.

Celebrating mysteries that land the perfect twist.

Chasing inspiration from Rome to Michigan dunes.

Chasing seemingly impossible goals and the flawed simplicity of BMI.

Document your failures, the journey matters more than perfection.

Electromagnetic experimentation, things can go wrong.

Embracing the heartbreak that comes with Tiger fandom.

Engineering for longevity and music that lasts forever.

Finding structure in chaos: The messy reality of productivity systems.

Great lyrics matter; they are worth agonizing over.

Guarding the truth about honest olive oil.

Holding on to the audacity of the space age.

How a galaxy far away reshaped every creative sprint.

More thoughts on coffee and gear.

Notes on living longer from the book, Blue Zones.

Remembering the crews who kept Titan II's power in check.

Returning to your childhood, there is always something to write if you think back in time.

Some days are treasure, and the best stories remind us life isn't always cruel.

The dangers of omnibus legislation and centralization of power. Laws cut both ways.

The power of writing goals down.

The tragedy of Notre Dame.

Time and risk balance one another, make your bucket list count.

Treating every purchase like there's a moving bill attached.

When anonymity removes consequences, garbage spreads.

Yes, we did go to the moon.

riches-to-rags

Tying the knot that still makes you stand taller.

A guide to Acadia National Park.

A Hemingway writing spot in Michigan.

Building a blog with Ghost and Azure Web Services.

Chasing every edge, one string at a time.

Chasing the sweetest finish line.

Chasing the workspace where stories start.

Diet changes, high-protein changes.

Experimenting with illusions.

Finding fun in Hollywood's tangled web.

How often do you really look at the details everyone else misses?

How painting led to a novel.

Is anything ever finished, or should we always be improving?

Letting the canyon change the itinerary.

Practical wisdom from New York's acclaimed creative writing school.

Rereading Gatsby with ink-stained nostalgia.

Small, incremental improvements compound into extraordinary results over time.

Sometimes the most subtle works of genius are the ones we walk past every day.

The best places on earth deserve to stay undiscovered and unspoiled.

Twenty-four hours in Paris, what would you do?

When passion and will defy the statistics.

Words that endure, always fall back to courage.

wild-card

80s nostalgia and what might have been for our generation.

A good mantra in life is to not buy in the first place, getting rid of stuff takes hard work.

A timeless speech might be his defining legacy.

Agreements start on time.

An easy question; short on details.

Balancing focus and diversification in corporate strategy.

Be the culture you want to see in the world, thank you Mike Leach. You were an inspiration.

Building a second brain one card at a time.

Carrying shop-class lessons into a life of making.

Certain cultures care little for the world.

Changing organizational structure, a means to increase the stock price.

Choosing the project you can't walk away from.

Christmas across eras; thoughts on time and memory.

Conviction must outweigh risk to make any project worth it.

Creative constraints improve outcomes.

Delight in the details.

Do you want to end life thinking you didn't dream big enough?

Does AI have the ability to generate truly creative articles?

Dreams can be dangerous but they're oh so important.

Everyone wants to build; few want to maintain what they've created.

Experimenting finds its way to the page.

Family isn't always given; sometimes it's earned through earnest connection and luck.

Fasting and plant-based eating may unlock the longevity we've always sought.

FDR's confidence in impossible times reminds us that leadership is contagious.

Food & Memory.

Fortune favors the bold, but timing matters.

Gentleness and warmth persuade better than force ever could.

Guardrails that keep the words coming.

Lessons from Rome's slow unraveling.

Lifetime learning, a gift we can leverage no matter where or what.

Living with the yips and loving the game anyway.

Logic leaps are killer in telling great stories.

Long-term options matter more than short-term losses.

Losing a great writer.

My favorite spots in Nashville, dining and otherwise.

Nostalgia and the impossibility of recapturing the past.

Nuances in the English language matter in great writing.

One should have a true North when writing a novel.

Perfecting the french fry; damn these are good.

Plant a tree to save the world.

Pushing Through Creative Fear, The Goo Goo Dolls.

Questioning the allure of merger magic.

Reclaiming focus in a distracted world.

Rediscovering Nintendo's bold streak.

Remembering the day Washington gave power back.

Remembering the fisherman parable.

Sheer will and love of music can save any day.

Spotting ingenuity in the tiniest font.

Standing beneath Atlantis and remembering why we dare.

Stretching resolutions from years to decades.

Success requires talent, timing, and a little luck.

The constant effort of refining the perfect cup of coffee.

The constraints we accept are often self-imposed.

The finale to The Office is the home of the greatest quote in television history.

The greatest love is always for the fans, the show goes on.

The importance of recognition and feedback in all processes.

The stoics, pondering negative visualization.

The stories that endure reveal more about humanity than bestseller lists ever will.

The unexpected addictive nature of Animal Crossing. Damn you, Nintendo.

There is a certain magic with inefficiency.

When high-frequency greed meets a Grimm morality tale.

When technology choices shape the stories we tell.

When the Redbirds ran out of luck.

Your ideas deserve journals that will outlast the century.

icarus

Agonizing over deleting work.

Believing the American chestnut can rise again.

Beyond labels and first impressions, what can you find?

Breaking free from dependency to find true happiness and purpose.

Deep knowledge and expertise matter more than pedigree.

Framing wealth beyond the balance sheet.

Holiday marathons at home base.

Hope persists even in the bleakest of circumstances.

It's hard paying attention in a world filled with distraction.

Just keep moving.

Listening anew to the mountaintop sermon.

Negotiation Class Notes, there are some gems here worth remembering.

Notes and thoughts on Ryan Holiday's book describing the events from Bollea v. Gawker. A conspiracy theory.

Playing the long game.

Price on value to the customer, not just your costs.

Protecting your work and defending your rights.

Remembering Carrie Fisher, may the force be with you. Always.

Sometimes you need to switch back to music and let it carry you.

Standing firm against 9/11 conspiracy noise.

The future of search feels like magic, but it's just math.

The greatest single thing: a desire to excel that transcends all else.

Why the simple song wins out.

Writing for an audience of one can create something more meaningful than writing for millions.

cinderella

Another rough draft.

Applying Adler's freedom to modern life.

Bloviate all you want but policy details do matter.

Books told in the second person are rare.

Craft and tools, the importance of moveable type.

Crowning Zion and Kolob Canyon; the reigning National Park Chamption.

Embracing the revisions you can't see coming.

Empathy in motion, Ferdinand the Bull is about greatness and acceptance.

Five takeaways from election night.

Honoring the father who stayed behind the lens.

Hope against history, dare to believe anyway even if you're certain of the outcome.

In pursuit of mastery and control, even in small things.

Is home field advantage a thing?

Live music creates moments that stick with us forever.

Momentum matters more than the stats say it should.

My nostalgia for classic rock never ends, the rasp and the wail.

My video game reflext remain impressive.

Notes from Anything You Want, a book written by Derek Sivers.

Perfect scripts do exist. La La Land is timeless.

Planning for life moments, years in advance.

Plays can be magical too.

Pricing's deceptively easy lever.

Questioning the quotes we love.

Reflections on the insurrection attempt in Washington, DC.

The ask now sppeech; we lived in a different age then.

The cycle of rediscovering what our parents already knew.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

The philosophy of Better Done Than Good beats well-thought-out business strategy

Tools that stand a decade-long test.

We need big ideas in politics.

Weighing a grim sequel against its promise.

oedipus

Being relentless in sport, or anything for that matter.

Belting along with Jakob Dylan's new chapter.

Can Mystic River ever be topped?

Celebrating analog rituals in a digital world.

Channeling Shackleton's relentless call to adventure.

Creative sparks, even vengeful writers can have them.

Curiosity and connection. It's just math.

Doing what you love and working hard to achieve excellence.

Find your flow state, clear the mechanism, and let the music carry you.

History does have a ledger; let us not look away.

Holding on to first-time awe.

Learn from great children's books, they endure for a reason.

Luck isn't a strategy, but you can set yourself up to be lucky.

Thanking Jayson Stark.

The future is wearables.

The oldest Hawaiian Island, a travel guide.

Underwood 5 Stories
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