I Believe… [Micromanagers]
…that until organizations realize that treating adults like wayward children destroys morale, creativity, and basic human joy, the micromanager will continue to loom—hovering, nitpicking, doubting, draining, controlling—like the world’s least charismatic supervillain.
I Believe… [Absence]
...that absence may make the heart go fonder but it also makes the bone grow harder.
I Believe… [Bad Decision]
...that we’re all just one bad decision from oblivion.
I Believe… [Neo-60 Minutes]
...that, if LiterateApe was suddenly put in charge of CBS, ’60 Minutes’ would features stories of divorce, masturbation, the death of radio, and farts.
I Believe… [Soul Sterilization]
...that technology is a brilliant liar—it convinces us we’re connected while quietly sterilizing our souls.
I Believe… [Letting Go]
...that knowing when to let go of people who have already let go of you is good. Actually letting them go and moving on is better.
I Believe… [Neo-Inquisitioners]
...that in an age where every word is a potential weapon and every hurt feeling a crime scene, the loudest moralists aren’t protecting the vulnerable—they’re auditioning for the Inquisition.
I Believe… [We’re Not Machines]
...that joy is found in the act of building something useless: kites in winter, elaborate cocktail garnishes for tap water, or a paper-mâché bust of your ex-boss. Useless things remind us we’re not machines.
I Believe… [The Ironic Right]
...that the irony that the Right is reveling in their reclaimed permission to say the word ‘retard’ and yet most of them are ‘tards is staggering.
I Believe… [Not My Tempo]
...that the fact that my staff sees JK Simmons’s performance in “Whiplash” as a ‘comically evil version of me’ says a lot about my approach to management.
I Believe… [New Mantra]
...that my next tattoo will be something along the lines of “Expect Nothing. Hope for Everything.”
I Believe… [Manufactured Happiness]
...that happiness isn’t found, it’s manufactured—like bootleg mixtapes in the back of a Pontiac in 1985, hissing but priceless.
I Believe… [Just Call It Gambling, Already]
...that a casino is the poor man’s Wall Street. Cryptocurrency is the libertarian’s casino.
I Believe… [Corporate Speak]
...that the phrase “Just loop me in” is corporate code for “I want to handcuff myself to your brain until one of us dies.”
I Believe… [AI is Coming]
...that AI won’t just replace jobs—it’ll replace purpose. And when people lose that, they don’t riot—they just quietly stop existing in any way that matters.
I Believe… [Learning About Sex]
...that most teenage boys learn about sex from porn and most teenage girls learn about it from trauma and somewhere in between is a guidance counselor with a pamphlet and a panic disorder.
I Believe… [The Algorithm Never Forgives]
...that the algorithm is our new God—omniscient, invisible, and deeply invested in selling me socks I already bought. It knows my shame, my lust, my 3am spiral into videos titled ‘Top Ten Failed Soviet Amusement Parks’. It knows I clicked. It remembers. It doesn’t forgive.
I Believe… [Timeshare in Hell]
...that capitalism is a casino rigged by drunk croupiers where the prize is a timeshare in Hell and the only way to win is to die with enough debt they can’t repossess your skeleton.
I Believe… [Patricide, Anyone?]
...that few things scar and clarify the soul more than witnessing the death of your parent. If anything screams “YOU, TOO, WILL DIE” it is that experience. How you die becomes a choice but only once you’ve chosen how you live.
I Believe… [God’s Yes, And…]
...that God exists, but only as a sarcastic improv comic trapped inside a lava lamp, muttering, “Yes, and?” every time we beg for clarity.
How many parents use the drive to school as an opportunity to educate their young children about the impact of Snoop and Dre’s masterpiece “Ain’t Nuthin’ but a G Thang?” Just me? Dope.