What you will find here…
My goal with this blog is to illuminate a small corner of the adjacent possible by exploring the patterns in the world all around us. I make no pretense of authority and claim no ownership of ”expert” knowledge. I live such judgments to you…
Most of my writing relates in some way to three broad topical areas:
- Psychology – What do humans value? Why? Through what behaviors do they pursue those ends?
- Economics – What behavioral patterns emerge when individuals organize to pursue those ends cooperatively and/or competitively?
- Technology – What systems tools are employed to mediate those behaviors? What motivates the invention and deployment of such tools?
With each post I attempt to reveal some pattern relevant to those topics, to bring certain patterns into clearer focus, and/or to identify interrelations and self-similarities.
Occasionally I focus in on more tangible concerns, offering personal perspectives that help me make sense of the world. Like everything else on this site, such perspectives are offered for your consideration. They are not intended as unconditional prescriptions.
Should you be reading OnTheSpiral?
Finch: You have information for us?
Rockwood: No, you already have the information. All the names and dates are already inside your head. What you want, what you really need, is a story.
Finch: Stories can be true or false…
Rockwood: I leave such judgments to you inspector.
- V for Vendetta
The popular media is rich in facts and figures but poor in coherent narrative with which to makes sense of it all. A quantitative model is not an explanation. Such models are only as reliable as the data fed into them…in other words, reliable only to the extent that the future can be extrapolated from what was measured in the past .
Deep understanding demands a story. Human beings inherently want to know why(?)…a question that can only be answered by insights into underlying variables. Though any such insights must ultimately be validated empirically, they are initially produced (to date anyway) only by human intuition.
If you enjoy the process of exploring intuitive insights then you might consider reading and commenting. Endeavors of this sort inevitably produce speculations that later prove naive (at best) or vacuous (at worst)…but hopefully with each successive iteration we nudge ourselves closer to truth.
About the Name
Prior to starting this blog I had made a couple previous attempts that quickly lost momentum. In retrospect it became clear that I had stifled myself, pre-defining a specific direction too narrowly. This time I was determined not to repeat the same mistake, but how do you name a container before determining what it will contain? Eventually I found the answer in one of my favorite songs:
I’m reaching up and reaching out,
I’m reaching for the random or whatever will bewilder me…
Whatever will bewilder me
And following our will and wind…we may just go where no one’s been
We’ll ride the spiral to the end…and may just go where no one’s been
Spiral out…
Keep going, going…
- Lateralus, Tool
That verse still describes my approach remarkably well. My only regret – by the time I decided to register the domain name, all derivations of spiral-out.com were taken. So it goes… [The phrasing "swing on the spiral" appears elsewhere in the song, though I prefer the verse quoted above.]
About Me
My name is Greg Rader (pronounced Raider). I went UCLA – class of 2005 – and eventually settled on a major in Economics after dabbling in physics, cognitive science, philosophy and anything else I could squeeze in. Fortunately, it turned out that UCLA taught an enlightened brand of economics, drawing heavily from the new institutional school - which suited me quite well.
After graduating I faced the same problem again (silos). After trying a couple different jobs I settled at Investment Technology Group for almost five years. Along the way I completed the three year Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program (but decided to leave the industry before my final charter application was approved). I briefly flirted with business school before finally admitting to myself that I was only delaying the inevitable. I wasn’t made to fit like a puzzle piece into a predefined curriculum or corporate structure.
It was around that same time that I first started blogging and deeply engaging certain communities forming around social media. As those conversations became progressively more rewarding, the office job seemed increasingly like tragic comedy. About a year ago I made up my mind to pursue a different path and gradually transitioned out of the office job over the proceeding six months.
Since then I have been pulling on whichever threads seem most promising. This blog is one of those threads. I also do some consulting with early stage start-ups. I also crossfit in my free time so I can pretend I will live forever.
