Bryan Hoffman

Designer & Developer

A checklist for trips

It's been quite a while since I've published anything hasn't it? Here's a checklist I've used and iterated upon many a time when going on a trip. -Clean dishes, sink, and run disposal if present-clean laundry-take out trash-water plants Let's pause. Now by no means is...

It’s all pretty random

So, there I was, pirating textbooks on Kabbalah. Which was the greater crime? The piracy? Or that I intended to study Kabbalah so young? Meanwhile, I'm doing the tarot cards here and there, and well that's a gateway to stuff maybe? Who knows? It's all pretty random....

I wrote a short, technical book!

I wrote a gentle introduction to PHP for web applications. The text is titled: "PHP For The Web: Enough to be Dangerous" and it is available for free online at: https://bryanhoffman.github.io/ and for download at:...

Whatcha thinkin’ ’bout?

Food is important. I want to be like the Khan academy guy. This is going to be a weird format. Should I join the Masons? Should I have not mentioned them? I have a manuscript. Gosh, that word sounds pretentious. I'd be content living in a yurt by a clean stream. I...

What am I?

As a child, I took after St. Augustine, without ever knowing it. I was raised Christian and felt a sort of pressure to claim that title. I didn't. I chose Jainism. I learned early that people will talk one way, and walk another. I met people who were wicked and smart,...

Permaculture 101

"Permaculture is revolution disguised as gardening." — Mike Feingold Gardening 101 Gardening is a rather cheap and accessible hobby. Without much space, much can be accomplished in containers. The complaint I've heard before is you might spend $100 and save $5 on...

It’s turtles the whole way down

Have you yet eaten from the tree of life? Do you understand yet? When you've digested a bit, you'll understand that every war has been a brother war. We are all the same family. There are hidden things, right before your eyes. All the things are set. I have doubts and...

When we left

When we left, we took with us, the stories of our youth, and though, we may have embellished them or changed a name along the way, I like to think they're the same--the same as the stories told long ago, under the same sky. 

Solvitur ambulando

To do anything at all, you have to first complete half of it. And then after that, the remaining half, and then...  If we go on like this, it seems if one is to do anything at all, one will encounter an intractable infinity of steps in their way. Rather than busying...

Blueprint for a rewarding life

Adopt good strategies, and build habits around them. Look for processes that scale well or exhibit decreasing marginal cost e.g. cooking healthy meals at home in bulk Sacrificing a minimal amount of resources to prevent larger, future risks e.g. working out or saving...

Dear Friend

Friend, Please remember that to err and learn something is not an error at all. If you should ever feel inadequate, know that the grandest processes have sculpted and refined your being for billions upon billions of years. The same forces yielding canyons and...

A Dead Man’s Vision

I will die. I write for you, whoever you are. We might be living, together, now, but as time passes, that becomes increasingly unlikely. This writing is for those of you who outlive me and those of you who inherit the earth after my generation's passing. This is a...

What is a good strategy?

I hope to lay out a definition of a good strategy. In order to follow along with my thoughts, we need to be on the same page with respect to a couple terms. Resources are things like money, time, effort, raw material, and even immaterial things like mood and memories....

Advice (that’s mostly for myself) II

Imagine you were now dead, or had not lived before. Now, view the rest of your life as a bonus. The world can be improved by your actions. It's made better everytime you: Do more with less Give away your surpluses Share good ideas Try to transform yourself for the...