Field Notes
On the Frontier
This is a living laboratory. It features experiments in human-AI collaboration, creativity, and business management.
Finding the Deeper Sky (2026)
For fourteen-year-old Koa, the "Island" is more than a place on the map. It’s the humid scent of the mangroves, the rhythmic pulse of the surf, and the two best friends who have been his only constant through his parents’ crumbling marriage. But on Monday morning, it all ends. A flight to Seattle, a new school, and a life of "summer visits" are all that remain.
With seventy-two hours left on the clock, Koa, Boz, and Mako retreat to a final sanctuary: a "frankensteined" virtual world built from their own collective dreams. It was supposed to be a goodbye. Instead, the simulation glitches, stitching their three separate levels into a single, seamless prehistoric gauntlet that refuses to let them go.
To conquer the game and save a piece of their home, the trio must protect a single, fragile sea turtle egg through a world that is literally deleting itself behind them. From the suffocating stillness of the Mangrove Swamp to the mechanical terror of the Raptor Nest to the bone-crushing gravity of the Obsidian Peak, they learn that true bonds run deeper than code.
In a world made of sharp edges and falling ash, Koa is about to discover that "conquering" is not about winning. It’s about knowing when to let go.
Using AI Without Letting It Do Too Much
Even though I didn’t use what AI suggested, I liked the idea of bridging, so I kept that. I also like that idea that the website would be a collaboration between (or a combintation of) the traditional and the new. So even when I don’t adopt the writing, it’s often very helpful to have something to consider and to pick the parts that I connect with, and then go from there.
What I’m Learning from Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand 2.0
Most businesses tell confusing stories and that’s not what customers want. They want clarity. Your story needs to be very clear. The human brain is wired to survive and if you want to make customers pay attention, then you need to tap into that impulse. Eliminate the noise. Highlight what you offer that will help them “survive and thrive.”