Draft Ideas

By James Shelley

Adventures in second guessing the obvious

I think of Draft Ideas as a long, asynchronous a chat at a pub or on a patio—roaming and nonlinear; thematically blown about by the winds of the conversation. Topically willy-nilly.

As the title suggests, just about everything here is in development, half-baked, raw or exploratory. This is not a publication on current affairs. I am not here to hawk valuable insider’s perspectives, hot takes, “thought leadership,” or expert analysis. Quite the opposite. This space is an ugly, hot mess of uncertainty, hypotheses, and brain dumps. Think: throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. The only niche here is a flagrant disregard for niches.

Who would want to read this chaos? Presumably other generalists and dilettantes. Others who, like myself, suspect that life is too short to pretend like we know what we are talking about. If there is a common theme in these pages, it probably has something to do with the pleasure of mulling over new perspectives simply for the pleasure of new perspectives. An ode to the carnal amusements of curiosity. There is no destination, no promised revelation, and almost certainly no answers. Draft Ideas is a process, not a product.