💡This piece is an extracted shard and active working model derived from the deep dive narrative, Finding My Way. While the deep dive essay charts the 30-year retrospective arc, this series isolates the inflection points in real time—examining career phase transitions, the trap of competence, and the paradigm
Do I know Myself? Right when I thought that I found a way forward in my life and in work, I find myself right back at an eerily similar feeling position. Full circle. Once again feeling drained, open to new possibilities, wrestling with how I can make them real, and
Living in the Messiness
Traversing the Liminal Space I have been struggling to find the words for what I am trying to say. I know times are rough; for many, the world looks dark. We feel left behind, crawling through the gloom, feeling for a path we think is forward, yet possessing no compass
Executive Summary: The Structural Trap The Premise: We are entering a “Jobless Recovery” fueled by a forcing function we’ve seen thrice before: an economic contraction that permanently replaces routine labor with the technology of the previous boom. The Pattern: The 88% Rule: Since the mid-1980s, nearly all routine
The Pattern is the Point Welcome to Fire in the Cave. If you’re here, you likely feel that the “official” version of reality—the headlines, the job market reports, the corporate AI hype—doesn’t quite match the ground-level reality you’re experiencing. I’m David Howe. For
How to Maneuver
A Timeline, A Mechanism, and a Question Nobody Is Asking
This is part 3 of the Global Opt Out Series. Part 1 and Part 2. The Economics The Math Has Been Stuck Since the 1990s From the last post, the Hikikomori, Sampo/N-po, NEET, and Quiet Quitters were introduced and some baseline characteristics. Why? The global opt-out cases
NEET all around
The Fire in the Cave Stack
Announcing fireinthecave.com and fireinthecave.x
pattern recognition
A methodology for seeing what you don't even know to look for.
n=1 experimentation
Competent and Drained
pattern recognition
Why I Bought a Mac Instead of Waiting
systems thinking
Introduction