The Puzzle
Have you ever found an old jigsaw puzzle tucked away in a closet or under the bed? Something about it draws you in. You clear a table, dump the pieces, and start flipping them over. But before you get too far, it hits you, that uneasy feeling: Are all the pieces here? The question weighs on you, but you work on it anyway, hoping it all comes together.
That’s exactly how I felt when I started this journey. But in my case, I knew from the beginning that some pieces of the puzzle would always be missing. The real question was how many, and whether the missing pieces would keep me from understanding what the puzzle could reveal. Building a worldview is like that. Complete clarity is impossible. We’re trying to make sense of a puzzle without knowing what it is meant to reveal, and with no guarantee that the necessary pieces even exist. Still, I see it as worth working on.
Getting Started
It took me several months to pull my thoughts together. I’d been collecting ideas for over two decades, starting with scribbles on scraps of paper, then typing them into my phone, and eventually recording voice memos. Fun fact: I spent five months thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2023, which gave me plenty of time to reflect and get a lot of those thoughts into my phone. So material definitely wasn’t the problem. I spent about a month sorting through everything, grouping similar ideas, and organizing them into Word documents on my computer. From there, I started writing my final articles.
I had accumulated enough content for hundreds of articles. But after finishing a half dozen, I felt I had enough to start looking into how I would share them. That led to another month of work choosing a domain, setting up a hosting platform, and building my website. Fortunately, my background in software engineering made the technical side manageable. Researching best practices, figuring out how to structure web content, and getting the site up and running was a challenge, but I got it done.
The Hard Part
Oddly enough, building the site wasn’t the hard part. The real challenge was getting comfortable with my work being out in the open. Deep down, I was scared. Scared that it wouldn’t be good enough. That people would read it and think it was shallow, confused, or just not worth their time. I didn’t even have a clear idea for what “good enough” even meant, and doubt crept in.
I stalled. When you’re a perfectionist, it’s hard to let go of the idea that it needs to be perfect before anyone sees it. I told myself I just needed more time to polish things. But the truth is, it was my fear of disappointment.
After about a month of hesitation, I finally worked up the nerve to just go for it. I won’t pretend I had some big breakthrough or sudden surge of confidence. It was more like a quiet decision to stop letting fear run the show. I knew my writing could be better. Some of my ideas were probably half-baked, a few were definitely undercooked, and some would probably be poorly explained. But honestly, that’s going to have to be good enough. No one is perfect. And if I waited until everything was polished and airtight, I’d never share anything at all.
At some point, you either put your thoughts into the world or let them die a quiet death inside your head. I figured even if what I wrote wasn’t perfect, maybe it could still spark something useful. A new idea. A different angle. A conversation that helped.
Maybe this is my way of managing expectations, or maybe it’s just me being real about where I’m at. I don’t love disclaimers and I’m not trying to hide behind one, but I also don’t want to pretend I’ve nailed every point or tied up every loose end. This is me starting the conversation, not ending it.
So with that out of the way, let’s get into what I actually want to explore: how to build a worldview that holds together and makes sense. A solid structure to help us better navigate our world. Something cohesive, consistent, and coherent.
Keep It Straightforward
My goal is to communicate plainly and avoid unnecessary jargon. Some technical terms are hard to avoid, especially if you want to dig deeper into a topic, but I’ll do my best to keep them to a minimum. I also try to steer clear of uncommon vocabulary. I don’t like having to look up words just to follow someone’s writing, and I figure most people feel the same way.
I’m approaching these topics as an informed layman. I don’t have formal training in most of the topics, but I’ve spent plenty of time thinking them through. If there’s any value in what I’m offering, it probably comes from how I mix personal experience, education, and curiosity with a habit of thinking outside the box.
The List
I’m a list guy, so I made a list. Eventually, I’d like to write at lease one article on each topic, but we’ll see how far I get. For now, I’ve included links to some relevant content to help level-set. These references are just for awareness and might not align with my own views. They’re just meant to get the conversation started and lay the groundwork for future articles.
I’m not planning to focus much on academic philosophy. I’m less interested in matching my views to a school of thought and more interested in exploring my own perspective, and hearing yours. Hopefully, the articles make you think, challenge a few assumptions, or at least spark some curiosity. I’m looking forward to digging into as many of these topics as I can and seeing where the conversations take us. The list is in the blog post “Worldview Topics.” Link blow.
