Welcome!

I've been a broad and eclectic reader for a long time now, and my compulsion to write comes not so much from a belief that I have anything startlingly original to say, but more from the conviction that I might have some ability to restate a broad range of important truths in a reasonably clear and succinct fashion. 

I write as The Practical Utopian because my twin desires are to be: 

• Down-to-earth: I try to write short pieces explaining big ideas that will be broadly useful; 

• Idealistic: I write with the goal of helping all of us achieve better outcomes, both for ourselves and for those around us. 

I also tend to be a bit of a contrarian, and so I hope that my work might provide a welcome alternative to much of the writing that is pushed at us on a daily basis – I'm generally not trying to jump on the latest trending topic in the current news cycle, but rather writing thoughtful pieces on subjects of enduring interest that will be worth reading today, but also worth coming back to in the future. 

You might well ask me for some qualifications to indicate why my stuff might be worth reading, but I'm afraid I don't really have any. I've never tried to make a living with my writing, so I don't have a list of professional writing credits; and I'm trying to pull together worthwhile ideas from a broad range of sources, so I'm not drawing on any unique expertise. In other words, I am both an amateur and a generalist, and I can only hope that you may find, as I have, that these twin traits are helpful to my mission, rather than proving hindrances. 

I tend to come up with a new post anywhere from once a week to once a month.

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