Hyperbio

One thousand postcards

2026-06-21T19:35:08.838529+00:00

For more than a decade (with a brief pause during the COVID years), I’ve hosted an annual Christmas card writing party at the office. We invite friends, provide all the cards, stamps, and supplies, and spend an evening writing cards to loved ones, old friends, and occasionally complete strangers. At the end of the night, we gather them all up and send them into the world. Over the years, we've mailed cards to nearly 100 countries.

I've always loved these evenings. There's something surprisingly meaningful about sitting down and writing a few thoughtful words to another person. I enjoyed it so much that I even held Valentine's card-writing parties some years.

The internet has made it possible to communicate with almost anyone in the world, at any moment. Yet many of us feel less connected than ever. Most of our communication is instant (hello WhatsApp and text messages) and quickly forgotten. A postcard is the opposite. It is slow. It takes effort. It travels through the hands of strangers. It occupies physical space. It can be pinned to a wall, tucked into a book, displayed on a desk, or rediscovered years later at the bottom of a drawer.

For the past few months (actually a year or two!), I've had a small idea rattling around in my head: The One Thousand Postcard Project. The premise is simple. I want to send 1,000 postcards to 1,000 people. Real postcards, written by hand, sent through the mail to people I have never met.

If you'd like to receive one, fill out this form. At some point in the coming weeks or months, a postcard with your name on it will find its way to your mailbox. I want to see what happens when a thousand small moments of attention are sent out into the world. I want to learn a little about the people who choose to participate. And I want to create a tiny network of strangers connected by something tangible. So let me send you a postcard.

Running Every Street

2026-01-03T22:59:56.177054+00:00

Inspired by Rickey Gates who ran every single street in San Francisco and then some and Ben Pobjoy, who completed 900 marathons around the world, I am going to walk and/or run all of Old Toronto's streets. Emphasis on Old Toronto!

I’ve hit a wall with my long distance running and walking, and I am hoping this project will help me get back on track. I am not going to worry about mileage or pace to start, but instead I will focus on consistency and rediscovering the joy of moving through Toronto on foot.

Toronto is big, which means this running/walking project will be a multi-year project. But I’m not thinking that far ahead yet. For now, I’m focused on week one: choosing a starting point, figuring you how to track the streets I’ve covered, and getting out the door consistently. Luckily, I enjoy the winter, and there’s something especially satisfying about exploring Toronto streets in the quiet of the colder months. Wish me luck!

Book: Emergent Tokyo, Designing the Spontaneous City

2026-01-01T22:57:07.795457+00:00

If you are travelling to Tokyo, the city that continues to inspire the world, I recommend getting a copy of Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City by Jorge Almazán (ORO Editions).

I have been reading it as I explored Tokyo and found that Tokyo, despite being a massive city – almost the entire population of Canada fits in Tokyo – remains a very functional, intimate and highly enjoyable city. Walking the streets of Tokyo, you will stumble upon very small businesses occupying tiny little spaces. I found the breadth of the businesses and spaces pretty mind boggling, and looking for an explanation I came across a passage in Jorge Almazán’s interview in Bloomberg:

One feature of Tokyo’s most dynamic neighborhoods is the abundance of small businesses. How have these areas been able to foster and preserve small businesses?

JM: There are a number of reasons small business in Tokyo is so vibrant. A huge one that you can look at cities around the world and ask is how many flexible microspaces are available across your city. By microspaces, I mean small little nooks and crannies in the commercial or residential sectors of the city that you can do a lot of different things with and don’t need to pay a huge amount of money in rent.

This is going to sound wild to anyone who lives in the US, but for any two-story rowhouse in Tokyo, the owner can by right operate a bar, a restaurant, a boutique, a small workshop on the ground floor — even in the most residential zoned sections of the city. That means you have an incredible supply of potential microspaces. Any elderly homeowner could decide to rent out the bottom floor of their place to some young kid who wants to start a coffee shop, for example. When you look at what we call yokocho alleyways — charming, dingy alleyways that grew out of the black markets post–World War II, which are some of the most iconic and beloved sections of the city now — it’s all of these tiny little bars and restaurants just crammed into every available space.

Amazing use of microspaces! Mind boggling to think about the hoops a business in North America has to jump through to secure a tiny itsy bit of space in a city!

Book: On The Move: A Life

2026-01-01T22:10:54.263961+00:00

On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks

“On the Move” is a beautiful blend of science and humanism. A reflection on a life lived with relentless curiosity, a love for humanity and an unwavering passion for understanding the mysteries of the mind. “On the Move” isn’t just a biography; it is a love letter to life, a journey alongside a man who lived life on his terms and taught us to see beauty in the complexities of the human mind.