Things to Discuss Over Beer was born out of a few intertwining observations and one compulsion.

One: I seem to read an awful lot of interesting things on the internet every day, enjoy movies or books or even video games crammed with interesting ideas, but then move right on to the next thing. It’s tough to find a moment to mull them over, share them, or debate them with other people. This in turn makes it hard to remember, much less extract any lasting value from, all these constant media inputs.

Two: It drives me nuts when the conversation about any piece of art or journalism ends at “I saw that. It was good.” or “I read that. It was interesting.” People worked hard on this stuff, and all we have for them is a thumbs up or thumbs down. We should all be better at engaging with ideas.

Three: I love getting a few beers with friends in a not-too-loud bar more than just about anything. And my favorite of those nights are the ones where the conversation gets a bit deep — when it goes beyond just the old “Whatcha been up to?” and “How’s work/wife/life these days?” But when faced with that pause once the small talk is exhausted, I could use a good nudge to have the conversations I’d rather be having.

Four: My brain works better when I write regularly, on my own, in full sentences (and sometimes paragraphs!), and I get dumber without some sort of extracurricular project to keep it sharp. That’s just science.

Five: I’ve written a personal blog. A few pop culture/review type blogs. A couple podcasts. Though I really enjoyed doing all of that, they always felt like another in a long line of people doing exactly the same thing. Who needs another opinion?

So the compulsion to keep trying to make something — a project that holds my own interest and possibly provides a service to combat all those things listed above — resulted in this site.

I’m going to try to keep posting 3-5 days a week, sometime around happy hour, as long as I can.

If you find it interesting, or have feedback, I’d love to hear it.

Or maybe you’d like to contribute something? Please get in touch. We can discuss it over beer.