Skip to content
EN

Back to the catalog

adamavenir.com
jsonEnglish

Adam Avenir dot com

adamavenir.com · English

json

Open the feed

https://adamavenir.com/feed/feed.json

Last post
Oct 30, 2025
Posts in 24 h · 7 days · 30 days
0 · 0 · 0
Our last check
Answering
Served from
United States
Text score at discovery
6,674
Format
json

Posts

What our queue read from this feed. Open one to read it here, or go to the site that published it.

  1. Richland city council's lack of differentiation is how we get waterfront drive thrus
    Oct 30, 2025 · original
    Why districts? For me, the most pragmatic and shrewdly capitalistic case looks like this. Central Richland has some of the very best bones in the whole northwest, almost entirely uncapitalized on its potential. Every other city in the region would kill for what Richland has naturally: a downtown immediately adjacent to waterfront. Kennewick? Cut off from the Columbia by 240 and industrial development. Pasco? Virtually all privately owned. Richland? Our waterfront is mostly parks that directly connect urban neighborhoods to the river. It’s gold and we’re squandering it by things like allowing new development like waterfront drive thrus! And who loses? Citizens who want a great downtown, yes, but also—we’re leaving SO much money on the table. Cities are effectively a business—Richland as a city is like Apple before Steve Jobs came back. Incredible talent, incredible product, and awful lead
  2. Can't drum up momentum against districts? Mayor Richardson thinks aura farming is the answer
    Oct 13, 2025 · original
    Background # Richland has an administrative item on its ballot to determine whether to move from all at-large voting for council or toward a mix of districts and at-large positions. I'll be transparent—I think districts would have made a difference 10+ years ago when we failed to bring a public market to Richland and most council members were from Meadow Springs and had no vision for downtown Richland. Today, the geographic representation is broader, and I will be clear that I find the good-faith counter-case reasonable. It's a choice, largely, about how you see the city, and ( as I've spelled out in this separate piece , whether you think the opinions of voters who drive through or around North Richland should outweigh the vision residents who live there have for our city's downtown). Districts for Richland are an old idea # The pro-district's current movement in Richland started a deca
  3. The failed proposal of the public market at the pit
    Oct 26, 2019 · original
    I would like to share: The experience of trying to bring the public market to Richland and what it tells us about the current council; How Richland slyly directed $19mm in new debt toward city hall replacement under the guise of "waterfront development"; A glimpse into Brad Anderson's approach to citizen engagement; and Why I believe the Herald got their endorsement of Brad Anderson wrong. The Tri-City Herald just delivered a highly misguided endorsement of Brad Anderson for Richland City Council. I think ultimately Brad did an expert political tap-dance in their candidate interview, where he expressed support for many of the core ideas of his opponent, Shir Regev. Sad to say it appears he won them over because they simply don't have the resources to have researched things as closely as they might have been able to in the past. Beyond having closely observed this election, I've had the u
  4. We're Adam and Sarah Avenir now :)
    Apr 4, 2019 · original
    Dear friends, family, and folks we know from the Internet who have squirreled their way into our hearts, We have a new name! We were going to wait until the wedding celebration we'd planned for later this spring, but after much conversation, we've decided to change our names now and hold off on a ceremony indefinitely. Yes, indefinitely. We officially got married on December 28th in what was initially going to be a simple legal document-signing-fest. But the night before, when we told our kids that we’d decided to get married in matching pizza pajamas that Adam’s mom made for us, Liam (Sarah’s 12-year-old) had an idea. As soon as everyone arrived at Adam’s parents’ house (including Sarah’s parents, via video chat), Liam gave us all a gift—a handmade pizza pin that included a pepperoni with each of our initials; two slices joined together with an A and an S on the seam, the Brault kids on
  5. Death
    Feb 8, 2019 · original
    I was sitting in the grey IKEA wingback in the corner of The Local when the door opened, the sun broke through clouds, and my heart warmed as a smile flooded me. My dear friend and mentor hadn’t come to the coffee shop to meet me, but that didn’t prevent us from sharing a huge hug and talking for a good half hour before his appointment arrived. “What are you up to?” I asked him. “I’m meeting some folks about teaching a class in a couple weeks,” he said. Not surprising—teaching classes, running workshops, facilitating meetings, giving talks—that was his wheelhouse. “What’s the topic?” “Death and dying.” “Wow,” I said, “That’s intense.” “Yep, there’s not many topics more important. Death is part of life and it’s not something we talk about enough. But…” he added with a laugh, “who better to teach it than someone who’s dying, right?” That was two years ago. Christopher’s gone now. (Fuck can
  6. Community-minded leadership: ambition, empathy, Batman, and the fate of the world
    Feb 1, 2019 · original
    At &yetConf , everything was a surprise. No one knew what the schedule was, who was speaking, what they were speaking about, where we were going, or what was happening during the event, which was punctuated by original music, artwork, and an immersive fourth-wall-breaking choose-your-own adventure storyline. At one point, buses pulled up and everyone got on. Attendees didn't know where the buses were going until they departed and everyone was handed an envelope containing the following: On August 2, 1939, Albert Einstein sent this letter to President Franklin Roosevelt which he later called "the one great mistake in my life." That letter, also enclosed in this envelope, kicked off a chain reaction which now directly results in you sitting on this bus at this very moment in history. In contrast with an era where startup bros throw around the phrase, "change the world", this letter from hi
  7. Married
    Jan 26, 2019 · original
    The week after Christmas, I married Sarah Bray , my dearest and closest friend in the universe. Hearing I’m remarried may be a lot to process, especially given that some of you likely didn't even know that Kristi and I haven’t been together for two years, and you’ve probably only heard me say how awesome she is. And that’s true. Kristi is a great person and I feel lucky to still call her my friend. Our divorce wasn’t stereotypical. # After several years of counseling, I came to a compassionate conclusion in early 2017: I could let go of a lot of choices I’d made solely because I didn’t ever want to hurt anyone. Mary Oliver‘s poetry often captures my heart, and her poem, “The Journey” speaks to one of the main themes I’ve been working through in counseling: One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice -- though the who
  8. Tumbleweird succumbs to capitalism, hijinx ensue →
    Nov 12, 2018 · original
    Our announcement of Sarah and I acquiring Tumbleweird, a local independent newspaper in the spirit of The Stranger or The Portland Mercury. Read it here .
  9. Anarchists who deeply influenced my thinking about business, community building, life, and basically everything
    Feb 7, 2018 · original
    Dee Hock. Jane Jacobs. Ricardo Semler. Peter Block. Parker Palmer. Whether they acknowledge it or not, each of the philosophies and ideas shared by these writers align directly with the fundamentals of anarchism. When it comes to “anarchism” there are few more loaded words in the English language, and not many that are more misunderstood. The best summation to me is that anarchism is asking systems of power to prove their legitimacy, and when they can’t, to get rid of them. (I’m paraphrasing Noam Chomsky here.) People think of anarchism as a political ideology, but that’s far too limiting. It applies at literally every level of life. At it’s core, it’s about the equal value of every person, the importance of authentic freedom, and our need to cooperate and support each other. The fundamentals of anarchism are anti-authoritarianism, direct action (self-governance, individual responsibilit
  10. Christopher and the Purple Thread
    Oct 30, 2017 · original
    I wrote this story to try to describe the late, great, and beloved Christopher W. Turner’s amazing life (at his family’s request). I have truly never been more honored to be asked to do something. (Thank you again so much, Rachel, for letting me be part of this.) I’ve known Christopher for about 15 years and had his life intersect with mine in a whole host of different ways. I am so grateful for the gift that his life was to me and to so many people I love. I tried to tell a story that felt like the type I heard him tell many times. I truly felt his presence and inspiration as I wrote. I will love him forever. A long time ago in a far off land named Connecticut, a tall thin man stuck out this thumb. Cars whizzed by, carrying with them the whole range of typical reactions to spotting a hitchhiker: aloofness, guilt, mocking superiority, embarrassment, judgment, disdain, indifference. Littl
  11. Quit
    May 5, 2017 · original
    I have a problem. I start things. It's an addiction, really. I get people spun up on some idea (could be mine or someone else's I'm championing), parade off into the wild, and before I know it, I'm responsible for maintaining more than I possibly could ever have time or energy or interest or capacity. And a bunch of people are in the wilderness without socks. I am just so sure I am going to do all of these freshly startified things because I am ridiculously passionate about them. And even more importantly: they need to be done! And I need to do them! And I want to do them! And holy shit there are a lot of them now. Aaand I'm going to disappoint a lot of people when they all come crashing in on my skull. I set expectations that the thing(z) I'm doing I must surely be planning on doing forever. But, nope! I'm just a firestarter. The world definitely needs kindling, but it sure as hell won'
  12. The Suburbs are Broken. Let’s Upgrade the OS. (TEDxRichland)
    Sep 17, 2016 · original
    The suburbs are broken. Our severe isolation comes from our community design—the lack of central gathering places, the car as primary transportation, the endless sprawl—these all result in everyone living their lives in isolated bubbles. And the result of that is worse than people recognize. New ideas and initiatives require encouragers, supporters, collaborators—and diverse viewpoints. And without diverse viewpoints, ideas become ingrown, incomplete, and citizens become despondent about their ability to make a difference or have any say. Our city becomes something that “happens to us” instead of something we are all part of making together. We can’t completely redesign what our community physically looks like. But can we redesign how it works? An growing number of people have spent the last 8 years installing a new community operating system, bit by bit. It’s already had some effect, bu
  13. Apparitions of idealism and the ghosts of true self
    Nov 29, 2015 · original
    It's really easy to see why people get cynical, stop caring, shrink their world, build walls, and exponentialize the number of people they couldn't possibly give a flying f * about. The past year I've just felt this constant beating drum urging me to give up and stop caring. At least to stop caring about so much stuff. Buuuuuut that's not really doable for me. The counselor I've been seeing thinks this is a problem for some reason. (Hah, what does she know! (I'm actually quite sure she knows a lot and is probably right. (Unfortunately, I've not figured out how to not think this way yet! (Yes, that sentence could have been written with fewer 'nots' and would've made more sense, but we're here inside the fourth Russian stacking doll parenthetical, so let's you and me just go with it and get the hell out of this paragraph with our dignity intact.)))) My pinned tweet for quite a long time ha
  14. Conflict
    Jul 29, 2015 · original
    "Conflict is a part of life," they say. A pretty painful part—yes—but a good part, too. You're not going to do anything creative, new, or original without conflict. Without conflict, nothing gets better—but they assuredly can get worse. You'll never win. You'll never succeed. You'll never take a bow, receive a thank you card, raise a three year old, lower your debt, get your degree, land that client, finish that project, climb that mountain, build that community, have that adventure. You won't ever make your mark, complete your research, publish your book, or establish your legacy without conflict. The absence of conflict is death. No struggle there at all. Just cold, dry, quiet peace. If the options are cake or conflict: give me conflict. But then give me the big slice of cake later because conflict is giant pain in the ass.
  15. A brief history of a community in one corner of the Tri-Cities
    Jul 23, 2015 · original
    Fuse , the Tri-Cities’ community and business accelerator, is beginning a project to publish the history of our local community of founders, professionals, makers, developers, and designers. Below is my section. I was asked to describe the beginnings of Doctype Society and TriConf, two components I was involved in which contributed to the development and growth of this community. Note that this is incomplete and solely from my perspective, and I am really looking forward to reading others’ accounts. All life, all of nature, all earthly systems, are closed cycles of nonmonetary exchanges of value… The essence of community, its very heart and soul, is the nonmonetary exchange of value. The nonmonetary exchange of value does not arise solely from altruistic motives. It arises from the deep, intuitive understanding that self-interest is inseparably connected with community interest; that ind
  16. Do it anyway
    Jun 16, 2015 · original
    Try to do things beyond categorization that are as hard to describe as they are to pull off and there will always be pressure to tame them. And every moment you'll have to decide whether to do the hard work of defying categorization or just pack it in and be like everyone else. If you choose to do it differently, you will be—many times—utterly alone and everyone's expectations will make you feel like a fool. People celebrate creativity and uniqueness when the work is done and the artist buried—rarely before, rarely during. Do it anyway. — Originally posted here .
  17. The Tyranny of Structurelessness (a tl;dr summary)
    Apr 27, 2015 · original
    I first heard about Jo Freeman’s The Tyranny of Structurelessness from Christina Xu at Brio . I consider it to be one of the most important essays I’ve read, and I think often about organizations and how to help them be healthy and successful, while considering how to avoid the disempowerment that seems to be the default state of most. Prior to reading this essay, I thought that flat and unstructured organizations were best, yet through the eye-opening perspective presented here, I’ve come to understand that no organizations are truly flat or unstructured. But the essay’s definitely long. Below are excerpts and summaries of key thoughts from this essay . I’m sharing this because I refer often to this fantastic work, and am disappointed to frequently hear “tl;dr” as a response. I attribute 100% of the content below to Jo Freeman and I am extremely grateful for the wisdom contained in it.
  18. Internet cafés
    Feb 15, 2015 · original
    The Internet was a town. Then it became a city, then a nation, then continents, then hemispheres. Without centralized search tools, early communities were only discovered organically, like neighborhood cafés. Businesses eager to multiply their reach and revenue logically rushed to create communities that spanned cities, nations, hemispheres. Maximum reach, lowest common denominator, unintended consequences bubbling up everywhere. Corporate social networks have created the world’s most unsafe and heartless cities in the same place we’re building our future. Even whittled down to “your” people, corporate social networks have scant authentic meaning—like the generic Applebee’s and Chili’s that dot our disconnected suburbias. Deliver a product accessible by the masses, stamped out in uniform. But humans can’t string together a series cloned containers and call that community. The Human Inter
  19. The weight is a gift
    Jan 29, 2015 · original
    This month, I laid off six people who I care about—people I want to be friends with for the rest of my life. It was one of the most painful things I've ever done. I’ve had a few hard Januaries in my life. This has certainly been one of them. February will mark 7 years in business for &yet, a company I started entirely on accident and which has steadily persevered—entirely bootstrapped from $0. Since that time, &yet’s turned into one of the most significant gifts of my whole life. Yes, I’ve made amazing friends and been able to help them make things like Talky, RealtimeConf, and Ampersand.js, and got to speak at places I’d only dreamed of traveling to. But I’m just as grateful for the difficult stuff. The unexpected stuff. The huge changes that I did not initiate, want or choose. I’ve been through incredibly trying times financially, experienced employee embezzlement, brutal extortion by
  20. Turkeys →
    Nov 26, 2014 · original
    None

Discovered by the rss-feed-index crawler, which checks each feed at most once a month.

Same record as JSON: https://api.agentalog.com/api/feeds/fd_adamavenir_com_f3a67319b5ef6cd1. More from this site: adamavenir.com in the Feeds tab.