On The Fly

In this episode. The Best Telescope By Patrick Ball Your telescope comes home in a box full of cheer, with galaxies promised and wonders quite near. The pictures shout WOW! The words say you’ll see. The whole universe—easy!—Just wait, you’ll agree. You open the box. Oh my, what a sight! There are tubes, knobs, and manuals . . . wait, that’s not right. It looks like it’s English, but maybe it’s not? So you build it–eventually–with the patience you've got. Then nighttime arrives. And suddenly— Yawn — You’re tired. You’re sleepy. You’re ready for dawn. The rig is too heavy. It’s bulky and grand. It’s cold to the touch, and it’s tricky to stand. It needs an alignment! It needs a new cord! The batteries died (and your brain is just bored). There’s an app that needs updating—right now, of course— While the telescope sulks like a stubborn ole’ horse. The couch calls your name with its soft, cozy light, so the telescope waits… just one more night. Then next week. Then someday. It slips out...

In this special bonus episode, Boy on a Beam. In a world long ago, when the days moved quite slow, Before buzzes and beeps and the fast things we know, A boy sat quite still on a very fine day, Just staring at nothing . . . and thinking away. No tablets! No gadgets! No screens shining bright! No earbuds stuck in from morning till night. No lists, no charts, and no chores to be done. He just sat there thinking—that's quiet-time fun! His name was Young Albert. He sat in his chair, Thinking of things that weren’t really there. “Suppose,” said Young Albert, with eyes open wide, “I ran super fast with my arms by my side! Suppose I ran faster than anyone knew, And caught up to sunshine that zoomed past me—too! If I hopped on its back for a light-speedy ride, What secrets would I find tucked away deep inside?” “Would stars look like sprinkles, all shiny and small? Would UP feel like sideways? Would BIG feel like Tall?” He giggled and wondered and thought, and he dreamed, Till his head fel...

In this episode. The Thought Experiment–Revisited The Boy on a Light Beam In 1895, a sixteen-year-old boy did something we rarely allow ourselves to do anymore. He stared into space and let his mind wander. No phone. No notes. No “Optimization Hacks” for his morning routine. Just a question: What would happen if I chased a beam of light—and actually caught it? That boy was Albert Einstein . And that single act of curiosity—a Gedankenexperiment , a thought experiment—eventually cracked open Newton’s tidy universe and rearranged our understanding of time itself. Not bad for an afternoon of daydreaming. Imagine if Einstein had been “productive” instead. He would have logged the light-beam idea into a Notion database, tagged it #CareerGrowth, and then promptly ignored it to attend a forty-five-minute “Sync” about the color of the departmental logo. He’d have a high Efficiency Score—and we’d still be stuck in a Newtonian universe , wondering why the Wi-Fi is slow. In a post I wrote back in...

In this episode, Shaping the World—Within by Patrick Ball The world has gotten very good . . . at interrupting us. It lives in our pockets. Buzzing. Vibrating. Tapping us on the shoulder with breaking news, political friction, global crises, and a steady stream of what’s gone wrong since breakfast. It’s a kind of “gotcha” world — designed to keep us looking down. At the screen. At the fear. And, every so often, at the clock . . . wondering how the day slipped past so quickly. But here at On the Fly , we take a slightly different posture. Not denial. Not disengagement. Just a small, intentional tilt of the head. First—there’s the power of the lens. You still get to choose where you aim your attention. While the world debates the headlines, you can look past the pale. Point a telescope at the Milky Way , and you’re not escaping reality—you’re widening it. Wonder doesn’t erase worry. But it reminds us that worry isn’t the whole picture. Then there’s the quiet strength of small th...

🎩   In this special episode. How to Un-Work the Old-Fashioned Way It’s 2026! Yes— this is the year! A different kind of start—you feel it right here? No lists! No demands! No fix-all-your-flaws! No “New You by Tuesday!” No rules! No laws! Those resolutions? Bah! Dusty and dry! We’ve tried fixing everything —so let’s ask why. Why rush and correct and improve and compare, When noticing quietly gets you right there ? So here’s a new project—no charts, no clocks, No boxes to check in your mental inbox. It’s bigger than busy and smaller than grand, It’s called Un-Working —now give me your hand! Un-Working’s not quitting or hiding away, It’s setting things down that shout “Hurry! Hey!” The hustle! The bustle! The faster-than-fast! The gotta-win-now or you’re stuck in the past! That’s the work of Un-Working— plop! —set it free! The titles! The labels! The “Look-At-Me!” The crown that kept sliding and pinching your head— You never looked comfy . . . let’s try this instead: Pick up a tel...

In this episode. 2026—The Year of the Great Un-Working Welcome to On the Fly . If you’re new here, this is a place for noticing—the small, easily missed moments that quietly turn out to matter. It’s part reflection, part curiosity, and occasionally part grease-stained bicycle rag. If you’re searching for life hacks, hustle culture, or a seven-step plan to optimize your morning coffee, you may have taxied onto the wrong runway. But if you’ve ever felt the itch to slow down and look around—welcome aboard. We begin 2026 by analyzing the blog post below. Traditional resolutions are often just "re-work"—tasks we assign ourselves to become more efficient cogs. In the 2026 era of Un-Working, a resolution isn't a goal; it’s an unlearning. Join Jim & Chloe, our AI analysis team, with the help of NotebookLM, as they unpack, explore, and expand on this blog post. Happy 2026! If you’re like us, you spent the last week of 2025 doing three things remarkably well:  Avoiding unfinish...