Now

Updated September 22, 2026

A now page, in Derek Sivers’s sense: what I’m doing at this point, updated when it changes rather than on a schedule.

Two things have my attention right now.

The 250th

I’m enjoying all the special history events popping up for the 250th.

I recently did a tour of five historic sites in Whitemarsh Township, something that had never been offered before. The response was positive enough that they’re planning to do more next year.

In a couple of weeks I’m spending a full day at a conference on what it was like for the people who lived through the Revolution. Most of what’s being presented comes from journal articles that aren’t published yet. What I’m most curious about is the sources behind them — those are sources I could use for family history too.

Making AI easy for family historians

2026 is the year AI went from “chat and response” to “go do this work.” Getting it to do the work reliably is hard, and steering it efficiently enough to be worth the effort is its own problem.

It’s still too easy to warp an LLM into your own thinking and biases and end up with false output. I do believe reliable is possible, and building toward it is the exciting part.