Greetings,
My name is Daniel, and I’m an information security practitioner and writer living in San Francisco, California. Most people come for my tutorials, my essays, or the podcast, but you can find some of my most popular content below. I hope you find something worth your time.
InfoSec
Vulnerability Assessment vs. Penetration TestThese two terms are possibly the most misunderstood in infosec.- How to Build a Successful Information Security Career
- Information Security Interview Questions
Encoding vs. Encryption vs. HashingThere are lots of different ways to modify bits, and they are used for very different purposes.- Obscurity is a Valid Security Layer
- A Future Without Privacy
- When to Use Vulnerability Assessments, Pentesting, Red Team Assessments, and Bug Bounties
- Purple Team Pentests Mean You’re Failing at Red and Blue
Information Security Assessment TypesSeparating the different types of security assessment, e.g., PT, VA, Audit, White/Grey/Black-box, etc.- Information Security Definitions
- The Difference Between Events, Alerts, and Incidents
Technology
My Tutorial SeriesThe collection of my tutorials across information security, Linux, TCP/IP, and many other topics.- Machine Learning is the New Statistics
- A
vimTutorial and Primer - DEVOPS is Fundamentally About Practice and Improvement
- The Difference Between Machine Learning and Statistics
- Evolutionary Algorithms Could be More Significant Than Machine Learning
- A
tcpdumpTutorial and Primer 
The Difference Between URLs and URIsThe technical relationship and differences between URIs and URLs.- Extracting XML Elements Using
xmllint - A Machine Learning Primer
- Less Frequently Used UNIX/Linux Commands
- Encoding vs. Encryption vs. Hashing vs. Obfuscation
- The Difference Between BSD and System V Unix
- Understanding the Blockchain
- Speeding Up NGINX Caching with tempfs
Philosophy
The Difference Between Existentialism, Nihilism, and AbsurdismA discussion of the various ways of dealing with an intrinsic lack of meaning in the universe.- Absolute vs. Practical Free Will
- The Difference Between Pursuing Happiness and Pursuing Meaning
An Evolutionary Explanation of Our Experience of Free WillMy working hypothesis on how we evolved the perception of free will.- Embracing the Illusion of Free Will
- The Future of Happiness as Digital Humans
- Functional Free Will
- Albert Camus’ Absurdism
- The Future of Happiness
The Bible is Fiction: A Collection of EvidenceWays the Bible mirrors previous works of mythology and fiction.- The Best Response to “Atheists are arrogant”
- My Only Shot at Immortality
- Interesting Analysis of Karl Marx’ Writing
- How to See If Your Morality Comes from God
- 3 Reasons the Future Will Think Us Primitive
Creativity
Learning is an Integration ProblemWhat you know doesn’t matter as much as you think. What matters is how you can integrate what you know with what you do every day.- People are More Creative When Thinking Abstractly
Algorithmic LearningAn approach to learning that focuses on integration of new knowledge into established methodologies.- Defining my Passion
- The Relationship Between Relaxation, Fun, and Success
- Concise, Transparent Communication as the Primary Metric of Competency
- Creative Output Requires Quality Inputs
- The Power of Bottom-up (Evolution) vs. Top-down (Design) Thinking
Examples of Design vs. Evolution Thinking in Various IndustriesHow design vs. evolution thinking can be seen throughout various industries.- The Answer to Peak Content is High-quality Curation
- Brainstorming Questions Instead of Answers
Business
How to Raise an Employee’s IQ by 10 Points in 2 MinutesThe key to unlocking your team’s potential has finally been revealed, and it’s probably not what you think it is.- Why You Should Hire Using Evolution vs. Design Thinking
- How AI Will Improve Human Customer Service Right Before it Kills It
- A Business Writing Primer
- The TIGeR Hiring Algorithm
- The Best Interview Question
- You Should Write Email Like the BBC Writes News Stories
- Four Random Thoughts on Creating Good Metrics
Happiness
Want: A Disease Based in Low Self-EsteemHow we find things more attractive because they’re fleeting, and what it means about us.- Creation vs. Collection
- Know Your Life Metrics
- Gratitude is the Epicenter of Happiness
Are You a Producer or a Nurturer?Exploring the differences and overlaps between those who primarily produce vs. those who primarily create other people.- Hormones, Narratives, and Meaning
- In the Future We’ll All be Superheroes and Princesses
- Why Music Makes us Feel Good
- Self as Anchor
Culture
The Moral Cowardice of LiberalismHow the far left is attacking progressivism by refusing to stand for its humanist ideals.- Honesty as a Response to Public Rudeness
- Advantages to 50’s Christianity?
- The Difference Between Bigotry and Rejecting Bigotry
Profit vs. the Middle ClassThe fundamental struggle between stated goals in the Western world.- Seeking a Universal Law for Tolerance and Intolerance
- Embrace the Moderates
- A Brilliant Way to Detect Bias
- The Potential Suffering Index (PSI)
Science
The Merged Pothole Model of ConsciousnessWhy synthetic intelligence is not likely to look anything like human intelligence.- The Inevitable Purpose of AI Will be Jailbreaking the Universe
- Does Parenting Matter Far Less Than Genetics?
- The Best Man-made Global Warming Data Comes from ExxonMobil
P vs. NP ExplainedWhat P vs. NP means, and why it matters.- How to Fall in Love With Anyone
- People Reject Truth When the Conclusion Disagrees With Them
- Accuracy vs. Precision
Politics
When Logic Only Comes from Extremists, Expect Bad Things to HappenHow the regressive left is doing severe damage to its ideals by staying silent on sensitive issues.- America Needs a Prime Directive
- The Hierarchy of Citizenship
- The Other Half of Changing Someone’s Opinion
- Do Guns Make Us More or Less Safe?
- How to Debate an Idiot
- Profit vs. the Middle Class
The Truth About Earth in 2015A bulleted summary on the state of the world in 2015.- The Problem with Free Markets and Core Services
- Three Places I Break from Liberals
- Three Ways the Left is Anti-science
- 5 Reasons to Expect More Public Shootings
Personal
2 Things I Learned in My ThirtiesI learned my two most important lessons in my thirties, but I wish they’d come earlier.- The Most Important Skill
The Depressing Truth About Friendship in AdulthoodNobody tells you that your friends scatter after high school and college, and that they’re not coming back.- What EDC Means to Me
- I Want to Be Good at Giving Gifts
- Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
- Three Things You Should Do the First Week of January
- What I’m Afraid Of
- What I’ve Learned From 15 Years of Blogging