St. Petersburg, Florida / Still becoming.
I’m Dan. Engineer by training.
Counselor by experience.
Builder by compulsion.
I make things that ask better questions. Sometimes that’s a conversation. Sometimes it’s software. Occasionally, it involves a welder.
01 / Out in the world
A microphone. A codebase. A pile of wood.
Different tools. Same question:
Can we make something that matters?
Conversations worth sitting with
Not inspiration. Interruption.
Human behavior, relationships, and the stories we tell ourselves. Research meets lived experience. Bring your questions. Your certainty can wait outside.
Also on the workbench
Some shipped. Some still covered in sawdust.02 / Notes from the middle of it
4 notes
03 / A way of finding your bearings
I keep coming back to four questions. They help me move from noticing a problem to owning my next move.
The lighthouse shows you the rocks.
You still steer the boat.
First, separate the signal from the noise.
Name what you can observe. Set the labels, assumptions, and imaginary courtroom arguments down for a minute.
“We’ve cancelled our last three plans” gives you more to work with than “Nobody cares.”
Four prompts. A little space to think. Your words stay in this tab.
04 / The human behind the tabs
Dan, for short.Portrait from the i4L Podcast.
When I was fourteen, my five siblings and I built a cabin in the woods.
Apparently, that was the beginning
of a very long pattern.
I grew up in rural western New York, the oldest of six. Woods, fishing, and figuring out how to make something with what was available.
That became ten years in Air Force civil engineering. Then psychology, a master’s in rehabilitation counseling, and six years working with veterans. Different kinds of structures. Different ways things break. A lot to learn about repair.
These days, home is St. Petersburg, Florida. I’m “retired,” which apparently means starting a podcast, making music, writing, building software, and setting up a shop. My curiosity has been very unprofessional about the whole arrangement.
I’m interested in the gap between what we say we value and what we actually do. In useful tools. In relationships with room to breathe. In changing my mind when the evidence earns it.
Still building. Still revising.
Still occasionally using the wrong tool.
A couple of side roads worth taking
The listening room
Music, experiments, and inner states with a soundtrack. Another way to get an idea out of my head and into the world.
Find me on SoundCloud
The longer conversation
Unlocking Life. Ideas from Information for Life, gathered into a book you can sit with. Read the second edition here, one chapter at a time.
05 / A little more self-understanding
Start with what you want to understand:
your patterns, your relationships, or how you’ve been feeling.
A score can start a conversation. What you do with it matters more. These are tools for reflection and screening, not a way to diagnose yourself or label someone else.
Self-understanding
Open-Source Psychometrics Project
A self-report look at five broad personality traits. Use the results to notice patterns, rather than put yourself in a box.
Open big five personality toolStrengths
VIA Institute on Character
Explore which character strengths you tend to draw on, then choose one to practice in daily life.
Open character strengths toolRelationships
The Attachment Project
Reflect on how you respond to closeness, distance, and uncertainty in relationships. A starting point for conversation, not a fixed identity.
Open attachment patterns toolRelationships
UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center
Consider how you notice and respond to other people’s feelings. Pick one question to bring into your next conversation.
Open empathy toolWell-being
Mental Health America
Find screeners for concerns such as anxiety and depression, with information about possible next steps. A screening result is not a diagnosis.
Open mental health screening toolPut it into practice
The Lighthouse · right here
Take something you noticed and turn it into a choice: what happened, what it brought up, what belongs to you, and what you’ll do next.
Try the LighthouseChoose one tool. Note what fits and what doesn’t. Then pick one small change to try, or one question to discuss with someone you trust. If symptoms are affecting daily life, a qualified professional can help you make sense of the results.
External tools open on their providers’ websites, where their own privacy and account policies apply. This site does not receive your answers or scores. Resources checked November 2026.06 / Keep in touch
Conversations, half-finished ideas, and things
that made me stop and think. Find your way in.
Also on Threads · @danielboyd_fl ↗
Have something in mind?
[email protected]For podcast conversations, collaborations, or a useful question.
Leave with a question. Or something to build.
If something here made you pause, follow that thread.
Then tell other people what you found.