Personal Info

Here is some information about me to help you get to know me a little without having to talk to me.

I go by Zed. No one I know calls me Zedekiah.
If you would like to call me Zedekiah (which is totally okay), it is pronounced Zed-uh-kye-uh.
I once performed an unassisted triple play in a baseball game. I was playing third base with runners on first and second. Similar to Johnny Neun's unassisted triple play in 1927, I was able to complete mine by refusing to throw the ball.
I am happily married to Sydney Carlin Higgs 💘 We got married in Glacier National Park.

If you're interested, I also provide some of my political views below. I recognize that it's usually best not to discuss politics, given how divisive the topic can be, so I leave the choice up to you as to whether or not you open the tab to see some of my opinions. If you do decide to take a look, I really hope we can find some common ground.

Political views

I believe all politicians are crooks.
I support restructuring our government as a lottocracy.

Okay, if you made it through my political views and you haven't become enraged, then you might be interested in the next list; it details some of my more controversial views.

⚠️ Warning: the following opinions may be offensive to some people. Only open this tab if you are willing to be offended.

Controversial views

I thought Robb Stark was super annoying in Game of Thrones and I was happy to see him go.
I believe Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is a call to action, not a statement about the illusion of free will. I believe that Vonnegut is telling us that, although free will may not exist, we have no choice but to fight for the things we believe in: even if we can't stop tragedies from occurring, we must try. In order to justify making no attempt to prevent tragedies, Billy must accept both the existence of the Tralfamadorians and their understanding of time. Obviously this is absurd. While believing we are powerless to affect the future may be a convenient coping mechanism to help us deal with tragedy, it is no excuse for making no effort to prevent future tragedies. Who could believe, as Billy does, that they know how their loved ones will tragically die, and yet make no effort to save them? Billy is not enlightened; he is broken. I believe Vonnegut wants us to view Billy as somewhat pathetic, but he also wants us to recognize that we are all to some extent like Billy. We all tell ourselves that there are things that are out of our control, and we use this as an excuse to do nothing. But we must decide: either we believe Billy and the Tralfamadorians are right, in which case we should make no effort to change anything; or we accept the possibility that they are wrong, in which case we are morally obligated to do what we can to fight for good and prevent tragedies.

My interpretation of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five earned me an A in my undergraduate literature course, but I was told that it is the exact opposite of the accepted interpretation. So it goes.
I don't rule out the possibility that we have free will, and I don't believe that determinism is necessarily incompatible with the existence of free will. That is, I subscribe to compatibilism.^† Why? Most likely because I lack the free will to believe otherwise.
I believe that, regardless of whether or not we truly have free will, we should behave as if we have free will.
While I believe the zipper merge (aka the "late merge method") is the superior merge method in times of heavy traffic flow, I do not believe that its use increases the throughput rate of traffic.

^†I am grateful to William Hoza for introducing me to compatibilism. He also has an interesting blog post on the subject.

If you are interested in having a more in-depth conversation about any of this, feel free to reach out to me. I respond best to hysterical rants.

There was a young fellow from Trinity,
Who took \(\sqrt{\infty}\).
But the number of digits,
Gave him the fidgets;
He dropped Math and took up Divinity.

---George Gamow