Ages ago, my mother taught me the alphabet. I took to it and never looked back. I love to write; it is a great way to solve problems—or to cause problems, if that’s your goal. Writing is exploration, it’s meditation, it’s a hug, a boost, a slap in the face. It’s thinking, feeling, believing, hoping–all the complexity of human consciousness–made visible. So, yeah, I’m into it and I believe in its possibilities.

I’ve worked at agencies from Marketplace Consulting to Weiden+Kennedy, with stops at Hill, Holliday and Ogilvy & Mather, and freelance gigs all over the place. I found that, universally, everyone at every agency was interested in making great work. The level of interest varied, of course, as did the definition of “great work,” but that is always the goal. Over time I have learned that the best path to that kind of work is a magic blend of collaboration and strong advocacy for that particular idea you love even if you weren’t expecting to love it, even if it just snuck up and demanded you love it. You know, that idea.

A quick note on emerging technologies: in making the work on this site, I have relied heavily on A.I. I’m talking about Alger Intuition, of course, my own particular blend of thinking, feeling and guessing. You’ve undoubtedly got yours. Lean into that it. Intuition in general gets a bad rap these days, coming off as imprecise and mystical. But to me “intuition” is this: even the simplest word has, within it, variation in color and tone, depending on the use, so it needs to be interpreted by the reader. Now, put together three, four, a dozen, a hundred words and then share this creation with a stranger—if there is to be successful communication, it will be through intuition, by the writer and then by the reader. It is amazing that we ever understand one another.

But we do. We do.