About

👋 My name's Liam. I'm @LiamHaleMcCarty on all social platforms (and @LiamHaleMusic for my music).

A very brief bio: I live in New York City, I studied physics at Stanford, and I grew up in Wisconsin. For work, I run a company called Verified with my brother Aidan. Outside of work, I do a wide variety of projects — this website serves as a portfolio of them. It's an eclectic mix! Here are some of the most common tags to help you explore:

• Activism
• Art
• Business
• Charity
• Humor
• Music
• Politics
• Science
• Sculpture
• Technology
• Writing

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the web! Please reach out if you want to collaborate or if you have feedback about how I can improve this site.

— Liam

Master Jack of All Trades?!​

As the old saying goes:

A jack of all trades is a master of none — but oftentimes better than a master of one.

A jack of all trades is necessarily a master of no trade, but that doesn't mean they're a master of nothing. They can be a master of being a jack of all trades! This is the narrow path I try to walk.

I aspire¹ to be a master jack of all trades. In a world of specialists, I am an incurable generalist. What I enjoy most is doing something as different as possible from what I've done before — to be a beginner once again.

This approach fits poorly with the rest of society, which (understandably) rewards expertise and compounding skill. So, with a linguistic slight of hand — and perhaps in a foolish attempt to have my cake and eat it too — I aspire to make my speciality generality itself.

As a kid, I felt that I fit in everywhere but therefore fit in nowhere. I got along well with every kind of person, but that made me oddly different from others because I had no "tribe". I was interested in truly everything, but few people could relate.

As I've grown older, I've met a handful of others who are like me in this regard. I believe people like us have a role to play in seeing connections between seemingly disparate fields and building bridges between seemingly divided people. We feel viscerally the great unity of all things, that "everything connects to everything else."

Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses — especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.

- Leonardo da Vinci

Mottos I Live By​

Be as interested as interesting.​

Everything and everyone is interesting — if you know enough.

I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.

- Abraham Lincoln

There's an old story about William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli (fierce political rivals in 19th century England). It may be apocryphal, but it captures something important:

A young lady was taken to dinner one evening by Gladstone and the following evening by Disraeli. Asked what impressions the two men made on her, she said: "After sitting next to Mr. Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But after sitting next to Mr. Disraeli, I thought I was the cleverest woman in England!"

Consume less. Create more!​

It's always easier to consume than create. Consumption is passive, while creation is active. We live in a world saturated with content but dessicated of contentment.

Be warm and make big talk.​

Jacob Collier was asked about the best piece of advice he'd received from Quincy Jones, and he said:

“Don't try to be cool. Be warm. The world's full of people trying to be cool, but the world needs warm people.”

- Quincy Jones, via Jacob Collier

Likewise, the world's full of people making small talk, but the world needs big talk.

Don't just let things happen. Happen to things.​

People of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.

- Leonardo da Vinci

Great leaders don't wait for others to give them a leadership role. They simply lead. They happen to things.

Give at least 2% of time and money to charity.​

See The Two Cent Pledge: I pledge to give at least 2% of my time and money to charity (and I hope you'll join me!).

Never let an idea go.​

Ideas almost never arrive at the right time or in the right context. In the moment I have an idea, I rarely am able to recognize its full potential or have the skills to realize it. So, I write the idea down, so I can return to it later.

I always write an idea down, even if it seems useless. Many of my projects have come from revisiting an idea later — often many years later — when I'm finally able to bring it to fruition.

Optimism is rational.​

... if you believe you have some impact on the future!

Although I ultimately consider myself a predeterminist (I had no choice but to be one), at the human level I experience choice and will myself to be free. Puns aside, if I feel I have some influence over what happens next, why not be optimistic?

There is no most important field.​

Some version of a hierarchy of needs (a la Maslow) is certainly accurate. A person can't fulfill their emotional needs, or even survive, if they lack physiological necessities like food and water. But this idea is sometimes extended to place parts of society in a hierarchy of importance — and debate rages about which is "most" important.

Education provides vast opportunity, so education is most important. But without health, no one can be educated, so healthcare is most important. But without science, no one can be cured of illness, so science is most important. But without the economy, no one can fund science, so economics is most important. But without government, the economy descends into chaos, so government is most important. But without art and entertainment and community, what's the point of mere stability? And on and on and on...

In my view, this debate misses the point. There is no hierarchy. There is no most important field. There is only a great web of interconnected, codependent fields that together support the weight of human flourishing.