FROM THE NEST | Issue 15 We did become someone else. Here's who. ROB'S CORNER I want to tell you something about the Veterans Expo. I said yes. Not because I am back to what I was. I am not going to pretend that. But I have spent enough time hiding behind what I used to be, and it has not helped anybody. Not me. Not the guy in the back of the room who came but does not want to be seen. I know that guy. I was that guy. For years. He is not going to be reached by statistics or by someone...
8 days ago • 3 min read
FROM THE NEST | Issue 14 Your brain is still working. So are you. ROB'S CORNER World Brain Day. I have a complicated relationship with that phrase. When you spend your career in medicine, when you teach at the doctoral level, when your entire professional identity is built on a brain that performed under conditions most people will never encounter, being told your brain is the problem is a specific kind of loss. But here is what I have learned, and I did not learn it easily. The brain that...
15 days ago • 3 min read
FROM THE NEST | Issue 13 He didn't believe me. For years. And his brain was not lying to him. That is the part nobody tells you. ROB'S CORNER Trust was everything in my world before this. In special operations you trust the man next to you with your life. Not because you like him. Because you have verified him. You have watched him perform under pressure. You have seen what he does when everything goes wrong. Trust in that environment is not given. It is earned through evidence. And then the...
22 days ago • 4 min read
FROM THE NEST | Issue 12 He doesn't care if he stumbles anymore. And that changed everything. ROB'S CORNER My job was simple. Communicate. Articulate. Use the right words at the right level with the right people. When you are teaching at the doctoral level, when you are the most capable person in the room, when your entire professional identity is built on your ability to say exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment, communication is not a skill. It is who you are. And then the...
29 days ago • 3 min read
FROM THE NEST | Issue 11 He never lost a patient. He just couldn't remember their names. ROB'S CORNER My job was simple. Make the dead, undead. If they couldn't breathe, breathe for them. Go into chaos and be the most competent person in the room. That was it. That was the whole job, and I was exceptional at it. The charts were someone else's problem. That is what I told myself, and I believed it completely. I was the one pulling people back from the edge. The paperwork, the documentation,...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
NEWSLETTER: June 24, 2026 FROM THE NESTIssue 10 | Robbins Nest Alliance He knows the word. It just won't come out. Rob needed zucchini. What he said was bikinis. And honestly, given the context, I knew exactly what he meant, because after enough years you start to build a translation dictionary in your head. Salary is celery. Microscope is probably something in the produce section. Rotisserie chicken is anyone's guess until you're three aisles in. His brain autocompletes like a phone that has...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
NEWSLETTER: June 17, 2026 FROM THE NESTIssue 9 | Robbins Nest Alliance It was just a bus. We went to a golf tournament last week. Beautiful course, beautiful neighborhood, something we both looked forward to. We parked fine. Got on the shuttle with everyone else. We were among the last to board, so we walked toward the back through a full bus. Loud. Crowded. Unfamiliar. Every seat taken, people with their gear, no clear path. We got about halfway down the aisle when the driver pulled out....
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
ROBBINS NEST ALLIANCE NEWSLETTER — ISSUE 8 FROM THE NEST ROB'S CORNER Heather has this thing she says now. Did you close the loop? It started because I would go do something and not finish it. Get the mail and leave the envelopes on the counter. Start something in the yard and leave the tools out. Make food and forget to put anything away. I was not trying to leave a mess. I just got to a certain point and the next step did not come. We talked about it together and came up with closing the...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
ROBBINS NEST ALLIANCE NEWSLETTER — ISSUE 7 FROM THE NEST ROB'S CORNER A few years ago, a Carvana truck pulled up in front of our house and dropped off a car. I had bought it the night before. Online. I do not remember doing it. I thought I was just looking at whether we qualified. Apparently I did more than look. It was a nice car. Too nice. Not a car we needed or could afford. But there it was in the driveway, fully delivered, while I stood there with no memory of purchasing it. That one was...
2 months ago • 2 min read