John Tinkelenberg

Crooked trees

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 15:30:00 -0400

My neighborhood is a little old, which comes with a few perks. My backyard has trees, for one thing.

It’s the kind of feature you don’t think is a luxury until you look around. These days in suburbia, developers take out everything in sight on a piece of land for convenience. Then, once all the townhomes are copied and pasted, they have landscapers plant new trees where the old ones stood in neat, little rows.

Seasons

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 10:00:54 -0400

Summer is here. In Charlotte, you don’t need anyone to tell you that. It’s 92 degrees as I write this. Numbers shouldn’t have to go that high, but here they stand. North Carolina is lovely most of the year, just not right now.

We spend almost no time thinking about seasons, and almost all of our time living around them. We choose our clothes according to the weather, plan activities based on where the Earth stands in the cosmos, and hope time will be kind to our hair and our crops.

Small things

Sun, 31 May 2026 12:03:54 -0400

Oculus Artificialis Teledioptricus Sive Telescopium, Johann Zahn, 1685

I’m a writer who comes from a long line of engineers. We’re born with too much memory space. We’re short people with big heads.

Prior generations put that brainpower to good use building rockets, planes, and factories, whereas I mill about with a liberal arts education. I have one redeemable hard skill, though. I tinker with computers.

I had a job fixing them in college, and to this day, you can find me whiling away the evenings by opening up motherboards and listening to servers chirp and buzz. It’s a goal of mine to be the most charming dweeb you know.

The resonance of Berkshire Hathaway

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 04:00:10 -0400

I don’t remember when it started, but sometime in the 2010s, I started losing my hair. It accelerated during Covid and then came the occasional clothes purchase at Costco. Time went by and I had a kid, and Birkenstocks spoke to me. This is who I am now.

Today, I’m 35 and staring squarely into middle age, and nowhere is this more evident than in one small detail: I’m a shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway.

To sit by the water

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 12:03:54 -0400

There’s a creek up the road from where I live. A long time ago, people thought there was something wrong with it.

To the landowners, it didn’t flow fast enough. They wanted the water off the land as quickly as possible. Maybe it flooded or they were trying to irrigate further downstream. Their motive wasn’t clear but their strategy was. They decided to move the creek.

Before, the creek had a leisurely pace. It wound in little s-curves and slowly got to where it needed to go, trickling across the land.

If it takes a lifetime

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 09:30:54 -0400

Dear Friends,

It’s been a while. At some point, you heard me whisper about starting a newsletter. You received this missive because you agreed to come along, at least at the beginning. You can unsubscribe anytime with no hard feelings.

So, what is this? Why now? I don’t know. This thing found me.

It all began in late 2024. I had a health scare, for those who weren’t aware. I’ll write more about it another time, but long story short, it was a record scratch in my brain.

I got a name

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 07:18:00 -0400

“Is that like Tinkerbell?” the lady on the phone giggles.

Ever since I was a kid, my last name has been an albatross around my neck. It’s hefty, unusual, and a humbling reminder of where I come from.

Once in kindergarten, the teacher was showing us how to spell our last names. She came around to our desks with pieces of paper. She set one down in front of the kid next to me. It said “Smith.” Five letters, piece of cake.