The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Road Trips, Aerosmith, and Driftless Creation

Jun 25, 2026

So from all of us in Aerosmith to all of you out there
Wherever you are, remember
The light at the end of the tunnel may be you, goodnight

Aerosmith, Amazing

Hello from the road, reader. When we’re on a road trip, we always have to give time to Aerosmith to get into the road-trip zone. This weekend, we’re making the long drive between NY and MN. Throughout the process, we will pass through one of my favorite parts of America: the Driftless Area of Wisconsin. If you’re not familiar, the Driftless area is part of the continent that was never flattened by glaciers during the Ice Age. When you think of the Midwest, you often think flat. But the driftless area is peaks and valleys untouched for millennia.

The last time we passed through the driftless area, we went on a deep dive about how Wisconsin used to be south of the equator!, submerged beneath a shallow sea (hence the ancient seafloor), and over the course of millions of years, continental drift carried it, and now it’s here in all of its glory. The land itself has drifted. But the landscape remains.

While rocking out to Aerosmith (kicked off with Amazing), I’ve also reflected on another entity associated with Wisconsin, Marc Andreessen. Marc was raised just east of the driftless area.

His perspective on business was recently featured on an Ezra Klein interview with Gary Shteyngart (it is such a good convo!!).

“I have zero introspection... As little as possible.” It’s an extraordinary statement—not because it’s uncommon, but because it’s becoming increasingly common.

Andreessen sees introspection as a liability. Looking inward risks slowing you down. Better to keep moving. Keep building. Keep shipping!!!

It’s a worldview that has shaped much of Silicon Valley and overreached into so much of entrepreneurship.

But it also made me wonder whether we’ve begun collapsing two very different things into one. Reflection is not the same as rumination. Rumination loops endlessly through the past. We all know that ruminating person. Reflection orients us toward truth.

Those are not the same cognitive act. One traps us. The other helps us recognize where we’ve drifted.

It is perhaps no surprise that many of the companies Marc Andreessen has backed—including Facebook and Airbnb—have been criticized for business models that optimize growth while extracting value from communities, relationships, and public life.

The issue isn't growth itself per se. Growth can create extraordinary prosperity and innovation. The question is what happens when optimization becomes the highest virtue and reflection is treated as a liability.

On the cusp of America’s 250th, as we navigate profound technological and economic change, perhaps Wisconsin, and Marc, can leave us with this question:

What part of the human person should remain driftless?

Not untouched by learning. Not resistant to change. But unwilling to surrender the interior landscape from which wisdom, conscience, and purpose emerge.

The question isn’t whether we’ll change. Our lives will change. Our jobs will change. Our institutions will (be forced to) change. They will drift.

The question is whether, after all that movement, the landscape of our inner life is still recognizable. Perhaps that’s what Aerosmith was getting at all along.

Not that the light is waiting for us somewhere down the road. But that after all the drifting, all the uncertainty, all the tunnels that the light at the end may simply be the part of ourselves we never surrendered.

So from all of us in Aerosmith to all of you out there—

Wherever you are, remember:

The light at the end of the tunnel may be you.