Matt Cates
Bio
Freelance writer and owner of Cates Content and Copywriting; retired Air Force Veteran; former administrative assistant at Oregon State University; author of Haveck: The First Transhuman, the greatest sci-fi novel in the multiverse.
Stories (66/0)
Six Degrees (or Less) Between You, Me & Everyone Else
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. You know the game (if you don't check out the Oracle of Bacon), and you know it came from an actual theory called Six Degrees of Separation. So my goal here isn't to dive into the scientific studies or even discuss the validity of them. However - I recently ran across an old article by The Guardian called "Poof! Just six degrees of separation between us." The article notes that Microsoft Messenger connections indicated that the theory was pretty accurate (Microsoft came up with 6.6 degrees, but close enough).
By Matt Cates2 years ago in Humans
Jessica Jones, Santa Clarita..and Resurrection: Ertugrul!
Note: after coming up with the ideas for which shows I wanted to write about, I completely ran out of time to actually write about them! So I reached out to my friend Feyza Ogutcu for emergency assistance in drafting this. As always, she saved my skin! We hope you enjoy this list of the Top 3 Underrated Shows on Netflix! In the off-chance this post earns something, it'll be divided equally!
By Matt Cates2 years ago in Geeks
The Aegean Awaits...Just Over My Balcony
“They’ll kill you. It’s not safe!” “Who’ll kill us, Mom?” “ISIS…” As it turned out, ISIS didn’t kill us when we moved to the Aegean Sea coast of Turkey. In fact, the only thing that killed us was the kindness of the Turkish people we met.
By Matt Cates2 years ago in Wander
The Most Unbelievable Thing I Witnessed in the Military
Someone on Quora asked this question, so I gave them an honest answer. In 2006, I was an Air Force embedded trainer in Kabul, Afghanistan, and we drove out to see the local military guys using sledgehammers to tear up the exterior of a new facility we'd had built for their army. That was the most unbelievable thing I saw in my 21-year career. But the fact is, all my days over there were just one scene after another that made me wonder what we were trying to accomplish.
By Matt Cates2 years ago in Serve
Vincent Vega - Worst Criminal Ever?
Recently a Quora user inquired if real-life criminals might hold intellectual interests similar to Vincent Vega's? As you may recall, Vega, the hitman played by John Travolta in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, certainly had some interesting conversations with his partner Jules (played by Samuel L. Jackson). But classifying feet tickling and cheeseburgers as intellectual interests? That seems like a stretch.
By Matt Cates2 years ago in Criminal
How to Stay in Business During the COVID-19 Outbreak
Around the world, businesses are dealing with a unique challenge - how to stay open when customers aren't coming in. Many of these businesses are struggling to make ends meet, laying off or firing workers, or looking down the barrel of bankruptcy.
By Matt Cates2 years ago in Journal
The Toll of the Turkish Economic Crisis
Note: this content appeared in my Quora answer to the question "What are some ugly truths about Turkey?" Turks are working like slaves. Long hours in little shops, 10–12 hours a day, 6 days a week with low employee benefits or labor rights and not enough pay. If a Turk is working 6 days a week , 10 hours a day , that's 260 hours worked a month compared to 176 hours in the West (8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 22 work days a month in most places in the Western world).
By Matt Cates2 years ago in Wander
